Thursday, August 15, 2002

Software Without People: No Ones, Just Zeros. Phil Windley: People are the Key in Technology. In an article in the Atlantic Monthly called Homeland Insecurity, Charles Mann quotes Bruce Schneier thusly: "The trick is to remember that technology can't save you," Schneier says. "We know this in our own lives. We realize that there's no magic anti-burglary dust we can sprinkle on our cars to prevent them from being stolen. We know that car alarms don't offer much protection. The Club at best makes burglars steal the car next to you. For real safety we park on nice streets where people notice if somebody smashes the window. Or we park in garages, where somebody watches the car. In both cases people are the essential security element. You always build the system around people." The article is a great read and offers numerous insights into the problem with most homeland security proposals, but I was struck by the strong and pervasive belief, expressed in the article, that technology won't solve these problems.  [Windley's Enterprise Computing Weblog] I attended the 1995 Computers, Freedom & Privacy conference hosted by Stanford University (miraculously, the materials are gone from Stanford's site but are still available thanks to Archive.org). Tim May, one of the founding members of Cypherpunks, got up and declared before a packed house that his job was not to make anyone's data secure. His job, he figured, was to make bribing the cleaning service more cost-effective than trying to hack in. (The article Tim submitted as a companion to his presentation is also available through Archive.org.) Today, I had a long chat with an analyst at the Gartner Group. We talked about the oft-quoted Gartner statistic that 55% of all CRM deployments fail. Her comment was that unfortunately, none of the press that reported on that statistic (more on that tomorrow) bothered to let the other shoe drop from the same Gartner report: that the failures were far more likely a result of people, processes and culture than they were of the technology. The thread connecting all of this - Schneier, May, the Gartner analyst - is that technology will never be a panacea. Software can be perfectly suited to the task and still come up short. In the end, the users must be committed to its success. Software's not a free ride. Could be a brisk trip on a TGV, might be a ride on a razor scooter. Or it could be face plant while walking in the park. (But of course I'd say this. I'm a vendor, after all.) [tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog] 7:14:43 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

Follow-up to Directory Browsing with Radio. A couple people have written in about my directory browsing post earlier today. Some thoughts: Rogers Cadenhead reports that "The Python Community Server, the open source clone of the Radio Community Server at http://www.pycs.net, turns off directory browsing by default." If you put index.txt in your "gems" folder, nothing will happen. This is because the "gems" folder disables a function in Radio called "rendering" - by which Radio transforms a simple text file into an HTML file and then uploads it to your web site. The gems folder is for any files you specifically want Radio to leave alone... so we need to create an HTML file called index.html that we can save in the gems folder. I've created one - download gems_index.txt (right-click, select "save as") and save it into your gems folder. Rename it index.html (in the gems folder), change the URL from http://your.blog.here/ to your blog URL, and Radio will take care of the rest. By the way - rendering is a little-known feature in Radio. Create a folder in the "www" folder in Radio. Save a text file in there, wait a few seconds, then go to your web site. You'll have a file formatted with your site template - containing the text from the text file. Play with it a bit - it's a great way to save e-mails to the web, create static files for your web site (it's how I created the about page for this site), and other easy ways to add HTML pages to your site without thinking about it. [tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog] 7:14:06 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

Can TiVo Go Prime Time?. Great study in this month's Fast Company about TiVo's attempts to create a sustainable business model. What's most valuable in the article is the dissection of TiVo's efforts at shifting its business plan in response to changing market conditions. I've had TiVo for just over 18 months, and am definitely one of the "rabid fans" the FC article talks about. What I didn't know was the behind-the-scenes stuff going on to make the company a long-term success. [tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog] 7:13:00 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

