PABCAS, the blog of Paul Martin Campbell

The shopping area in Munich airport is a gem repository of puns:

Beauty Free:

Buyern:

Good buy: (I didn’t get this at first. Very apt for an airport)

Marc O’Polo:

...is to stop working at a regular time at the end of the day.

It’s much harder than it sounds. In the startup world, leaving the office without feeling completely burnt out feels like you’re doing the fledgling business a disservice. I had a pretty unproductive day today. Morning meetings cut the day in half. I chucked away at some admin work; not fulfilling. As I was starting to get naturally tired, around 5.30pm, a colleague suggested “let’s go for a coffee and come back and do a power half hour.” Not having got much done all day, it was a tempting proposition.

Lately though, I’ve been seriously mindful of the ruckus last month sparked by Jason Calacanis and replied to by David Heinemeir Hanssen . DHH also followed up with a post on sleep deprivation and here’s the line that’s really been echoing round my head:

trying to extract 110% performance from today when it means having only 70% performance available tomorrow is a bad deal. You end up with just 77% of your available peak. What a bad trade.

This day last week I had one of the most productive days of my life. I got a lot of great work done, popped over to the gym and ended up drinking with mega VC Salim Ismail ... where he had a discussion with Marcus MacInnes about Google’s 20% time

Salim’s main point was that, as a benefit, 20% time is an illusion: apparently you have to apply for it and have your idea accepted. Moreover, internal projects in Google are like mini-startups, and like startups, according to Salim, employees should spend all their time focussing solely on the prize—the product. Salim said that every waking hour of a startup employees existence should be applied solely to that enterprise, that certain activities, for example, gardening, are wasteful, when getting a product to market on time is crucial.

I disagreed. At the time, I’d just finished reading A Technique for Producing Ideas by James Webb Young. The book is specifically tailored for the creative process in advertising. Young’s point distilled is: do your ground-work, play around with some ideas, then forget about what you’ve thought about and wait for your sub-conscious to spring the answer on you. I thought it apt to mention that space between hard work could be very beneficial to programmers and designers in the web startup world. My idea was quickly thrown down though, as I’d used an example from the advertising world. For the sake of the evening, I didn’t want to argue, but I feel I should try and expand on my point some here.

I suggested that the gardening part of the employees day could be when they get a bright idea to solve a particularly tricky design problem, or come up with a creative solution to one of the problem’s they’d been facing that day.

They can’t see the wood from the trees.

In “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey tells of the two woodsmen who have a race to see who can chop their way through a thick forest the quickest. The first woodsman hacks all night and all day and laughs to himself when he sees the other woodsman taking lots of rests. Slowly, though, the other woodsman catches up, and soon he’s deep into the forest, after the first woodsman has slowed down; his blade is blunt and his arms are tired. When he finally reaches the other side of the forest, long after the other woodsman has cut his way through, he asks “how did you do it, you spent most of your time resting.” The other woodsman replies, “yes, but while I was resting I was sharpening my saw”

For certain projects, like perhaps event organisation, or movie-making, or getting a magazine to press, a single-minded focus and a huge push is what’s needed on a monthly basis to keep the project on track and within deadlines.

Software and design, however, are far more holistic enterprises. Software, particularly on the web, is malleable, always changing. Fresh design problems are always coming up and they need ideas, creative ideas to solve them. Taking time to read, to relax, to let the mind quiet down and let the sub-conscious do some work is really important. Taking time to sharpen the saw.

Creative solutions don’t come from tired minds.

As it happened today, we didn’t do the extra power 30 minutes. I got to the gym and feel great after it. I spent a bit of time tidying my apartment, winding down after the day. I know that I’ll be able to kill any work that would have pushed me at the end of today efficiently at the start of tomorrow.

The trick was leaving the office. It was the toughest thing I did all day. But because I did, I feel healthier, happier and brighter, and because of it I’ve cranked out my first blog post in three months.

If you’re finding yourself working too much, you should try it; I guarantee you the work will still be there in the morning and you’ll probably be 30% more able to to handle it then.

I stopped in to Butlers morning for a hot chocolate, something I’ve been privy to for quite a while. I’ve been fairly obsessed with systematising a lot of my processes lately, and being one of the most successful Irish companies in terms of profits and franchising I reflected over the ability of the franchise model to deliver the same products over and over.

I came to the conclusion: it can’t.

