http://blog.pigsaw.org All the pig that's fit to saw Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:04:51 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/19/2751 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/19/2751#comments Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:04:51 +0000 Nik http://blog.pigsaw.org/?p=2751

Twitter, canvases and cards — Benedict Evans
"…Twitter pivoted, and deprecated the third party apps, and took control of the interface. The obvious thing that it did with that was to deliver a predictable offer for advertisers. But the more interesting thing to me was that it created a canvas – which is now turning Twitter from a protocol to a platform." (twitter platforms dopost analysis )

DEMING AT A GLANCE
A summary of W. E. Deming's work. (quality process management deming )

The many benefits of transparency | Futurice blog
Some notes on implementing transparency in a small company. (management trust openness )

Gov.uk: how geeks opened up government – video | Technology | guardian.co.uk
"Some of the UK's best designers and developers are working on building a new single website for all government departments – gov.uk – but their influence has gone much further. Jemima Kiss talks to government digital chief, Mike Bracken, minister Francis Maude and others about how they made it all happen" (agile government interview video dopost gds )

On Scala
"I've been messing around with Scala for a while. [...] And so, Scala is the language I find myself most conflicted over – the part of me that likes programming loves it, the part of me that goes oncall wants to see more work done on the engineering." (scala dopost )

]]> http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/19/2751/feed 0 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/18/2747 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/18/2747#comments Tue, 18 Jun 2013 21:00:35 +0000 Nik http://blog.pigsaw.org/?p=2747

Is Apple "Agile"? Part 2: The Critics Weigh In – Forbes
"[There is a common Agile] mindset that if we can just get the teams working really, really well, and create really great workspaces with really energized workers, then everything will work out ok. The teams will produce great products. Customers will love those products. The company will make a lot of money. Everyone will be happy. The problem with this mindset is that it doesn’t work in today’s marketplace." (agile apple governance dopost )

If I can do it, so can you | Dr Sue Black
The story behind the force that is Dr Sue Black, champion of women in computing and Bletchley Park. (bletchley_park sue_black dopost women )

Edward Snowden Q&A: Dick Cheney traitor charge is ‘the highest honor’ | World news | guardian.co.uk
"The whistleblower behind the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history answered your questions about the NSA surveillance revelations" (interview nsa prism security privacy dopost )

BBC News – Perfect pitch may not be so ‘perfect’
"Played a long piece of music, a study group [of pitch perfect people] failed to notice when scientists turned the tones ever so slightly flat. They then misidentified in-tune sounds as being sharp." (music science psychology )

OOPSLA2004
Good summary on stuff in the OO world. It may be 9 years old, but the ideas and references are still good. (conference programming )

]]> http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/18/2747/feed 0 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/14/2744 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/14/2744#comments Fri, 14 Jun 2013 08:12:34 +0000 Nik http://blog.pigsaw.org/?p=2744

Why is Nigel Farage on Question Time so often?
"If it feels as if Nigel Farage is rarely off Question Time, that's because he isn't. The UKIP leader is a "late addition" to tonight's panel in what will be his third appearance this year (the most recent was 25 April). In fact, after tonight, Farage will have appeared more times on the programme than any other politician in the last four years." (bbc ukip television )

Google Glass Teardown
Fascinating. "We eagerly brought Glass back to the lab to begin the dissection. Speculation reigned: what if the entire body of Glass is potted with epoxy requiring strong solvents to access? Which part is the battery in? How hackable is this thing? Where are the sensors? Any extra hardware features yet to be unlocked by future software updates? But first, where to even begin opening it?" (teardown hardware google_glass dopost )

iOS 7 – Matt Gemmell
Excellent overview of iOS7 vs iOS6: "iOS 7 isn’t flat. There are subtle shadows, lighting effects, gradients, and even new (rather gratuitous and distracting, in my opinion – and thankfully optional) parallax effects. It’s more flat, certainly, but not two-dimensional. Apple doesn’t design things by having a goal like “let’s make it flat”. That’s a bizarre concept, because flatness in itself doesn’t have a corresponding rationale regarding user experience. Flatness may be a visual treatment that provides a certain desirable quality, but it’s not an end in itself." (design user_interfaces ios apple comparison dopost )

8 months in Microsoft, I learned these | /home/alp
"Two years ago today, I started Microsoft Windows Azure as an intern, [...] I decided to summarize a few points I learned so far in this job during last 8 months. This may sound like the way things work are crappy, it is not. I learned that one will see this sort of problems in all large scale companies. Most of them are not specific to Microsoft at all." (microsoft management dopost )

IT trends shape future corporate strategies – FT.com
"As the impact of technology change on business grows, McKinsey, has identified 10 IT-enabled business trends that it says will help shape corporate strategies over the next decade." (future technology trends )

