Wednesday, May 21, 2003

The Software Construction Analogy is Broken I always enjoy finding an article that confirms some of my vague suspicions. This article attempts to describe the problems inherent in assuming that constructing a building is like constructing a software package. kuro5hin: “Our decades of trying to use [the construction analogy] have not taken us very far considering the incredibly bright minds that have been working on it. Instead we have to explicitly recognize the true attributes of software creation: its incredible flexibility, its odd economics, and the remarkable human talents required to create it.” I was always uncomfortable with the "building a house" metaphor that we used for our own software engineering training classes. The metaphor inhibited any thoughts about ordering of development or of packaging and building the highest risk item first (if the roof is the hardest thing on the house it's a bit tough to do it first). It's nice to see that other practitioners feel the same. [Ranchero] 1:45:04 PM

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Flash Communications: new server, new possibilities Last week Macromedia announced the Flash communication server, which allows you to integrate multi-user data, audio and video into your flash sites or applications. I believe that the online training sector has a lot to gain from this technology. As someone who has worked in online training I can tell you that clients in this sector have always wanted video conferencing to be a part of their learner management system (LMS). Most companies have avoided providing this service because of the difficulty of setting up and maintaining a video conferencing service. Using flash communications it will become very easy to offer video conferencing, principally because the user doesnt have to do much, all they need to do is update their flash player and go to a web site and they are away. Which is considerably simpler than configuring and using a video conferencing product like NetMeeting. [Thinking in Flash] 8:38:59 AM     Denim DENIM is a system that helps web site designers in the early stages of design. DENIM supports sketching input, allows design at different refinement levels, and unifies the levels through zooming. 8:27:49 AM     Etch a Site as Easy As Pie Even in the age of computers, prying pencil and paper out of the hands of designers is harder than charming the tar out of a cat. That's why a team at the University of California at Berkeley has developed a software sketching tool that helps designers create fully interactive websites using just a graphics tablet or mouse. Denim is a website prototyping tool that magically brings alive sketches of sites without its users having to do any programming. 8:26:19 AM

Saturday, May 3, 2003

Judging Bush The president's determination in the face of opposition proves his courage. But our greatest leaders also had wisdom. [Salon] 9:11:15 AM

Friday, May 2, 2003

Apple's Music Store Wow! I am certainly proving to be an addict of Apple's new music store. I downloaded the new iTunes4, installed Quicktime 6.2 and by the afternoon had scored a cut by Gaelic storm. Poking around led to a Tito Puentes album and some tracks from Dave Brubeck. The next day I turned on the shopping cart in prefs and bought Chick Corea/Herbie Hancock and the album "Jazz Samba" by Charlie Parker and Stan Getz. Last night, while listening to the Tito Puentes, they called out Mongo SantaMaria on congas which led me to pull down a couple of HIS tracks. Then I saw the staff suggestion for Freddie Hubbard, and, well - you get the idea I have been looking for a way to buy the music I want. This satisfies my desires both in convenience and price. I don't share the view that the prices are out of line. 8:37:52 AM

Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Chicks against the machine The Dixie Chicks beat back Diane Sawyer on national TV, posed nude for Entertainment Weekly and stood up to the reactionary zeal of country radio. In a time of crisis for America, they're patriots we can be proud of. [Salon] 1:40:36 PM     It's Time to Shift Into Overdrive What happens when mass storage leaves microchips in the dust? J. Bradford DeLong explains in this commentary from Wired magazine. [Wired News] 1:39:54 PM     Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation Scott Abel writes "Kurt Ament has hit the nail on the head! His latest effort, Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation is a valuable reference for those of us who seek to save time, effort, and money by implementing a productive method of creating information once and reusing it often." Ament covers the issues -- step by step -- that many others only discuss. He lays out a simple roadmap, complete with real world examples that have worked -- or not worked -- for his clients. And, he does us all a big favor by addressing the negatives associated with using technology to assemble documents by explaining that it actually takes more creativity to write content that can fit into multiple media, for multiple audiences, than it does to continually rewrite information over and over again each time it is needed. [Slashdot] 1:34:45 PM

Friday, April 18, 2003

More Products: Escale, OmniOutliner, DragThing... Other new and updated products include Escale (for linking to Newtons) Escale is a MacOS X native Newton connection software. Unlike traditional MacOS connection utilities and applications based on Apple's Desktop Integration Libraries, Escale does not rely on the Classic environment at all. [MacInTouch] 11:43:37 AM

Monday, April 14, 2003

Feeling Lucky One of the nice things about living here in Vancouver is that it's remarkably free of ethnic tensions; I can honestly say that I go from one year's end to the next without bumping into even casual bigotry. And when I look at the other side of the world or even south of the border, I feel lucky, because we're in a minority.... [ongoing] 1:33:56 PM     Iraq and America's Role in the World: What's Next? Whether war in Iraq was, or was not, necessary, only history can now say. In retrospect, repeated references to "weapons of mass destruction" seem largely irrelevant. The issue now is "what's next"? Here are some clues to look for: (1) will the Bush adminsitration move quickly to end terrorism in Israel and the Palestinian territories, roll back settlements, and push for a Palestinian state as promised; (2) will we lead the Syrians to believe they are next for invasion; (3) and will we ask other nations to help rebuild Iraq. How the administration responds to these questions will suggest whether we truly are launching into a dangerous new world of "go-it-alone". [Gary Hart News Blog] 1:14:21 PM     Palm Pulls the Plugs at Work Free at last: A case study in learning to love the unchained corporation of tomorrow. A look at Palm's bid to turn itself into a wireless workforce. By Brad Stone from Wired magazine. [Wired News] 1:10:21 PM     XML joins handcuffs, perp walks in corporate... XML joins handcuffs, perp walks in corporate accounting crackdown In the wake of accounting scandals that have resulted in imprisoned corporate executives and distraught investors, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), an offshoot of XML, promises to help make public companies more consistent in the way their financial data is transmitted, reported and presented to investors. If corporations actually committed their financial statements to a standard XML syntax it would be pretty simple to tailor an application to extract that information. Since we produced a medical information system this seems an ideal place to reapply that development effort. [IBM DeveloperWorks: XML News] 12:34:57 PM

© Copyright 2003 Peter Loats. Last update: 5/21/03; 1:45:27 PM.