Books
Here I very occasionally review books I'm currently reading.
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I've never read any books about interface design before, because it's never seemed that important. If the app works, does it matter what it looks like?
When someone at work suggested I read this, I did wonder for a second if it was because my UI design was crap,
but I'm glad I did. It made me think a lot more about the importance of good UI. How many programs have you used that showed pointless dialogs just because the programmer couldn't be bothered to think how to deal with a particular situation?
And how many programs don't remember things you've entered before and use them as a default? How many programs present their UI to the user in terms of how the internals work, rather than what the user wants to do?
I began to notice that there are plenty of them.
It also told me things I already knew, such as the steps backwards in user interface design that have been brought about by the web.
There are bits I didn't agree with, such as the part about not using 'File/Save' because it's an implementation detail rather than how an app should work.
Probably true, but everybody understands how it works so should we change it? But other than that thoroughly recommended.
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I've been meaning to read this for years and I've finally got round to borrowing a copy from work.
And it's great, not necessarily providing lots of insight into how I can do my job better, but just by confirming that what I'm doing now is on the right tracks.
The basic theme running through the book is how to always look for incremental improvements to your work, be it programming, documenting, testing or whatever.
I'd say if you're the kind of person who thinks software is about writing specs to the nth degree before writing a line of code, then this may not be for you.
It's about realising the specs won't be perfect first time, the code won't be perfect first time and the product won't be perfect first time.
Like the title says, it's about being pragmatic. My only one minor criticism is its emphasis on Java, Unix and Perl. What about the Windows world?
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Apparently there is a well-known management book called 'In Search Of Excellence', written about 20 years ago.
I can't say I've read it, but the idea was that from looking at very successful companies, you can learn how to be successful yourself.
Seems a reasonable idea. 'In Search Of Stupidity' takes the opposite angle and sees what we can learn from companies that make really stupid mistakes.
So we have companies destroying the relationship with their developer community (Ashton-Tate, Borland),
Netscape shooting their mouth off about Microsoft, then getting pretty much destroyed by them. And so it goes on.
The general conclusion seems to be that the only reason Microsoft is so successful is not through any particular brilliance,
but they've never made any really stupid mistakes, which is quite a heartening thought for anyone thinking of striking out on their own. Recommended.
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This is one of the worst examples of those books handed out by management types in order to justify their existence.
Told as a children's story, and avoiding any big words (we don't want to confuse the little darlings do we?),
this is is the most patronising piece of garbage I've ever read. So you don't need to gp through the same pain,
here's a brief synopsis - change happens, get used to it. A note to managers - All the people you give this book to
have lived through 20 years of Thatcherism, privatisation, downsizing and job insecurity. They understand about change
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This is the story of the birth of PCs. And very entertaining it is too. I always find it interesting reading about this kind of stuff, although it makes me feel like I got into this industry too late, after all the important stuff had happened. It also makes you appreciate that although the IT industry moves very quickly, it also doesn't change a great deal. Almost all the initial protagonists are still here, Microsoft, IBM, Apple etc. Where it falls over is when Robert Cringely attempts to predict the future. With hindsight, which is obviously always 20-20, most of them are way off the make. Stick to the storytelling!
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On finding out about Jo's pregnancy a friend of mine bought me this book, so I really made an effort to like it, but I failed. The main character is living a double life, spending days away from his wife and two kids, hanging out in a flat in Balham, pretending to be a student again whilst telling his wife he's working very hard indeed. I can see why he might want to do this, but I'd imagine he'd be doing something slightly more exciting than guessing the intros to songs, whilst failing to make the money that eventually leads to his house being repossessed. He of course gets found out, but I'd didn't really care about him or his wife in the end, they both seemed pretty obnoxious
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One of the members of the KLF tells interesting stories about his life. He's quite plainly mad, but an accomplished writer, which makes for a good read. He's also had a fairly interesting life, being manager of Echo and the Bunnymen and The Teardrop Explodes, an artist and a pop star in his own right. Now he seems to spend most of his time spending the money he made from the KLF on pointless endeavours, purely for his own amusement. Recommended
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I was looking forward to this, a book about corporate branding taking over the world. This is all good stuff, but it does go on for too long. The final few chapters are better when we're actually shown ways of fighting this stuff
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The K Foundation burn a million quid, film it and somebody writes a book about it. I buy it and read it in an evening, not because it's great, but because there's not a lot to read. The pictures are nice though. And it makes you think, a bit. A word of warning, if you buy it from Amazon then a book called 'Get Your Cock Out' will rocket to the top of your list of recommended titles...
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You've seen the website, now read the book. Essentially this is the edited highlights of the website, giving all the gory details of some of the more ridiculous internet ventures. If you like the site and don't mind lots of rude words you'll probably enjoy the book. The description of PNV.com is worth the purchase on its own. And I'm so cool (possibly) I managed to get hold of an uncorrected proof copy
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