Hi, I’m Craig Bailey and this is my personal blog where I write about technology, web strategy, and general musings. You can read my posts here. (If you are looking for the Content is King post by Bill Gates it is here)
I run two digital agencies in Sydney:
The first is XEN Systems. We help government departments and mid-large B2B technology companies with their online strategy, including content marketing, SEO, SEM and Social. You can find out more about what we do here.
The second is XEN Solar, where we help high quality solar companies (dealers, installers) with their digital marketing.
I’m reading a book Andrew Coates lent me called C# Design Patterns (James W Cooper). This idea of design patterns is fascinating. It has been around for a while, but I’m sure is one of those topics that gets put in the ‘nice, but I don’t have time for it’ basket. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never used UML before and this book introduces the topic well – how easy and useful is UML! I haven’t...
Back home from visiting my dad after his operation. He’s had a recent cancer scare (see my earlier post) and is now living with a new appreciation of things. He’s looking really good. He’s lost a bit of weight and is looking pretty trim. He’s well rested, although a bit sore still, and is very positive. He told me he’d been pretty down recently and before the op was moping around feeling very...
Using PUBLIC variables in VFP. I know I should be writing stuff about VFP9 and in the coming days I will (for a great intro see Castro Shehata’s summary from the Sydney VFP User Group meeting earlier tonight) but this time I wanted to share a thought on PUBLIC variables. We all know public variables are bad and should be avoided right? Well that was what I was taught at uni. But recently...
Why hasn’t this been invented yet? My wife came up with this idea about 6 years ago, but I am amazed that it is still not mandatory on every car. It’s the sorry horn. You use it when you make a mistake driving (eg you accidently cut someone off, or scare a pedestrian you didn’t see who has right of way). You just give them a toot with your sorry horn. It has a nice reassuring...
He’s a smart guy. Bill is in Sydney this week for a few meetings with important people. This morning he had a developer breakfast and spoke on his vision for the future. I was there (due in part to my role as President of the Sydney VFP User Group, but more probably because a good friend in Microsoft is looking after me) with approx 160 other people from around Australia and New Zealand. As...
Keep this a secret. I don’t know why more people don’t use libraries. They are the biggest rort around. You get really cool, useful stuff for free. My wife put me onto this library thing about a year ago. Basically you go to the shops and check out what is new in the book stores. It could be the latest Robert Ludlum, Brian Tracy, Robert Kiyosaki, whatever. Anything that catches your...
Thankfullness after a stressful week. I write this on a Sunday, following a stressful week of sorts. About two weeks ago my dad found out he had a cancerous lump (I won’t go into details) that required immediate attention. They booked him in for surgery the following Monday (which was last Monday 21 June). At the same time my grandma went into hospital with chest pains. So, on the day of...
Becoming a Scotch connoisseur. A few weeks back I borrowed a book from my brother in law on Single Malt Scotch (Michael Jackson’s Malt Whisky Companion) which is a fascinating read. I never thought a book about a drink would be so interesting. Anyway I have been so taken with the concept that I have decided to become a scotch drinker. And to make matters worse I am thinking of becoming one...
Meeting Jemma. My wife’s sister and husband are visiting from the US with their new 2 month old (their first, and the first grandchild for some grandparents). We had seen photos of this little bundle and she looked pretty cute, but we were a bit shocked at just how good looking this little baby is when we met her yesterday for the first time. She’s one of those dream babies –...
Using Visual FoxPro 9 beta. I am a programmer and I have a job I love. One of the development tools we use is Microsoft Visual FoxPro, which excels at writing database software. I’ve been playing with the beta of the new version (v9 out in September) and I am really impressed. For a beta it is extremely stable. I ran a big system recompiled into 9 for a weekend and it didn’t fall over...
