Software methodologies (RUP)

I couldn't agree more. RUP is a great way to document a software design. The electrical engineer in me likes to think of it as a kind of software schematic. I've heard of folks having successful round-trip engineering (i.e automated RUPdiagram-to-code-to-mod-to-RUPdiagram process flow), but in my experience the supporting infrastructure and additional communications overhead just isn't worth it—even on large 30+ developer projects. It's better to invest those funds into hiring grade A managers and developers to keep the team size and the development infrastructure small.

In other words, less has never been more than in software development.

Fired! For blogging?? Not really.

<soapbox>
I wish people would stop using the headline "Fired for Blogging". It's simply inaccurate and plain WRONG. These folks were fired for using a mass-medium (i.e. the Internet) in a very non-anonymous personal way to, at least in the views of their employer, breach the the confidentiality agreements of their employment.
</soapbox>

Could these agreements (which are essentially default contracts enforced by state and federal legislation) have been worded more precisely and explicitly by their employers? Absolutely.

Could these companies have taken a more 'enlightened' view of the situation and merely requested that the 'infringing information' be removed from public view? Absolutely.

But the facts of the matter are that all of these folks were 'at-will' employees and that's part of the risk/reward trade-off one makes (at least in the United States) when entering into an 'at-will' arrangement. Once something is publicly disclosed, you can't undisclose it. The only other available remedy under the law would be a tort (i.e monetary compensation).

Lucky or Smart? Confessions of Tripod CEO

This is nothing anyone in the industry hasn't heard before or been the subject of countless articles and more than one best selller. Still, Bo wraps up his Tripod CEO experience nicely with a bow on top whilst shilling for his forthcoming book on the same subject.

ROBOTS: The Movie

Historically Fox's animated features haven't faired as well as Pixar's and Disney's, but I'm willing to fork over my $8 to see anything with Robin Williams playing an animated character--a robot no less.

And i thought that the whole pulblic transporatation experience sucked in D.C. At least they seem to get a nice view ;).

The "Get-Laid" use case

(via Daypop) More wisdom from Mr. Zawinski:

"How will this software get my users laid" should be on the minds of anyone writing social software (and these days, almost all software is social software).

"Social software" is about making it easy for people to do other things that make them happy: meeting, communicating, and hooking up.

Ipod Shuffle case

Not that I think the Shuffle really needs one, but this is just too nice, it's also a testament to how fast business oportunities can present themselves.

Schneier on e-commerce accounts

For once, an a-political post from Mr. Schneier. He's sooo much better when he sticks straight-to-tech and doesn't try to be the activist/politician.

Not only is he correct, but this one hits close to home.

I recently had to have a credit card re-issued (new #, etc.) after discovering that a certain retailer known for numerous, absurd patent applications such as 1-click-shopping double-billed me.

Unfortunately, the purchase was made on a one-time-use throw-away account (usually a good idea) which I (unfortunately) forgot the login credentials to (neglected to put it in my Password Safe).

Even though I had the Bank's transaction number (credit card company personnel said that it indeed it had all of the earmarks of a classic double-billing error) said merchant was unwilling to give me the order number (to confirm that it never shipped) or any information about said throw-away account. That's all well and good, but I was left with little choice but to cancel the transaction at the credit level and have the card immediately re-issued to be certain said merchant would not attempt additional erroneous billing on an account which I can no longer access.

License lunacy

From a recent Bugzilla "bug" post (#98491). All in good fun.

"Vending machine on the 2nd floor has raised prices by $0.05"

Clearly this is a licensing issue. Non-MPL/NPL snacks can not make contributions to an MPL/NPL project without consenting to grant its rights to others. It seems clear to me from bug 17317 that the vending machine snacks make significant contributions to this project but I have yet to recieve any "world-wide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license" pursuant to section 2.2 of the MPL from any snacks.

Pantone coffee mugs

(via BoingBoing) For the ultimate coffee snob who absolutely requires the correct coffee/milk ratio for java enjoyment.

As a former dairy adulterator myself (I switched to straight black sometime in the early 80s), I can feel your pain.

My intial concern though is that it's not properly calibrated to the taste/texture levels of different sources (cream, half-n-half, 1%, 2%, skim, whole, etc.). It's not just about the color. On second thought, one's daily coffee creamery source is unlikely to have much variance so matching would only be a likely concern for muggers on-the-go.

Mobile mugging with designer ceramic containers (expensive/fragile) would not seem to be using one's best judgement anyways.

Usability of Expiration Date selectors

Why do sooo many e-commerce sites (which don't have 1-click shopping) make users translate their credit card expiration dates?

Let's see here..."09"...equals...September...which equals..."Sept." which is...*scroll*...*scroll*...*click* here

It's a simple matter to display BOTH the day and number of the month in the drop-down selector's text. It's so easy to make a targeting error when the drop-down list requires scrolling (it's not like the Gregorian calendar is going to change anytime soon) and/or the user is in a rush whilst using the mouse for selection.

An implicit hint here is to actually not use the mouse at all for these things, but to use the built-in auto-completion features in modern browser implementations of selection boxes. Unfortunately, there's no affordance for this feature in web forms. Hence, the vast majority of users remain mouse-bound and error-prone.

Home of the Free? Hmm...

(Via Boing Boing) Having recently turned away a potential client due to similar requests (though from a private U.S. corporate entity), I have some sense of how Mr. Garnier must feel.

It's one thing to make these requests if your work would involve matters of "national security" (as nebulous a term as that is). It's quite another to make such requests in the artistic/purely commercial relm.