Paul Grenyer

In the 90s there was a ‘Rock Music Magazine’ called Raw Power (later renamed to Noisy Mothers, before getting cancelled) which aired on ITV in the early hours of Saturday morning. I often saw it in the Radio Times and sometime in the early 90s started recording it. As my obsession for Rock and Metal grew I also started reading the fortnightly Raw Magazine , which in the late 90s transformed into a more indie based publication for one issue and then died. At the same time I was buying Kerrang! weekly, Metal Hammer once a month and at some point I had a subscription to Terrorizer magazine. Raw Magazine was always my favorite, but then it went crap and died, Kerrang! became like Smash Hits for Metal kids (or maybe I grew up a bit) and Terrorizer didn’t have enough of a range of metal bands to make it worth the subscription, so I was left with just a Metal Hammer subscription which I maintained for the album reviews so that I knew what was coming out. Last week 2016 claimed anothe...

Every time I’ve seen Jennifer Lawrence on the Graham Norton show she has been drunk and obnoxious. In The Hunger Games she wasn’t exactly a charismatic resistance leader. I’d heard bad things about Passengers and that coupled with the fact it had Jennifer Lawrence in it wasn’t giving me any hope, but the trailer made it look like an interesting sci-fi, so I went to see it anyway. I’m glad I did. It wasn’t amazing, but it was good. I don’t think I’d need or want to see it a second time. If you put aside the fact that it’s set on a spaceship in a universe where hibernation for long distance travel is possible, there isn’t a great deal of science fiction in the this film. It’s a film about morals. What’s more, Jennifer Lawrence is actually quite good in it and not at all annoying. Chris Pratt is also very good in this predominantly straight role (I’ve only seen him in Guardians of the Galaxy before) and of course Michael Sheen is, as always, amazing even in a supporting role. The ...

So much better than The Force Awakens, but still a little way to go and it all ended a bit Blakes 7. After the disappointment that was the Force Awakens , I approached Rogue One with some trepidation. It was slow going to begin with and I missed the usual scrolling introduction to the story so far, but as one of three standalone Star Wars movies I guess there was no story to tell. My heart fell more when there started to be a lot of references to the other films, especially Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi, as this was one of the things that had detracted from the Force Awakens, but they were just references, it wasn’t actually the same story! Half an hour in it was great and I really enjoyed it from that point on. I liked the way it was almost split into two stories with two separate climaxes. I started to get a bit worried towards the end. I remember the beginning of the original Star Wars film (now called A New Hope) and how the Tantive IV had received the transmitted pla...

Nor(DEV):con keynote speaker, Saturday 25th Feb From Coda to Code: The SupaPass Journey Juliana Meyer Join Norfolk Developers to discover the tech startup story, that began from a bedroom in Norwich with a vision for a more efficient rewarding future for creatives, and has led to a globally recognised tech platform working with artists from major record labels. About Juliana Juliana Meyer is Founder and CEO of SupaPass, the fair-trade music streaming app. SupaPass gives anyone with a fanbase their own subscription streaming service. Fans subscribe to a specific creator’s channel from £1 per month and creators earn up to 100% net revenue share of their fan subscriptions. Juliana founded SupaPass to give efficient, fair, transparent revenue from streaming for artists, labels and publishers. Working with global artists like Grammy Award-winning Imogen Heap, SupaPass is exploring cutting edge technology including Blockchain. Prior to founding SupaPass, Juliana Meyer ran her...

Nor(DEV):con keynote speaker, Saturday 25th Feb The Technologist’s Guide to Hitchhiking Seb Rose Are you assessed according to the professional development plan you submitted at last year’s appraisal? Where will you be in five year’s time? Have you ever been hitchhiking? While it’s important to acquire relevant knowledge and skills to further your career, it’s also useful to occasionally reflect on the role that serendipity plays in all our lives. I’m not talking about loosely thought out escapist dreams or delegating your career to a higher power. The best professionals and business people are those that are able to take advantage of opportunities when they arise – something that observers often characterise as luck. If it is luck then, to some extent, we make our own luck. You may be wondering where hitchhiking comes into this. In part, it’s through the long relationship that technologists have had with the work of Douglas Adams and the number 42. Hitchhiking is also a go...

