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September 28, 2009
More Outback Pictures
We're leaving for tropical weather, beaches, snorkeling, and diving tomorrow, so I thought it might be good to share some more pictures of the outback before we leave.
September 27, 2009
Ayers Rock/Alice Springs: The Real Outback
In fact, this has the feeling of hanging out in somebody's back yard. And where else is a better place to get to know somebody than in their back yard?
Continue reading "Ayers Rock/Alice Springs: The Real Outback"
September 23, 2009
Perth Pics
Walking along the Indian Ocean. Visiting King's Park in Perth
Book Review: The Trusted Advisor
Just got through reading a great book on consulting: The Trusted Advisor. Reading about consulting skills is a bit of an oxymoron -- consulting is all about putting your client's interest ahead of your own, and if you're spending a...
September 21, 2009
Sydney Tour and Harbor Photos
Pictures from Sydney tour and Sydney harbor tour
September 20, 2009
More Bondi Beach Photos
Today was a travel-recovery day. The rest of the family went to the aquarium. I stayed back and went for a hike on the beach. Time for more photos!
September 19, 2009
Shooting Beach People
Lovely beach, this Bondi beach in Sydney! Gorgeous setting, large beachfront, not too crowded, lots of foofey shops and a wonderful beach walk -- who could ask for more
September 17, 2009
Losing Your Hunger
I'm amazed at the number of businesses, small and large, that have lost their hunger.
September 15, 2009
Vacation Optimization
Which takes us to the really interesting question: what's the optimum configuration for traveling?
September 13, 2009
How to Really Measure Software Teams 3
Ever do the retrospective dance? You know the one, where at the end of the sprint everybody plays all the retrospective games: start-stop-continue, timeline, word-pong, or sprint-painting -- and then nothing in your team actually changes?
September 12, 2009
How to Really Measure Software Teams 2
Good metrics are about learning stuff. If you're reading a graph or a report and you don't have an "ah-ha" moment, you're wasting your time. You should know something significantly more after a measurement than before it.
September 11, 2009
How to Really Measure Software Teams
Metrics are important, but they're misunderstood and misapplied. Small, quick, adaptive, immediately-useful metrics can really make a difference. But that's not the way they're usually done.
September 9, 2009
Fire on Deck
September 8, 2009
Hooked on Tolstoy
So three weeks later my Kindle is loaded up with even more books. Books I over-paid for -- O'Reilly, I'm looking at you -- and books I got for free. Sci-fi books, history books, books about science, books about poetry. And something interesting happened.
I was an Ambassador and Taken Hostage by Militants
Twenty-Five years ago, I was sitting in handcuffs in the Sergeant Major's office. He was telling me my life was ruined and I was going to prison. 3 months later I was honorably discharged. Funny thing happened on the way to the end of my life.
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September 7, 2009
Hackers And Caffeine
A while back I posted a poll on a popular site for Hackers, HackerNews. The question? How much caffeine do you consume each day?
September 6, 2009
Workout Reload
I keep an iPod that I use for my morning workouts. While sometimes I listen to music, a lot of times I enjoy listening to college lectures. My wife has tried this and doesn't enjoy it -- she says...
September 4, 2009
The Hat - Result
Darren McGavin was Carl Kolchak Congrats to the winner of the guess-the-hat contest. From 1974-1976, ABC ran a show called "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" about an offbeat wire reporter named Carl Kolchak working in Chicago. Each week Kolchak would investigate...
F#, TDD, xUnit - 2
this is the most succinct testing code yet. Note we have both positive and negative tests running, and if we had used an Excel file, we could do a huge amount of testing in just a line or two.
The Hat
I'll give a ten-dollar Amazon gift certificate to the first person that identifies the show.
September 3, 2009
Setting up F# for TDD with xUnit
Some things are so easy they're idiot-proof, but then along comes a better idiot to prove you wrong. I was thinking about this today as I set up Visual Studio, F#, and Xunit
Change an Organization Like a Startup?
If you're supposed to be changing an organization, can you run your project like a startup?
September 2, 2009
Agile Project Management: Project Dashboards
Agile Project Management Chaos? Not so quick. Note that this financial dashboard is updated from live team data -- no extra team input is required. It's also updated every week or two, so it's constantly getting more and more accurate.
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DGE Roundup 2
Over the summer I've read a bunch of books arguing for and against the existence of God. I've had to cut the series short due to work requirements, but I thought I'd draw some conclusions. This is that last of...
DGE Roundup 1
Over the summer, my goal was to read 6 or 7 books debating the existence of God...I thought I would draw some conclusions here.
September 1, 2009
Putting on your Business Face
IT is one of the few businesses where you can create your own reality and live inside of it. Most folks never take much time to think about what they'd like their reality to be like, so they end up with whatever other people give them.