I got my first computer when I was 4 years old which, for those of you who know me, probably explains a lot. It was an Acorn Electron, it had 32KB of RAM, it cost my parents a fortune and, until 1993, it was my only real piece of computing kit. Sure, I had an Atari 2600, but with my Electron, I could play games that I'd bought, type out page after page of code from "Electron User" to run games featured in the magazine's pages – because my parents couldn't get the version with the tape on the front – and, ultimately, learn BASIC and create my own software.

My parents' gift and foresight – in seeing the value of buying a computer for me at such an early age – were probably the most valuable things I would be given at such an early age, despite not knowing it until long after I'd left school. Aside from hours spent playing Repton, Elite and the myriad of other fantastic Superior Software games, the Electron gave me a grounding in programming, something which has been a huge contribution to who I am and what I do today.

The Computer Room

By the time I was 10, we'd moved from the centre of Birmingham to the suburb of Great Barr on the very edges of the city, and in September 1990, I started secondary school at Stuart Bathurst R.C. High School. My earlier tour of the four-storey building that formed part of my new school in Wednesbury, hadn't included a visit to the room in the corner of the top floor which housed the Maths department, but my first lesson in that room changed everything.

At my primary school – St. Catherine's in Birmingham, if you must know – we had a single RM machine. I can't remember much about it, apart from the fact that it was very basic and didn't sound anything like my computer sounded when it was loading programs from the cassette tapes. But this amazing computer room was packed full of computers – a few Archimedes machines, but mostly BBC Micros hooked up to monitors of varying capabilities.

Slightly more amazing than the lab full of computing equipment, however, was the teacher who inhabited it.

The Nun

During the 80s, I'd grown up with the vision of bespectacled old men with beards who taught computing – if you're around my age, and you had any interest in computing around that time, you might remember The Computer Programme which was commissioned by the BBC. The story is much longer and complicated but, as basically as possible, Acorn Computers and the BBC had designed the BBC Micro to be an essential part of british education, and it certainly fellt like Stuart Bathurst had embraced that vision with gusto.

Except that whilst sometimes seen wearing glasses, our teacher didn't have a beard and wasn't a man, but was an intensely intimidating nun, who went by the name of Sister Celsus. Those that messed with her soon learned not to, and it wasn't long until everyone was given a basic understanding of computing and the BBC BASIC langauge.

The small handful of us who had already been exposed to BBC BASIC and knew our way around the computers were quickly identified and nurtured, motivated into spending more time with the computers and often pushed, in class, to deliver advanced work. In the first two years at the school, we were given access to the computer room at lunchtimes and some were even given access to help out with more technical projects, taught about databases and more interesting uses of the machines.

Long before computing became part of any syllabus, Sister Celsus was teaching kids how to program, how to properly interact with computers – not simply how to use Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint and choose Comic Sans as your font.

Whatever happened to Computing in schools?

At the start of my second year, the BBC Micros had all but been replaced by Archimedes machines, and by the start of my third, RM-branded, watered-down PCs – no doubt cheaper than their Acorn counterparts – had started to make their way into the computing lab, and many classrooms around the school. Computing became less of a subject about programming and more about how to use computers for everyday needs, for writing letters, creating presentations and basically learning how to get around Windows.

When the time came to move into my third year, Sister Celsus had left the school, and the real passionate forces behind computing at Bathurst began to disappear. More and more Windows PCs, complete with ClarisWorks and very early versions of Microsoft Office, became commonplace throughout the school. Of course, a handful of students used to spend as much time on the remaining BBC and Acorn machines, mucking around and playing games like Elite and Exile until as late as 1993 on machines which had been distributed throughout the school.

It was around that time that my Electron moved to it's final resting place in my parent's loft, shortly after they'd bought me a Commodore Amiga. I'm sure both computers are still up there, and I imagine they both still work, though, if I remember correctly, one of the Electron's loose chips might need a bit of a jiggle in order to get it running again – something those who teach computing could probably do with. I got further involved in BASIC programming through AMOS Professional on my Amiga, but the early lessons in how to program stuck with me.