Nor(DEV):con keynote speaker, Friday 24th Feb Are you ready for the coming revolution? Russel Winder UK school curriculum underwent a revolution as of 2014-09: ITC was replaced with programming (aka computer science). Whilst the change itself was campaigned for, and widely wanted, the way government handled the change left a lot to be desired. Some, but not all, universities and colleges have joined in realising the change and preparing for the consequent revolution in university computer science curriculum, c.2018 onward. Are businesses ready for the knock-on change? This presentation will delve into some of the most important and/or obvious issues surrounding this world leading experiment in child education. Ex-academic, Analyst & consultant Russel talks about the important issues surrounding the government’s push for programming in UK schools, and how the way it’s been handled has left a lot to be desired. From 2015 ICT in UK schools is to be replaced with programm...

Norfolk Developers are excited to announce their programme for Nor(DEV):con ’s schools day, put together by Paul Foster, Microsoft in consultation with many members of faculty from different schools across Norfolk & Norfolk Developers themselves. 09:00 Arrival/Opening keynote segment (20 Minutes allowing for arrivals) 09.20 Paul Grenyer & Paul Foster Open event 09.25 Keynote- “Whoops”, and other classic programming phases by Dom Davis, (@Idomdavis). Schools now teach algorithms and programming from the age of 5, so it’s hardly rocket science. Except when it is. And even when it isn’t it goes wrong a lot. I should know, I’ve been responsible for some of that wrongness. The trick is to learn from your mistakes, and to make sure that when it goes wrong, it does so in a way that no one will notice, and definitely not in the ways I’m going to spend this session talking about. 10:00 break 10:25 Guided technology task (2 hour activity) In this activity students will ...

Pre-Conference Special: Machine Learning & Take the risk out of Digital Marketing Warm up for the main conference day with the pre-conference special. Date: Thursday, 23rd February 2017 Time: 5.30pm – 7pm Location: The King’s Centre, Norwich City Centre R.S.V.P: http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/233466379/ Take the risk out of Digital Marketing Marcus Hemsley Fountain Partnership In this talk Marcus Hemsley will outline how the most successful Digital Marketing Campaigns minimise risk through accurate forecasting and testing. He will outline the three most important numbers to consider before you take a product or service to market, and discuss the most common mistake businesses make when launching a new marketing campaign. He will conclude the talk by running through the most effective strategies for business growth in 2017. Machine Learning Darren Cook, QQ Trend Darren will be speaking about machine learning, specifically with ...

Venkat Subramaniam ISBN-13: 978-1680501742 I wanted to start this review simply with "Wow! Just wow!", but that’s not really going to cut it. It’s true to say that when I first learned that there was going to be a book published called "Test-Driving JavaScript Applications" I was sure it was going to be the book I had been waiting for since at least late 2007 when I was forced to write JavaScript in production for the first time. It’s publication date was pushed back and back, so it really felt like I was being made to wait. However, I wasn’t disappointed and this book was everything I hoped it would be and more. We all know JavaScript is evil, right? Why is it evil? It’s the lack of a decent type system, the forgiving nature of the compilers and an inability to write meaningful unit tests, especially for the UI (User Interface). It’s difficult to do a huge amount about the first two points, but now JavaScript can be meaningfully unit tested, even in the UI c...

Bluemoon Investigations are a long established company, specialising in covert inquiries for both public and private concerns. From providing evidence to the court in cases of fraud, to tailing cheating spouses across the globe, Bluemoon have had over thirty years experience in getting to the truth. They also run a College training people how to become professional private investigators. They came to Naked Element with a desire to have a better and more efficient client-facing web presence for the College. Online marketing agency Clark St. James had been working with Will Clayton, Director of Bluemoon, to improve their web search rating, and recommended Naked Element to him for a new website. “Our old website wasn’t branded, slow and not working for us, we needed a whole new design to improve communication, speed and our web presence to potential business.” Our designer Shelley took on the challenge and worked closely with Will to get the result Bluemoon wanted. “The process wa...

