by Prof Barry Dwolatzky
It’s upon us!! The long awaited much anticipated FIFA 2010 World Cup is here. Everyone’s focus has moved away from the stresses and pressures of making a living … to a little football being kicked about by 22 men on a grassy field. For the next month we will join billions of people around the world in thinking about little more than the 64 games, the 32 teams and the events and incidents that happen on and off the field.
Faced with a choice of either putting “The Software Engineer” blog into hibernation until ATWC (= After the World Cup), or finding a way to join the fun – I’ve opted for the latter. Over the next 6 weeks I will blog as often as I can. I plan to participate in the festival of football wearing my software engineering hat and my Bafana Bafana shirt. How will this work? Will I have anything interesting to write about? Who knows? It’s an experiment with an unknown outcome.
All I ask is for anyone reading this to join in the spirit of the only 2010 World Cup blog with a software engineering flavour! Comment, share your views and support your team – whichever it is – with passion and fun! May the best team win!
Hi Prof.,
We must continue to work and write. 2010 should not cloud all our earth
I write more next time.
Good-bye
it’s really such an awesome experience to be part of this once in a lifetime event, there was a suggestion to introduce goal-line technolgy – proposed technology which signals the referee when the ball has crossed the goal-line, thus indicating whether a goal has been scored or not, but this proposed technology is pretty much expensive and it seems the FIFA officials are not prepared to go this route.
I am probably a strange Software Engineer but I keep asking myself how I could make money from all these excited millions of football fans flocking into our country for about six weeks! probably a bit too late now, but who knows.
I was part of the Bafana Bafana tour across the streets in Sandton yesterday. It was an amazing feeling…more than 200000 people coming together to cheer Bafana Bafana between 12 and 2 PM !!
If I let my thinking go wild..software engineering and soccer do have many things in common…both aim for precision, both try and improve estimates with time, in both fields “People” are the biggest strength/asset, tools are a must for both and a sense of satisfaction is derived from software engineeing as well as soccer!
So on this note, I wish Bafana Bafana all the luck and wishes with the same passion that I have for software engineering!