Personal Thoughts on General Ramblings

What if programming languages were designed for AI, not humans

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What if programming languages were designed for AI, not humans?

A few weeks ago I saw a post on social media -- someone asking whether it was time to create a programming language designed for consumption by code assistants. Not for humans to write, but for AI to generate and humans to verify.

I couldn't stop thinking about it.

Every programming language I use was designed for humans to write. Python optimizes for readability. Rust optimizes for safety. JavaScript optimizes for getting something on screen fast. They all assume a human is typing the code.

Better Late Than Never: Announcing Ramble, A Nomad Job & Pack Registry

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2021, I had an idea. What if there was a better way to share and discover Nomad job files and Nomad Packs? What if we could make it as easy to find a production-ready Nomad configuration as it is to find a Docker image? We needed a helm like repository for Nomad

That idea became Ramble -- Github Repo.

Today, after multiple restarts, countless refactorings, and a journey that taught me Go from the ground up, I'm finally ready to share it.

Insights from the AWS summit Berlin 2024

Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As I walked into the AWS Summit in Berlin, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. The atmosphere was electric, with attendees buzzing about the latest innovations in cloud computing and AI. As someone who follows the industry closely, I was eager to see what the summit was going to present.

As I made my way through the different halls, The passion and enthusiasm of the exhibitors and attendees was palpable, it was clear that everyone was there to either present, to learn and be inspired. The array of solutions and services on display was impressively diverse and innovative

Managing Stress and Fostering Creativity in Your Startup Team

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As a manager at a startup, you know that stress and creativity are intertwined. While a moderate amount of stress can be motivating, unchecked stress can stifle innovation and hinder growth. As your team scales, it's crucial to strike a balance between these two forces.

Understanding Stress in Startups

Stress, much like a coin, has a dual nature. On one side, a moderate amount of stress can act as a stimulant that keeps team members alert, motivated, and ready to face challenges. This type of stress is a vital part of the startup environment, where quick thinking and adaptability are valued. However, the other side of stress, when it amplifies unchecked, can impair judgement, inhibit innovative thinking, and foster a risk-averse mindset, all of which can hinder a startup’s growth

Great Script to tidy Up our Photos

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 18:59:06 +0000

I was looking for a way to tidy up out photos on the NAS at home and have tried a number of things that just did not fit the bill.

they were either just to difficult or completely wrong.

i then stumbled upon this blog post http://falesafe.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/photo-management/

What a gem. if you can install ruby on a machine you have to sort your photos this is it.

The post is from 2009 and so I had to update some of the gems it uses as well as change some of the code. but it was not much work.

Quest NDS Migrator LogFile Parser

Fri, 18 May 2012 22:16:52 +0000

I am currently helping a customer migrate from Novell to Microsoft and they are using the Quest migrator product to move their data to new DFS servers.

They currently have a large amount of data stored on a number of volumes. The sheer number of volumes and data have required that they deploy a large number of the copy engine servers.

The copy engine does not utilize a central logging facility, it stores the logfiles in a folder alongside the copy engine.

My interesting way to end a week.

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:39:01 +0000

This is an account of Thursday the 29th of September 2011 when my cynical view on Londoners only thinking of themselves and not wanting to get involved with other peoples troubles was blown completely out of the water thanks to some really amazing people who I don't have names for but would really love to thank from the depths of my heart for everything they did for me.

The story begins as I am making my way from Hertfordshire down to Camden on my commute to get to the office.

How to copy custom attributes when migrating vmware vcenter to new database

Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:19:05 +0000

I recently had to move hosts and guests to a new vcenter server as the old server had become corrupt and full of issues.

The current vcenter has a few custom attributes and notes that would not be transferred as part of the move.

So I wanted to use powercli to read the attributes out and put them back.

To export the attributes I used the script below.

