Paul Grenyer

Revenger Alastair Reynolds ISBN-13: 978-0575090552 Alastair Reynolds is on form with this steampunk meets pirates space opera. The story is cliched and almost totally predictable, but very enjoyable at the same time. I’ve started wondering a lot recently, if they body count in such stories is worth the life of the person who is being rescued and I think that remains to be seen in the sequel. Fura Ness is extremely driven and I struggled to understand a lot of her decisions. As with much of Reynolds’ work, there is no explanation for why this universe is the way it is and it feels as strange as when the clock strikes 13 in 1984, but makes me want to read more in the hope of understanding. While most of the story is linear and complete, there’s a large chunk towards the end which feels missing. The climax is a little brief and just like in terminal world there is suddenly a lot of new plot in the final chapter. Where the story goes next will very interesting.

nor(DEV):con 2019 Thursday 21st to Saturday 23rd of February 2019 The Kings Centre, Norwich, NR1 1PH nordevcon.com Tickets: http://nordevcon-2019.eventbrite.com Friday opening keynote: The Failure of Focus Liz Keogh We know that in our landscape of people and technology, aiming for a particular outcome doesn’t always lead to us getting what we want. Sometimes the best results come from approaching a problem obliquely. But in Agile our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through the early and continuous delivery of valuable software. We like to start with the outcome, meet the needs of our users, delivering high-quality working software with happy teams and true agility… but how might that focus be holding us back, and what are the alternatives? In this talk we look at some different strategies for approaching complex ecosystems, starting from where we are right now, and allowing innovation to emerge through obliquity, naivety, and serendipity. ...

A couple of weeks ago I was honoured to be asked to judge and present the overall winner of the DevelopHER Awards 2018. There are a number of categories in the awards, including TechStar which I also judged, and the overall winner is chosen from the winners of the other categories. I believe that the best developers start writing code at an early age and continue throughout their lives and on through their careers. As well as learning all they can, all the time, they give back to community around them and help other people develop as well. Federica Freddi , who also won the Emerging Talent award, is clearly passionate about software development and is fully deserving of the DevelopHER award and I couldn’t have been more delighted to be able to present her with it on the night. Federica told me "It is fantastic to see so many women recognised for their contribution to our industry. It is a huge honour for me to be able to represent so many talented people that are making...