There are times when a problem seems so complex, and so complicated that it is impossible to know where to start. This situation is are sometimes referred to as a ‘mess‘. There may be many people involved, with different perspectives on how to proceed, or with vested interests they want a solution to address. It… Read More »
Technology and software development cycles often talk in terms of “alpha” and “beta”, and live releases. What do these stages mean? And how can they be used to deliver better products and services? Alpha, Beta, and Going Live The alpha/beta terminology for software development was first introduced by IBM, and there are now many interpretations… Read More »
With the Microsoft Word Docx format, it’s quite easy to see how images are stored. Docx files have been the default Word format since Word 2007, and are an open document format based on xml. The docx file is a container for xml files relating to the structure and text of the file, as well… Read More »
XML, or Extensible Mark-up Language, is a set of rules for encoding data and documents in a way that is both human and machine readable. XML excels where you need to transfer data between different systems, as there is almost always going to be an XML parser available. In this post I take a quick… Read More »
Real world problems come in a range of shapes, sizes and complexity. Sometimes it is obvious what the problem is, and what a likely solution is going to be – in which case you may even be able to find a solution in your head. In other cases, you may need to look to use… Read More »