Cool Programming

Waterfall Profits

Tue, 21 Nov 2006 15:17:22 GMT

Yesterday, in a conversation with a professional services manager, I came to the realization that the efficiencies of the waterfall development process are good for the bottom line of professional services organizations. You see, waterfall often leads to a lot of wasted effort. For a professional services firm, that bills by the hour, wasted effort still equates to profits. For the client, the predictability of waterfall leads to misplaced confidence. Yes iterative development is unpredictable. But that unpreditability more often than not leads to lower costs.

NASA Doesn't QA Either

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 14:42:21 GMT

AP: The worry is that shuttle computers aren't designed to make the change from the 365th day of the old year to the first day of the new year while in flight. NASA has never had a shuttle in space December 31 or January 1.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/11/09/space.shuttle.ap/index.html

Randy: You'd think that could easily be tested from the ground. Now I feel a lot better about the QA that's been going around Toronto (or lack there of). It seems NASA isn't doing any better. Pathetic!

Follow Political Money via This API

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:52:10 GMT

Followthemoney.org has a database of political contributions accessible via API. You can also create your own widgets.

http://followthemoney.org/

Migrating to XForms

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:35:59 GMT

Paul Sobocinski: It won't be long until browsers begin supporting XForms, and once this happens, they will be the prevalent and preferred method of user data collection on the internet.

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2006/11/01/migrating-to-xforms-php.html

Google Toolbar API

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:23:40 GMT

Here's a cool idea for bring your visitors back to your site. You can easily create custom Google toolbar buttons, that readers can install in their Google toolbar.

http://toolbar.google.com/buttons/apis/howto_guide.html