Skip to content

Index

  • 1 min read

[GEEKY] Why, oh, Why, Mr. Macintosh?

This is one of those handy dandy tips that you wish were not hidden, buried and kept secret: "Hold down the option and control keys while launching iPhoto and you will be treated to a very nice set of options for trying to recover your photos that have mysteriously disappeared." I write this to save the next person a few hours of blind allies. Technorati Tags: iphoto

  • 1 min read

Web 2.0 – what is it?

Web 2.0 is one of those phrases that gets used and used and then people go nuts because they realize that they are all talking about something different. It becomes a heroic fight of personalities , emotion , politics , ego and oh, a little technology. Haven't we seen this with other terms (memes) on which careers got built? "open source", "blog", "journalism"? As usual, Dave cuts through the crap and figures out the way: "What if Web 2.0 is actually about sex?" 😀 Technorati Tags: web2.0

  • 1 min read

Gibberish?

Interesting and amusing little article from ACM Queue:

"One of the students, Jeremy Stribling, explains how they had developed a computer program to generate random sequences of technobabble in order to confirm their suspicions that papers of dubious academicity were bypassing serious, or indeed, any scrutiny. In fact, the students claim ulterior, financial motives behind this lack of proper peer review." (from Call That Gibberish?)

Technorati Tags: funny, interesting

  • 2 min read

Microsoft blogging: “What do managers do…”

I often cite Microsoft as an example of corporate blogging that seems to really works: If you work with, for, against Microsoft (and who in the computer industry doesn't do one of those?) Microsoft Bloggers will give you a view into Microsoft's thinking, attitude, plans and challenges that is incredibly valuable. You (generally) won't learn any trade secrets. You will hear what you might have heard if you ran into this or that Microsoftie in a Starbucks or at a conference. But few people do. Exhibit #1 is a recent post by Steven Sinofsky, a very senior Microsoft manager, about how Microsoft thinks about management, how it structures its development teams, and what kind of people and performance it values.

"The typical organization in Office development is one where there is a group of about 5-8 developers (we'll use developers for this post, but the discussion is just points of the dev/test/pm triad) managed by a lead developer. That is the first level of management called a feature team. There are then 3-5 leads that report to a development manager. That is the second level of management, usually called a group. The development manager reports to a general manager or an executive manager that represents the place that development, testing, and program management come together. This structure is matched by development testing and program management (where there are about equal numbers of testers, and about half that number of program managers). The general manager or executive is where the product or technology comes together (think SharePoint, or Excel, or the new Office "12" user interface). In some groups, if there are a lot of products or a very large team there might be one additional level of management. I manage these general managers. My boss manages the overall Office P&L, so marketing, finance, HR, etc. as well as other products report to him." (from What do managers do and how big should my team be?)

If you have ever tried to develop a relationship with a Microsoft product group information like this, basic as it is, is really important. Check out Steve Sinofsky's blog. It has many other gems just like that one. Technorati Tags: microsoft

  • 1 min read

Interesting article about Open Source in the Financial Times

And in classic Blogosphere form, you can find a report on the report from Nicole-Ann Boyer on World Changing, where she says:

"With the FT riding high as the world's best daily for the business intelligentsia, take heed large organization types: if you ever needed a piece to put in front your boss's nose and add credibility to some of your open source ideas, this should help." (from World Changing)

She goes on to comment and link to some especially interesting parts of the FT Special Report. I guess that makes this post a report on the report on the report. Can anyone spell **e-c-h-o-c-h-a-m-b-e-r? ** Technorati Tags: dangillmor, opensource

  • 1 min read

Baseball rules

I guess it's the time of year, but I came across this site for Baseball umpires which is a fun entertainment if you are into the esoterica of Baseball. For the more obvious (seemingly) questions that still stump me, Wikipedia is a good resource. For example, do you think you know what a balk is? Or what a cutter is? Technorati Tags: baseball

  • 1 min read

Finally, a simple cell phone!

My Treo 600 recently died a hard death. I had to learn a new cell phone, a relatively low end one, and it was a serious undertaking. Someone I know recently did a 90 minute drive in 3.5 hours because their car's GPS inadvertently was set in the 'avoid highways' settings and they were in unfamiliar territory, without a map, and so had no choice but to follow the long way. I've seen this idea suggested elsewhere, but how a cell phone for people who don't read manuals? Why can't a cell phone be as easy to operate as a regular telephone? (Yes, the new home cordless sets with built in answering machines are almost as complex as cell phones!) It seems someone has finally done it! Thank you KDDI, Kyocera and Toshiba.

[eminimall products="cellphone mobile phone cell"]

  • 1 min read

ID: Part Deux

If you are interested in the Intelligent Design debate, this is an fascinating and somewhat surprising article about a survey done by the Pew Research Center for the People. As usual with this kind of thing it is useful to know the bias of the folks doing the survey, which I have not looked into at all.

"Despite these fundamental differences, most Americans (64%) say they are open to the idea of teaching creationism along with evolution in the public schools, and a substantial minority (38%) favors replacing evolution with creationism in public school curricula." (from "Religion: A Strength and Weakness for Both Parties")

Interesting reading. Technorati Tags: intelligentdesign, science