Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk

We had a couple of presentations in the department today. Team Yellow and Team Purple (Tentacle?) gave the initial presentations for their group projects.  To say that the teams had been working together for  a week or so and it was their first stand up together they did very well.

One thing that did stand out though was some of the phrases that were used and this brought home to me how you need to be careful how you talk in front of an audience, particularly if you want to convince them you know what you are doing.

For example take the phrase “User Friendly”. It is all very well to say “We are going to produce a user-friendly solution”. You want to convey that you think this aspect of a system is important. However, saying it like this is pretty much meaningless. The customer is not expecting you to produce something that is “user-hostile”, but the phrase could also be expressed as “We’re not going to make something that acts as if it hates you”. 

It is far better to say what you are actually going to do to solve the problem. “We are going to closely involve the end user in the design and implementation so that they find the system easy to use.” is a much better way to express your intentions.  Take a similar approach when you talk about security. Rather than saying you think something is important you must say what you are going to do about it.

The other thing that came out from the presentations was partly my fault. I’d said earlier that it is very important to make the customer aware of those aspects of the system that you are not going to implement. For example, you might be expecting the customer to back up the data rather than providing data backup as part of your solution. You need get this over, but I’m not sure you should have have a slide with the heading “Things we are not going to do”.  It is far better to say things like “The server infrastructure that you are using will be used to back up our data along with that from other systems”. This puts the responsibility in the right place without sounding like you are avoiding work.

If all this sounds a bit like the dread “marketing speak” then I’m very sorry about that, but I do feel that it is important that you make sure that things you say are backed up with a some kind of action plan and you should avoid sounding negative about your intentions.

A Couple of Good Windows Phone Apps

When I had my iPhone I used to enjoy browsing the App Store and downloading and playing with little programs. You could pass an hour or so spending a couple of pounds on things that caught your fancy, searching for that neat app you could show of in the Tea Room the following day.

Windows Phone Marketplace is nowhere near as full as the App Store, but it has now reached the point where I can go in there and pull out some diverting programs. Here are a couple I’ve found recently. Both are free and both are fun.

This gives you your own personalised fireworks display on the phone, that you can drive by tapping the screen. There is a good range of different firework types and colours with satisfying explosions and even haptic feedback (the phone vibrates when the fireworks go off). You can capture images of the displays and also use any picture as the backdrop.  Great fun, if totally useless, and free. Search the Marketplace for Fireworks.

This program is excellent. It is a dictionary of British Slang. If you want to know the true British meaning for words like Gazump and Wally you can use this program to find out. It also defines some words that you might not want your kids using, but it might even be useful for those of you around the world not from these shores, and it is very amusing for us locals too. Another good, free app. Search the marketplace for “British Slang Free”.

First Open Day of 2011

The first “Lucky” winner of a copy of my book. Sorry about the picture, I didn’t take it.

We had our first Admissions Open Day of 2011 today. Thanks for coming folks, hope you enjoyed the day. I did my talk and then at the end we had a prize draw for a copy of one of my XNA books. I was going to have a second prize of two books, but I couldn’t find any more….

Some more of the assembled throng. Hope you had a good journey back.

Words of Wisdom from Rob

In celebration of my new book those nice people at O’Reilly asked me to share some words of wisdom on their Answers site. I’m not normally known for being wise. I actually asked my dentist to put in some wisdom teeth the last time I had a check-up. However, if you want to find out what I came up with you can go here:

http://answers.oreilly.com/topic/2456-robs-tricks-and-tips-for-a-better-programming-life/

Why You Should Enter the Imagine Cup

If you are thinking of getting involved with the Imagine Cup Software Design competition I’m hosting a couple of Live Meetings where I describe why you should.  The meetings both contain the same content, one is in this evening and I’m trying not to think about the time of the second one…

You can find details of how to sign up on the Imagine Cup Software Design page or you can follow these simple steps that I’ve stolen from it.

1. Install Microsoft Office Live Meeting. We recommend you do this in advance to avoid technical difficulties.
2. Join the meeting on February 7, 2011 at 19:00 GMT. Find out what time it is in your country/region.
3. Join the meeting on February 8, 2011 at 6:00 GMT. Find out what time it is in your country/region.

There will be fun, jokes and some rare Imagine Cup pictures from way back. Oh, and if you sign up and enter it might just change your life forever.

Update on Monday, February 7, 2011 at 08:00PM by Rob

One presentation down, one to go. Thanks for being a good audience and staying to the very end. Some great questions too.

Update on Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 08:47AM by Rob

...and we're done. Did the second meeting at 6:00 am this morning. Thanks for being another great audience. With a bit of luck we might meet up for the next meeting. Stay tuned for dates and times.