From the queues outside the door, their profits and from people I’ve talked to about it, Butlers is phenomenally popular. One thing that I’ve noticed is that the hot chocolate is one of the most inconsistent products I’ve ever bought. Some days, it’s too milky. Other days, too chocolately. But one thing is for sure: on the days that they get it right, it’s undoubtedly the most delicious hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted. And I’ve tasted a few.

So what has me coming back? Well, I pass three Butlers stores on my typical walk in to work. I know that in every one, the surroundings are similar, the products are the same and I’ll be able to order my hot chocolate the same way. I know to order “a hot chocolate with cream” and I know that sometimes there will be a chocolate croissant available. I know that no matter store I’m in, I’ll be able to use my Butlers loyalty card. I know exactly how my hot chocolate will be made and I know how it will be presented to me. And finally I know that behind me or in front of me, there will be a plastic container with napkins, lids and wooden sticks. In short—I know exactly what I’ll be getting, in terms of experience.

But there’s something else: I know that on any given day, depending on who is serving me, and a mysterious subset of factors that I’ve yet to work out, my hot chocolate may not be that perfect hot chocolate that I know Butlers is capable of producting. And you know what, that’s quite exciting. It’s like a lottery—will today be the day? Some days it’s close, but not quite right, sometimes it’s way off. And some days, it’s just perfect.

On reflection, it’s true of all the big franchises that pop into my mind. Subway, McDonalds, Dominos pizza… all of these have consistency of experience and that is what’s important over the quality of the product. Sometimes in Subway the tastes are a little bit off, or in McDonalds the chips a bit stodgy, or Dominos tastes a wee bit icky. But provided I get the same experience I’m willing to forgive any shortcomings in this instance of the product, because I know that the next time I order, it’ll be better, or balance out over time.

And in a slight diversion, it makes me think that maybe that’s why we’re so drawn to Twitter—we love the experience so much that we’re willing to forgive the product every once in a while.

It seems appropriate that the night that Paul Walsh holds his inaugural Irish digital association dinner should be the same evening that Techcrunch UK reports about moli.com — a new “Irish” social networking site that’s just taken in €20m in funding.

Whatever about “MOLI”—”a diverse, sophisticated site” (chokes) according to the report on Silicon Republic—Paul’s round table discussion was about fostering an ecosystem for Irish-led innovative companies by forming a new association focussed on bringing together all walks of the Irish digital media sector.

What’s ironic is that American countries infesting Ireland was the subject of a ten minute Paul Walsh rant. For the most part, the discussion on the night was quite flippant. It took quite a long time for everyone to agree that there was a need for a new association at all. But when Paul got going, his voice raised, his tone angry and determined, I was unsure whether to laugh or shrink in terror. The raw passion was unnerving, as he charted the waves of US companies who have residency in Ireland that we’re so proud of—that they’re here for “tax incentives” “TAX INCENTIVES” Did you get that? Google, Microsoft, Amazon, eBay, AOL. “Don’t kid yourself”. They’re not here because of our lovely Irish weather. They’re not here because of the graduates. They’re not here for the amazing smart people. They’re here because the IDA gives them €10,000 for everyone they hire. €10,000. They’re here because of “TAX INCENTIVES.” Paul is “sick and tired” of expensive associations who represent the needs not of the web / digital / interactive sector, but of ISPs, Telcos and big business.

When I was setting up TL01, a co-working space that I’m currently based in, just off O’Connell Street in Space 28 we took a look at the offices in the Digital Hub —They looked great and they were cheap, but there was no space for us.

I’m not for one minute saying that there should have been space for three young Irish nobodies designing websites for a living. But I will say that it’s ironic and sad and frustrating and I’m actually getting quite angry sitting at home, infected by Paul’s passion, that an American company and AMERICAN company, should take up 55 spaces, FIFTY FIVE spaces in the Digital hub.

A small personal grudge in the hunt for a decent place to work aside, it’s another sad day for Irish technology startups when another US company gets huge outside investment to take advantage of Irish initiatives to grow businesses. Paul made the points loud and clear: Ireland is a small country, full of smart people. Too many of these smart people are working for US firms, European firms, whoever. All well and good, but we have to do better, we have to stand up and make use of our own initiatives to build successful Irish companies.

I for one have chosen to stay in Ireland to build the best fucking Irish company I can possibly build. I’m infected. If you’re Irish, or if you’re not Irish but you feel Irish, and thinking of working for an outside technology company, or if you are working for one, take a look at yourself, ask yourself “Am I proud?” and shake off that closet small-minded clan mentality. Get out there the fuck and start thinking about changing the world, because chances are you’re probably one of the smartest people in it.

