Blog

Our thoughts on technology and design

Tech
A very simple introduction on how to begin pondering about the environmental impact that software can have on the planet. Nothing too technical more just an introduction.
Cloud · Video
Failures are inevitable. Although trying to prevent possible failures to a system is certainly worthwhile, we can also embrace failures and learn how to adapt. In this talk, I explore the importance of resilience and how experimentation can help us build more resilient systems.
Artificial Intelligence · Video
In this talk, I share the key things AI can learn from Neuroscience, and why these two disciplines need each other in order to progress successfully.
Delivery
The fourth in a series of articles, in which we will explore the qualities and behaviours necessary to be an effective Scrum Master and why those qualities and behaviours are important in specific situations.
Tech
Everyone loves CSS! So I built a calculator where the CSS handles the logic without the help of javascript. In this blog post, I will discuss how I achieved this and maybe make a case for my sanity for making it.
People
Empowering Women to Lead Digital Transformation in Scotland (EWLDT) is a course delivered by Empowering You in association with the Scottish Digital Academy, Scottish Government and ScotlandIS. Here, two graduates of the Autumn 2021 cohort – Jen Campbell and Atika Bennamane – share their experiences of the course and some of the key learnings that have accelerated them along their leadership journey.
People
I believe strongly that it's vital to showcase the women leaders in our industry; to me, it's the key to addressing the gender imbalance that holds our industry back. We all know representation matters - what you can see, you can be. But more than this, it’s the normalisation of women being in leadership positions that’s essential in closing the authority gap.
Tech
There is a lot of information available to us, but we often just read and forget. Using a digital Zettelkasten is an effective way to store and make use of the things you learn.
People
So many companies – including Scott Logic – have created ‘one-size-fits-all’ working practices and cultures that are based on a range of assumptions about what ‘fits', while excluding swathes of people. I’m determined that we tackle this issue, and in this blog post I share our journey so far towards being as inclusive an employer as possible.
Delivery
Our journey of digital transformation with the Scottish Government and the completion of a major milestone in the delivery of a payments service.
Open Source
The recent Log4j vulnerability has once again sparked a lot of debate around our reliance on open source projects and their sustainability challenges. I argue that money cannot fix this issue, nor can hiding behind security scans, audits and other defenses. The solution is to genuinely understand the open source community, acknowledge the shared responsibility we have in our commons and through the well-understood tool of Corporate Social Responsibility, look to fill the ethical and philanthropic gaps.
Delivery
The third in a series of articles, in which we will explore the qualities and behaviours necessary to be an effective Scrum Master and why those qualities and behaviours are important in specific situations.
Tech
Apache JMeter is a very popular performance testing tool which I used recently for load testing a server. In this post I will take a brief look at how to use it to perform a basic HTTP load test on a server.
Artificial Intelligence
You can tell powerful stories with data, but so often we are faced with raw data (albeit beautifully presented), and are left to create our own narratives. My previous attempts at turning data into stories have been time consuming and underwhelming. In this post I demonstrate how GPT-3, a new and advanced language model, can construct engaging and unique stories from user-specific data, with relative ease.
Tech
The Disruptor was developed by LMAX to improve Java inter-thread communication for extreme low latency applications. In this post I will outline what is the Disruptor and see what we can learn from the framework for building future applications.
Delivery
The second in a series of articles, in which we will explore the qualities and behaviours necessary to be an effective Scrum Master and why those qualities and behaviours are important in specific situations.
Tech · Video
Sometimes it’s important to show progress to people who don’t care about APIs and there is no time to put together an elaborate UI.
People · Video
Drawn from my experiences leading delivery teams throughout the pandemic, I share new tips for taking the isolation out of remote working.
Tech · Video
While we are all working remotely, code reviews should be an opportunity to grow as a team, but too often they can become something we fear, hate and avoid. This talks suggests an approach to remove conflict while strengthening the team.
Tech · Video
In this talk, I summarise the first steps in creating a Seasonal Cocktail Playlist by outlining how to apply Data Science skills when cleaning and labelling a cocktail data set.

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