Paul Grenyer

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...