...and I don’t think any of us really realised it at the time.

Using Twitter , Ana Nelson organised what she interchangeably named “Sunday hacking” “Coding brunch” “Ruby hacking” ... The call to action was mainly on the Ireland Ruby Google Group but because of the Twitter publication, we had a few drop ins.

The morning started off with a bunch of us from Ruby group enjoying a really quite good breakfast in New York Grind down by the IFSC: Ana, brothers Eoin and Darragh Curran, Ciaran Lee, Ladislav, Niall Larkin and Dawn ...

After a cosy lunch in one of the booths, the gang of us traipsed over to the window and laptops came out. To be honest, I’ve not seen anything like it since I was inspired at Super Happy Dev House — an entire row of tables and back to back laptops and a gang of people, brought together, spontaneously, voluntarily and all for love and passion for what we were doing.

Between blogging, working on plugins and hacks, chatting about social networking and Twitter, the buzz was that truly undefinable magic that comes out of a bunch of familiar strangers getting together, by choice, to share their space and attention with each other, for fun, for community and most definitely not for any financial gain. I also got a chance to work on a little side project that’s been itching at me for a couple months and got to pair with Ladislav which was cool and I avoided a few typos with his help!

But the magic didn’t end there. Having seen the notices on Twitter. Eoghan McCabe soon arrived and before long was deep in conversation with Niall and Dawn. I was further delighted when Marcus MacInnes arrived and shot the breeze for an hour. I didn’t get to talk to him much, but his presence felt to me that we weren’t just geeking out — we were inadvertently involved in a community hub event. I was upset that Damien Mulley couldn’t make it, but he was eager to get home

There’s been much debate and response and discussion ( and here ) about the fragmentation of the Irish Web 2.0 / internet scene. There’s good things brewing and I know that much of these initiatives will strengthen the potential of the grass roots scene to have a clear ladder upon which to build.

Today, though, was just beauty to the core: Ten geeks with laptops creating a natural buzz, riffing off each other and demonstrating that it’s not always about co-ordination, sponsorship, big bucks glitz glam and the rest—that it’s just about like-minded people with shared interests hanging out, sharing ideas and having a real good time.

I really hope that this event will grow over the coming weeks. It has everything to make it into an extremely valuable grass-roots hub. If you don’t code, if you’ve an interest in anything web, if you’ve a big idea, or a small one. If you want to learn about social networking, if you want to talk to people in Dublin / Ireland who are in to all this web shit and you want to hang out with people who enjoy technology for technology’s sake and the positive impact it can have on all our lives, and moreover if you want a nice good hack in a communal environment, keep a sharp eye out, because something’s bubbling and it tastes delicious.

Follow everyone who was there today on Twitter:

Me, Ana, Eoin, Darragh, Ladislav, Ciaran, Niall, Dawn, Qamir, Marcus and Eoghan ... oh and Dave, Aidan and Chris joined in via IRC.

And of course a final word out to Ana who scouted the location, got the gang together and general made the whole thing happen. She’s definitely one of the pushers

I’m pretty much going to keep a low online profile for the rest of 2007, all 7 or so days of it that are left. It’s been a huge year for me. My goal for the year was to build a platform for myself on which to develop, and I’m a long way into doing that I think.

I’d like to put out a resounding thank you to all the people that have entertained me in conversation this year, inspiring me, motivating me and slagging me off at just the right time.

Lots of thoughts and plans stewing, lots of work to be done and lots of books to be read. I hope everyone—who I’m flattered takes the time to read what I write here—has the most amazing Christmas period and wakes up on the 1st January 2008 with a sunlit outlook.

Peace out,

Paul

My title purposely paraphrases Chris’s slugline, as I’m writing this from Citizen Space where I am once again since my visit here last May. A good bit has changed since last I sat here, blogging about my chat with Chris and my thoughts on coworking in general. But it’s not the changes that I want to focus on right now—it’s what hasn’t changed: my constant searching for inspiration and personal development in the sights, sounds and people around me.

