Software on akos.ma

Uses and Abuses of Jira

Fri, 17 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0200

I’ve been using Atlassian Jira for more than 20 years already at this point, and I have seen a fair share of patterns and antipatterns (that’s Japanese for “fuckups”) and, being the new rambling old man, I feel entitled to spread my dystopian views on the pages of this publication you’re reading right now.

Farewell to Software Engineers

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0200

I recently ranted on Mastodon (as one usually does) about a persistent phenomenon, one which I’m quite tired of seeing in this dear software industry I happen to make a living with.

EditPlus

Fri, 24 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Last week I was celebrating the 20 years of my Harman Kardon SoundSticks, but last Monday there was another anniversary that some of us celebrated fondly: EditPlus 1.0, released March 20th, 1998, is 25 years old!

Internet Explorer 4

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0200

The news recently splashed the demise, disappearance, and final “good riddance” of Internet Explorer. I remembered the first time I encountered the beast. In 1997, Internet Explorer 4.0 was soooooo good compared to anything else, it was hard to believe.

On Being a Generalist

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0200

There is a lot of discussion online these days about the relative benefits (and drawbacks) of being a generalist software developer.

Things That Define Big Software Companies

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0100

Looking at the software industry, it appears that most big companies usually share more traits than they would like to admit. Take for example their products: at any given time, big software companies all had at least one product of various similar categories, roughly grouped in three big areas.

Memories of Centralized SCMs

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0100

It might sound incredible to younger developers out there, but there was a time when Git did not exist. In retrospect, the fact that Git has reigned supreme in its category for over 15 years was previously unheard of. SCM systems came and went in a steady succession since the early 1980s.

Planning

Fri, 09 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0200

When James Patterson, one of the best-selling authors in the world, had the idea for “Honeymoon,” his 2005 novel, he started writing an outline. He iterated 5 or 6 different times until he got the right flow of the story, the right characters, the right bad guys, and the right conclusion. He showed the final version of his outline to publishers, and after some modifications he started writing the novel itself.

Opinionated

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0100

Programming is a very opinionated activity. Unfortunately, those opinions are seldom based on facts, and most of them are futile, and lead to stupid arguments on Reddit or Hacker News or the comments section of a blog.

Job Interviews

Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0100

If you work in this industry for a certain amount of time you are certainly bound to suffer, at some point or another, the delicious experience of the programmer job interview.