Jeff Sutherland: Scrum: Why Story Points Are Better Than Hours
Growing a System
Some years ago, Harlan Mills proposed that any software system should be grown by incremental development. That is, the system first be made to run, even though it does nothing useful except call the proper set of dummy subprograms. Then, bit by bit, it is fleshed out, with the subprograms in turn being developed into actions or calls to empty stubs in the level below. . . .
Nothing in the past decade has so radically changed my own practice, and its effectiveness. . . .
One always has, at every stage, in the process, a working system. I find that teams can grow much more complex entities in four months than they can build.
Aside
Scott Hanselman: Brain, Bytes, Back, Buns – The Programmer’s Priorities
The Essence of Scrum
Good short article by Tobias Mayer on the principles of empiricism, emergence and self-organization, and the mechanisms of prioritization and timeboxing.
Living in the Digital World
A 2011 study by telecommunications giant Ericsson found that 35% of iPhone and Android users check their email or Facebook account before getting out of bed in the morning.
Alone Together
We are lonely but fearful of intimacy. Constant connectivity offers the illusion of companionship without the demands of friendship. We can’t get enough of each other if we can have each other at a distance and in amounts we can control.
The Rich Get Poorer
Here is a fact that you might not have heard from the Occupy Wall Street crowd: The incomes at the top of the income distribution have fallen substantially over the past few years.
According to the most recent IRS data, between 2007 and 2009, the 99th percentile income (AGI, not inflation-adjusted) fell from $410,096 to $343,927. The 99.9th percentile income fell from $2,155,365 to $1,432,890. During the same period, median income fell from $32,879 to $32,396.
These recent numbers illustrate the broader phenomenon, discussed in this paper, that high-income households have riskier-than-average incomes.
Aside
Disclaimer: EppsNet is produced without benefit of focus groups, town-hall meetings, phone polls, or, in fact, any input from the public at all.
Don’t Make Me Laugh
A new study says that men are funnier than women — but just barely.
Men are a lot funnier on average, a few women are very funny, and women who have a reputation of being funny, like Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett, are usually not funny at all.
From the Notre Dame Photo Album
This is either the 2011 version of the Four Horsemen or an Irish production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
No Photos, Please, of Obama’s L.A. Fundraisers
The White House wants you to see President Obama bash the rich, and everyone in the press corps is invited to cover the various rallies and speeches where he claims average people can’t get a break and the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share of taxes.
What the White House doesn’t want you to see is Obama schmoozing the rich so that he can pocket some of their money for his campaign.
So not surprisingly, news photographers were barred from both of Obama’s L.A. fundraisers Monday. . . .
Tickets cost $35,800 per person.
Actor Will Smith, looking dapper in a three piece suit . . . Magic Johnson sat at a table to the president’s right . . . imposing Spanish-style mansion of Antonio Banderas and Melanie Griffith . . . POTUS entered with Eva Longoria.
Meanwhile, news photographers were welcomed earlier in the day when Obama made an unscheduled stop at Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘n Waffles in West L.A., where he ordered the No. 9, “Country Boy” – 3 wings with choice of waffle, potato salad or French fries for $8.90.
Unhappiness is Good for You
As a society, we are not actually all that interested in happiness. If we were, people would stop relocating for jobs, people would stop eating french fries, and people would stop scheduling their kids for activities that happen close to dinnertime. If anything, I think people are focused on hiding the fact that they desperately want more money and more passion in their lives even though it’s not fashionable to admit it.
USC Football – UNFILTERED – Notre Dame
USC 31, Notre Dame 17
Notre Dame came into the game at 5-2, USC at 5-1, both unranked, but for some reason Notre Dame was a 9-point favorite.
The Trojans dominated on offense and defense, gave up a touchdown on a kickoff return, and left some points on the field at the end of the game when they let the clock run out on the Notre Dame 2-yard line.
Looking ahead, the Irish played a lot of juniors and seniors, while the Trojans were playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores.
I don’t know why the Irish, trailing by 14, let the Trojans run out the last four minutes of the game without ever calling a timeout to try to get the ball back.
FIGHT ON!
I Am the 99 Percent
But I’m not clear on what constitutes a win with regard to the Top 1 Percent?
What if we take away everything they have and leave them with nothing? Then the Top 2 Percent roll up to become the Top 1 Percent and we’d have to stage another round of protests against them, right?
Why can’t we just count our blessings and enjoy what we have?
You think you’d be happier with a lot of money? You wouldn’t. Where’s the evidence?
The guy making a million a year wants to make 2 million a year. The guy making 2 million wants to make 10 million. The guy making 10 million is in jail for trying to steal an extra 10 million.
As Epictetus used to say, “None of these objects that men admire and set their hearts on is of any use to those who get them, though those who have never chanced to have them get the impression, that if only these things were theirs their cup of blessings would be full, and then, when they get them, the sun scorches them and the sea tosses them no less, and they feel the same boredom and the same desire for what they have not got.”
Rick Neuheisel is the Right Man for UCLA
We have to say it was a game that obviously got away from us in the first half. We take from it what we can learn. We put the tough loss behind us and go forward.
— Rick Neuheisel, after last night’s 48-12 loss to ArizonaAmazing . . . Neuheisel’s in his fourth year at UCLA. He’s playing Arizona, a program in disarray, in a critical game for Bruin bowl aspirations. The Wildcats haven’t won a game against an FBS opponent in a year, since last season’s victory over UCLA. They fired their coach last week.
Doesn’t Neuheisel expect to win games like this?
And after losing 48-12, in a game that wasn’t even as close as the score indicates (it was 42-7 at halftime), all he can say is “Good learning experience. Let’s move on.”
I can only echo what I said four years ago: Rick Neuheisel is a great hire for UCLA! “Five more years” should be the rallying cry!
FIGHT ON!
Hot Wheels
Soccer Takes Over Sproul
Aside
Notes From a Dragon Mom: The truth about our children, about ourselves: none of it is forever.
The Problem with Drinking
That’s the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.
