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Bitpicking

Bitpicking

By Greg & Mark & Laura

Musings and banter on software and product development.
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BitpickingFeb 01, 2022

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27:52
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Feb 01, 202227:52
Yule Log4j

Yule Log4j

It's Christmas so time to sit back, relax, eat heartily ... and think about your logging framework and what chaos might be happening in your infrastructure while you're arguing over which Celebration is the best. (Hint, it's Maltesers Teaser.)

Dec 21, 202136:16
The Topic Tombola

The Topic Tombola

Only just less exciting than a loot box, we try a homegrown random topic selector and see what happens.

Dec 07, 202132:15
The Bit Is Back

The Bit Is Back

Post-COVID, the world is a very different place, so the Bitpickers return with a hefty dose of the same old tosh, and the same lack of show notes. Sorry not sorry.

Nov 23, 202147:27
Chat.random()

Chat.random()

It's the season finale and we put down the keyboards and just have a good ol' chinwag.

We'll be back in Spring 2021!

Nov 10, 202058:10
Performance Art

Performance Art

This week, the team talk about the good and bad of performance reviews

Oct 13, 202053:20
Of Mice And Mentors

Of Mice And Mentors

Laura talks about her experience as a mentor, and we discuss the value of mentor/mentee relationships in the industry.

Sep 15, 202033:53
Situation Vacant with Steve Wright

Situation Vacant with Steve Wright

In this episode we look at recruitment from the 'other side' as we welcome Steve Wright from Spectrum IT to discuss the role of the recruitment agent for todays job seekers.

Sep 01, 202001:01:53
Yeah but no but ...

Yeah but no but ...

This week we talk about 'visionaries' and 'evangelists' and how should a Development team respond when faced with exciting, but often unrealistic, new ideas.
Aug 18, 202050:07
Lockdown Retro
Jul 14, 202056:19
Sitting on de-fence with Paul Newell

Sitting on de-fence with Paul Newell

Look, an episode! This week, we talk with Paul Newell, veteran of the defence industry, to get a view on the difficulty applying agile concepts to multi-year, multi-million pound projects.

This episode was recorded over Zoom, so sorry not sorry about the audio quality.

Jun 23, 202001:05:37
To Zoom or not to Zoom

To Zoom or not to Zoom

It's another remote episode of Bitpicking TV, in audio form!

This week, the team consider the sudden popularity of Zoom for conferencing, and whether anyone really cares about security and privacy if they can just get to change their background once in a while.  In an ironic twist of events, Skype lets us down halfway through, so we decide to try Zoom out for ourselves.  See if you can spot the join!

Watch our happy little faces at https://youtu.be/2ZsPuE3kwAM

Apr 12, 202051:38
COVIDeo Killed The Radio Star

COVIDeo Killed The Radio Star

Desperate times, desperate measures....  The Bitpicking team congregate on Skype for what's probably the first of many remote sessions.  Naturally, the only topic in town is the impact of COVID-19 on the daily lives of software teams - remote working, changes in business priorities, and how long until we're all on Club Penguin...

As an added bonus, you can now see our angelic little faces on Bitpicking TV!  Find us at https://youtu.be/xqthn2gMBM0 - like and subscribe! (that's what the cool kids say, right?)


Mar 24, 202033:17
TDD! Do you know me?

TDD! Do you know me?

Mark & Greg tackle TDD - Test Driven Development.  What is it?  When should you do it?  How can you make it stick?

Mar 17, 202049:07
Biting The Hand That Feeds You

Biting The Hand That Feeds You

Laura, Mark and Greg turn their sights on modern Agile - has it lost its way, and has it really changed anything in the meantime?

(fact-check:  Semco is one of *Brazil's* largest conglomerates, not Britain's - clearly someone can't read and talk at the same time)

Mar 03, 202044:52
Webpacking it in with Matt Alner

Webpacking it in with Matt Alner

We welcome Matt Alner (@matthewalner), developer, TechDorset organiser, and serial side project-er to Bitpicking for a rambling chat about meet ups, bluetooth hacking, browser wars, TypeScript and more!

