In a wondrous attempt to increase security, more and more vendors are now requiring me to choose passwords of many characters with mixed case, numbers and punctuation. My bank does one better, where I have five different question/answer combinations they ask, then...
Computer rants
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Upgraded my Macintosh. Super-stressful day. … Not!?
Bought a new Mac. Wanted to duplicate the config on my old one. Figured it would be 16 hours of reinstalling, reconfiguring, etc. Turned on the new Mac. It asked if I was migrating from an existing machine. I said Yes. It said "Copying..." Copying happened. Then the...
Email just sucks, doesn’t it?
Loved Nora Ephron's take on email today. You can find it at http://SteverRobbins.com/r/m1nog.
No one really knows how to measure software productivity
I just ran across this article on how consultants (mis-)measure productivity in software development. http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/11/10b.html Sad to say, I couldn't agree more with the article. I started my career as a software engineer, and I've met very...
How much privacy should businesses guarantee?
Privacy isn’t just about hiding what you do. It’s about confidence that your information can’t be falsified, forged, or misused.
Ballmer announces Microsoft’s “Multicore strategy” … which sounds sadly like pathetic flailing…
Steve Ballmer has announced that Microsoft will be following a multicore business strategy going forward. His horribly strained anology, likening Microsoft to a parallel computer processor, suggests that Microsoft will be tops in lots of businesses at the same time....
Motivate each person according to their values!
A friend just sent me this link about how to be a Technical Lead. It is written for technical people by a technical person, but it really applies to anyone running a company that depends on technologists. Especially note "Mistake #2," which discusses motivation. One...
Are engineers living on another planet? Don’t they use their software?
Ok, I admit it. I spent 17 years as as engineer before going to business school and becoming a dyed-in-the-wool non-techie. It's hard to remember the years as a programmer, rather like trying to remember early childhood. My brain was just too different back then. My...