Much of everything I've heard about ICT classes in schools recently makes me cringe. Horror stories of students being taught that the style of a presentation is more important than the content, and – particularly abhorrent to me – students being taught how to create websites using PowerPoint. Friends of mine who actually failed their ICT course because they created a website using commercially acceptable methods instead of using Microsoft Office to do so. Perhaps it's just my interest in the field that clouds my memories, but I remember my computing classes being nothing like that – while we did learn how to use word processors and other applications, we were always encouraged to find new uses for the technology we were using.

Yes, there have been whispers of suggestions from Whitehall that the teaching of programming will be making a comeback to our schools, but it's the likes of Anna Debenham, who I'm sure will be the subject of many future ALD-themed blog posts, who are the real pioneers here. Becoming involved in schemes where us developers actually go out into schools and ask to be part of unconventional ICT lessons is a great way to help in this area – it's just a shame that teaching students something that doesn't involve office productivity software is labelled as unconventional.

Perhaps what should be thought of as unconventional is actually teaching kids – the potential developers of tomorrow – how to learn, and how to keep up with the rapidly changing standards and moving targets of modern web development.

Being thankful

Having a teacher like Sister Celsus bolstered the investment my parents had made, and whilst no-one stepped into the void left by her with the same level of interest, the time she dedicated to the subject galvanised my interest in the subject. I'd probably still be doing something with regards to computers right now, but I doubt I'd be as interested as I am had it not been for her.

Perhaps it's down to the fact that computing has become so ubiquitous, so big a part in everyday life, that the teaching of the subject has become so watered down, but I hope there are still teachers out there who recognise pupils with a knack for computing and who give them the same level of encouragement that I received from that amazing little Irish nun.

This entry is my contribution to Ada Lovelace Day 2011. You may also be interested in The Nun and the Archimedes – my buddy Matt Patterson's ALD post from 2009.

The version that aired was great. This one's so much better.

"About the only thing you can't do, is ignore them."

So long, Steve.

Thanks for inspiring generations of geeks.

Chris Ross (@darkrock on twitter), as part of his excellent talk on defining success on the App Store at iOSDevUK last week, said something that resonated with me. Based around the topic of iterating and evolution, Chris said that collaboration helps to bring great ideas to the forefront and to filter out the bad ones.

Coming from Brighton, Chris has access to a plethora of dense tech talent in a relatively small area, and as he discussed how he found his business partner through the Brighton iPhone Creators meetup, he said something really quite profound.

If a local group exists, join it. If it doesn't, create one.

Chris Ross

This caused an almost involuntary tweet to spring, via my fingers, from my brain:

When and where?

We're going to meet up on every fourth Thursday of the month, and we're going to alternate the venue on a two-month basis.

Starting on September 22nd this year, we'll meet in Leamington Spa on the odd months of the year – that'll be January, March, May, July, September and November. I'll be speaking to people at The White Horse, The Sozzled Sausage and The Fox who all have rooms that would be available for such a gathering.

Then, starting on October 27th this year, we'll meet in Birmingham on the even months of the year – that'll be February, April, June, August and October. I imagine you may have other things on you rmind, or be somewhere else on the fourth Thursday of December, so we'll have a festive break during that month. I've already spoken to people at Birmingham Science Park Aston who would be very happy to host us for such an event.

As for a name, we've gone for "iOS Midlands Meetup" – if you've got a better idea, I'm all ears – the events are listed on Lanyrd as "iOS Midlands Meetup" (or just subscribe to the events in your calendar) so if you're interested in attending, please add yourself on Lanyrd.

So the local group now exists. All you need to do now is join it.

A colleague just got in touch with me, as they'd heard about this brand new social network that was coming from Google, and wanted to know my opinions.

One of the first things I saw about Google+ was their lovely interactive tour, which uses the Google Maps engine to serve up a huge great big image – something we were talking about last night, at the Leamington Multipack meet-up, was this exact technology and how you don't need Silverlight or Flash to make it work.

Google's design, of late, has really stepped up a gear – the interface design shown in the tour is lovely, and there are a bunch of really nice little touches – when you drag a contact into a circle, for instance.