I think that’s one of the main motivators of the Paddy’s Valley trip and the twenty or so Irish who have descended on Palo Alto for the week. Damien is giving a daily update of what’s going on and it sounds amazing. My schedule’s been a little different. Despite missing a tour of Facebook yesterday and what sounded like a really revealing audience with Ross Mayfield yesterday, my path over the last few days has taken me elsewhere and taught me a few things from outside the technology scene. It kinda flies in the face of the whole trip, but sometimes that happens. Two key events have taught me the importance of three words: Perfection, humility and finesse.

I ate in the French Laundry on Monday night. Knowing I’d be in the region, I made the reservation two months ago. I’ll not going to go in to too much detail about the meal (of course if you want to know about it, feel free to ask me, talking about it is like crack). In short, it was just about as close to perfection in terms of human experience that I’ve ever sat through. What stuck with me though was a plaque that I read that was hung in the kitchen. I noticed it when we took a short tour yesterday afternoon. I can’t remember the exact wording, but the message was this: Perfect food is impossible. Accept this, and then accept that in place of perfect food, the highest goal in the service of the restaurant is the happiness of the customers. Exchange food for anything you like, and the message is clear.

Next, humility. Humility has always been an issue for me. I have a loud mouth at the worst of times and a short tolerance for certain… deficiencies… in the world around me. But there’s not a days goes by that I don’t try and check myself, that I don’t remind myself that I’m still (and probably ever shall be) a shadow of the person that I could be, that I waste so much time that I could be improving myself, aspiring to greater things and doing so in silence, letting the world blow my mind.

This morning I sat in the Davie’s Symphony Hall in San Francisco to watch a rehearsal of the San Francisco Symphony orchestra who are performing Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique this week. I didn’t get to see the Symphony as a whole, but the orchestra would play through sections, with the conductor, (Michael Tilson Thomas ) pausing and interrupting to make a few comments, give direction. As a musician, I was humbled both by the technical execution of the music (to my muck savage ear it was ecstacy), but also by the understanding of the music, the attention to detail and by Thomas’ use of the word that caps off the trio of words that have inspired me this week: “Finesse”

I could go on at length, but I’ll finish now with a dictionary definition of the word, that I was told is posted above the door of the kitchen in the French Laundry ( I didn’t look up ):

fi·nesse noun, verb, extreme delicacy or subtlety in action, performance, skill, discrimination, taste, etc. (from dictionary.com)

Perfection, humility, finesse. To strive for perfection and apply it to even the tiniest of details, with a smile, a nod and an affirmation that “you’re welcome, sir.” What a goal.

I’m heading to Moab for a couple days to celebrate thanksgiving with Katy who I met through her website 10 years ago back when social networking was nothing more than a GeoCities homepage and wonderful emails back and forth.

I got this in my email today:

It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still there. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.

Fitting, right? And totally in line with my current thinking that fulfillment can be found enough in inspiring those around you, in driving others to be the best that they can be and emphasising, always that “it is even more important to enjoy it”

So get out there and blog and code and mess around with your facebook friends.

Have found myself describing this quite a lot recently, so I figure I might aswell publish it and post a link to it for those two ask.

For the next 27 days I’ll be touring the US, starting in NY and finishing up in Palo Alto for http://www.paddysvalley.org … Here’s my itinerary — these are the places I’ll be, if you need to figure out what timezone I’m in, or indeed if there’s anyone reading who’s from there and fancies hanging out for coffee, beer and/or breeze-shooting.

November 12th – 16th I arrived in New York last night and I’m here until Friday. I’m staying in Manhattan and hanging out in Gramstand in the afternoons.

16th – 17th Flying to Durham in North Carolina to visit a friend who’s doing a masters in Duke University. Hopefully out Friday night and perhaps visit the campus on Saturday? Another big night and then on to…

17th – 19th ...Denver, Colorado to visit Scott and talk web hosting and tech.

20th – 23rd Traveling east to Moab to spend a couple days outdoorsy for Thanksgiving with Katy ... Very excited about this, as I’ll probably be completely offline ( phone and net ) for a few days.

24th Flying to LA to meet my dad at the airport and staying the night in Venice Beach.

25th -27th Driving north along Highway 1. Hoping to check out the Sideways trail in Santa Barbara wine country, get down with personal wellbeing at Esalen and taste the deep blue at Monterey Bay Aquarium

28th – 29th San Francisco. Hopefully get to pop in to Citizen Space for a return visit. Excited! Some fine dining is most definitely on the agenda. Will hook up with Simon too.

30th – December 2nd North and south of the bay. Two days wine tasting in Sonoma and Napa (advice welcome!) and drive down to Palo Alto on the Sunday to hook up with Paddy’s Valley in the Cardinal Hotel.

