Check out this picture.

http://www.petapixel.com/2011/12/27/what-5mb-of-storage-looked-like-in-1956/

Okay. This is seriously cool.

The Universal Data Element Framework (UDEF) provides a controlled vocabulary that should be used to seed a project's data model.

See http://www.udef.com/

See http://www.opengroup.org//udef/

We're looking at applying UDEF retroactively to an existing schema.

What a pain in …

Just updated the Stingray Reader. There was an egregious error (and a missing test case). I fixed the error, but didn't add a test case to cover the problem. It's simple laziness. TDD is quite clear on how to tackle this kind of thing. Write the missing test case (which …

See this article: "The COBOL Brain Drain" in ComputerWorld. This article is very, very well written and repeats a number of common fallacies.

The fallacies lead to expensive, labor-intensive in-house software development and maintenance. Either there's a lot of effort poking at the COBOL code. Or there's a lot of …

I'm looking forward to this. I'll be talking about Python.

• A Python 3.2 tutorial. I did a dry run with the help of the 757 Python group. Made a bunch of changes based on their input.
• A more in-depth presentation on a good architecture of Database Schema Migration scripts …

Maybe it's the circle-R in the PMP® signature that put me off.

What's important is that the PMP-certified project manager is absolutely married to fixed-price software development. The idea of "Agile" was unthinkable. They were very clear that we had enough information to create a fixed price.

It's hard to …

Check out this post: "Why Quit? Because They Have Bigger Monitors".

Brilliant summary of a few small cost things that have a large impact. How many other signals are being sent?

Jim B. once pointed out that some organizations are entirely run by the accountants. You can have a good …

Read this on Gizmodo: "How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet" Compelling stuff: "Integration Is The Enemy of Innovation". "[Corporate Development milestones] often completely ignore what made the smaller target valuable in the first place." Lessons learned: it's hard to apply structured, formal, financial controls to innovation. As soon …

There's a cool infographic on technology change in FrugalDad. See The Great Disruption: The Future of Personal Tech. It's interesting and informative, but the few predictions it makes are not really disruptive. You wouldn't see anyone lobbying against the suggested future directions. They're all good ideas that leverage existing technology …