Craic or “crack” is a term that was taught to me by some rowdy Irish lads at an engineering school in Paris. They generally used the term in the context of enjoyment.

These times were back in ‘02/’03 just as Dubya was training for the Bush shoeing incident. It was a wildly optimistic time of chanting open bar, open bar, open bar to no avail at the local student pub.

Since those days, and leaving grad school, I’ve spent a solid 13 years in the software development trenches, mostly getting my hands dirty.

One of the key lessons I’ve learned in this time is to never compromise on your professionalism and values. In the end, you’ll enjoy yourself a lot more and you’ll probably stay in business longer than the rest.

This brings me to the ACM Code of Ethics of Professional Conduct. It’s worth a read from time to time no matter what your association with the ICT industry and in particular if you call yourself a software engineer. I should read it more often.

coding on crack