Andy Gavin's blog

All set for April the 1st and the Waterfall 2006 Conference?

There are many gems on this site for those who've worked in a waterfall environment including:

From a testing workshop:

As it would happen, Firefox isn't really tuned for broadband. It is possible to tune your browser so it moves quicker: Make Firefox Faster.

I've never really understood why people rave about Ant, for me it only exists because of Java. A cross-platform build tool was needed. I understand this. To illustrate Ant Homepage it they say:

Makefiles are inherently evil as well. Anybody who has worked on them for any time has run into the dreaded tab problem. "Is my command not executing because I have a space in front of my tab!!!" said the original author of Ant way too many times. Tools like Jam took care of this to a great degree, but still have yet another format to use and remember.

A man from out of space
Said `I'm from a superior race.
You're all inferior
While I am superior'.
Then fell flat on his face. --- Spike Milligan

Fredrick Brookes Jr, notable for his contributions to Computer Science. Presented a lecture in 2000, just before the publication of Kent Beck's White Book, on interative development. He called it the Design of Design.

Lucky nobody was killed in an avalanche this week in italy. European avalanche deaths are at a record high this year. There seems to be a growing trend of people riding irresponsibly. Riding off-piste needs awareness of where avalaches may or may-not happen. There has always been people who have wanted to ski the risky terrain. Perhaps it's a misunderstanding of the sport: new skool skiers don't ski off drops without the right equipment to be safe.

Skiing off piste without a guide or without the skills to analyse the snowpack is not just risky, it's stupid. Getting caught in an avalanche is not a pleasant experience, it is most likely that if you were to get caught in one that you cannot rely on the emergency services to rescue you. Transeivers are essential. Buried at any depth greater than a metre in an avalanche has next to none survival rates. If you do get trapped near the surface your friends need to rescue you quick. The energy and force of the Avalanche caused the snow so set very hard indeed.

There has been much made of Green Tea's benfits as an antioxidant as a prevention for cancer. But drinking too much can cause problems, the fluorine that the tea contains in high quantities can cause poisoning.