Tim Dobson

How I came to work at Bytemark

14 October 2016

At the end of September, I left my job at Bytemark where I'd worked for the previous 6 years. I'll be sharing more, about the future in due course, but I was reflecting on my path to Bytemark. I first was introduced to technology by the #manlug IRC channel, where I quickly became affiliated with the local […]

What I learned from a landing page

13 October 2016

Recently I've been working on canvas and landing page for a Muse business. Let me explain where I started: What I was aiming for Dave suggested to me that I might want to look at Tim Ferris-style Muse-businesses – lifestyle businesses that might at some point generate passive income. Not startups. By listening through some […]

Can motorists and cyclists ever be friends?

7 October 2016

My friend Josh recently posted on twitter: “The weird thing is there is literally nothing bad about more people cycling yet there is a cultural war against it.” Cyclists often feel marginalised— like everything has been setup to favour those with four wheels and an engine. And if you get into the vehicles, and talk […]

My 7 aims for 2016.

6 March 2016

Last year was tough. It was so tough, that I didn't write any resolutions or plans, because I couldn't divert any outward energy to them, and didn't feel I was able to write candidly without self-censoring. So I wrote no plans. This year I'm going to try to be more transparent – my current aims […]

Can we use coloured text to speed up reading?

3 February 2016

According to Wikipedia: In one common form of synesthesia, known as grapheme → colour synesthesia or colour-graphemic synesthesia, letters or numbers are perceived as inherently coloured. My thought is whether artificially helping people associate letters with colours, can increase the speed of reading, specifically, in 'specially prepared' texts read from a computer screen, but I'm also interested in whether it might […]

How much money is the ideal amount of wealthy?

24 November 2015

We're taught that annual salary/'the amount of wealth' we have is something that matters, so if we're going to devote our lives towards working towards something, it makes sense to think about it carefully. If you say "Would you like to be richer?" to people, most people will easily answer "yes". Ask people – "How […]

My favourite parts of Upfront Mini 2015

7 October 2015

Yesterday I was lucky to attend Upfront Mini – a smallish (150 person!) one day conference about Front End Web development – the parts that appear in your browser! I particularly liked this part of the introduction: #Upfrontmini: "we have a code of conduct – some conferences don't take it seriously – we do" — […]

What we learnt from building a jobboard

2 October 2015

A few months ago we built a jobboard — pieline.net. It was mostly a programming challenge — we wanted to learn more about databases and Node.js, and we thought that this would be useful and straightforward. There used to be the Geekup Jobboard, run by Andrew Disley, free and for everyone (except recruiters). It was split up by functional […]

Engineering Culture at Autotrader

30 September 2015

We've just come away from the AutoTrader "Science Fair" and we're full of thoughts, ideas and reflections and wanted to get them down somewhere. We heard about the event at Barcamp Manchester last weekend, and decided to go along to get a better understanding of how AutoTrader works. I know AutoTrader as a customer – […]

I gave up drinking. Here's why.

25 August 2015

For the past 8 months, I've been completely teetotal. I've not drunk any alcohol since before Christmas 2014. I've come to realise that the answers to my life's problems don't lie at the bottom of a bottle, and sometimes I found I can't be certain there isn't an answer there, til the bottle is empty. […]

When I first thought about this, I worried I might lose friends, then I realised it was the right thing.

31 May 2015

"Imagine that money wasn't something you had to worry about – what would you do?" Once you figure out the answer, you're meant to head down the most efficient path there. Working 'to get rich' when you're seeking to 'have a happy family life' may not be the most efficient route for you. It's […]

I love you Bess.

15 May 2015

My darling dog Bess came to the end of her well lived life yesterday. I tried to tell her many times, and I hope she knew: I love you Bess. She's buried where we often used to walk her, above Glossop, where the pine trees catch the wind that sweeps across the moor and a […]