Journal Entries
Time Management
Posted Jan 13, 2014
This weekend we made quite a change to the way that h2g2 works. We closed the open bug reporting system. This wasn’t actually an easy decision to make, but it was a natural one.
When we took over the code for h2g2 we looked at it and nearly panicked. We’re a small team of volunteers, and we were handed a massive website that needed a lot of work to get it ready. It wasn’t just the code, it was also all the pages that needed updating to reflect the change of ownership. One of the things we did then was to start up a trouble ticket system to use off site where we could track everything that needed to be done, and it was a lot.
Once we got the site up and running, we then had to look at how to keep it running. The volunteers are spread out over the globe, across many different time zones. Even the team leaders, those that make up the Core Team are spread out all over the place. When we try to get together to discuss things some people are about to go to bed while others are just getting up for breakfast. This is not the easiest thing to manage I can tell you.
So how do we do it? Well, mostly by a lot of time and effort, and the use of some pretty good software.
Firstly there’s Skype. We’ve got several chat windows open in Skype all the time. There’s a general volunteer chat where everyone can talk about anything relating to what we’re doing on site, then each team has its own chat window for things that are specific to that team. Here for instance Tavaron can get messages out to the rest of the Artists, get feedback and discuss ideas about how a new image library should work, or about picture sizes for the new front page, or even chat about how best to use different image editing software. Lastly there’s a Core Team window, in this one there’s all the team leaders, and in here we chat about cross-team issues and overall site stuff. By doing this, it doesn’t matter what time zone the volunteer is in, because the backlog of any chat is there whenever they next log in, and we’ve got into the habit over time of not making any knee-jerk decisions if we can help it, so every volunteer that should have a say can have a say.
Secondly we use something called Trello, it’s a scrum system message board type thing. It allows us to plan out what we’re doing for the future. As an example, each entry that’s entered into Peer Review gets a new “Card” on the Guide Editors board which gets moved through “Lists” such as “With Sub Editor” and “Awaiting Image.” The same entry will also get a card on the Artists board so they can track its progress too, from assigning it to an Artist, through ideas which can be discussed, to resizing and uploading ready to be added to the entry itself. This system allows volunteers to dip in and out when they’re able to and see what work needs doing, and report back on what they’ve done.
Between these two things we’re able to co-ordinate all the volunteers across all the time zones to do all the work that’s needed to keep h2g2 running. All the Core Team check into Skype and Trello first thing in their mornings, usually before they’ve had their first cup of tea or coffee, and check in last thing at night before they go to bed. And, at any time day or night across the world there’s almost certainly someone online.
It’s the use of these tools that has allowed us to be able to do what we need to do, efficiently to the best of our abilities. Because we’re all volunteers, we have to make sure that what we do, we do with the least impact on our real lives, in other words, without wasting time or effort.
This is why it’s a natural progression for us to close the current bug feedback pages. We’ve got an off-site trouble ticket system that’s far more efficient and it makes sense to use it. It allows us to register new bugs, co-ordinate existing ones and the coding volunteers, and get things that need fixing, fixed quicker. Plus, it’s off site and therefore not telling any potential hackers where our weak spots are.
So it’s a natural progression, and it’ll help us to be more efficient in our use of time, which is needed. Some of the volunteers are giving up *all* of their spare time to keep this site running for us, they care about it that much. Rather than spending time with their families, or doing something for themselves, they’re online here. It’s an amazing dedication that they all give, and we need to make sure we don’t take advantage of that.
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Latest reply: Jan 13, 2014
The Future Now
Posted Dec 1, 2013
I was at a friend's house last night and got to see the new Xbox One in action. And I'm very impressed, for several reasons.
Firstly, let's get the graphics out of the way. Yes, they're very good. There, done.
Now, why was I impressed? Because it worked. Not in a “Oh look, it switches on” sort of way, but in a “oooh, that's good” sort of way. It was completely intuitive and intelligent, and seemed to understand what was wanted.