ScalaDays2013
"If you should report what you've learned during ScalaDays 2013 to your team or whatever, you can use my PowerPoint prez instead of creating your own." (presentation scala conference )

Gilt Technologie
"Gilt VP Architecture Eric Bowman mined for symmetry in Scala, comparing Java and Scala and identifying where the inherent symmetry in Scala leads to much more robust code." (scala presentation dopost )

Dear NSA, let me take care of your slides.
This is funny (though we shouldn't lose the bigger point of the PRISM scandal). "Dear NSA, you can do whatever with my data. But not with my eyes. Those slides are hideous." (prism humour presentation design dopost )

]]> http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/14/2744/feed 0 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/12/2740 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/12/2740#comments Wed, 12 Jun 2013 22:02:41 +0000 Nik http://blog.pigsaw.org/?p=2740

jmhofer / ant4sbt / wiki / Home — Bitbucket
"This SBT plug-in enables you to integrate Ant targets and Ant properties with your xsbt build." (scala ant sbt )

Tracing iOS 7′s influences: Apple remixes almost everyone in the industry | The Verge
"Apple's latest iteration of its mobile operating system, iOS 7, introduces a number of long-awaited features. For everyone other than iPhone devotees, however, much of what Apple presented on stage looked eerily familiar." (design user_interfaces apple ios dopost )

Rubinstein on HP’s purchase of Palm: ‘Talk about a waste’ – FierceWireless
"FierceWireless Editor Phil Goldstein spoke with Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm and a former executive at Apple, about what he's doing these days, the influence webOS has had on other mobile platforms, and whether he would have done anything differently." (hp palm interview webos business dopost )

The music industry: On-demand touring | The Economist
"Services like [Songkick's] Detour have determined that fans are more than willing to leave the house for a live-music experience, if someone will simply organise that experience well. Detour tries to streamline the ticket-selling process by reducing how many people take a cut" (songkick music disruption music_industry dopost )

The periodic table of irrational nonsense
(humour science homeopathy )

]]> http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/12/2740/feed 0 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/12/2736 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/12/2736#comments Wed, 12 Jun 2013 13:00:38 +0000 Nik http://blog.pigsaw.org/?p=2736

“It’s Complicated…” | InspGuilfoyle
How HMRC works. (systems_thinking hmrc security dopost )

Cowards | Uncrunched
"Today we heard from Google CEO Larry Page and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Page was confused (the title of his post is “What the…?). Zuckerberg claimed the press reports were outrageous. Both made strong denials of specific allegations (“direct access,” “back doors”). Both were technically telling the truth. Both were also overtly misleading people. (google facebook prism dopost privacy government )

German bank employee naps on keyboard, transfers millions – FRANCE 24
"An obviously tired German bank employee fell asleep on his keyboard and accidentally transformed a minor transfer into a 222 million euro ($293 million) order, a court heard Monday. [The man] "fell asleep for an instant, while pushing onto the number 2 key on the keyboard" — making it a huge 222,222,222.22 euro order." (banking humour mistake )

Straw Man TDD – Software People Inspiring
"A lot of the criticisms of Test-driven Develoment I hear are really attacks on a mythical version of TDD that no right-minded advocate ever put forward. [...] I thought it would be useful to collect some of the most common misconceptions in one place that I can point people to when I'm just too tired and/or drunk to answer them any more." (testing myths dopost )

Editorial: The subtexts of Apple’s WWDC keynote
"Facing an audience of developers whose businesses depend on Apple's continued success, especially in the mobile realm, the company's keynote mission was not only to excite buzz around new products, but to establish clarity around the company's mission, values and key competitive advantages." (apple analysis dopost speech )

]]> http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/12/2736/feed 0 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/10/2733 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/10/2733#comments Mon, 10 Jun 2013 22:00:29 +0000 Nik http://blog.pigsaw.org/?p=2733

Primer on the Theory of Constraints
(theory_of_constraints presentation flow )

The Flow Experiment | AvailAgility
"I put together a small simulation for the SPA Conference this year which seemed to go well [...] The basic aim of the simulation is to solve maths problems. This idea was inspired by Simon Bennett and Mark Summers session The Incentive Trap which also uses maths as the problem domain." (simulation flow theory_of_constraints game )

Kallokain: The Variance Trap
"It is hard to estimate projects. Everyone knows that. What everyone does not know, is that even if you get fairly accurate estimates for each stage in the development project, it is still possible, and quite probable, that a project will come in later than expected due to the effects of statistical variation. [...] Let's create a simple model of a project, and run a simulation of how variance affects development speed." (theory_of_constraints dopost estimation simulation )

