Google mail on the way Looks like a Google mail service known as gmail is on the way. I remember when Google launched search, I think I said or thought something like "Why would anyone start another search engine?" Needless to say I was wrong. It will be interesting to see if gmail will have the same affect on free email services...   ¶ 9:49 PM 0 comments links to this post

  What do language lawyers, unit tests and performance goals have in common? Some interesting ideas on specialization and career development for developers:

"Typical language lawyer roles in an FDD team include a Java language lawyer, a design patterns lawyer, a persistence layer lawyer and a domain modeling (in color) lawyer. However, more recent developments in agile techniques have created the need for another language lawyer role - the Unit Test Lawyer. Unit testing has come along way since the introduction of JUnit and CruiseControl. Now a unit testing expert is required to understand best practices in design-for-testing..."

From Agile Management.  ¶ 3:17 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Dillweed Unleashed If you have read Dillweed, then you have probably asked yourself could the information published there be more useless. The film ranking system used at Dillweed maybe the least useful ranking system ever devised. You know it all stems from the "film school" world of all films are "art." There is no judging a film or so the film school people will have us believe. Frankly, most of us just want to know if we should bother seeing the dang movie. So with that in mind I have converted the Dillweed rankings to a more standard percentile ranking. Here is the list:

Film Title	Dillweed Raw Score	Dillweed Percentile
In the Mood for Love	326	87%
Nights of Cabiria	325	87%
Adaptation	300	80%
Bright Future	300	80%
Chungking Express	300	80%
Cure	300	80%
Flowers of Shanghai	300	80%
George Washington	300	80%
Naked Lunch	300	80%
The Passion of Joan of Arc	300	80%
Lost in Translation	290	78%
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind	280	75%
American Splendor	275	74%
Bad Santa	275	74%
Fog of War	275	74%
The Civil War	275	74%
All or Nothing	250	67%
Beauty and the Beast	250	67%
Children of Paradise (Les Enfants du Paradis)	250	67%
How Green Was My Valley	250	67%
Intolerable Cruelty	250	67%
Light Sleeper	250	67%
Nazarin	250	67%
Séance	250	67%
Simple Men	250	67%
Contempt	240	64%
Black Orpheus	225	60%
In a Lonely Place	225	60%
The Bicycle Thief	225	60%
What's Up, Fatlip?	225	60%
Fallen Angels	200	54%
The Brood	200	54%
The Cooler	200	54%
Luck	190	51%
Spartan	190	51%
Goodbye South Goodbye	175	47%
Cries and Whisper	170	46%
Crash	150	40%
Forever Mine	150	40%
Lola Montes	150	40%
Love Me If You Dare	150	40%
As Tears Go By	125	34%
Battle Royale	125	34%
Public Domain	110	29%
City on Fire	100	27%
Coup de Grace	100	27%
Dressed To Kill	100	27%
Lord Of The Rings: Return of the King	100	27%
Starsky and Hutch	100	27%
Last Samurai	75	20%
Pirates of the Caribbean	75	20%
Charisma	50	13%
The Butterfly Effect	50	13%

Personally, I am going to apply the following rules:

• Films ranked 70% or higher, see in the theater.
  
• Films ranked from 50% - 70%, check out on DVD
  
• Films 40% - 50%, watch on HBO if you're bored
  
• Films below 40%, go watch MTV
  

  ¶ 2:41 PM links to this post

  Updated Gartner Group Saw this post over on Product Marketing. A much needed update to the Gartner Group's Magic Quadrant.  ¶ 1:49 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Some live music in Austin I went down to Antones here in Austin last night to see a friend's band. Their name is Drop Zero. The lead singer gave me a CD, which I have been listening too, it's pretty good so far. The venue was good because the sound wasn't too loud so you could hear them pretty well. Seems like most live music I see is so loud that you can't really hear the band. Maybe it's just me...  ¶ 1:35 PM 0 comments links to this post

  The Theory of Everything Nova showed a documentary last night titled "The Elegant Universe." It discusses the origins of String Theory and how it has evolved. Right now String Theory seems to be the leading contender to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity. Here is a quick overview by Brain Greene. I find the whole topic fascinating. I must say the people working on this are wicked smart, I don't know how they figure this stuff out... I am not worthy.  ¶ 8:19 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Integrating software products and spelling Man, integrating two existing software products or services is a tough process. We face this challenge all the time are work. Trying to figure out which features to keep and how to bring stuff together in the UI. It is always interesting to see how other companies integrate or don't integrate their products.