Having seen most of the 'bits' that make up Google+, it looks like they are nothing more than add-ons to the Google experience. So the social aspect will be handled by the Circles 'app'. Talking to groups of people will be handled by the Huddle 'app'. Photos and image sharing by the Images 'app'.

Why quote 'app'? Because I think these individual bits are akin to the way that Facebook refers to 'apps' on their platform. So while both Facebook and Google+ are apps built atop their respective platforms, Google's collection of services and apps are an evolution of what's already there, with the addition of a few new things.

Arguably, Circles already exists, to a certain extent, if you're a Google Profile user – you can add contacts to groups on your profile – but it looks like Google are taking this a step further. Additionally, while there are bound to be tons of differences in the way that Google+ and Facebook are perceived, my take is that Google+ will be more of an experience built on top of the things you already do on Google.

What do I mean by that? Well, different to Facebook, I don't think that Google+ will be a destination, per sé. You won’t need to go to plus.google.com to do everything – though I'm sure you'll be able to – but you’ll go to the individual bits that you want to use Google Circles, or Google Huddle.

This is, in a way, analogous to going to the different apps within Facebook, with the exception that while Facebook is a walled garden that does its best to keep the internet out, Google will embrace the internet and make your ‘social experience’ part of it – especially when you’re searching for things, because that's where most people will see their interactions and, knowing Google, they'll do their best to make your friends suggestions have an impact on the results they serve to you.

So, if you think of Google+ as a social network, my honest opinion is that it’ll take a couple of years – at least – for it to gain any sort of critical mass. For the vast majority of users, I don't see a mass exodus from Facebook any time soon, especially given that Google is doing this on an invitation-only basis right now.

But, if you think of Google+ as an extension of Google’s current service offerings, who knows what to expect. It's something to watch, certainly; something to think about, definitely; but something to do something about right now?

I can't say I'm sure it is.

I write things because I think I've got something that's worth reading. I create websites because the people I make them for have something worth showing off. I talk because, more often than not, I have something worth saying.

I vote because I want the people that work for me to do their job.

In 2005, I voted for Labour - not because I wanted to vote for Labour, but because I knew that tactically, it was my only real choice. Last year, I emplored everyone to abandon tactical voting and use their vote properly, because I – somewhat naively – believed that the party I normally vote for, the Lib Dems, had a real chance at securing some sort of power.

Tactical, Schmactical

Looking back, it was inevitable, really, that in the last push to get votes, the different camps would turn around and employ methods of scaring people into persuading them back into voting tactically. Their weak explanation was simple: there are only two real choices in modern day politics - those of the Conservative and Labour parties.

Thing is, though, I'm neither a Conservative nor a Labour supporter. Sure, I've voted Labour since my I received my first polling card, but I've never really supported the full ideals of either party. I don't think I'm alone either.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that there is a large portion of the population who support other parties. Some of these people vote for the party they support - which is what I started doing last year. Others succumb to the tactical voting crowd, voting for – in their mind – the lesser of two 'evils'. More worryingly, however, is the remainder who develop a level of apathy to the whole idea, and simply don't vote. Don't get me started on that topic.

Our current voting system - first past the post - encourages and fosters this, meaning that those who represent us at the highest level of politics are elected, in some cases, by the tiniest of majorities. It also gives us outcomes where the parties that run our country often have more of the seats in parliament, but less of the votes of the populace.

First Past the Post and the Alternative Vote

Many celebrities, more articulate than I, have waxed lyrical about the Alternative Vote. Where FPTP forces you to think tactically and vote that way, should you so desire, AV completely wipes out the need for tactical voting, since you can vote with your principles in mind. Both voting methods are explained in the Electoral Commission's video, shown below:

Looking back to the results of the General Election in 2010 for Warwick and Leamington we can see that Chris White of the Conservatives was elected as our member of parliament. The results, sourced from Wikipedia, are shown below:

It has to be assumed that some of the people who voted for Labour did so because they felt that the party they really wanted to vote for had no real chance of winning the election. I expect that, in the case of AV, there will be plenty of UKIP voters who would probably have the Conservatives as their second choice.

It's impossible to know how people would have voted using AV in the last election, because – simply – they didn't. I expect that, with the fear of having 'wasted your vote' lifted from people's shoulders, they would vote with their heart as opposed to voting with someone else's head, and that the results would have been very different.