RunTheModel – Simulation Models
Lots of animated models and simulations to play with, created with AnyLogic. (simulations visualisation animation maths dopost )

Agile Development Survey Results
Rob Smith on the 2013 Version One Agile Development Survey: "According to the survey 54% of respondents use Scrum. Not a variant or hybrid of Scrum, not Scrum augmented with XP engineering techniques (this accounts for 11% of respondents), just Scrum. I find this amazing…" (agile survey dopost )

]]> http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/10/2733/feed 0 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/10/2729 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/10/2729#comments Mon, 10 Jun 2013 13:00:52 +0000 Nik http://blog.pigsaw.org/?p=2729

Obama Is Checking Your Email
One of many from the Obama/PRISM archive. (prism humour barak_obama dopost security )

Former CEO Says U.S. Punished Phone Firm
"A former Qwest Communications International executive, appealing a conviction for insider trading, has alleged that the government withdrew opportunities for contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars after Qwest refused to participate in an unidentified National Security Agency program that the company thought might be illegal." (prism security government telecoms qwest finance dopost crime )

Google Plus photos allude to a Galaxy Camera successor
"Google Plus photos allude to a Galaxy Camera successor, 20.2MP shooter included" (cameras samsung hardware android dopost )

John Seddon – Dissolving a Dangerous Enthusiasm: Taking a Systems Approach to IT Systems [pdf]
"So often, because the real problems are not understood, agile techniques are employed to speed up doing the wrong things. Where this is the case, agile’s features are not benefits. Further, agile sits as a component in, and offers no challenge to, the wider IT development infrastructure." (lean systems_thinking pdf article dopost project_management )

[liberationtech] Why we can’t go back to business as usual post-PRISM.
Analysis of PRISM "…if these programs are not eliminated, greatly curtailed, or made moot, we can expect them to be employed much more freely." (prism privacy security government dopost )

Microsoft Boy announces his School Homework – Simple-Talk
Funny, if rather unfair: "Continuing in our series of attempts to imagine how Microsoft Marketing people relate to their fellow men outside work, we give you a glimpse of Microsoft Boy at school, before the start of his splendid career at Redmond." (microsoft humour marketing dopost )

]]> http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/10/2729/feed 0 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/06/2726 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/06/2726#comments Thu, 06 Jun 2013 15:00:42 +0000 Nik http://blog.pigsaw.org/?p=2726

Evidence Based Scheduling – Joel on Software
How Joel O'Software does estimation now: "Over the last year or so at Fog Creek we’ve been developing a system that’s so easy even our grouchiest developers are willing to go along with it. And as far as we can tell, it produces extremely reliable schedules. It’s called Evidence-Based Scheduling, or EBS. You gather evidence, mostly from historical timesheet data, that you feed back into your schedules. What you get is not just one ship date: you get a confidence distribution curve, showing the probability that you will ship on any given date." (estimation project_tracking planning )

Preferred number – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"In industrial design, preferred numbers (also called preferred values) are standard guidelines for choosing exact product dimensions within a given set of constraints. Product developers must choose numerous lengths, distances, diameters, volumes, and other characteristic quantities. While all of these choices are constrained by considerations of functionality, usability, compatibility, safety or cost, there usually remains considerable leeway in the exact choice for many dimensions." (design numbers )

Painless Software Schedules – Joel on Software
How Joel O'Software *used* to do planning. (planning estimation project_tracking )

Eurocharts – Magnetic Planning Boards, A System Overview
Physical Gantt charts! "The popular Eurocharts magnetic scheduling system provides the communication link between a detailed software plan and a fully visual, complete summary schedule overview. Coloured magnetic information textplates lock onto the systems ribbed, steel panel surface and this is updated by simply sliding textplates along the planning line or relocating to another resource." (charts visualisation office project_tracking dopost gantt_charts )

Home – Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS
"SMACSS (pronounced “smacks”) is more style guide than rigid framework. There is no library within here for you to download or install. SMACSS is a way to examine your design process and as a way to fit those rigid frameworks into a flexible thought process. It is an attempt to document a consistent approach to site development when using CSS. And really, who isn’t building a site with CSS these days?!" (css book design )

Edward Tufte forum: Project Management Graphics (or Gantt Charts)
Edward Tufte on Gantt charts: "Most of the Gantt charts are analytically thin, too simple, and lack substantive detail. The charts should be more intense. At a minimum, the charts should be annotated–for example, with to-do lists at particular points on the grid. Costs might also be included in appropriate cells of the table." (charts visualisation project_tracking dopost )

