Recent Posts

• Code is Design
  4 May 2026

  I wrote a book.

  That sentence still feels slightly surprising to type, even though the book has been finished for a few weeks now and is about to be available on Amazon. I have been writing about software development, technology policy, and the gap between how organisations think about technology and how it actually works on this blog for longer than I care to calculate. It turns out that if you write about the same cluster of ideas for long enough, from enough different angles, with enough accumulated frustration at watching the same failures repeat themselves with different names, you eventually have something that wants to be a book rather than a series of posts.

  Code is Design

  This is that book.

• A Better Way to Fight Inflation
  12 February 2023

  As the Reserve Bank of Australia signals even more interest rate increases ahead in an attempt to reign in Australia’s inflation, it is high time that we look at whether this is a reasonable strategy.

  Firstly, much of the current spike in inflation is not driven by increased demand. It is clearly caused by supply-side issues: the global energy crisis caused by Russia’s attack on Ukraine, disruption (some would say collapse) of the global supply chain in the wake of Covid-19, and severe weather events largely due to global climate change. These and other factors have served to severly limit the supply of goods and services and has led to the spike in prices across the board.

• The Earthquake Heartbreak
  10 February 2023

  I’ve just finished watching the news from Greece broadcast on SBS. For the best part of an hour, images were transmitted of the human suffering, the countless lives lost, the children being pulled out from under the rubble – it is just heartbreaking.

  A baby born under the rubble, pulled out by rescuers who then had to cut the umbilical cord that connected the baby to its now dead mother. A small child, clutching a lock of hear in its tiny fist, presumably from its mother (but nobody knows). A child brought out who immediately said: “but I’ve got school tomorrow!”. Another small child saved, asking for his sister who was “sleeping” next to him but would not wake up – yes, she was dead. A small girl, pulled out unconscious who came to in the hospital crying for her parents; she doesn’t know that they are dead. A father, crying inconsolably and apologising to his wife because he was unable to save any of their children. People lining up, carrying the bodies of their loved ones, to get paperwork to allow them to be buried in what are essentially mass graves, laid to rest with a simple prayer because of course there is no way that the Immams can get to even a small percentage of the burials.

• WT actual F, Erdoğan?
  9 February 2023

  The self-styled Sultan Erdoğan has reportedly clamped down on access to social media platforms in the regions devastated by the earthquakes, thereby depriving people of pretty much the only way that they can reach out for help. This was in response to criticism of the lack of response and assistance by the Turkish government.

  I really don’t want to get into politics or foreign affairs in the context of this terrible humanitarian tragedy, but I can’t help but ask: is Turkey’s military might and strategic geographical location worth the EU and USA pandering to such a horrible and morally bankrupt government? Is it not now well past high time that Turkey be ostracised from the international community until it reforms its behaviour? Yes, it will cause even more financial pain to the people, but with inflation running at over 80% pa and laws being passed and enforced for clearly political reasons, would the common people even notice a difference?

• Tragic Earthuakes in Turkey and Syria
  7 February 2023

  What a heart-breaking situation is playing out in eastern Turkey and in Syria. Two major earthquakes, 7.8 then 7.7 Richter, have caused major damage and tragically the death toll approaches 4,000 as I write this and is almost certainly going to go much higher.

  

  Edit Wed 8, 2023: The death toll has tragcially now exceeded 7,000 people.

  The images on the airwaves and the internet are heart-wrenching. Small children being rescued from under the rubble of collapsed buildings. Multi-story apartment buildings collapsing straight down, crushing and killing people in their sleep.

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