You will need to add as many Key Value pairs as you have custom attributes

Creating a Two Node Mysql Cluster On Ubuntu With DRBD Part 2

Wed, 11 May 2011 22:23:00 +0000

This blog is a follow on from a blog post I wrote ages ago and have eventually got round to finishing it off In this part of the process we will create the disks and setup the DRBD devices First we need to connect to the Virtual Machines from a terminal session as it makes life much easier and quicker when you connect remotely. You will need to make sure that your servers have static IP addresses. For this document I will be using the following IP addresses for my servers.

ESX Trunk VLAN config for Storage

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 08:47:21 +0000

I was struggling with an install of ESXi on a cisco 6509 switch where the management and VM LAN connectivity worked just fine but for some reason the SAN NFS VLAN just did not want to communicate with the Nexenta on that VLAN.

After some searching and trial and error I was able to utilise this post http://blogs.egroup-us.com/?p=2453 to get the port-channel and the ports configured correctly. I did not use all the settings from this post but it did remind me to check my port0-channel config.

Connecting ESXi 4.1 to extreme x650 10G switches

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 13:48:35 +0000

I am busy working on a contract with a company that is implementing a 10G network for their ESX cluster.

We have been using extreme X650 10G copper switches for the core.

Migrating the current servers to the 10G environment was relatively easy and went with minimal issues.

Over the last 2 weeks I have been trying to get a new server to connect to the cluster and have been frustrated. I have been unable to get the server communicating on the management VLAN. the server was configured correctly and so was the switch or so I thought.

Creating a Two Node Mysql Cluster On Ubuntu With DRBD

Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:00:11 +0000

Creating a Two Node Mysql Cluster On Ubuntu With DRBD To create this cluster you will need 2 ubuntu node servers installed as follows.

I am creating this cluster inside of vMware so I created 2 VM's with:

1GB RAM

1 10GB hdd for the root (/) partition.

1 20GB hdd for the database store.

I downloaded the ubuntu 9.10 server iso and presented this to the VM's and started the install.

HTC Hero owner

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:38:31 +0000

Over the weekend I was able to have my mobile contract changed and part of the deal is that I get an HTC Hero.

This has made me quite happy as I have been forced to run windows mobile on my old phone for far to long and it is refreshing that I have an android phone.

The first thing I noticed was that the box was really small, I wondered if they had actually just given me the charger by mistake.

Vmware Server 2

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:01:38 +0000

I have been running the release version of VMware Server 2 and I must say I am impressed. the only problems I had were with existing VM's and upgrading the tools on them. And also VM's that have open-vm-tools installed.

After updating the tools the systems all have been functioning just fine over the last few weeks and the host system has been under less load with more vm's installed.

Looking to virtualise at home

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 08:10:33 +0000

Ever since vmware made ESXi a free download I have wanted to install and run it at home so I can P to V my systems at home. And save money on electricity. And before you ask I have looked at the Xen and Virtualbox and Kvm solutions but have found them not quite ready fro my prime time.

I had been running vmware server in the past with reasonable success.

Came off my bike today

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 23:06:50 +0000

Well I knew it would happen and it eventually did.

I was going to work this morning and I had to swerve for a black porsche and my bike dropped.

I landed on my right hand side and slid down the road. I have a few bruises and bumps and will be seeing the doctor tomorrow morning. The bike is in the shop at the moment I will find out what the damage is later.

Posting Silence

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 10:13:22 +0000

I have been scarce lately as I have been working down in Plymouth on a short contract for a Art school.

it was fun and I did more that I anticipated doing which is good.

Hopefully I will be able to get back to my Opensource stuff soon.

Positive Thoughts

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 07:52:33 +0000

You all know I have been a very pessimistic South African for a very long time and well I had my reasons for being like that.

This morning I received a e-mail from someone I know who sent me a link to this site.

http://www.sagoodnews.co.za

And also 2 links to some stories on the site

http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/your_good_news/the_headmasters_speech.html

[http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/your_good_news/money_or_the_box_.html](http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/your_good_news/

I have read these and some other stories on this site and I feel differently about the way things are in South Africa and how the people are starting to take back their land from the Crooks and corrupt politicians.