One such example is Google and Blogger. Admittedly, I am a terrible speller and I live and die with a spell checker. I think Google has one of the most impressive spell checkers I have ever seen. When you type in a misspelled word into search it almost always suggest the word you wanted to search on spelled correctly. It even works for proper nouns. It is scary how psychic the Google spell checker is.

Now, awhile back Google bought Blogger. Blogger is a great service and I use it all the time. However, the blogger spell checker is weak. For example, type "surpise" into Google search and it will suggest the word "surprise." If you spell check this in Blogger it will suggest "surpass." Same goes for proper nouns. Spell check "Google" in Blogger and you will get a suggestion for "googol", no proper noun identification.

Both Google and Blogger are great and I use them all the time. I think the spell checking stuff just shows how hard it is to get stuff to work together. I mean if leading edge technology companies such as Blogger and Google can't get together on spell checking, it is no wonder why much more advanced systems like ERP and CRM don't work all that well together either.  ¶ 9:32 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Jury Duty A few weeks ago I received a summons for Jury Duty in the U.S. District Court Western District of Texas. I had been to Jury Duty once but only for the state court. I must say Federal Jury Duty is much more complicated. For state court I just went down to the court house waited about an hour, then was told all the cases had been postponed or a plea bargain reached. That was it, very simple.

For the Federal Jury I am actually "on call" for about 8 weeks. I have to call every Friday after 5:30 PM to see if I need to go in Monday. So I called the first two weeks and the recording said there was no need to report. This past weekend though I was told report at 8:15 AM.

I finally made it into court at about 8:30 a little late but I was not the last one to arrive. The took attendance in a kind of High School "Home Room" style. They then randomly split us into groups for the various courts. We were then taken down to the court room for jury selection.

I was thinking it would take about an hour to get through the process but it took much longer. The process began with the Judge welcoming us to the court and thanking us for our attendance. He then gave a brief history of "the jury", which was surprisingly interesting. One factoid he through out was that the trial of Socrates had a Jury of 500. He also spoke about the magna carta and its origins.

Then we began the voir dire process. Basically, the judge asked the whole potential jury panel a bunch of questions such as: "Do you know the defendant"." "Have served on a Jury before," etc. If you answer yes, you had to rise and give a more detailed explanation. The Judge then asks if the relationship or experience will affect your ability to be fair in this trial. The first 2 or 3 questions were interesting and then it become a tedious exercise in repetition. Once the Judge finished the attorneys for each side get to ask some questions. Interestingly, the prosecution spends a lot of time discussing "reasonable doubt" and what it means, the defense spends a lot of time discussing "burden of proof." This whole process took about 2.5 hours.

Finally, we were called back into the room to see who would be on the jury. I was Juror #9 so I thought I might get stuck on this jury. For whatever reason, I was passed over. I think it would be interesting if they told you why. I only spoke for about 10 seconds so I am not sure if it was something I said or what. Maybe I was the wrong demographic for the prosecution or defense?

