Welcome to duffry.com

This is a site introducing the various online activities of Dominic Hobbs. The links below will expand a section that will introduce that topic and also link you to the relevant websites.

If you would like more information please feel free to email me.

Have you ever had one of those conversations where you're really nerding out about some awesome interesting subject but the person you're talking to has started to just nod along and look for the exits?

If you're a data analyst I'm going to bet the answer is yes.

Unfortunately we can't expect everyone to be super excited about how Richenbach's Principle relates to operational performance or the merits of in-memory data and schema-on-read systems. I don't know why some people find this stuff dull, but apparently they do. So here's a new blog, somewhere I can write this stuff down, get it off my chest. Then maybe at dinner parties I can simply hand out business cards with this blog address instead.

Chewing Data, Blog

Almost five years ago I co-founded a gaming community with the core function of being a hub for a competitive Battlefield 2 clan. We competed in European ladders (Clanbase) for almost a year and had one of the largest collection of privately funded game servers in the world.

Competitive Battlefield 2 ebbed away but our community continued and moved almost exclusively to World of Warcraft.

Our website and forum are the core of the community. I have administered these since I first set them up in 2005. They are based on a basic punBB forum upon which I have added a large number of bespoke features, CMS structure and pages. This has been the place where I have indulged my interest in web development and learned to overcome each challenge as it surfaced.

DMZ-Gaming.com, Webmaster

The DMZ guild was founded on the principles of the DMZ-Gaming community and as such puts behaviours and cooperation at the forefront of our gaming experience.

I believe that this is the cause of our becoming one of the longest running guilds on the Eonar (EU) server; as well as one of the most respected.

We have also enjoyed great success in achieving our raiding goals, regularly holding a high rank on the server. This blend of social harmony and target achievement is currently enjoyed by well over 100 members.

<The DMZ> Eonar EU, Guild master

For nine months in 2009/10 I worked for WoW Insider as their warlock columnist. This was a highly enjoyable and demanding role providing expert advice and opinion to thousands of readers each week.

WoW Insider is a blog site for World of Warcraft and a part of the Joystiq network (Aol). At the time I was writing it averaged around 22 million page-views per month.

You can read my articles from the links below.

Blood Pact
A new Lock in town - 14 Sep '09
Warlock guide to surviving Trial of the Crusader, part 1 - 21 Sep '09
Warlock guide to surviving Trial of the Crusader, part 2 - 28 Sep '09
The hidden power of demonology - 05 Oct '09
Warlock glyphs to use, ignore or to dream for - 12 Oct '09
The birth of a warlock - 26 Oct '09
Meet the minions, part 1 - 02 Nov '09
Meet the minions, part 2 - of voidwalkers and threat - 09 Nov '09
Patch 3.3 raid build roundup - 16 Nov '09
Meet the minions, part 3 - the succubus and crowd control - 23 Nov '09
leveling a warlock, 10 to 40 - 30 Nov '09
Meet the minions, part 4 - the felhunter and mage-hate - 14 Dec '09
Warlock tips for Icecrown Citadel, part 1 - 21 Dec '09
2009 through the Eye of Kilrogg - 28 Dec '09
Meet the minions part 5, the infernal and doomguard - 04 Jan '10
Leveling a warlock, 40 to 60 - 11 Jan '10
Warlock tips for the Plagueworks - 18 Jan '10
Mistakes other people make - 25 Jan '10
Using SimulationCraft for gear selection - 01 Feb '10
Affliction 101 - 08 Feb '10
Tanking the Blood Prince Council - 15 Feb '10
Patch 3.3.3 raid build roundup - 22 Feb '10
Meet the minions, Part 6 - the felguard - 01 Mar '10
Be a raider not a robot - 08 Mar '10
Demonology 101 - 15 Mar '10
Leveling a warlock, 60 to 80 - 22 Mar '10
Destruction 101 - 29 Mar '10
Leveling up through the Dungeon Finder tool - 05 Apr '10
Truth, science and flying monsters - 19 Apr '10
Running circles around the Lich King - 26 Apr '10
Stones, armor and artistry - 03 May '10
Emblem upgrades - 10 May '10
Warlock professions - 17 May '10
Shattering souls - 24 May '10
Tip top trinkets - 31 May '10

Other articles
Breakfast Topic: Awesome animations - 13 Sep '09
European weekly maintenance: 23rd & 24th September 2009 - 21 Sep '09
The Patch 3.2.2 Warlock bug clearout - 23 Sep '09
Grunty the Murloc Marine arrives for DirecTV viewers - 24 Sep '09
Patch 3.3 PTR: Warlock pets bite back - 08 Oct '09
Patch 3.3 PTR: Area-of-effect damage cap change - 09 Oct '09
Patch 3.3 PTR: More DoTs - 15 Oct '09
Patch 3.3 PTR: Fine threads and feisty pets for warlocks - 17 Oct '09
Patch 3.3 PTR: More Warlock changes - 21 Oct '09
Cataclysm: Stat and system changes for warlocks - 02 Mar '10
Breakfast Topic: Romantic entanglements have a Mass Effect - 01 Apr '10
Cataclysm Class Changes: Warlock analysis - 08 Apr '10
Arcane Brilliance: The end of an era - 11 Apr '10
Ready Check: Zen and the art of precognition - 21 May '10

WoW.com, Warlock columnist

I was one of over 50 fire marshals for the Barclays Bank technology centre in Cheshire. We felt that communication between marshals needed improving and I proposed an intranet site to be a central point of contact and a data repository.

The following images are from a proof-of-concept site I produced. Much of the information on the site is understandably sensitive which limits what I am able to show.

Main Page, Forum, Wiki:Home, Wiki:Rosta, Wiki:Responsibilities, Icon set