Moving to the GNU Free Documentation License for My PHP Writing. Moving to the GNU Free Documentation License for My PHP Writing I think it was last Friday when Nonesuch convinced me to expand the scope of my writings on PHP from an isolated set of essays here and there into a comprehensive work on building a large scale PHP application.  Since I'm building an Open Source project, FuzzyOffice, it actually makes a lot of sense.  And using a blog as a documentation mechanism for an Open Source work just plain appeals to me.  So this brings up the question of license.  Sure my code is going to be GPL'd but what about the documentation?  I could take the approach of making the documentation dry and boring and then saving the entertaining writing for a commercially published work.  No.  I'm not doing that. I'm the author of two (well 1 full book and partial author of 1 is more accurate) commercially published computer books published in the past 6 years and I have to say that I am suffering with rage about the process.  I don't want to bother people with a brutal rant.  I will comment that during the writing of my most recent computer book, I was so frustrated that I took the time to find a professional literary agent and consult with him.  After discussing the situation with him, he made a very interesting comment that has been zinging around my brain ever since: If you can write ANY other type of book besides a computer book then you should do so.  His point was very simple -- computer books are easy to get published but the compensation basically sucks, the publisher has all the control and it's pretty much a rigged game.  And, on this, I'd have to agree with him.  I'd also add that publishers are pretty much incompetent in general. So, if I have rage against the system then, based on yesterday's essay, I should Open Source the documentation.  And that's what I'm going to do.  I'm taking a lead here from Mark Pilgrim's use of the GNU Free Documentation License that provides a legal framework for freely releasing written works.  Thanks Mark! NOTE: I'm not naive.  I totally admit that my releasing this work means nothing in the greater scheme of things.  It won't affect the market for PHP books at all.  What it does do is a) make me happy b) put one more quality (hopefully) work out there c) make it easier for people in developing countries to learn tools like php (I'm a big believer in the third world) and d) take a stand.  Like Mark I think that's important.  It's all too rare these days when people take a stand.  Still I look at things like the most excellent Rute guide to Linux and I have to wonder....  The Rute guide is a comprehensive guide to Unix.  Check it out.  And it's free.  Think about it -- do you really need to buy that Unix book? I hope to have more later today and the release of the 1st few chapters.  I've very, very pleased.  We even made a cover graphic! NOTE: If you are knowledgeable about Radio then you've probably been reading ahead already. [The FuzzyBlog!] 7:12:29 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

Protecting Radio Folders. A simple Meta tag to keep prying eyes from browsing weblog folders you don't want people to see. [Blunt Force Trauma] 7:01:57 PM    trackback []     Articulate []

The Narrative Evaluation System of UC Santa Cruz If you have not come across applicants from UC Santa Cruz before, I would like to take this opportunity to explain what you will find in my undergraduate record, what the Narrative Evaluation System (NES) did for me, and to thank you for taking the time to interpret it as a reflection of my academic aptitude. Instead of receiving a letter grade for courses, students at UC Santa Cruz received narrative evaluations (a paragraph or two) describing the work they did and their accomplishments. This served several purposes, and achieved some useful ancillary effects. You can rely on the evaluation process that the UCSC Phi Beta Kappa committee uses to award PBK, namely, they examine the student's courses and evaluations to distinguish the top ten percent of the graduating class. However, the purpose of the NES is to give students valuable and immediate feedback to improve their scholarship rather than simply reflect on their performance. Thus, most students and teachers take this opportunity to learn and teach, respectively. The results of this system are that students are less motivated to “get an A” and more motivated to “get an education” and thus, UCSC did not suffer from the type of grade inflation more common at other institutions. Furthermore, (and you can verify this independently) UCSC students tend to do extremely well at graduate school, although NES can make it harder to get in, because they've already learned that study isn't about grades but about growth. This is what the NES did for me. It turned me from a GPA-motivated high school student into a scholar. I apologize if examining my transcript increases your burden since I understand you have many applications to review. However, I hope you will take the time to read through my record as it will give you a better understanding of the breadth of my interests and my overall motivation than a pure GPA could communicate. http://www.midwinter.com/~kat/MBA/HTML/NES.htm   11:26:38 AM    trackback []     Articulate []

