Should we write code SOLID? I’ve always liked a bit of single responsibility principal and dependency injection, but don’t often find myself using interface segregation.

Dan North argues that the SOLID Principals are not the be all and end all of good software. On a recent .NET Rocks 1745 he explains what’s wrong with SOLID and puts forward his own set of CUPID Properties. Properties are less strict than principals, but if you write code that has more of these properties then it will be better.

Dan North seems to have plans to write a series of detailed blog posts about the CUPID properties, …

This website has been down for a few weeks since my old web host lost my virtual machine in a RAID disaster. If my business depended on this website I would have spent more time and money on my backup strategy. And although this is not a business critical site, it is still one close to my heart and the pain and time taken to get this site back up has been more than I anticipated.

This site was hosted on a cheap VM with UK Webhosting. I was not paying for the optional extra of backups. But I was regularly backing up the database and saving it on the server. I made the assumption (NEVER MAKE …

I’ve played with art through my life, not enough to be a master, but occasionally enough to get better. While studying and practicing art for my A-Levels we were given a still life scene involving a skeleton and some barbed wire to paint. This is the perfect scene for inspiring a teenage artist (far better than fruit).We were being taught by a different teacher than normal. He was a bit intimidating. I wish I could remember his name. All I remember is that he told us that he specialised in punching clay while angry to make sculptures of people. He showed us some pictures of his work and they …

What is the long tail

In his original post and the following book The Long Tail Chris Anderson explains the modern economic phenomenon of the long tail. Selling goods through the web, particularly digital goods is offering the consumer an alternative to the hit driven culture of the past:

Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

The basic premise is that in the past a shop could only carry so much stock. In a physical shop space is limited and also costs rent. …

Since going freelance I started to view my time as an asset. When I’m working for a client I turn my time and skills into money and also a project that I’m proud of and can add to my CV. Between client projects I like to take some time out to work on a small project for myself. I see this time as an investment and it’s essential that I invest this time well if I want to continue doing well with my career.

The problem is there are so many possible time investment opportunities that it’s hard to know what the wisest investment is. Here are five possible ways you can invest your spare freelance …

I discovered Google AdSense in 2005 and thought I’d try it out. I didn’t think it would I make a fortune (straight away), but I thought it might pay for at least some of my hosting fees.

Google will only send you your money once you earn over £60. I didn’t think this would be a problem. It took 6 years. I just got my first cheque from Google. It’s for sixty pounds and sixty six pence. I’ve decided that it’s not really worth it for a site with my level of traffic and I've now removed all the Google Ads from my site.

I’m not sure who really does well out of Google AdSense, apart from Google. I …

The iPhone and iPad were criticized for not allowing you to show Flash content. Adobe hit back by developing an export to iPhone feature that promised to turn Flash apps into iPhone apps. This was due to be released soon in Flash Creative Suite 5. I was really looking forward to it. As a developer I’ve found the learning curve for iPhone development very steep; the provided tools are lacking and not as good as many other development tools. Programming for the iPhone feels a bit like stepping back ten years in time. It's a much more pleasant experience using Microsoft's developer tools. I don' …

The web is a world of unlimited choice and unlimited possibilities. So why does everyone choose to use Facebook? Why is the web dominated by a few big companies?

I watched the first part of the BBC documentary The Virtual Revolution yesterday on iPlayer. They made the point that:

When there are no rules, there is nothing to stop those with huge resources dominating everyone else.

Google is obviously the biggest at this point in time, but Facebook is also massive. I don’t really mind Google. They’re big because they’re good and more importantly if I want to use another search engine I can …

I've always been careful not to give too much away online. It's not like I have dark secrets, but I do want to control the information that exists about me on the Internet. I want to protect myself against those cyber-stalkers I've been hearing so much about. This used to be simple and easy, but the Internet is changing and people are sharing more. I might be paranoid, but what if people are talking about me?

My friends know lots of information about me. Do I have any rights to protect this information? When a company holds information about me, there is normally a formal agreement to protect …

Virtually everyday I get an email that promises to make me rich. Sometimes I read it to amuse myself, but it always goes in the bin. These emails normally come from a stranger. Today I got one from a friend. I was surprised; doesn't everyone know these things are always rubbish?

The email I received had the subject 'seems viable??' and after my friends greeting spoke of the wealth I would receive if I would give the scheme a go. It claimed to be a Multi Level Marketing scheme, but was really just a Pyramid Scheme.

This email had five names on it. The one at the bottom was my friend's. All I …