Managing via blogs?

Fortune.com - Technology - It's Hard to Manage if You Don't Blog: "It's Hard to Manage if You Don't Blog". Hmm, I can see how blogs, well done, help get a message out ( though they should be about 2-way communication), but how does it help manage ? I assume he (Schwartz) means managing people. Does Sun have internal blogs too ? That would be neat.

Finally a use for the internet

NewsForge | Thanks to Linux, this beer's for you!

There is a guy "at" work who always offers me a drink when I help out - but in 3 years we have never actually met (different continents)

So, team building for the distributed team - just add a couple of videolinks and we're away!!

Vive la France

Spotted in WebMink

Beware ye seers

A reminder of the perils of looking too far into the future! manalang.com ? The Home Computer of 2004

Reminds me of those Victorian pictures of the future of air travel - they were more sophisticated balloons.

Still, the exercise of imagining the future is good - gives a path forward even if the vision proves to be wide of the mark.

And it gives our descendents a good laugh

Just stop it!

Blogging is bad, bad, bad!
Spotted in Joi Ito's Web
Stop tempting me with gadgets , darn it !
Must resist, must resist ......
... do the Eagle Creek folders fit in the large Waterfield?....... must resis...

Back to "normal"

If the posts have been few and brief, it was because I was the single-parent of a 3 child family. All kids go to different schools, have music lessons, dancing, sport etc.

Fortunately my wife has returned from her walking holiday to share the load.

WS- *

Sean McGrath has some great quotes and pointers to quotes:

The whole WS standards thing has more moving parts than a 747. Much of it recently invented, untested and unproven in the real world.

and:

Given that there are no exceptions to Gall's Law:

A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked.

Serve the cheapskates right

Frankly, if you are not willing to pay MS properly , then you get what you deserve: Slashdot | Early Warning For Microsoft Premium Customers: "Early Warning For Microsoft Premium Customers"

IBM Open Source's Basic Voice Reco Software

Spotted in Slashdot

What war on terror

Dowbrigade News: : "John Kerry, asked to comment on today's milestone in Iraq - a political softball to his wheelhouse, just begging to be swatted over the wall - answered, in his gaunt, sonorous and sepulchral tomes, 'Over 1000 of America's sons and daughters have now given their lives to the war on terror.'

NO, NO, NO, John. That is the Bush lie. They have given their lives to an obscure, oil-drenched Texas family feud, to a personal vendetta that has nothing to do with the real security of the United States and in fact is making us less secure by breeding a million widows and orphans who blame us for their misfortunes and will spend the rest of their lives trying to get back at us.

The Real War on Terror is tracking down Osama, rooting out the entrenched hate-mongers in our 'allies', Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, stopping the massacres in Africa, finding the Anthrax killer, and getting real about protecting our borders, airports and container ports."

Oh that sort of notebook...

Spotted in Joi Ito's Web

Looks cool - Victorian adventure anyone?

Oooh, this looks nice!

Clove Technology - Fujitsu Loox 720

Of course, I bought my iPAQ 5550 only a few months ago. This looks lovely, and it has Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC Second Edition, which HP will not be providing as an upgrade (grrr!)

When to update hardware

Ted has an eye for good looking hardware:Ted Leung on the air : Lunchbox multiprocessor

The thought occurred to me though, that I have not upgraded my hardware for a while either. Perhaps this is a trend? I did build myself a box a few months ago, but it was low-tech: the aim was a small, cheap and quiet box. In fact it is a Duron processor, which is fine for Web usage, a bit slow for starting up the word processor.

If I am honest it was the kids games that used to drive most upgrades, so either they are more diligent with school work(!) or advances in games no longer requires increases in hardware power.

Is this "The Innovator's Dilemna" in practice? If PC manufacturers focus on more an more power, will they be beaten by other who focus on other facets? For instance, beautiful design, size, power , noise ......... Perhaps Ted's choice has power and these other factors!

OCL: " The semantics of OCL is unclear in many places, and there are likely many pitfalls in mapping it to a well-founded language like PVS. However, the potential for making a contribution to the UML development and to our understanding of OCL is great"

Scott Rosenberg's Links & Comment: "I can't imagine anyone watching Miller's frothing speech and feeling reassured about the direction Bush is taking us. It was an outburst of intimidation, intended to cow. Dave Winer heard the jackboots behind it: 'Why was the Miller speech so scary? Answer -- you're next. That's what Miller was saying. After this election we put on the brown shirts.' That may be a little over the top, but the fact that's it's only a little over the top is itself chilling."

And: ' "Today, at the same time young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrats' manic obsession to bring down our commander in chief."

Strip this of its spin and modifiers and what Miller is saying is, "While Americans are dying, the opposition party is trying to win the election, and that hurts the nation." '