Would Alan Beddow have triumphed? Would James Plaskitt have retained his seat? Would Chris White have won anyway? I don't know – but I'd like to find out next time.

It's not Rocket Science

There are some who say that it should be one vote for one person – it is. You still only get one vote, it's just that if your first choice is eliminated, your next choice gets your single vote. Some say the system is too complicated. I say the public are cleverer than these people give them credit – if, as these people say, the general populace is incapable of ranking candidates in order, then we are truly screwed.

Others say that they only want to vote for one person – that's fine, just make sure you don't put any numbers higher than 1 on your ballot paper. Today, people are, have and will be voting for representatives of their local and county councils, as well as on the referendum. In the case of local and county council elections, you often have more than one vote. For instance, in Warwick and Leamington, we have 3 votes for the county council and 5 for the local council. It's not rocket science.

Another argument against AV is that it doesn't offer a fair representation. Take a look at the table below:

To FPTP supporters, that's a fair outcome. To AV supporters, it's far less fairer than having a government where the number of seats a party occupies tallies a little better with the number of votes they received during the election.

If seats were put in proportion the number of votes received by the populace, this is how things would look:

AV is a step towards fixing that problem, ensuring that each elected member has the backing of at least 50% of their constituency.

Why I'm voting Yes

However, the biggest reason for me voting yes, is simple. I don't want to have to vote tactically, and I don't want everyone else to vote tactically. I want them to choose how they want to vote, unencumbered by the fear that, because their person doesn't stand a chance means they can't vote for the person they want to.

Some say that AV is a compromise. Sure it's not the system that everyone wants, and it's not a completely representational system – only changes in boundaries can make sure that our population is represented in a fairer fashion – but if this fails, there's very little chance we'll get another shot in the foreseeable future.

The referendum gives us a chance to make sure the people's voice is being heard, and gives them a chance to feel that their choice matters. For me, voting yes means my voice, and the voices of others who feel they're not being listened to, will be heard a little clearer.

People aren't stupid. Let's not treat them that way.

For some time now, I've been involved with a grassroots group of web geeks from the Midlands that, collectively, goes by the name of The Multipack. We all get together, at least once a month, in Birmingham and/or Leamington, for a few drinks, the occasional meal, and a friendly, social chat about anything – with a heavy slant on anything to do with technology.

Photo Credit: Paul Lloyd

Revitalising the Format

Whilst 2010 only had one event, on the design processes employed by three of the Multipack's finest, it was clear that Presents had been sorely missed. So, following the event, a proposal was made to change the format for 2011 to allow for more time to organise the events, whilst still leaving room for the Geek in the Park summer event to take place.

On February 12th, the Multipack held the first of 2011's Presents events at the offices of Birmingham web agency, One Black Bear, with a simple format. Instead of having a fixed theme, the Show and Tell event offered everyone a 10 minute slot to talk about anything they'd been involved in.

Photo Credit: Paul Lloyd

Ten people responded, nine people presented¹ – myself included – and over forty people, our biggest attendance at a Multipack Presents event yet, thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Organised Chaos

Straightforward as it may seem, organising any event can be fraught with difficulties, but I turned to a handful of great tools on the web that make organising events, such as Show and Tell, that little bit easier.

Google Moderator

When we announced the event, we needed a way of getting hold of everyone's suggestions for talks, and this gave me a chance to make a real use of Google Moderator for the first time.

The premise behind Google Moderator is simple - you propose ideas or questions and people vote for or against them. Once the allotted time is up, the votes are frozen and you get to see which are the most popular. This made selecting the ideas very easy, though with just ten proposals, it made sense for us to get all ten speakers to participate.

I have a feeling that next time we run a Show and Tell event – and trust me, based on the success of our first one, a future event is almost a dead certainty – that more people will submit talks, and even more people will vote on those talks. This is one tool you definitely haven't seen the last of!

Lanyrd

Simon Willison and Natalie Downe's wonderful social conference website, Lanyrd, was something I came across at dConstruct last year and, since then, I've become hooked. Whilst I'd love for the site to be able to distinguish between things like conferences, barcamps and meet-ups, I use it to list all of the above anyway.