When I was a member of the ACCU their regular publications always appealed for people to write articles for them. There were a few suggested topics, but the one which stuck in my mind was to write about a class you'd written. I often used to wonder about doing this, but it's quite difficult as I rarely wrote a class which was stand alone enough to write about, without having to write about a load of other classes too. Maybe that's a symptom of a design which is not loosely coupled, but I'll leave that for a late night discussion with Kevlin Henney . Today I wrote such a class, and was very pleased with it as it reduced a lot code which was repeated in a number of methods down to a single line of code - it even manages a resource! Here's the code I started with: try {     final OutputStream os = response.getOutputStream();     try     {         IOUtils.write(JsonTools.toJson(...), os, "UTF-8");         ...

What:  NorDev Breakfast with Clive Lewis MP When: Friday, 9th December 2016, 7.30am to 8.30am Where:   The Maids Head Hotel , Tombland, Norwich, NR3 1LB How much: £11 RSVP:  https://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/232228431/ Clive Lewis MP will lead a general discussion about what the tech scene needs in Norwich to grow, employ more people and provide opportunities for young people from non-traditional backgrounds.

Tech Nation 2016 provided the most detailed analysis to date of how the digital sector is driving economic growth, showcasing the innovation and energy of tech hubs across the UK. In 2017 Tech City UK will take an even more in-depth look at how the digital economy is evolving, giving a greater voice to the UK’s tech communities and highlighting the considerable progress they are making. To do this we need to hear from everyone who works or operates within the sector. So whether you’re part of a tech business, an academic, investor or another member of the ecosystem please take just seven minutes to complete the survey and share the link with your network. Around 40 companies who complete the survey will be featured within the report as a case study! Thank you for your time.

Joe Haldeman ISBN-13: 978-0575094147 I don’t remember who it was, but someone suggested I read The Forever War when I got into the Space Operas of Alastair Reynolds. I couldn’t find it on the kindle for ages, so a hard copy of the omnibus edition sat untouched on my shelves for quite a while. Then it became available on the kindle. The Forever War Book 1 is good, I enjoyed it. I liked the characters and the first person style works really well. I am sure in the 60s it was revolutionary maybe even shocking, but, as with a lot of old sci-fi, it is of its time and feels antiquated next to the technology we have today. In terms of scope, it’s nowhere near as vast as anything by Alastair Reynolds and I think this was my biggest disappointment. I was interested to read that a lot of the inspiration for the story came from the author's experience in the Vietnam war. If it hadn’t been mentioned I certain wouldn’t have known. I did spend a good deal of my reading time trying to see...

What: How email works... & Fabric When: Wednesday, 9th November 2016, 6:30pm to 9:00pm Where: The Union Building, 51-59 Rose Lane, Norwich, NR1 1BY RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/233466373/ How email works... and why you should care.  Steve Engledow ( @stilvoid ) A brief history of some of the aged protocols that underpin the internet and email in particular, a look at the security implications of the way email works, and some steps you can take to improve your safety. Fabric: Fast one line consistent deployments across multiple servers  James Taylor ( @jmons ) For small organizations, or even hobbyists, deploying modern systems can become annoyingly complex. There are several solutions which we’ll look at briefly, before doing a deep dive and demonstration of how I use “Fabric” to do controlled continual deployments with no stress and maximum fun. In this session we will be doing a live-code demonstration, as well as...

