159 posts
Estimation & Invention We simply can't estimate by the minute. Some teams estimate by days and is more often wrong then right. There are simply too many facts not controllable by a project manager to give an estimate by minute a meaning.
Sometimes the minute of the tasks around development seem to be mundane and tend to get ignored. And sometimes, those development exercises keep the heads down and development focused on what they should be focused on most of the times. This seems so simple, and so achievable. All it takes to do is the effort in pulling this together from a stand-point where everything seems to be organized and accepted. That's the beauty of the simplified processes that make complete sense, and that add value and enhance the confidence of any development team for that matter. Yes, I am talking about a simplified process that enables and empowers the developers do their job at best. And, I am indeed referring to agile/lean/kanban frameworks that make things easier than expected closer to what they should be in the first place. The best ideas are born out of necessity, and the brilliant ideas are born out of utter desperation. And lean/kanban/agile all stem out from that necessity and desperation. And this is no surprise. Every effort the development teams put in making sure that the code is workable and there's a viable product or feature out there builds more confidence for not only the development teams but also the business and its effects can be seen 360 degrees. The value these processes add is that they help achieve these objectives with efforts that sometimes are seamless but mostly methodical and structural. Its like building a structure with proper facade and support. And the old processes and methods are somewhat of a tie down trick which somehow used to work, but today there's no capacity or risk chance possible to undertake such a method and jeopardize the development. I would be interested in learning others perspective on this and their experiences.
Dextrus Prosoft is featured under developer spotlight on the Project JXTA website for next two weeks. Our current open source product "SENTINEL" is part of that spotlight. To learn more about our open source projects please visit here.
While running this morning I switched to NPR and heard a very interesting argument about the life of books beyond the print medium that is in the form of eBooks, Kindle, Sony Reader, iTouch or iPhone format. I am not surprised by the growing trend in electronics and the expanding availability of various media in trendy formats. Though the review was about the latest Kindle from Amazon, and since I live way up north that device has not made its mark in snow country yet. But I care less, as I use my mighty iPhone and 2005 PowerBookG4 to do all my digital reading. Not sure if Kindle is something I'd want or for that matter any eBook reader. While companies do these crazy innovations and spent tonnes loads of money into they forget the customers convenience and affordability. Why would someone in sane mind buy a $250+ device, when they can download less than $10 worth of eBook app on their already invested $300 iPhone? It is beyond my reach to argue that, and more importantly mere waste of time to even talk about it any further than this. Enough said.
While running this morning I switched to NPR and heard a very interesting argument about the life of books beyond the print medium that is in the form of eBooks, Kindle, Sony Reader, iTouch or iPhone format. I am not surprised by the growing trend in electronics and the expanding availability of various media in trendy formats. Though the review was about the latest Kindle from Amazon, and since I live way up north that device has not made its mark in snow country yet. But I care less, as I use my mighty iPhone and 2005 PowerBookG4 to do all my digital reading. Not sure if Kindle is something I'd want or for that matter any eBook reader. While companies do these crazy innovations and spent tonnes loads of money into they forget the customers convenience and affordability. Why would someone in sane mind buy a $250+ device, when they can download less than $10 worth of eBook app on their already invested $300 iPhone? It is beyond my reach to argue that, and more importantly mere waste of time to even talk about it any further than this. Enough said.
For quite sometime now I've been struggling with lots of duplicate entries in my Address Book, that was a result of -
This story brings out focus on some of the Indian-Offshore giants coming to the US next neighbour Canada and setting their roots there. For anybody who's unaware of the potential which the Indian industry has to offer clearly can get some idea in this story. For India itself a great amount of work is left to be done. Company's like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, GE, Accenture aren't setting up their offices and creating development centers there for offshoring work of US or Europen markets; in fact, the great deal of work is going to come vice-versa back to US/Canada for that matter. So all the hoopla about 'our' jobs being stolen might have a second tune to it. As for right now one needs to wait and watch the ball rolling.
This story brings out focus on some of the Indian-Offshore giants coming to the US next neighbour Canada and setting their roots there. For anybody who's unaware of the potential which the Indian industry has to offer clearly can get some idea in this story. For India itself a great amount of work is left to be done. Company's like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, GE, Accenture aren't setting up their offices and creating development centers there for offshoring work of US or Europen markets; in fact, the great deal of work is going to come vice-versa back to US/Canada for that matter. So all the hoopla about 'our' jobs being stolen might have a second tune to it. As for right now one needs to wait and watch the ball rolling.
Here's the presentation that I gave today on eBooks in Children's World at the Children's Book Fair in Calgary.
Today there is a lot of debate about the pros and cons of outsourcing, especially in the IT sector. But outsourcing is something which has been happening for quite a while – better ...
I started this post about two weeks ago but never got to a point where I can actually sit down and finish it. So I decided to do this today. I am altering my style of writing to be more focused on my immediate subject matters and what I have at hand at the moment. I think that was my approach in the begining but somehow it got lost and I got into this RDF and RSS things and collecting news and then reporting it. Well anyone can subscribe to the news feeds and get to it. And this reminds me of MT. I still like Moveable Type (MT) when it started and had a clean code to download and what a clear out of the box implementation. Wordpress does the same now. And its much neater and presentable. And ajaxy! One of the reasons why I moved my new blog on my book to WordPress.com was simple and straight cause I like simple and straight approach. Wordpress does that, and it has most of the things which Blogger still lags/lacks into (I'm not complaining!). But I'm happy with both. And I really don't want to take the pain out of my already 20hrs workday to move more stuff from one place to the other. Enough ranting!
Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society. View the full video of Jeremy Rifkin’s talk at the RSA.
So the iPhone 5 sold out tonight within few minutes. Again. I went up to grab my wallet, and enter my card number, and a few minutes ago it was showing me that I could pick up iPhone 5 in this store but just minutes later, whooooshh! It was gone. Why am I not surprised? It's iPhone 5. Surprisingly, this whole market and for that matter this existence of iPhone wasn't even there few years ago. But now, this iPhone matters. Consumerism is not a fad. It is a reality. We live in a consumerized world. And yes our needs and wants are dictated by this very much driven consumerism. So iPhone made it from commodification to its commoditization, but it still is a rarity when every time a new one comes out. Apple did great, for themselves, and has done much better for creating whole new set of new economy around iPhone. Google ditto'd with Android. And rest is history. I'll try again tomorrow night and see if I could order one, successfully.
What's so awe about data center projects that every company goes 'duh'? Challenges. Challenges. Challenges. Every software project has its own challenges. But for data center projects there are couple more to worry about. I'll bring out some basics on what are the current challenges and later on how to tackle those challenges.
It's only German cars for me. It's simple, it's not only about the efficiency of the factories, reliability or anything like that - it's also about how the car makes you feel. I've yet to drive a Japanese car that would give me the same feeling of quality and consideration for the needs of the user.