Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

The self-made man and his rags-to-riches struggle is often glorified in our society, especially in Australia.  The most endearing is the story of Donald Bradman: his relentless practise with a cricket stump and golf ball leads to one of the most illustrious careers in sporting history.

The Don is a perfect example of an outlier.  His batting average is a freakish 4.4 standard deviations above the mean, a statistical anomaly that hoists his success well above any other sporting hero. Michael Jordan has nothing on Donald Bradman.

The story of The Don is also typical of an outlier.  He emerged from Australian bush leagues to make a lasting mark on international cricket.  His habit of hitting a golf ball against a water tank has become part of Australian lore.  We attribute The Don’s success to the hard work he put in as a youth - he is self-made. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell contends that there is much more to success than a bit of hard yakka.
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The small business cycle

Just when you thought you had it all, life punches you square in the jaw. The Cycle. Boom and bust. Growth and decay. Women know all about it. But ask a guy and he will tell you “The Dow’s going to 20,000 by 2009!”¹

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(Read out loud in your deepest voice)
In a world where robots control information
In a world gone mad
One man stands alone

From the creators of global-roam
The true story of a disgruntled programmer
And his quest for data

Coming this summer to a url near you…
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UI Fundamentals for Programmers by Ryan Singer from ChicagoRuby on Vimeo.

“Quit whingeing, whining, wailing, nagging, grieving, griping, grumbling, groaning, moaning, fussing, fretting, faulting, bellyaching and criticizing you sniveling bitch!”

Ah good ol’ parents. Constantly reminding me that my input is not welcome. They are doing the best they can and if that’s not good enough for me I can find some other parents.

That works for parents because other parents as good as my parents (hi mom I’m on the internet!) are hard to come by. But when other companies are more than happy to take your business this may not be the best policy when dealing with complaints. More importantly: how will you ever improve if you don’t know what you are doing wrong?

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37signals is one of those companies that you have to love. They’re a small business making kick ass web apps. They emanate a “no-bullshit” culture and give back bigtime. In fact, you can read this book for free (yes, the whole thing absolutely free) at http://gettingreal.37signals.com/.

Getting Real is a guide to creating a great software company with an emphasis on web development. It covers a huge range of topics including (but not limited to) hiring, marketing, design, development and productivity. It gives practical and philosophical advice so you come to understand the foundation of 37signals and then discover how to take action. It is one of the easiest reads ever (2-4 hours) so I would recommend you stop reading this dribble and get the book.

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(Photo: sloth_rider)

I recently attended an IIB event entitled Building the Resilient Company. The purpose of the event (straight from the program) was to provide insights into the current economic cycle, the challenges to survive and the strategies to prepare for an economic recovery. To sum: we are in the shit, how do we get out?
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I was first introduced to Tom and Mary Poppendieck at a software conference (ASWEC) earlier this year. Lean Software Development is a continuation of the themes that they touched on at that conference. With their familiar analogies from other product development disciplines, Tom and Mary provide thought provoking ideas and practical exercises to help increase the value of software.

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This week we launch NEM-Watch 8.2, an upgrade to our much loved market watching software.  This upgrade was started in early 2008 while I was living in the UK and needed some extra cash to fund my global exploits.  Armed with a laptop and VB6, I began NEM-Watch’s transformation from ugly duckling to swan.  The 15 months that followed would be a roller-coaster ride providing some valuable life lessons and highlighting many of the do’s and don’ts of software development.  It’s hard to make duck-lovers take to a swan. read more »