December 3rd Table for four booked at The French Laundry Myself, Simon, Eoghan and hopefully Dave Rice mmmmmmmmmmmm ( My suitcase is hilarious — two hoodies, two pairs of jeans, five t-shirts, the essentials and a dinner jacket, shirt tie, pants and a pair of fancy brown shoes — yeah! )

4th – 9th Paddy’s Valley — haven’t produced a schedule for this yet, but hope to meet up with Kyle Shank ... I’d also like to meet up with the lads from Auctomatic (I almost interviewed with Harjeet and Kulveer last year, but stayed an extra week here in NY and flew home direct, missing the opportunity to stop off in London for the interview. Ill-fate? I hope not. ) I think it’ll be a good trip.

That’s it, back home to Dublin for Christmas. Here’s hoping it’ll be a successful trip and I’ll come home full of enthusiasm and inspiration. The first 24 hours have been pretty energising already and that’s for sure — and I’ve not even met up with anyone yet.

I’ve been thinking a great deal about co-working recently and the potential it has to add value to the lives of those who get involved. The three strands I’ve been thinking along have been relationships, networking and shared high quality of life.

First up is what I was taught growing up was the most important thing in our lives — our relationships with other people. It’s 7am, I’m wide awake and heading to GramStand (home of NY co-working CooperBricolage) this afternoon. I’ve already been in touch with Tony Bacigalupo, one of the two founding members. After a few emails I’m excited to meet him as I get the sense that he’s full of the spirit of the co-working movement, but also realistically aware of the challenges present. Hell, he even offered me a couch to stay on if I was stuck.

There is something about the co-working movement that fosters strong relationships. This is why I’m slightly uncomfortable with the ‘co-working’ moniker. Co-workers, in the literal sense are traditionally forced together — superficial relationships plastered together by necessity in a day job, thrown together for the benefit of ‘the man’ — I hear about this all the time, although my experience of it myself is limited.

Yesterday afternoon as I sat in the airport, I had a text from one of my fellow co-workers Eoghan wishing me well on my trip, and yesterday Eamon and I chatted at length on the phone before I left for my parents’ place up north — I was annoyed to miss out the opportunity to pop in to the office and say goodbye. My point? There’s something more going on here than just working alongside each other. In the few months that I’ve been part of TL01, even though I’ve not actively used the space as much as I’ve liked, I’ve noticed a trust and respect build up that is far more related to an almost military camaraderie, as though we’re part of something that could be big, and in it together, rather than just working alongside one another.

In terms of networking — well, I guess I’m going to find out all about it. I read this post about Tangler, and about half way down the comments was a reply from Mick Liubinskas — Mick who I happened to meet in Citizen Space. Now, when I met Mick, he filled me in on Tangler, but he wasn’t promoting it to me or even looking for a business lead. Not only that, but Ivan Storck invited me to dinner with Mick and a few others and we ended up having a few beers and bowling in Presidio. Yes, of course there’s the standard human superficiality — but there was something unerringly comfortable about the whole affair. Call me naive and I admit that I am still a minnow in this great big old world, but it was some old school hanging out and I didn’t catch the whiff of back rubbing and schmoozing that I’ve experienced since.

The third tier of my thoughts is where to go from here. Citizen Space in San Francisco is obviously way ahead of TL01 in Dublin in terms of resources and atmosphere — it’s a much larger space for one, and can cater for more than just a few lads sitting at desks (it’s been exciting, but frustrating to see the level of interest in co-working in Dublin with the knowledge that TL01 can only support four people.) My thoughts are : what next? Tomorrow at GramStand I think is going to be an interesting journey. Cooper Bricolage are still in coffee shop mode, albeit a space that fits twenty.

Getting up and running and to what level I think is an interesting question. Should there be money behind this thing? Should there be a ‘home team’ company paying for the space and subletting as in Citizen Space, or should the landlord be responsible for that as TL01 does it? And how does it grow? Are there joint insurance schemes that can be cooked up? Are there any benefits to working together but not under one company that we havn’t seen? Should there be non-working facilities in a co-working space, games rooms, dorms, chill out zones? What IS the goal?

It’s through asking the questions I think that many shall be answered and while some may seem trivial, I think that we could be onto and part of something big.

