Week in Review - 2010-33

Know of any companies in Sydney that engage in REAL agile projects - properly? Let me know, I'm interested!

I had a javascript drop-down menu that youtube video interferred with - when the menu dropped down, the youtube object covered it! I found the answer here - http://geekswithblogs.net/steveclements/archive/2007/03/03/107839.aspx - where the solution is simple:
Add nested element to object tag:

  • <param name="wmode" value="transparent"/>


And attribute to embed tag:

  • wmode="transparent"



Spending too much time travelling to and from work makes me appreciate the idea of telecommuting. I've noticed that Canonical (Ubuntu) advertises home based jobs, but all companies I know are strongly against it - and although they don't advertise the fact, it is an unspoken policy. Right now, I probably don't have the best home for accommodating telecommunting, but I did come across the OfficePod the other day - a brilliant idea, your office in your back yard!

The first thing that springs to mind is that telecommuting wouldn't fit into an agile environment - and I definitely want to work on agile projects as opposed to the alternative. But, I am dismayed by the low number of positions on the market that are truly agile - most of them are using the buzz words, but IMHO failing to embrace the spirit and implement properly:

  • meetings where you can't sit down (failing to appreciate the real goals of standups)

  • builds every 2 weeks (iterations - but without prioritizing, user stories and customer representatives - just 'time to do a build!')

  • test team completely separate (throw it over the wall to them and wait for the defects to come back - have a read of this)

  • development team using junit but writing the wrong tests (brittle, don't add value, and eventually just ignored


So, if I'm not going to work on a project where close personal collaboration is going to happen, why not telecommute? Or at least travel to a very close serviced office - and let technology take care of the collaboration (video conference like they do in the movies etc). Perhaps that would alleviate some of the strain on the transport infrastructure!

Interesting web sites:

Bugs encountered:

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