A few examples: It uses face recognition technology from its Kinect to see where the signed in users are, which is kinda a nice idea. But it goes further, it recognises when you're not there. My mate got up to go fetch a beer, and it knew when he left the room. It also made a little pinging noise when he came back. He had a film on at the time, realised he'd missed a bit, so was able to wave his hand around in a circle and it rewound the film. This was impressive. Later, he put a game on, some first person shooter where you run around killing things. Another friend was playing it for a little bit, having been signed into the system as a guest, and unconsciously did that thing where you lean to the side to see around something on the screen. Thing is though, the character in the game did lean. The Kinect monitors how you're sitting, and if you lean, it leans your character. This was pretty cool, and totally intuitive.
The whole operating system was intuitive though, and learning. He opened the media app which is obviously Microsoft's attempt to rival Spotify, and after the first couple of searches, the predictive text suggestions started getting a lot more accurate. It seemed to be monitoring what genre of music he was actually clicking on, and using that in its suggestions. I'm wondering if this is already related to the facial recognition, so that if his other half was looking for music, it'd recommend stuff based on her tastes instead. The apps also work across a computer running Win8 or a Windows Phone, making all things work together seamlessly.
This is something I've been saying for a while is what I think computers in the next few years will be like, one system that runs across many devices. A computer running your house, with software on your console, your laptop, tablet, desktop, phone, fridge, heating system, alarm, kettle and who knows what else. We're now starting to see this become a reality, all the hardware exists, and so too does the software. But we've not seen it put together properly yet, or become mass-market and in every home.
But a Google account allows you to access your files, your email, your video preferences and your bookmarks on any computer you sign into. Windows 8 and Xbox One allows you to do the same, on their devices, and Apple have bought the company that developed the Kinect so they obviously feel they've got to play catch-up. If Google want to keep up with Microsoft and Apple, I think they're going to have to get into the hardware market properly, with an operating system that's a lot better than Chrome OS currently is. They've got the Android phones sorted out, but there's not the rest of the ecosystem to back it up. Microsoft have the desktops, laptops, tablets, phones and consoles. Apple have the desktop, laptops, tablets and phones with the Apple TV and their purchase of the Kinect company hinting at their movement there. But Google really only have the phones. The Google computers and laptops are awful and that's going to really hold them back if they're not careful. If I was writing their cheques right now over at Google, I'd be investing very heavily in the Steam system and Linux in general .
Discuss this Journal entry [11]
Latest reply: Dec 1, 2013
I'm A Published Author
Posted Nov 20, 2013
Okay, first to clarify something: I'm a self published author.
I made the decision when writing this book that I would publish it myself. Initially it was because I started it years and years ago, back when it was called Vanity Publishing. It was for books that didn't really have a chance of getting picked up by literary agents or publishers. Vanity publishing as it was wouldn't have been suitable, you ordered a few hundred copies of your book (minimum) and then had to hike around the shops trying to get people to stock them.
But over the years this has changed, a lot. You can now self-publish, using a company like Lulu who'll print the books on demand when they're ordered. This means no money up front. It also means not having to deal with agents.
I don't know why the thought of having to send out a manuscript to countless agents in the hope that one of them thinks it might be worth publishing, and then they try and sell it to the publishers in the hope that they think it might sell, scares me. I think it's because at each of those stages you're relying on someone else's idea of what might sell. Okay, these people may well be experts in their fields, but they're salesmen. They're out to fill the market with what the market is asking for, and it seems that most of the time if what you've written isn't the same old, same old, then they won't take the chance.
I can't help but think that with fewer and fewer publishing houses, and fewer and fewer outlets, we're now being told what we want to read, rather than us having the choice and telling the publishers what we want.
So I've kept an eye on Vanity Publishing over the years, as it's changed into self-publishing. And I think this is the way to go for first time authors. Even if you do get an agent, you've got to do most of the promotion yourself it seems, so why give them such a big cut?
I've priced my book at £7.95, and from each sale of that through the publisher (Lulu) I make £2.60, which is actually more than Lulu make. Shortly (once I've filled in some forms and sent them back) the book will become available through Amazon where for the same sale price I'll get 26 pence. A tenth of the amount. Amazon themselves will be getting almost £4. If I had to pay an agent a cut as well, I don't think I'd make anything unless they were *really* good and managed to sell a *lot* of books.
I'm not saying I won't get an agent if it looks like the first book is really popular, or that I won't be sending my manuscript around for the second book. But I'm not sure I see the benefit in one for a first time author anymore.