This to me feels like my first true blog post. A blog is a very public private object — it’s private in its diary like nature — but public in the sense that you’re reading this right now. In fact, I think blog posts are yours every bit as they are mine — it’s you who read them, you who take from them what you will and you who choose to take them or leave them.

Anyway, I want to avoid longwinded explanation. But why I think this is my first blog post is that in preparing this post, my mind has been filtered through feedback using social media, mostly on Twitter (an online utility for sending short messages, or status updates, or having conversations with hardly any words! Follow me here ). It all started when they introduced the new Replies feature. I checked my replies and noticed this one from Stewart Curry with praise for the blog which flattered the hell out of me. I still feel like a baby in this blog world. His tweet was in reply to my exclamation that I’d lost out in Google search listings because of recent changes in the PageRank algorithm. Anyway, from there, I then announced that I wanted to write about either “dental hygiene, co-working ideas, or software development.” Elly’s recommendation was to ‘mix it up’ and Eoghan’s advice was in the same vein as he is a “coworking software developer with dental issues.”

I’ve wanted to write about dental hygiene ever since I went to the dentist a few months ago and had to get work done on my teeth for the first time in my life. It was quite a shock, and I genuinely thought I was being taken for an idiot when I was told I needed three fillings and that it’d cost a couple hundred euros. When I returned and checked my teeth in the mirror, sure enough there were ugly black marks where decay had set in. Damned Twizzlers. The revelation came not with the fillings and fissure seals however, but in my half hour with the dental hygienist.

I’ve always bought hard toothbrushes. Never with any good reason. I suppose I thought it was manly or something. I learned how to brush my teeth in primary school and pretty much followed that technique for years. I’ve always been aware of dental floss, but my interest in it stopped at my childhood fascination at the little cutting device that neatly severs the floss as it trundles out of the container. The point is, my dental hygiene has been dictated by habits that are, well, simply just habits — based not on any advice, rationale or science — I’ve just done as I felt and I guess because I was in the habit, I got away with it for so long.

The fillings were the wake-up call. Turns out I wasn’t doing too badly, but the hygienist gave me a few tips that have, quite literally changed my life for the better.

First tip: Use a soft brush to massage the gum as well as the tooth. By concentrating on the gum, the toothbrush takes care of the tooth by itself, but also works its magic where the tooth meets the gum — where tartar is most likely to build up. This had been prone to happen and I feel it every day. The new technique gracefully mitigates the foul plaque buildup every day.

Second tip: Floss nightly. Dental floss. It’s amazing. I have very small gaps between my teeth and unsurprisingly, shit gets lodged in there. Not a lot, but it builds up. I had nightmares about the effects of little bits of meat stuck between my teeth rotting away for weeks. No more. Flossing is easy, it’s quick and it catches those little pieces. My mouth tastes like crap for a few minutes every night after flossing and I know it’s because I’ve caught all the gunk that would play havoc with my dental hygiene if I didn’t catch it.

Third tip: Flouride Mouthwash every couple days. This one wasn’t quite as much of a revelation, but it’s good to have some mouthwash on hand for times like today when I ate three packs of walkers and half a pack of Fig Rolls in a fit of pre-lunch munchies.

Aaaaaaaanyway. I think I’m coming round to a point here that’s far more abstract than dental hygiene (although I’m so fanatical about that subject now that writing about it gives me immense pleasure). Where were we? Software development. Ah, yes. I don’t want to go in to too much length, but in my experience, habit forming is hugely important in developing software. It’s really easy when developing software to get stuck in a rut, to apply the wrong technique — the hard brush — to a problem, simply because it’s the one that you feel like. And quite often there are tools out there, the floss and the mouthwash that give you an extra degree of protection, prevention and overall well-being.

During the summer, I learned two new techniques of software development that are huge parts of Ruby on Rails — which is a set of integrated tools and programmes written in the Ruby programming language that help develop interactive websites that are easier to build and maintain, quite quickly.

The floss and mouthwash of Rails for me were testing and the correct application of MVC itself. I don’t want to go in to too much detail about these, but suffice to say that in the same way I could have passed off flossing with a simple “oh, I don’t need to floss”, it’s very easy to say “oh, I don’t need to test my software”. Now I’m not talking about clicking buttons on a website to see if they work. I’m talking about writing computer programmes — tests — that test the programme you’re writing to see if it does what you expect it to do. It’s a huge issue. The point is you can do (and I do) without writing these tests, but quite often, you’ll miss the little pieces of gunk and in time they’ll inevitably start rotting and your teeth will fall out.

