busy, busy, busy

Quiet here, but I'm having a great time testing, testing and testing our little system :)

Just like I always say - this is like Lego!

I build cool and complicated (business) models from generic building blocks, and I get the same the kick out of doing it.

"Being not having" to paraphrase Eric Fromm.

"Hmm, how should this process run... what is really an invoice - a real object or really something represented by another object?... Should this event happen first or later?... What follows this snippet of process? What precedes it? etc. etc."

Using atomised building blocks really makes one rethink the basics.

Hard to get a Lego model elegant in one try, ditto for a business model...

Feels like being nine years old again, on the carpet in my room, door locked, lemonade and cookies at the ready, no parents in sight and a huge box of building blocks - dreaming, scheming, building, testing, trying, ripping apart and starting over.

How time flies!

And it works, wow! Just now running my own little virtual bike factory doing all what has to be done there and showing reports and accounts and whatnot.

When bored with procuring frames and wheelsets I flip over to a virtual hospital and run that too, giving Mr. Peter Patient all kinds of ailments and treatments.

Yikes, making software is fun!

OK, OK, it does not look like much yet, more like Mr. Daimler's first four wheeler - quirky handles all over the place. But it did move and steer!

The E-class will follow, S-class a bit later :)

And next week I'll be in Geneva at Lift06 for what I am sure will be invigorating and good fun. Will bring skies for some weekend nature romping too.

And I've had the pleasure of being invited to show a bit of what we're up to - all of 15 minutes, that will be fun too, at least for me... :)

Comments

[Ric]

I see you gave them the "smug-smile-laughing-at-Ric-and-Doug-while-in-the-Alps"
photo for your bio!
Hope it goes well for you - I'm STILL interested in knowing more about Thingamy BTW.

[Dennis Howlett]

SO when do we get to play with this Sig?

[sig]

Well guys, I have build 2.0.24 (so what's in a name :)) compiled for OS X just now, and a 20 point to-do list... It works, lacks a bit, have a few bugs just now.

So it's a bit of - how geek are you guys? :)

(In truth, a couple of under-the-hood things would be nice to fix - makes building and changes easier when you first do the try-and-fails..)

[Ric]

How geek? Well - I don't do hardware, and I don't profess to being a hacker, BUT I can run my own Linux box, do Unix at work, can play with Python/Perl/PHP etc, run Apache, JBoss, MySQL and Eclipse IDE ... geek enough for Thingamy?

[Dennis Howlett]

Still not saying when Sig....been waiting a loooong time...

[sig]

oops, hiding behind the desk here :)

I can show you now, next week, the week after... it works, you can run your favourite firm or whatever with accounts and all.

Today I think I'd like to do it over a beer (still a few quirks that needs a bit of introduction), next week or the week after it'll be easier to try on you own - though with some hand-holding. Completely-solo version including short "manual" in about six weeks I think...

Have only a OS X version now, but will get around to compiling some Linux and Wintendo versions...

You ever up in London? Perhaps some coordination and we could do the beer there, give you an intro, leave with an executable for further playing... or we could pester Steve in Carcassonne and have him buy the beers? :D

(In a few weeks he'll be firing up his test equipment and do some load testing on ours... supect a few rounds for each "oh shit, that early?" hitting-the-walls...)