TechDorset: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tech-dorset-pizza-and-chat-about-whats-new-in-dev-tech-and-tech-news-registration-49689447475

Feb 18, 202053:46
Way-In Up The Options

Way-In Up The Options

This week, Laura, Greg and Mark talk about the best way to get in to software development.  Do you need a CompSci degree to be a good coder? Or are you better off just getting on with the job? 

Feb 04, 202040:10
I Gantt Believe It's Not Better

I Gantt Believe It's Not Better

As we welcome in the new decade we look at Project Management and ask whether software teams need a dedicated Project Manager or not?

Jan 21, 202045:37
The Bitpicking Christmas Special!

The Bitpicking Christmas Special!

Like all good Christmas parties, it started with good intentions and ended in chaos, and now we can't remember what we spoke about but we'll blame the mulled wine.

Loosely themed around side projects, expect lots of deviation!

Dec 23, 201943:46
A Man With A (Open) Plan

A Man With A (Open) Plan

This week, we discuss what makes a good working environment for teams.  Are you an open plan fan or a cubicle hermit?

Dec 10, 201938:06
Playing, Ranting and Tinkering.

Playing, Ranting and Tinkering.

We have a meandering chat about what’s on our tech minds this week — Laura tells us about a play workshop 🧸, Mark rants about front-end development 😡, while Greg describes what he does to relax 🛠.  Enjoy!

Nov 26, 201939:05
Showing our true (team) colours

Showing our true (team) colours

Laura asks what makes a good team, then we answer everything but.
Nov 12, 201955:48
Don't step on my bootstrap shoes

Don't step on my bootstrap shoes

We discuss the recent Design Twitter thread about whether designers should code, and coders should design.
Oct 29, 201939:13
I Know What You Did Last Summer

I Know What You Did Last Summer

We're back!

To kick off Season 2 we ease back in with a chat about what's happened while we've been away, from electric cars and conferences to job interviews and social media.  Oh, plus a little surprise we think you'll love ...

Got something  you want to talk to us about?  Get in touch via Twitter to @bitpicking!  Don't bother with Mastodon though - we don't check it. :)

Oct 15, 201945:17
They made me do it, your honour!

They made me do it, your honour!

In the Season Finale, we tackle responsibility in software development by making wildly irresponsible claims about things we know little about.  Enjoy!

We'll be back in the autumn, until then if you have any feedback for us, please find us @bitpicking on Twitter!

Jun 11, 201947:50
Rage Against The Machine (Learning)

Rage Against The Machine (Learning)

In Episode 19, Greg and Mark brave the subject of Machine Learning and AI, and conclude that they're really not qualified....

May 14, 201951:60
What the UX with Laura Yarrow

What the UX with Laura Yarrow

This week we talk to Laura Yarrow - UX Consultant at Experience UX.   Like all UX conversations we start by clarifying what it really is, before discussing how to start in UX and what you can do if you don't have a big budget, before settling on a mini-rant about dark patterns.

Oh, and Laura had it right all along, of course.

REFERENCES:

Paper Prototype example: https://twitter.com/laura_yarrow/status/1114446460513390592

UX Professional Association: https://uxpa.org

Interesting UX People:

Good Web Form design: https://www.lukew.com/resources/web_form_design.asp

Apr 30, 201948:18
Crossing the lower case j's
Apr 16, 201934:00
Minimum Viable Podcast

Minimum Viable Podcast

Greg and Mark chew the fat on what constitutes a Minimum Viable Product.

Apr 02, 201935:37
Call in the FEDs! with Matt Northam

Call in the FEDs! with Matt Northam

We welcome Matt Northam, a self confessed ‘FED’ (front end developer) from Bournemouth digital agency Redweb, and discuss such things as how to start in web design, using the Wu-Tang Clan to improve team working, and his favourite HTML tags.