I thought I’d be able to weave co-working in to this, but I’m kinda tired of stretching the metaphor so far and this post is getting too long. If you’re a co-worker, I dedicate this post to you and I think you should make sure to take care of your teeth.

I feel a bit humble. Joel Spolsky is keynoting the Irish Java Developer Conference — now, it’s clear that it’s a happy coincidence, perfectly coinciding with the FogBugz world tour — particularly when he has to leave on the same evening. But in a smart spin, the organisers have chartered a flight and are offering registrants an opportunity for a champagne audience with Joel, in the flight. Smart thinking, and really exciting. I for one would be stuck for words, but there’s certainly a high store of smarts in that man’s head.

Now, I still don’t have all that much interest in either Java, or FogBugz, but Joel Spolsky is a Godzilla / King Kong figure on the net. His blog is heavily opinionated, full of inspiring articles and always thoroughly well researched, although not one to be shy of heated debate (about three quarters down the page — permalinks broken )

I don’t really have much interest in hearing Joel talk about FogBugz but I’m intrigued as to what he would have to say at the IJTC. But kudos, it puts a shiver of excitement into the whole affair.

I’ve been too busy and letting off too much steam in London to form any good blog ideas ( have been thinking much more about life decisions and my future ), but snippets of things are filtering through my system.

• Coworkin — the Coworking Dublin Tumblelog. Nothing much on there at the moment, but as I’m never in the bloody place, I find it hard to really get into the vibe, or influence it. Hopefully after Christmas I’ll really get in to it.
• Fergal has asked me to pimp the IrishDev Java conference. I personally haven’t got the slightest bit of interest in Java, but it’s good to see events of this scale happening, and I love the idea of a conference in a cinema. Press release here (MS Word format) — the event takes place in Cineworld from Nov. 7th – 9th.
• The Great Facebook Debate was a lot of fun. I was nervous — the UK “industry” is far more intimidating than what I’m used to in Dublin, and I found myself making a beeline for the Paddys, among whom were old school buddy Coulomb Brophy from Conchango, Adrian McMahon from Segala (be careful – he’s a rowdy and boisterous drunk), Damien Mulley and a host of others. I found it particularly interesting to meet Gavin O’Carroll creator of Rememble from Nothern Ireland who’s making waves (and some money) over here. Was hoping to meet up with him to chat about being young in a competitive industry, but timings and locations didn’t suit. Definitely one to watch though.

That’s enough for now I think. Got to go catch a flight home. I recommend short hedonistic trips to London for anyone. Thanks to Paul Walsh Aido and Damien for setting me off on a rollercoaster week starting with the Great Facebook debate after party. Craic was mighty. Out.

Update: I’ve just remembered that it was also great to meet Robin Blandford — for some reason I’ve been under the impression that he’s a thirty something American. To find out that there’s another young Irish head out there is very cool. Robin I salute you!

I got introducted to TED.com – subtitled “Inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers” – something I’ll definitely be perusing over the coming weeks – it’s the kind of thing you’d be sitting having coffee one day and think “I wonder if there’s a site that has videos of loads of smart people.” Well there is, and this is it.

The video that was recommended to me was “Hans Rosling” showing the best stats you’ve ever seen – from what I was told, himself and a few compatriots formed a company and put the software together because most other stats packages sucked ( remember SPSS, anyone? ). Apparently, Larry and Sergey were in the audience and snapped the company up as quick as Hans Rosling could say “Let’s split up the South American states and see the spread of GDP among them”

Altogether inspiring stuff, making me feel small and stupith.

Update: Of course. It’s legendary. Even this week Damien is announcing that he’s appearing at it@cork

Simon posed an interesting question recently that shocked and amazed. As he was going out the door, his brother asked Where does the “copter” in “helicopter” derive from?

Well, the answer is quite an etymological roller coaster. “Heli” or “Helio” is Greek, and it means “sun” – automatically this might lead to guesses that it could be “sun machine” or “toward the sun”—but a search for the derivation of “copter” reveals nothing.

In fact, the answer requires a rethink of how you see the word and reveals the original question as a trick – The fact that it derives from the French, hélicoptère, is just an aside, to the true derivation – indeed from the Greek, but not ‘heli’ and ‘copter’, but rather ‘helico’ and ‘pter’ from the Greek ‘helico’ spiral and ‘ptero’ wing

Spiral Wing. Helico Pter.

Just. Wonderful.