Gizmodo: New Blog Experiment. My agent told me yesterday that one of her other clients, Peter Rojas, was involved in a new blog called Gizmodo.com, a project of Nick Denton's. Because he's getting paid (or at least partly for that reason) this new blog is the talk of blogdom. Nick has rounded up some of the latest discussion at his own blog: Take a look, in particular, at the Blogroots discussion. Meg Hourihan, Matt Haughey and Dave Winer, among others, argue whether premeditated blogs are possible. I suspect it will appeal to overgrown girls as well [Meg Hourihan] Will Gizmodo be profitable? [Blogroots discussion] Gizmodo launch [Paul Boutin] Love gadgets. Gotta love the blog. [Jeff Jarvis] Breakeven, which for publishing ain't bad [Anil Dash] Introducing Gizmodo, the first e-commerce blog [Rick Bruner] It'll be an interesting experiment [601am.com] ... with a paid blogger! [Cory Doctorow] [Radio Free Blogistan] 11:21:25 AM    trackback []     Articulate []

Academic klogging as a factor in hiring.. Graham Leuschke wonders how to make his blogging count in his coming job search. I know Leuscke from his blogging but never knew he was a mathematician (although that makes perfect sense). He has a curriculum vitae (CV), a commutative algebra site, and his weblog.  Join us as we explore how weblogs and klogs should factor into employee selection and review. [diJEST: a journal of extrapreneurial strategy and technology] 9:59:21 AM    trackback []     Articulate []

Klogging Roles.. I forsee several klogging roles. Catalyst. Alpha blogger. Someone who klogs well, leads by example, provokes and inspires others to join a klogging community. If you've used Blogtree, naming your inspirations, you know what I mean.   Coach. The person who helps newbies, builds internal FAQs, nurtures laggards, acknowledges great posts. Soft skills, communication and social skills, are not evenly distributed. The coach helps everyone join and get better. Chief metablogger.   Armorer. Works with IT to develop configs, scripts, integration with enterprise apps and messaging services. Power macros. Engaging templates. Technologist and architect.   Practice leader. Informal leaders of subcultures in larger organizations. The one in legal who drives the whole department to start klogging. The rep in the Cincinatti sales office who gets her colleagues to start customer-specific blogs. Watch for lists of like-minded colleagues. They may also connect to like-minded communities at suppliers, customers, and the wild blogosphere. Action items? Mix and match. Many bloggers will perform roles that fit their interests, personality, social status, and skills. Recruit for excellence in one or more. Wouldn't hurt to add these as "nice to have" in job descriptions. Hire ringers if your community is large enough. Get full time or contract specialists if it makes sense. If you're a WiFi company, you could do worse than add one of the bloggers covering your space to your roster. I can see Coaches and Armorers in dedicated contract gigs.   One other point... I beleive (without hard numbers) that blogging and klogging can improve your personal marketability. I'm exploring this at Bloggers for Hire. Suggestions welcome. [aka klogs] [diJEST: a journal of extrapreneurial strategy and technology] 9:58:42 AM    trackback []     Articulate []

Craving In-N-Out!. Man-o-Man I wish I hadn't seen this article in the NYT about In-N-Out burgers... But I did. Oh-oh. I haven't craved something from home this bad since I had that blueberry muffin monkey on my back back in March. There are not scheduled trips back to Cali anytime soon so I'm definitely in for a long one. God I love those burgers! There's even an In-N-Out in San Francisco now!!! I want to cry. The Blueberry Muffin attack was finally cured in June by the opening of two Starbucks Coffees here in Spain. (Oh thank you, thank you, thank you.) They have really decent muffins there and frappuchinos yeah!. Don't laugh or mock. You go a couple years without a decent blueberry muffin and see what it does to you. It's also nice that Starbucks is here because I helped launch their first e-commerce website with Organic back in 1999. A little name recognition might help in job interviews here in Spain instead of the blank stares. "Starbucks?" Yeah, it's a coffee shop chain. It's really big in the U.S., no REALLY. "Uh-huh. Well, nice speaking with you Mr. Beattie. We'll call." -Russ [Russell Beattie Notebook] 9:52:55 AM    trackback []     Articulate []