Paul Grenyer

By Ken Arnold, James Gosling, David Holmes ISBN: 978-0321349804 I decided to read this book about 18 months after having to learn Java in a hurry after discovering what I had been lead to believe was a C# role turned out to be a Java role. Despite several years of programming in C++ and C# I figured there must be lots of stuff that was different in Java and that this book would be a good way to find out. The first chapter is a 40 page general introduction to Java and I found it such a dry read that I gave up. Then, twelve months later, I decided I really should read it cover to cover to find out what I was missing and it took me five months to do it! Although solid and reasonable well written the book is a dry read most of the way through. The chapter on streams is especially hard going. Although in many cases each method of a class being discussed is described in detail, this book represents a medium level (as opposed to high or low level) introduction to the language. As you would e...

I have just had confirmation that I will be speaking at Agile Cambridge at 2.15pm on Thursday 14th October 2010. Please come and see me! Session title: Agile is a journey not a destination. Session type: Case Study / Experience Report Session duration: 45 Session abstract: Agile is a journey not a destination describes a software team's two and a half year journey from inception to really becoming agile, the evolving process that was adopted and the lessons learnt in the first iterations. Session description: This is a success story. A young company that has made a big impact in its market and has quickly established a strong foothold and a growing reputation for product innovation and time-to-market delivery. A stretching but credible business strategy will see the company broaden and deepen its market proposition; a future that is critically enabled through a fully distributable software platform. A company that at times needed to be “more agile than agile”, as was a freque...

It's been a while since I have had chance to blog and this time it's with good reason! I am very happy to say that Charlotte and I had a baby on Monday (2nd August 2010) at 8.53am. After going to the hospital on Saturday at 4pm and following a long painful labour, Nathaniel was finally born in a speedy 90 seconds. I almost missed it! He was born at the very healthy weight of 7lb2. Mother and baby are continuing to do very well! I need sleep.....