confused of calcutta

I think it was sometime in 1983 when I first heard the term Quality First in a software context. Callow youth that I was then, I understood it and absorbed it in that narrow context; my view then could have been summarised as “An inspection culture encourages people to be slipshod, because they know someone [...]

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Everyone seems happy with the proposition that fixed costs should be kept as low as possible in a volatile business environment. That way, you can respond quickly if and when the market moves in an unexpected direction. Everyone also seems happy with the proposition that in the services sector, compensation for human endeavour overshadows any [...]

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Sean told me he was going into hibernation a few months ago, with the intention of surfacing again after Easter. He reiterated this when we had dinner a few weeks ago.
He’s kept his word. Nice to see him up and about again, I really enjoyed working with him. If you have the time, go take [...]

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I’ve written many times about the reasons why, in a commoditising world, the only true differentiator is the quality of the customer experience. You can read about it here; earlier, when guesting on Shane Richmond’s Telegraph blog late last year, I covered it here, here and here as well.
Where I work, we take this very [...]

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Some of you may have noticed that this blog now has a Random Page feature. The way I heard it, StumbleUpon announced a Site Specific Stumbling facility; someone asked Photo Matt whether there was a WordPress plug-in that did something similar, and soon there was one. Because Matt built it. Thanks, Matt! and thanks as [...]

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If you haven’t seen it before, you should take a look at the video I’ve linked to in my sidebar, showing Shane Warne’s eight greatest balls. I thought the Gatting ball was sensational but the Chanderpaul one is something else.
Incidentally, the videos I show via Vodpod are not mine, there is no attempt at defining [...]

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I’d recently posted about the reasons why enterprises should use opensource, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, just to switch the conversation from the “cheaper to buy/fix/run” reason traditionally provided. Many of you were kind enough to comment, and a couple of you raised some questions on my first point, on responsibility.
So I’d like to expand a bit on [...]

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Tara Hunt, while commenting on a recent post of mine, reminded me that I needed to revisit Invisible Engines; I’d received the book while recuperating from my heart attack, found it an excellent read, but for some reason never got to pass 2. Big mistake, but corrected now thanks to Tara’s timely reminder. Thanks, Tara!
[An [...]

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Hugh asks how come there aren’t any opensource billionaires. Actually, I think there are a number of opensource billionaires.
When hardware meant money, there were hardware billionaires. They made money Shifting Tin, and gave software away for free. And one day there wasn’t any margin left in hardware.
Software ruled.
When software meant money, there were software billionaires. [...]

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I missed this the first time around, and then only noticed it because I use WordPress. I quote from a Matt post on the WordPress blog:

Looking for something fun to do this summer? All college and university students around the world are invited to apply to get paid $4,500 USD to work on your favorite [...]

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