]]> http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/06/2726/feed 0 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/06/2721 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/06/2721#comments Thu, 06 Jun 2013 08:02:19 +0000 Nik http://blog.pigsaw.org/?p=2721

The Homophobatron – creating nonsensical anti-gay marriage arguments so you don’t have to… – Us Vs Th3m
"Creating nonsensical anti-gay marriage arguments so politicians don't have to" (humour homophobia )

The great gender divide: Girls don’t recognise tech as key « Emma Mulqueeny
"Why are only 29% of girls as opposed to 42% of boys identifying technology as a subject that is key to future success in work? This chimes with my own anecdotal experience from talking in schools that girls see technology and programming as more an art project than an -ology or an -acy, whereas boys identify is much more with science and business – well, money." (education women technology dopost survey )

A Vision Of London In The Year 2000…From 1900 | Londonist
"While pottering around in a newspaper archive recently, we chanced across a remarkable article from the turn of the 20th century (subscription needed). A journalist called Joseph Darby, writing in the 17 February 1900 edition of the Bristol Mercury, put forth his visions for London in the year 2000. Let’s take a look." (history london future )

Mozilla Plans Design Overhaul with Firefox 25 Release in October
"Mozilla is planning a major design overhaul of its flagship browser with the release of Firefox 25, slated to arrive in October. The company makes a point to discuss its plans for changes openly, and this upcoming new version is by no means an exception. [...] The biggest change comes down to the new look for tabs or the complete revamp of the main Firefox menu." (firefox dopost user_interfaces )

“Warning” signs at historical sites tell visitors to relax and enjoy themselves – 22 Words
"In a good-natured campaign for England’s National Trust, designers at The Click created “warning” signs to be placed around the grounds and estates of the National Trust. The placards seem like the sort that would tell you “Do not sit here” and “No Photographs” and other fun-inhibiting restrictions. But in fact, the signs encourage just the opposite…" (signs humour national_trust )

Battery Stats Plus
Collected battery stats from Android devices (performance android statistics )

Pragmatism Elitism Crapism – Steve Fenton
"…I don't think SOLID is elitist. I think if you can't see the value in it, it is more likely that you are following the path of crapism, not pragmatism. If you are really determined to hold this view, I think that is fine – as long as you aren't listing object-oriented programming on your résumé." (programming dopost )

BBC to remove website clock after complaint | Media | The Guardian
"Clock, which reproduces time on users' computers, falls foul of accuracy guidelines, BBC Trust's standards committee rules" (bbc weird time dopost )

]]> http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/06/2721/feed 0 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/04/2717 http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/04/2717#comments Tue, 04 Jun 2013 16:07:59 +0000 Nik http://blog.pigsaw.org/?p=2717

The Germ theory of Management by Myron Tribus [pdf]
"Doctors are no better and no worse than the rest of us. We are all prisoners of our upbringing, our culture and the state of knowledge of our teachers, mentors and fellow practitioners. [...] Their theory of medicine caused them to look in the wrong places for wrong answers to the solutions to their most pressing problems. Today our managers do the same" (management pdf dopost )

‘Draw Something’ studio OMGPOP reportedly shuttered amid Zynga layoffs | The Verge
"One year ago, Zynga paid $180 million for OMGPOP, the creator of the wildly popular game Draw Something for iOS and Android. Zynga seems to have decided that was a $180 million mistake. After directly writing off up to $95 million of OMGPOP last October, it now appears that Zynga is completely shutting down the studio — among other divisions — in an attempt to save $80 million more." (jobs zynga dopost )

COBOLUnit
"A simple, open source Unit testing framework to write and run repeatable tests in COBOL. Distributed under the GPL V3 licence" (cobol testing )

Coding Horror: COBOL: Everywhere and Nowhere
"There are over 220 billion lines of COBOL in existence, a figure which equates to around 80% of the world's actively used code." And yet, asks Jeff Atwood, "I have a hard time reconciling this data point with the fact that I have never, in my entire so-called "professional" programming career, met anyone who was actively writing COBOL code. [...] I find the whole situation a bit perplexing. If these 220 billion lines of COBOL code are truly running out there somewhere, where are all the COBOL programmers? Did they write software systems so perfect, so bug-free, that all these billions of lines of code are somehow maintaining themselves without the need for legions and armies of COBOL programmers, decades later?" (cobol programming languages dopost )

Why Big Data Is Not Truth – NYTimes.com
"Facebook timelines, stripped of data like names, can still be used to determine a person’s ethnicity with 95 percent accuracy, she said. Information like sexual orientation among males is also relatively easy to identify." (big_data data dopost )

]]> http://blog.pigsaw.org/permalink/2013/06/04/2717/feed 0