Sunday, January 25, 2009

Web Development Supported by C++

I've just been working on an update for the Spring of Hope website. They are a charity that work with disabled children in Uganda, Africa.

I'd originally written the website in vanilla HTML and simply uploaded it, but I had to rethink my strategy after the charity's owner wanted to add a few pages to the site.

Simply adding a few new pages would have meant changing every existing page to link with the new pages - something that I didn't want to keep having to do. Instead I've written a small C++ application that loads the basic text required on each page, applies a standard header and footer to it, builds a menu, and outputs the HTML page.

A couple of hours work to make future updates simple.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Unintentional Leadership

I was flying back from Philadelphia and just before take off I looked across to see a tall chap asking the the air hostess for a seat with more leg room. She told him there were none left.

Once the seat belt sign went out, a fella got up from his extra-legroom seat and went over to the tall chap to ask him if he wanted to swap. Of course the tall chap agreed, and the exchange happened.

I know this generous fella was a team leader as I'd seen him and his new team on the shuttle bus on the way out. They were heading out for a training session.

His team weren't sat next to him on the plane, but they were close enough to realise that their new boss would give up his precious extra-legroom seat for a stranger in need.

If he would do that for a complete stranger, what would he do for one of his colleagues, one of his team mates?

Now that's leadership, unintentional leadership.