Defenestrated - March 2005 Archives

March 2005

Govt Internet speed = 5mph (16:10) - A report about the future of the Internet, commissioned by the US government in 1998, has finally been published, sayeth CNN. Maybe if they'd used a wiki it would have gone quicker? (I know, I'm a hopeless optimist!)... | 2 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Truly cyborg-like (15:28) - The Guardian has a fantastic report about some experiments in which a paralyzed person can control devices through implants in his brain.... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
95% of IT groups fail to deliver (15:11) - This report, stating that 95% of IT groups fail to deliver satisfactory products, is preaching to the choir. The fact of it is this: software is complicated and everyone wants to believe it isn't. It is, now get some processes... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Two great management/consulting jokes (14:10) - Spotted in the thread of a Slashdot discussion about the rate at which software development projects fails: two jokes that accurately skewer managers and consultants. I feel happy doing this, because I'm both of these things. And a professional self-deprecator.... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

Business values (07:26) - Jason Kottke recently turned his blog into a full-time profession and recently posted about his business influences. This makes for interesting reading, especially the excerpt from Dave Egger's ideology for McSweeney's, which focuses on publishing mid-size numbers of mid-list authors... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Blue Wire (07:12) - A friend of mine, Al Crowley, has just started a new IT services company to serve small businesses and home users in the South Jersey area! Al's a superb technical talent and an astute businessman. What's more, he's a thoroughly... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

Inside Google's s/ware development environment (20:18) - A developer at Google, Joe Beda, has posted some insights into Google's software development process on his blog. Google's policy of expecting staff to spend 20% of their time on personal projects has always been intriguing to me, and I've... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Euromail vs Amerimail (09:29) - Slate has an interesting article about the different e-mail styles of America and Europe. This shouldn't be all that surprising, given how readily the two continents see themselves as different, but it is because I think everyone regards e-mail and... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Japan govt supports OSS (08:43) - Apparently the Japanese government is funneling cash to support open source software development. What's especially great is that they're doing it very intelligently, or so it seems, by funding initiatives where they can uniquely add value, such as language packs... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Grants awardee database (08:33) - Government Computer News reports that Grants.gov is considering development of a consolidated grant awards database. I'm heavily involved in Federal grants management systems development (it's one of my company's core competencies) so this is intriguing news to me. The proposal... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

Note to me: the universe is full of wonders (21:03) - Now, it could be just me, but when I saw this headline -- Spitzer sees far-off planet light -- I immediately thought it referred to Elliot Spitzer, New York's Attorney General and potential nominee for US President in 2008. In... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Soft dinosaur tissue found (20:56) - MSNBC reports today that scientists have found soft tissue from a T.Rex! Personally, I've been quite comfortable in the past knowing that dinosaurs are really very dead, so dead they're basically stones. The knowledge of soft bits of 'em lying... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Sosumi - the backstory (20:50) - The weird name of the Mac noise? Yes, it is a legal reference.... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
SOA Governance Tool (20:41) - As our company has been developing SOA capabilities for our customers (like USDA), the question of how to control the proliferation of standards across the business has reared its head. This great-sounding tool from WebLayers, as reported on ADTmag.com, may... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

Firefox 1.0.2 is out (16:05) - Firefox continues to pave the way with rapid response to security threats by releasing 1.0.2. | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Good summary of VCF disaster (14:25) - The FBI's Virtual Case File (aka "Trilogy") was a $176 million disaster. Who's to blame? The contractor (SAIC)? The customer? The complexity of technology today? Eric Knorr of InfoWorld provides a good overview of the situation and suggests some believable causes. | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
OurMedia.org lives! (11:48) - This rates as the coolest development in quite a while: Ourmedia has launched. With a mission to provide free-and-no-catches-we-promise infrastructure (disk, servers, bandwidth) to anyone who wants to publish anything at all, Ourmedia aims to be the core of new... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Human Area Network is a reality (07:42) - Unsurprisingly, NTT has developed a technology that turns human skin into a network device. As El Reg notes, "you can swap files by straight human contact, so two filesharers equipped with RadTacton devices can indulge in torrid illegal P2P activity... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
eGov initiatives up for more awards (07:26) - eGov initiatives get awards because they've made it known that they're useful to a bunch of people. If OMB wants more people to see the value of eGov services, they need to start telling them where to find it. Grants.gov has a good model, and history of success, that OMB could emulate elsewhere. | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

UK TV channel 5 offers program downloads (09:11) - Five is the UK's newest terrestrial channel, known as being very scrappy and trendy-controversial (e.g. showing soft porn after pub hours). But there may be a glimmer of innovation entering their strategy, as they have begun to offer downloads of... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

Uncyclopedia (20:22) - I'm a huge fan of Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia maintained using a WiKi. Now, however, comes (via NTK) a truly warped metamorphosis of that esteemed (and often maligned) site: Uncyclopedia. This aims to provide complete misinformation and utter lies, including... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments