Month: January 2005

Samantha has discovered that the ceiling in the guest room is one coat of water-based paint on top of raw plaster. Idiots. The people who have owned this house before us are idiots.

Add that to the "very small" water problem in the basement "only during the heaviest rains". Try a flowing stream whenever more than 20 minutes of rain falls.

In British Columbia, the sellers would be considered in breach of contract for not making a full-disclosure about the condition of the house. Obviously in the US, it is always caveat emptor.

Got my first ever notice for Jury Duty today.

Immediately circled disqualification #1: Not a US Citizen.

Interesting how the Firefox Buzz Index at Yahoo matches the hit graph on my server.

Gecko Hits

Firefox Hits

Go Firefox!

James Governor sent me this link to some BBC support information. I assume that this is public knowledge and I am not exposing some kind of UK National Secret by exposing this for the Google Monster to crawl.

The best thing is the Network Diagram. Very nice.

Now, technically, it is not a true Chinook, but it sure feels like one. Where else can the temperature rise 20 degrees in 2 hours? It was eeriely warm when I came to work this morning. When I go home, it will be a surprising cold that will great me.

Gotta love weather, the last random element.

Having had contact with more than a few "industry analysts" (and seen former colleagues make the move into this are), James Governor, of RedMonk, makes a few comments on the relevance of analysts.

The Takeaway:

"what are you going to do to revolutionize your industry?"
                            Susan Koehler, Microsoft

Blue Skies for Job Hoppers?

Looks like a smaller version of the glory days may be returning. Employers should take the time to carefully evaluate their salary and benefits packages before they lose key emloyees who tolerated their positions because the employers had the upper hand.

Despite the doom-and-gloom title to this post, I fully sympatize with what the FBI is trying to accomplish, and the very public pain that they will feel as a result of the failure of Virtual Case File 1.0.

What I find interesting is that the biggest technology company no one has ever heard of, SAIC, failed to deliver a product that met the client’s needs. They are noted for their cutting-edge development and technology, especially in skunkworks and black ops.

This project demonstrates that incredibly complex software projects can and will fail to deliver unless the needs of the users are carefully considered, and the project is not rushed for political purposes.

What is the goal of Virtual Case File? I hypothesize that it is to make the process of handling case documentation and correlation more effective and efficient, with the additional benefit of being able to link disparate bits of information into a more effective whole more quickly, saving lives, etc.

Ever line of code needs to be developed with this purpose in mind. Does this function allow a user to achieve the goals that have been defined for the entire project? If not, what do we need to do to improve this function?

It is very easy to lose sight of the corporate goal when working on atomic-level components of a larger project. Happens to me every day. That is why I sit back at the end of each day and consider how my efforts contributed to my strategic personal and professional goals. I have to do it, or else I get trapped by the minutiae.

I wish the FBI luck, as this project is a much-needed advance for law-enforcement.