Having said that though, I also should make it clear that publishing a book is actually really hard. Writing a book is difficult, publishing it is really hard.
I'm very lucky in that my wife's a proof reader and editor. So I was able to hand her my first draft to go through. When she handed it back, I was almost embarrassed by the amount of annotations she'd added. I'd mispelled some words, used the wrong word quite a bit, I had quote marks the wrong way round, I'd even mixed up a character's name and started calling him Kev instead of Ken. My timelines were shot in places, maths didn't add up and scenes seemed to be missing. And what I'd done to the poor comma was unspeakable. It's taken about five months to go through different drafts of the book to get the final version ready to print.
I'm also lucky that I've had experience in typesetting and design, so I was able to use decent software and layout the book exactly how I wanted it, rather than using a publishing wizard. I was able to choose my font, type and size, and was able to design the front cover myself.
The front cover contains a photo of a badge I had in mind, so I also had to get the badges made up so I could take a photo of them to use.
When it was all ready, we ordered a couple of copies as bound proofs, basically a book ready to read. And then the process of proof reading and layout started again. The text was too close to the footer number, there was too much space at the top. The layout meant that in some places the page breaks didn't work as hoped, and there were a couple of orphan words we missed, sitting alone on pages.
Another bound proof, another final proof read, another round of tweaks, and then the book was ready to publish. Except it wasn't because it also needed an ISBN added to the back (along with a barcode) and to the copyright page. We did the last amends today, and the book is now published and ready for purchase.
Alongside writing and publishing the book, there's also the promotion side of things. I've created a website for it: http://www.nopandas.com which contains some short stories that give readers an idea what the book is like. I now need to update that to link through to the publisher so that people can also buy the book. There's a Twitter account that started well, but real life got in the way, and I need to get moving with again. And I've also registered with GoodReads, and tomorrow I'll be able to add the book there too.
So yes, writing a book is difficult, but publishing one is very hard. But it's worth it, because I'm now officially a published author. And, you can even buy it if you want: http://www.lulu.com/shop/stephen-dunkley/endangered-creatures/paperback/product-21308747.html
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Latest reply: Nov 20, 2013
Today I Buried My Brother
Posted Nov 6, 2013
I shouldn't have to have done that. He was only 40, I'm 39. My parents held it together, just. Same with me. His daughter was in tears all the way through, his son lost it towards the end.
During the requiem mass it wasn't too hard, the coffin was in the middle and I was off to the side so I didn't have to see it unless I deliberately looked, which I tried not too. It seemed such a small coffin for such a big bloke.
The crematorium though was much harder, the coffin was right in front of us and very hard to miss.
At the mass there were close to a hundred people, at the crematorium there was over seventy. My brother was a very popular bloke. The church has not been that full for a long time, and isn't likely to be again.
And I'm still not ready to say goodbye.
Discuss this Journal entry [18]
Latest reply: Nov 6, 2013
An Open Viewing
Posted Nov 5, 2013
I find this a strange thing, something I have to admit I am terrified off. Yet, this evening I am sat on my own at my parents house while almost every single member of my family has gone. Even my wife, and my brother's ex and their kids have gone along.
From what I can understand, a priest who has known my family for many years will say a short blessing over the open coffin and then the family will walk past, taking it in turns to say goodbye, in advance of tomorrows funeral service and cremation.
But I can't do that. I can't go and see my brother's body. In one way, I think it is because it kinda creeps me out. To see a corpse, a dead person, a rotting body. But mostly, mostly I think it's because I'm not ready to say goodbye yet. I don't think I'll ever be.
While he was alive we didn't spend much time together, or rather I didn't realise how much we did. Physically we didn't, but since his passing I've caught myself thinking of him and then having to remind myself that we can't do something, or I can't ask him something. Because he's no longer there. We may not have seen each other every day, but I'm starting to realise that I did indeed think of him every day.
And I wish I'd realised that sooner.
I'm very lucky though, because at least I know that he'd realised it. From one of the last conversations we had, I know that he knew I was always there if and when he needed me. Thinking back over the years, there's been many times when I have been there for him, I just wish I could still be.
But I'm not ready to say goodbye. Not yet.
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Latest reply: Nov 5, 2013
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