Poor old Upcoming hasn't seen much love from Yahoo! in recent years, and the cracks that started to show early last year have only gotten wider. Whilst listing your events on Upcoming is still something I'd recommend – and still something I do – I advise everyone who's organising an event, especially one which will be attended by people who use Twitter, to get their events listed on Lanyrd.

The great thing about Lanyrd is that it was created by fast-moving, great listeners and really nice people to boot – thanks to their feedback, you can now subscribe to all future Multipack events in your calendar software of choice (iCal, right?). Not only do we have a place to alert people to upcoming events, but we've also got the opportunity to showcase all the slide decks and videos we take at the events.

Vimeo

As part of the Multipack Presents format, we video each of the talks and publish them online for the whole world to view - sure, there's a lot of work involved in making sure everyone uses the wireless lavalier microphones, and that we get everything synchronised with the video, adding logos and fades, but the end result is very much worth it.

One of the main reasons we go to this length is to make sure that everyone gets to experience it – both the regular members of the Multipack who can't make it, and those who don't know what a Presents event is like.

Lessons Learned

From the feedback I've received, Show and Tell was a success, but it certainly wasn't perfect. This gives me an opportunity to reflect on what I would change for the future.

With regards to the amount of time allotted to speakers, 10 minutes worked really well. The majority of people who spoke at Show and Tell were done in around 8 minutes, but time taken to set up computers and connect to the screen meant that everyone hit their 10 minutes. So, for next time, I think we'll probably ask all the speakers to send over their slide decks so we can use a single computer for all the talks.

As the compère for the event, I spoke a little faster when I was nervous, and not knowing what the talks about made me nervous. It did make me listen intensely to everyone's talks, so I had something to say when segueing between speakers, but I think next time I'll probably ask speakers selected to send over a blurb of their talk and a little profile – if I don't already know them.

Hindsight being what it is, it's apparent that we didn't need 5 minutes in between each talk to get everyone changed over and ready for the next talk. The break offered a chance to speak about the first talks and, in this particular case, it worked really well, because we built up enough of a buffer during the first half of the event to have a discussion during the sessions. That said, a bigger break next time may offer more of a chance to chat with speakers, eliminating the need for awkward QA sessions directly after the presentations.

Photo Credit: Simon Banyard

With food and drink being graciously sponsored by the fine folks at Campaign Monitor, as part of their Gives Back efforts, the one thing I dropped the ball on this time was the collection of the food. We got the drink sorted ahead of time, but the food arrived late because I didn't get someone out there in time - next time, it'll be a good idea to get a volunteer to go and collect it before the break.

Finally, while One Black Bear have been gracious enough to provide space for us to meet, talk and present for the past 2 years, it's becoming apparent that their wonderful board room is just not big enough to house the growing number of attendees. We may need to look for a bigger venue for our next event, which may mean we need to get sponsorship from outside bodies to cover the costs associated with hiring a larger space. 

Next event?

Speaking of which, our next event, to be held in May, will be focused around Mobile development – not just iPhone and Android Apps, but Windows Phone 7, Phone Gap apps and Mobile-focused Web Applications. If you've got a good story to tell, and have a broad knowledge and understanding of the process of developing for your chosen platform, from start to finish, and would like to present at this event, get in touch with me at multipack@abitgone.co.uk.

Plus, if you propose a talk, I'll even buy you a beer at the event!

1. Ten would have presented too, but one dropped out last-minute. ↩

The wife just sent me this video of my boy, with his lion hat on, roaring. It made me spit tea over my keyboard:

(download)

Click here to download:

movie.mov (974 KB)

Best thing that ever happened to me.

Regular readers may remember me getting a little impatient about a certain Twitter client a while back, before becoming a little more optimistic about the very same subject a few months later.

Months of frustration - both at the limitations of Tweetie and at my inability to find a client of comparable quality - finally came to an end with the launch of the Mac App Store yesterday and, along with it, Twitter's new official desktop client for the platform.

