WildGoose http://www.darrach.net/blog The Ramblings of an Irish Software Guy Living in Rural France. Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:38:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 The Cost of Cutting Corners – What Really Happened at Airbus http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=23 http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=23#comments Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:28:57 +0000 Admin http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=23 Superb detailed article on the source of the A380 fiasco. I’m sure most folks working in the software industry will appreciate many of the issues.

Frustrating to know how easily it could have been avoided.

“Airbus made the decision not to migrate Germany to Catia V5 because it would have meant a complete retraining,” says Geoff Haines, managing director of Cenit Ltd. in Oxford, England. “They decided not to do it for budgetary reasons.”

“Boeing provided its suppliers with a financial incentive to get on board with Catia V5. “If you use the common Catia tool, Boeing will provide you with the tool and the support for free,” says Barsamian, who trains Boeing engineers to use the software.” At a cost of $120m no less!

]]> http://www.darrach.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=23 1 Happy New Year http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=22 http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=22#comments Thu, 04 Jan 2007 13:18:50 +0000 Admin http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=22 No posts for sometime now but given its the new year, it seems appropriate to wish everyone a good one! But in all honesty this is just an excuse to put up a link, an added bonus of a clip from the best live music show ever on TV. What a great formula, superstars, new punks on the block, and the best world music has to offer playing/competing/reveling side by side. Magical! And then there is Tom Yorke!

]]> http://www.darrach.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=22 26 Some Good Press http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=21 http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=21#comments Sat, 25 Nov 2006 11:50:32 +0000 Admin http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=21 Nice review of Structure101 from the folks at DevX.

“Getting your arms (and eyes) around large, complex code bases has never been easy, but Structure101 from Headway Software may just be the elegant solution to this age-old problem.”

Time to get Chedgey back on the marketing team! ;-)

]]> http://www.darrach.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=21 0 A week in the Tarn http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=20 http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=20#comments Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:03:00 +0000 Cooleys http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=20 So the Jenkins & Cooleys (late October 2006) arrived late at night to a full fridge, a laid table with plenty of wine and beer!! - great start to the holiday. After a full explore the next day the kids disappeared into the garden whilst the adults played tennis, read books or answered emails!! We enjoyed our stay immensely and fully enjoyed the house the neighbours garden and the tennis court (dispite its interesting bounce!!) – we had been given advice of where to go before we got there and further info frorm Paul & Nadia while we where there, but apart from shopping & market trips we hardly moved from the house all week. A long leisurly 11€ lunch at the hotel in Girrousens with a wobbly walk home after too much wine - a visit to Paul’s favourite restaurant Le Calvert plus some great barbecues were probably my highlight. Gripes - the weather was so great it was a shame the pool had been put to bed!! The conclusion – I suspect we will be back soon!

]]> http://www.darrach.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=20 1 Invited Guests http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=19 http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=19#comments Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:14:46 +0000 Admin http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=19 As this blog is supposed to be about promoting the gite and the region (and not League of Ireland football ;-) ), the thought crossed my mind recently that it would be a good idea to invite the folks that stay with us to blog, so you get first-hand, unbiased feedback. So with that in mind, hopefully our most recent guests, the Cooleys and the Jenkins will be the first to step up to the plate to tell you all about off-season happenings in Giroussens.

I look forward to hearing what they have to say.

]]> http://www.darrach.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=19 0 How Much More Can Microsoft Help Apple? http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=18 http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=18#comments Mon, 16 Oct 2006 18:50:39 +0000 Admin http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=18 This is too funny! Jobs must be rolling around the floor! I worked for a company whose MO was to use extreme license policing to extract cash from their customer base, but in fairness, they probably didn’t have a choice. If any company in the world has a choice, its Microsoft. Your choice, you decide!

]]> http://www.darrach.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=18 0 An October Day in the Tarn http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=17 http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=17#comments Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:06:14 +0000 Admin http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=17 A Misty Morning!

Misty Morning and Its Not ALbert Bridge

And Al Fresco in the Afternoon!

Al Fresco Dining in October

What more could you ask for!

Thanks to Lorraine for the photos.

]]> http://www.darrach.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=17 1 English Speaking Insurance Agent in the Tarn http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=16 http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=16#comments Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:58:51 +0000 Admin http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=16 Straight up apologies for the misleading title! ;-)

My sister, Lorraine, was over from Dublin for the weekend, and I had a bunch of folks around for a long and lazy lunch, 10 adults, 10 kids and plenty of chaos! ;-) The weather was unbelievable, it must have been close to 30C because it was too hot to sit in the direct sunshine. Not bad for mid-October!

Xavier arrived late in the day with 2 enormous shopping bags full of cèpes, and a car boot load for himself and no doubt half his neighbours. I smell a cèpe risotto coming on tonight! :-9

Yum!

They may not look as appetising as your common supermarket purchased mushroom but they sure as hell taste a lot better!

So if you need an english speaking insurance agent in the Tarn, call Xavier or send him email. He doesn’t just do insurance he does great cèpe too! ;-)

Thanks Xavier!

]]> http://www.darrach.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=16 6 So What Do You Do? http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=15 http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=15#comments Wed, 11 Oct 2006 12:40:51 +0000 Admin http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=15 Well some of the time, I deal with the Gite, but most of the time I do what I can to put Structure101 on the map, and it’s mouthpiece! ;-)

Version 2 just went out this week, feedback to date has been encouraging so if you’re a Java geek and you want to understand if you are doing a good job architecting your software, check it out, you can download it from here.

A 15 minute spin is all you need to get a sense of the Good, the Bad or the Ugly! ;-)

And if you ever fancy a holiday in the Tarn, come stay at the Gite!

]]> http://www.darrach.net/blog/?feed=rss2&p=15 0 La Maison des Amis de Google Earth http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=14 http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=14#comments Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:37:59 +0000 Admin http://www.darrach.net/blog/?p=14 So Paddy reckons I need to stop blogging about League of Ireland football and promote La Maison des Amis. Well hard to argue with that really! ;-)

So I thought I’d start with a link to the Google Earth Satellite image of the house. That’s us just left of the road, pan and zoom around to get a feel for the local area.

You have to hand it to the folks at Google, they do some pretty cool stuff!

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