Overall, it was a little boring but an interesting half-day civics lesson.  ¶ 8:41 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Mark Cuban's Weblog Just noticed that Mark Cuban has a Weblog. I know he tends to polarize people but you have to admit he generates news. I think his idea of posting his comments on the web rather than just giving quotes to reporters makes a lot of sense. Lots of people think media sources are biased in one direction or another. I wonder if as blogs grow the need for the journalist as we know them will change. I mean if everyone can post their own comments on their blog, then do we need the reporter to quote the source...  ¶ 5:11 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Companies that blog Good Fast Company article about companies that blog.   ¶ 11:10 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Intereting article in Fast Company about companies that blog.   ¶ 11:10 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Feedster Chad introduced me to Feedster. Pretty cool. You can search blogs and register your RSS feed. From the looks of their site, it seems they are trying to be the "Google" of RSS feeds.  ¶ 6:30 PM 0 comments links to this post

  FeedBurner - The spark for syndication success FeedBurner - The spark for syndication success Seems like a cool idea. I always wonder if anyone is reading my blog.  ¶ 11:32 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Friendeter talk at SXSW Interesting talk at SXSW by the founder of Friendster. The full text can be found here.  ¶ 10:05 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Must read If you sell, market, or write software you should read Inmates.  ¶ 11:31 PM 0 comments links to this post

  ESPN.com - NFL - Upset Law: 'I no longer want to be a Patriot' ESPN.com - NFL - Upset Law: 'I no longer want to be a Patriot': "'I can't do a thing about it but express my displeasure about playing for this organization,' Law told the Globe. 'I'll go to training camp. I've got bonuses for going to training camp. I'm just saying it won't be a comfortable working atmosphere. It's not a reason to hold out. I get $1 million just to show up. Who wouldn't show up for $1 million? The money ain't the thing, because I have that. Then again, I'm not going to sit here and say I don't want $7 million, either. That's stupid. Hell, we all gotta eat."

I just love the last sentence of the quote. Fight the power Ty. Good luck, I hope you get a new contact.   ¶ 8:45 PM 0 comments links to this post

  The Doc Searls Weblog : Wednesday, March 10, 2004 The Doc Searls Weblog : Wednesday, March 10, 2004 Good post talking about the rise or RSS. RSS is like a drug. No more spam. All the info just sits and waits until you have time to read it. You can scan it fast. Tivo for the web my friends...  ¶ 9:43 PM 0 comments links to this post

  KMWorld Magazine - The high cost of not finding information I often feel like I spend more time looking for information then I do reading it. KMWorld Magazine - The high cost of not finding information attempts to quantify this. Talk about the potential of productivity gains...  ¶ 9:32 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Team Blogger coming to Austin So do the guys from blogger know how to party Texas style? I will let you know. Looks like they are headed to my home town Austin for SXSW. Check here for the details. Free beer sounds good.   ¶ 10:11 PM 0 comments links to this post

  The next Tivo Snapshot has a Tivo like software application named Beyond TV. Looks cool you can turn your PC into some Tivo-type server. I have never actually used one of these but heard about them.

One thing I like about Tivo and DirecTV is it is all integrated. It really is no different than hooking up cable. Just one plug and then everything just works. It will be interesting to see if a separate software app will get traction. Personally, I like just having one box and having it all integrated.  ¶ 9:57 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Influential blogs Wired has an interesting article on blogs. From the reserach they cite, it seems that many good ideas come from unknown bloggers. For the idea to spread though the ideas need to be repeated on more popular blogs. Seems very much like the ideavirus concept from Seth Godin.  ¶ 10:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

  Software pricing and margarita blenders Interesting article on the state of software sales. Makes you wonder if the traditional perpetual software license will continue on... Here is one of the better quotes:

Redshaw said buyers focus too much on frivolous software features as the basis for their buying decisions and not enough on contract terms. But that's changing, he said. Big companies are becoming "unstupid" and are no longer blowing big bucks on "margarita blenders with frappe buttons."   ¶ 11:28 PM 0 comments links to this post

  Please don't microwave your cash Another use for RFIDs? Read more here  ¶ 10:13 PM 0 comments links to this post

  The startup mentality. Interesting article on why people choose to work at startups.

"Being part of a start-up is about more than get-rich-quick dreams. It’s an emotional commitment to a hurried, harried, adrenaline-driven way of working. For those who can cope, it seems oddly addictive." -- Product Bytes

  ¶ 8:16 PM 0 comments links to this post