What: Good Code: Kevlin Henney Full Day Workshop When: Wednesday, 23rd November 2016, 10am Where: The King's Centre, King Street, Norwich, NR1 1PH, Norwich How much:  £35.00 RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/233531472 / Good Code  Kevlin Henney ( @kevlinhenney ) We often talk about good code — that we would like to write it, that there isn't enough of it, that it should not be considered an optional attribute of a codebase. We often talk about it but, when it comes to being precise, we don't always agree what constitutes good code, nor do we necessarily share a common view on its value. This one-day tutorial and workshop explores what properties we want from a codebase and, therefore, what we can deduce to be good. These conclusions can sometimes be surprising and counter-intuitive! This session will explore some common guidelines on what is considered good, from expression to subsystem, from naming to tests, from fluent to S...

Fountain Partnership Limited are a digital marketing company based in Norwich, established in 2008. With a team of experts, Fountain are able to identify a company’s growth opportunities and build a customised strategy for the best results and command market share. Their strategies drive browsers to client’s websites, increasing opportunities to convert browsers into customers and then increase customer value by testing and measuring. In order to do this, they specialise in the optimization of search engines and conversion rates, as well as pay per click advertising. In order to do this, Fountain uses a combination of pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimisation and conversion rate optimisation. The problem Fountain were faced with was a time consuming one. When advertisements needing changing or updating it was a painstaking process. They had to upload a new set of adverts from a spreadsheet, going through each one manually to pause all of the old adverts in order to ma...

Algorithms are everywhere. Our children are even taught about them at school, but have you ever found yourself wondering what an algorithm actually is? Maybe you’ve thought they’re something used by computers and created by computer programmers, but don’t really know what they are? The dictionary defines  an algorithm as: “A set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps.” Algorithms come in all shapes and sizes. They can be extremely complicated, but they can also be very simple and easy to understand. Examples of more complex algorithms include those used to price financial products in a bank or to determine the best route between two points in a satellite navigation system. Simpler algorithms include those used to sort lists of numbers, such as Bubble Sort. Bubble Sort Bubble Sort is one of the easiest algorithms to understand. As its name suggests, it’s an algorithm used for sorting. Often the easiest list of things to sort are numbers. Bubble Sort...

What: Humanizing Tech & The evolution of SEO and is it dead? When: Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - 6:30pm to 9:00pm Where: The King's Centre, King Street, Norwich, NR1 1PH How much: Free RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/Norfolk-Developers-NorDev/events/233466352/ Humanizing Tech  Karen Longdin Being brilliant technically is only half the battle when it comes to being successful within a business. An exploration of how to humanize technology to two ends: To converse with your business, get your point heard and your projects sponsored. And to manage and lead other technical people and teams who may know more, better or different to you; what happens when your technical knowledge is no longer enough? Karen Longdin  As Head of IT Development and Architecture for Wyndham Vacation Rentals UK, Karen heads up a team of developers and QA engineers working across Web, back end, reporting and third party systems. Previously having been Head of IT at Stansted Airp...

by Craig Walls ISBN-13: 978-1617292545 You can be pretty sure of what you’re going to get with a Manning ‘In Action’ book and Spring Boot in Action is no exception.  It’s clear, friendly while not being over familiar and above all a pleasure to read. In fact I struggled to put it down. I’ve got back into reading recently, but this is the first technical book I have fully read for quite a while. The thing is I’m a huge fan of Java. This brings me into a lot of ridicule. There are lots of other software development technologies such as Ruby on Rails and Node.js which are arguably more productive because they do a lot of the standard web application boilerplate for you. The Spring library provides the Java developer with a lot of web application boilerplate as well, but there is no getting away the fact that Java is more verbose than some of the other options and you need a lot more code and configuration to wire the boilerplate together. Enter Spring Boot. Spring Boot is abo...

Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson ISBN-13: 978-0008128043 I'm not and have never been a people person, but I try. I am and have always been a techy. I managed teams at two different companies before I formed Naked Element. In both cases I was as green as I was cabbage looking. I had a lot to learn about managing up and down and what encourages and discourages people. Unfortunately I didn't have the best guidance either. When I want to get better at software development or Agile or something else technical, I consult experienced people to learn. In most cases, for me, this involves reading a book. So why should it be any different for people? Well, people are more complex than software development, Agile or any other tech, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from other's experience. The One Minute Manager is a book about people and how to get the best from them. It describes three practices to help. One of the best things about the book isn't just...

