To my middle-aged fuddy-duddy friends: today’s social networks are like yesterday’s cell-phones

If you’re over 40 years old, you probably remember at least some period of your adult life when there were no cell-phones. And unless you were an IT professional (e.g., a programmer, database architect, etc.), you also probably remember a period of several years where neither you nor anyone you knew had an e-mail address. […]

Presentations tab/page

I’ve created a separate page on my blog to summarize the location and current status of the three presentations that I’ve made available: Web 2.0, Top Ten Software Engineering Concepts, and Managing Death March Projects. Near the top of my blog “home page,” you’ll see a “tab” labeled “My Presentations.” Click on that, and the […]

Web 2.0 version 49

Once again, it’s time for an update to my Web 2.0 presentation. There’s nothing really earthshaking here, but the bits and pieces of new material help round out the overall picture of what’s happening in the Web 2.0 world.
As usual, the new version is available to you in several different formats. If you’d like to […]

We need anonymous blogs and ghost bloggers

I just spent a very interesting evening at dinner discussing — as Douglas Adams would have put it, in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – life, the universe, and everything — with half a dozen very intelligent, passionate, intelligent business colleagues here in Austin, Texas. But nobody is going to blog anything about […]

Austin: a blueberry in the tomato soup

That’s how my local hosts, at dinner, described the town where I’ll be participating in a software engineering conference tomorrow. For those outside the U.S. (as well as oblivious Americans inside the border), blue = Democrat, and red = Republican. And while Austin is the state capital of Texas (as well as “home” state […]

An Internet Love Song: BRBOMGLOLROFLMFAO

I have to thank Ian Delaney and his TwoPointTouch blog for this one; there are too many things available on YouTube for me to have spotted this on my own. I know that it’s not serious, or scholarly, or professional … and maybe that’s why I like it so much. Anyway, enjoy …

Hello Austin: here’s V07 of my “Top Ten Software Engineering Concepts” presentation

For the “Software Best Practices” seminars where I’ll be speaking in Austin tomorrow, I’ve made a substantial number of updates and refinements to the material that I presented in Ft. Lauderdale a couple days ago. The material is fundamentally the same as before, but I’ve added a couple more recommended books, papers, and articles — […]

Paul Strassmann on the IT transformation at Hewlett-Packard

I just listened to a fascinating presentation by Paul Strassmann at the IT Metrics & Produtivity Institute “Software Best Practice” conference Ft. Lauderdale. It was a detailed analysis of the IT transformation that began a couple years ago at HP, and is still underway. You can see a one-page summary of the results of that […]

One Laptop Per Child: donation period from now through Nov 26th

My calendar popped up a to-do item this morning, reminding me that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) donation period begins today, and runs through November 26th. In a nutshell: you spend $400, which purchases two of the open-source, highly innovative machines known as “XO”. One laptop gets sent to you, and the other is […]

Hello, Ft. Lauderdale: here’s V06 of my “Top Ten Software Engineering Concepts” presentation

For the “Software Best Practices” seminars where I’ll be speaking in Ft. Lauderdale and Austin this week, I’ve provided several different ways of downloading the presentation materials. None of the material is copyrighted; it’s all “open source,” and you’re welcome to use it, modify it, share it with friends and colleagues, and collaborate with me […]