Do now what must be done eventually and can effectively be done now: http://tinyurl.com/5z2rg6 # Read more →
March 2009
Two Bright Spots in the Recessionary Landscape
Fewer kids in day care More women in porno Read more →
I Will Not Try to Reason with Idiots
DOGBERT: From now on, I will not try to reason with the idiots I encounter. I will dismiss them by waving my paw and saying “Bah.” DILBERT: Just because someone thinks differently from you doesn’t mean he’s an idiot, Dogbert. DOGBERT (waving his paw): Bah. — Scott Adams Read more →
Suicide Bombers Have a Union?
Ducks Visit WIHA
The Devil Dogs played in the WIHA tournament in Irvine last weekend, losing in the Bantam AA finals to the Reebok Blades. Wild Wing, the Ducks mascot, was there. Two of the Power Players were there too. You can’t see the girl on the right because I’m a bad photographer, but there are better pictures of her here. My son is the taller boy with the crooked sneer he likes to be photographed with. I hope he outgrows that. Someone said to me, “I bet you wish that was you in the photo.” I must be getting old because I hadn’t thought of that. I did get to fist bump the Duck mascot though . . . Read more →
Tweets on 2009-03-30
Offering and accepting only rational, results-oriented behavior and communication: http://tinyurl.com/5z2rg6 # Financial collapse shows failure of free markets? http://tinyurl.com/cmoqqw # Diners can ‘have a ball’ at testicle festival: http://www.modbee.com/weird/story/645349.html # Obama to Back GM Warranties, OnStar Operator Service: http://tinyurl.com/c8k4xz # In Fargo, goodwill runs as deep as the river: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29962032 http://tinyurl.com/cw9o89 # Read more →
Tweets on 2009-03-29
The guys who’d starve without Carl’s Jr.? Wouldn’t we be better off without them? # Read more →
Tweets on 2009-03-28
Staccato signals of constant information… # At the rink for WIHA tournament # FIGHT ON! RT @PeteCarroll: First day of spring ball at SC…. Football is back!! Gotta love it! # RT @KathySierra: Dressage Olympian Robert Dover to talented young riders, on focus: “Because U dint have a vision, U created something avg” # Read more →
Tweets on 2009-03-27
RT @presentationzen: NYTimes on learning how to think. http://snipurl.com/enerw [Are you a “hedgehog” or a “fox”?] # RT @KathySierra: RT @magdaZINE “math without numbers” http://www.morenewmath.com/all/ # Speak always and only when you believe it will improve the general results/effort ratio: http://tinyurl.com/5z2rg6 # Read more →
Communication Bandwidth
As I’m writing this article, I’m trying to formulate ideas, understandings, and experiences into words. When you read this article, you try to understand what I’m saying within the context of your experiences. In the process of narrowing my bandwidth to words, and you trying to expand the bandwidth from words to your understanding, a lot is lost. No matter how well I write and you read. And, most of us are not superb writers and readers. — Ken Schwaber Read more →
Thomas Jefferson on the Financial Meltdown
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — If anyone could emerge from the AIG bonus debacle looking good, it could be New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. — “NY’s Cuomo wins praise for pursuing AIG on bailout” Cuomo. KWOH-moh. Italian, I suppose. I have no personal animosity toward Mr. Cuomo, but despite his favorable write-ups in the press, he is certainly no hero in these matters. Americans have short memories. Even members of the press — or “the media,” as you now call them — who should provide context and perspective, have short memories. Set the Wayback Machine to 1995. Bill Clinton is president and Henry Cisneros, the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary, institutes a requirement that 42 percent of the mortgages financed by government-sponsored entities (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac serve low- and moderate-income families. Things only got worse under Cisneros’ successor, Andrew Cuomo: Cuomo raised that number to 50… Read more →
Overheard
It’s Not All About You
No, but it’s mostly about me . . . Read more →
Tweets on 2009-03-26
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that they are difficult. –Seneca # The definition for “value” that I recently started using is “what guides us when we have to make a hard decision.” http://tinyurl.com/chzkqp # @tweetmeme @smashingmag Reading ‘Designing Drop-Down Menus: Examples and Best Practices’ http://tinyurl.com/dnzeyh # Love the Weinerschnitzel vs Carls Jr 2 for $3 chili dog battle. The customer is the true winner! # RT @BonnieLowe: Reading “Thirsty plants cn twttr 4 water w/ new device.” nxt it’ll be yr cat tweeting 4 snacks. http://tinyurl.com/dfh8dk # RT @KathySierra: Choosing a dog based on breed name is ridiculous, but the coder in me is geekily drawn to: http://tinyurl.com/d3gmkc # At Uni High 4 Irvine Band Festival # Read more →
Tweets on 2009-03-25
Supporting the best idea, regardless of source, however much I hope an even better idea may l8r arise… # …and when I have no superior alternative idea: http://tinyurl.com/5z2rg6 # Read more →
Tweets on 2009-03-24
Mega Drop-Down Navigation Menus Work Well: http://tinyurl.com/cgbup8 # Expression Web SuperPreview makes cross-browser testing like moist delicious cake: http://tinyurl.com/djbbem # No one in our office wears a tie. I’m wearing one today to see what happens. # A lesson in free-market capitalism from the Swedes: “The Swedish state is not prepared to own car factories.” http://tinyurl.com/cxjdk6 # Declining to offer and refusing to accept incoherent emotional transmissions: http://tinyurl.com/5z2rg6 # Why Would You Use Agile for Offshore Development? http://tinyurl.com/djyf5y # Read more →
Why Would You Use Agile for Offshore Development?
More of my customers have been asking me how to use agile processes, particularly Scrum, to help them manage offshore development. Since offshore development undercuts many of the practices that promote agile productivity, I ask them why they don’t just increase the productivity of their teams by thoroughly introducing agility? It seems that offshore development, with its potential for lower unit costs (dollars per programmer day), offers management hope that their losses can be reduced. Since the project is probably going to fail anyway, let’s minimize our losses by lowering our investment by using lower priced resources. A more optimistic, agile, way of looking at this problem is to fix the problem at home and increase the probability of success. — Ken Schwaber Read more →
The Beauty of Cultural Diversity
My son’s one-eighth Japanese on his mom’s side and the student body at his school is about 40 percent Korean, so when he comes into my room yelling, “YES! I am going to shove it” — punctuated with a fist pump — “at those Koreans tomorrow,” it doesn’t take long to figure out that Japan must have won the World Baseball Classic . . . Read more →
Crucial Conversations
I know my son had a history test today, and that history is a make-or-break class for him. I want to ask him about the test but we’re having a delicious family meal at Olive Garden and I don’t want to break up the festive mood in the event the news turns out to be bad. I decide to ease into it with some small talk . . . “So, how was recess today?” o_O (BLANK STARE) I continue, “I know you had a history test today but rather than get right into that, I thought we could start with some small talk about recess.” He says, “I haven’t had recess since 6th grade.” “Oh. In that case, how was the history test?” Read more →
Tweets on 2009-03-23
Ah! Vanitas Vanitatum! which of us is happy in this world? Which of us has his desire? or, having it, is satisfied? # A woman just sent me a doc on web hits in which she uses the phrase “extraneous back-end activity.” What would Freud make of that? # Read more →