Matt's 3d hoverboard - https://twitter.com/mattnortham/status/758629899640967168

Mar 19, 201943:04
That'll be $0 please!
Mar 05, 201937:28
Can you hear me now? with Dave Butt
Feb 19, 201940:48
Testing 1, 2

Testing 1, 2

Greg & Mark dive into the murky world of QA, and ask “shouldn’t the devs be doing that?”.

Quality at speed - how Atlassian does testing https://youtu.be/yRP29wFqu20

Feb 05, 201939:16
DevFlops
Jan 22, 201934:14
Old Men Yell At Cloud.js

Old Men Yell At Cloud.js

Mark & Greg tackle the issue of how teams make decisions on languages or frameworks, and when switching might, or might not, be appropriate.

They also complain about Javascript a lot.

Maybe use one of these on your next project!

Brainf*** - if you're worried about backwards compatibility with your existing stack, worry no more!

Rockstar! - Desire is a lovestruck ladykiller

Flubber.js - Any resemblance to actual JS frameworks, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Jan 08, 201943:51
User Abuse
Dec 11, 201837:05
Podcast for Hire
Nov 17, 201851:48
The Stud Wall Episode

The Stud Wall Episode

Greg & Mark reflect on their takeaways from the re:develop 2018 conference. —> Mark asks how professional the software industry really is given the expectations of other industries, and what is the right way to assess whether someone is actually any good. Then Greg expresses his frustration about the continued amount of conversations around whether to estimate or not by talking about estimating or not for 20 minutes. This week's links! Kent Becks 3X (Explore, Expand, Extract): https://www.facebook.com/notes/kent-beck/the-product-development-triathlon/1215075478525314/ Intro to Cynefin (Warning: may contain Papyrus): http://cognitive-edge.com/videos/cynefin-framework-introduction/ Uncle Bobs take on professionalism in software development: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0O1VVqRSK0 Product: The Delivery: http://hepto.github.io/productthedelivery/ Greg's c120 project: https://github.com/hepto/c120
Nov 02, 201801:02:42
Live! from re:develop 2018

Live! from re:develop 2018

Greg and Mark wheel the outside broadcast unit out for the after party of the re:develop conference held in Bournemouth on 12th October 2018, and ask some of the speakers and attendees for their thoughts on the day.

For the full list of talks and speakers, see
redevelop.io/speakers , where videos of the talks will be available soon also.

Featuring:

* Tom Quay (@tomquay) - re:develop Organiser and Founder of Base / Passenger.
* Stuart Landrige (@sil) - Speaker and owner at Kryogenix Consulting, host of Bad Voltage podcast.
* Matt Wilson (@mattwilson1024) - Attendee, software developer and DJ.
* Dan Thomas (@dannyt) - Speaker and Founder of Moov2.
* Thor Mitchell (@ThorMitchell) - Speaker and former Chief Product Officer at Crowdcube.
* Dan Wentworth (@darkphnx) - re:develop Organiser and Head of Development at aTech Media.
* Adam West (@theukbatman) - Support Analyst at aTech Media.
* John Le Drew (@antz29) - Speaker and Founder / Principal Consultant at Wise Noodles.
* Tom Geraghty (@tom_geraghty) - Speaker and former Head of UK Cloud Platform Ops for Experian.
* Jorge Lambert-Cruz (@jsclambert) - Attendee and Technical Architect at Siemens.
Oct 16, 201801:04:27
YDIW is now Bitpicking!

YDIW is now Bitpicking!

A rose by any other name still represents two idiots trying to make sense of software and product development.
Oct 06, 201804:20
No comment

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/*
TODO: Greg and Mark ask themselves if it's right to put comments in code, discuss the the office light switches, and dig up age-old flame wars
*/
Oct 03, 201837:40
Clipped on byte boundaries
Sep 23, 201847:16
A Retrospective on Retrospectives
Sep 09, 201842:30
When is good enough, good enough?

When is good enough, good enough?

In their first episode, Greg and Mark discuss the impact of ‘good enough’ - when the thing you’re doing is not entirely finished, but might be considered good enough to serve its purpose. Should you ship or should you carry on until it is complete?
Aug 30, 201835:34