Evan's carefully worded tweet, back in October, now seems to be even more carefully worded:

Was it a case of being guarded, knowing exactly what their plans were and that Twitter for Mac would be released along with the Mac App Store? Again, look at the language used - "Tweetie for Mac is not something we're actively investing in." Had Tweetie 2 already changed name, internally, to Twitter for Mac?

Or was Evan being genuine? Was Twitter's stance reversed by external influences - by which, I mean, did Apple ask Twitter to do this?

Those questions will probably go unanswered forever. One that's much easier to answer, right here, right now, is this one: What's the best OS X native client for Twitter?

In my opinion, it's Twitter for Mac. Good job, Loren!

As another year draws to a close, looking back on the events of the past twelve months gives me a chance to reflect on the things that I have done and the things that have affected, changed me and - in some cases - made me a better person.

The arrival of our son, Noah

Our most important, most treasured, most beautiful gift - Noah - arrived back in August, and changed our lives forever. Friends, relatives and colleagues had all explained to me how this would happen, and whilst I knew that my priorities would be altered for the rest of my life, until I held our perfect little boy in my arms that morning, I truly had no idea.

The last four months - seriously, four months - have been the most rewarding of my life, as Noah learns to smile, laugh, respond and develop his personality. They've also taught me the value of time itself, and I now try to spend as much time with Noah and Bella as I can.

Becoming a Black Belt

As one journey begins, the first part of another comes to an end. I've been training in karate-do for nearly six years and credit most of my recent successes in my career and life to the positive changes that have come about through that training.

On Sunday, December 19th, we escaped the snow and ice of Warwickshire to travel up to Nottingham. After a wait of nearly three quarters of an hour, it became evident that the key holder for the venue had been unable to make the journey, due to adverse weather conditions, and the decision was taken to move the grading to Leicester, where an alternative venue was available.

After three hours of intense examination - of our technique, endurance, kata (form) and kumite (sparring) - I was thrilled and proud to be among the dozens of students who were told that we would be grading, and I received a black belt to go with the black eye I received scant minutes before.

Being able to share the experience with my friends who train alongside me, one of whom achieved the incredible feat of grading to Nidan (second dan), was amazing, but having my family there to support me and share the day was truly wonderful.

Success on the web

Recognition for any achievement, personal or professional, is always welcome, but the process we go through in order to gain those achievements is often more valuable than the achievement itself. At work, my team and I are very proud of the things we build, and when we relaunched the Listers Group website last year, it was the first step on a journey towards making the website more effective for our customers.

Winning the Dealer Group Website of the Year award was a fantastic achievement for my team and validates the approach we take and the direction I've steered our website in since the relaunch. Awards are great, but having the increase in visitors and almost 150% increase in enquiries from the website since we relaunched is almost more important.

Our plans haven't changed either, and we're going to keep pushing forward with a 'responsive refresh' of our existing design - an ongoing, evolving alpha of which will live on my alpha site until we're ready to put it on our beta site - tailored to fit the 'one web' vision, championed by Tim Berners-Lee and people like Jeremy Keith and my pal Paul Robert Lloyd who really understand the principles of having a content-driven, responsive design that works for all devices.

Along with it will come heavy optimisation, more tweaks to our back-end code and databases to ensure things run quicker than ever before and lashings of HTML5 and CSS3, in a refresh of our current design that already focuses on functionality instead of cross-browser pixel-perfection.

In Memoriam

Sadly, 2010 was also a year in which friends and family left us. I had to say a final farewell to a great uncle, a great aunt and other friends who I'd prefer were still here. I take solace in the fact that my friends, family and I are better people having known them, and that I will continue to smile when I recall memories of them - memories to which this post is dedicated.

Looking Forward

I'm hoping to do more next year, pushing the boundaries of what's possible with new technologies, bringing more things together and learning more by attending excellent conferences such as New Adventures in Web Design in January and dConstruct in September. If I only manage to make two events this year, I'm certain those will be the highlights.

Next year will bring its own challenges and triumphs - of that I am more than certain - but given the preparations I've made, the tools at my disposal and the support of friends and family, I'll be heading into 2011 confident of my abilities to meet them head on.

Between now and then, I'll be spending my time with family and friends, so have yourselves a fantastic Christmas and a wonderful new year!

See you in 2011!