The Medusa Chronicles Alastair Reynolds & Stephen Baxter ISBN-13: 978-1473210189 Arthur C. Clarke was my favourite author for many years and I loved his collaborations with Stephen Baxter. Baxter brought a new dimension to Clarke's, not just science fiction, but science based fiction. The stories became more human, more exciting and had better characters. So when my current favourite author, Alastair Reynolds, got together with Stephen Baxter to write a story based on other writings by Arthur C. Clarke it had the potential to be something fantastic. And it is! I love stories with references to other stories and pop culture and the Medusa Chronicles is riddled with them. I've complained about Interstellar (film) being a rehash of Clarke's 2001 in a previous review and there are plenty of references and similarities to 2001 here, especially with the exploration of inner Jupiter and the events which take place inside the sun.  However, in the Medusa Chronicles, th...

Naked Element are going to be at the Norfolk Chamber Talking Technology 2016 event on 21st September, why not come along and see us? Talking Technology 2016 An interactive event aimed at developing the use of digital skills and innovative technologies in business to boost productivity and profitability.   Talking Technology will feature expert local and national key note speakers, practical workshops, an expert exhibition and plenty of networking opportunities, including a networking lunch. 15 speakers 4 workshops 16 exhibitors (including Naked Element!) 150+ businesses Register for your tickets here: http://www.norfolkchamber.co.uk/featured-event/page/tickets-3 We look forward to seeing you there!

I don’t recall if I’ve seen Soilwork before, but I’ve always been aware of them. When I discovered they would be playing with Arch Enemy I bought up a lot of their stuff and started listening to it. As metal goes it’s ok and very listenable. Live they were much the same. Thier sound wasn’t all it could have been, and I initially put that down to the Waterfront PA. For a bunch of clearly aging blokes they were really rather good and had lots of energy. I wouldn’t go to just see them again, but I’d check them out if they were on the same bill as someone else I wanted to see. Arch Enemy are one of my all time favorite bands. I’ve seen them several times, but never in a venue as small as the Waterfront . I’ve never been disappointed with Arch Enemy and on this occasion they were better than all of the bands (including Symphony X, Fear Factory and Vallenfyre) I saw last weekend at Bloodstock . Which is disappointing in itself! This was the first time I’d seen Arch Enemy with the sin...

Bloodstock is one of the highlights of my year. It’s a chance for me to get away from it all (well, most of it), listen to some fantastic music and catch up on reading. Friday Gloryhammer are a band I’d never heard of.  Surprisingly good sci-fi based power metal. Lot’s of fun and not to be taken too seriously. Evil Scarecrow were just Evil Scarecrow which means lots of robot and crustacean oriented antics. I’m always pleasantly surprised how much they often sound like Slayer. Then for the first band of the day I really wanted to see, Misery Loves Company.  I first saw them in Bradford in the 90s when they were at their prime. Unfortunately those days are gone and I felt they didn’t play as well as they could have done, but their set was full of old classics. I wonder if there might new a new album on the way, Stuck Mojo and Corrosion of conformity I’ve seen before. I wasn’t that impressed then and nothing has changed now. Venom I had really been looking forward ...

When the deadline for registering to vote in the UK EU referendum approached there were issues with the online registration system. It stopped working due to the high numbers of people trying to register all at once. The system failed to scale and fell over. By scale, I mean that the hardware was no longer powerful enough to service all of the requests made of the software it was running and it was unable to become more powerful. There are two main ways to scale computer hardware, vertically and horizontally. Most software can scale vertically, regardless of how it’s designed. To scale horizontally special design considerations must be taken into account. Vertical Scaling Imagine you’ve got 1000 people to move from point A to point B 10 miles away and a car which can hold 5 people and travels at an average speed of 60 miles an hour. That means it takes 10 minutes to get the car once from point A to point B. Ignoring the return journey and including the driver in the number of p...