Microsoft makes funny mock videos. At keynotes at TechEd, PDC and others, there are usually hilarious “day in the life” videos starring Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. One of the funniest, from a couple of years ago, involved Bill dropping off a whole bunch of identical sweaters at a dry cleaner… and when he went […]
I haven’t attended the Consumer Electronics Show in more than a decade… and keep forgotting how silly it can be. Fortunately, other journalists are ready to remind me. David Colker blogged for the Los Angeles Times about the just-announced Taser MPH – the first combination MP3 player and stun gun. “The Taser MPH is not […]
Don’t you just adore getting phone calls or e-mail solicitations from vendors that you’ve never heard of? Don’t you want to spent a lot of time talking to the telemarketer? Don’t you want to register for their “free white paper offer”? Nope. Me neither. Yet an amazing number of vendors focus on “lead generation” as […]
If you connect an Apple iPod Touch to your stereo via an Apple Universal Dock, the user interface problems go away. Not only are you charging the iPod (if you plug it into an AC adapter) and getting better audio using “line out,” but the remote control restores the tactile feel to the device. (I […]
Andrew Binstock has written an excellent (and glowing) review of Kent Beck’s new book, “Implementation Patterns.” I’ve just ordered my own copy, based on Andrew’s review, which itself worth reading as an exemplar of what a technical book review should be. Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
I’m the proud owner of a 16GB Apple iPod Touch, given to me as a Christmas present by a good friend. I’ve been taking many notes about the device – which is an incredible technological marvel – but I can summarize my experiences over the past three weeks as follows: What it’s great at: Being […]
It’s my theory that people like the concept of agile software development more than they like the specific practices. That’s why, despite the huge number of conversations in the software development industry about agile methodologies like eXtreme Programming or Scrum, many analysts believe that the actual adoption of agile is rather low. Another reason might […]
According to BZ Research, 42.0% of enterprise Web sites are hosted within their internal data centers, while 40.6% are hosted externally using shared servers owned by the Web hosting company. Those were by far the dominant findings in our first-ever Web Hosting Study, completed in October. Those numbers swamped the use of Web servers hosted […]
Some comments on my post about movies on iPods suggest that I should blame Hollywood and Washington for the inability to load DVDs into iTunes and an iPod, not Apple. I believe it’s fair to include the movie industry and the U.S. government, certainly. However, it’s Apple that markets the iPod as a movie player, […]
Analysts say that Apple has been less than successful with selling video content – including television shows and movies – than it has been with selling music on its iTunes Store. It’s easy to see why (and this is independent of the inability to load the DVDs you already own onto the iPod). There are […]
So, we’re getting ready to head off on a vacation. My son says to me, “How can I load Hunt from Red October onto my iPod?” “You can’t,” I reply. “Apple won’t let you.” My son’s 30GB iPod with Video – the previous generation device – is a marvelous music player. But as a video […]
Confidential to Ted Bahr: I enjoyed our lunch today at Toast & Co., one of Huntington’s newest restaurants. However, despite your claims to the contrary, it is not a diner. Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
For the third year, the Eclipse Foundation is sponsoring its Eclipse Community Awards. Nominations have just opened, and the awards themselves will be presented on Mar. 17 at EclipseCon 2008. Deadline for nominations is January 25, 2008. Individual Awards are given to the Top Committer and the Top Ambassador. You can submit your nominations by […]
One of the best places I’ve ever worked was Miller Freeman. I joined the company in 1990, and left in 1998. The warmth at Miller Freeman – an 90-year-old company – was extraordinary, and that’s where I made some of my dearest friends, including BZ Media co-founder Ted Bahr. Miller Freeman’s swan song began in […]
Registration is now open for STPCon Spring 2008. When I look through the class schedule, the Software Test & Performance Conference keeps getting better. A big shout-out for Edward Correia, who spearheaded the effort! Of the more than 70 technical sessions, three of the jumped out at me, mainly because of their great titles. However, […]
At the Embedded Software Summit, held in Santa Barbara, Calif., this week, the consensus is that it costs, on average, between $100 and $1000 per line to write truly secure code. The Embedded Software Summit is an annual press-and-analyst schmoozefest by Green Hills Software, which is based in this beautiful resort town. The company uses […]
There’s a lot Jack Bauer doesn’t know about time management. If he did, the star character of the Fox TV series 24 might have been able to give himself a little more time to save the planet from last season’s band of nuke-toting terrorists. So begins the lead feature in yesterday’s edition of Test & […]
It’s amazing to me that cars don’t tell you the inside temperature. Just about every car I drive has an exterior thermometer. But where’s the interior one? An exterior thermometer appears to be the new standard feature. My Mazda3 hatchback has one, as does my wife’s Acura TSX. My wife’s previous car, a 1999 BMW […]
I’m delighted to announce that the Software Test & Performance Conference opening keynote speaker is Robert Sabourin. Rob is not only one of the best-rated faculty at STPCon, but he’s also one of the top celebrities of the software test community. Plus, he’s a really engaging speaker. Rob’s keynote is entitled, “Out of the Frying […]
Let me start by saying that I am not a GPS expert (though I have owned quite a few of them). I have not done an exhaustive study of all the consumer-grade Global Positioning Systems currently available this holiday season.In fact, I have a greater understanding of the radio and math behind GPS than I […]
Some things never go away. One of them is the fervent desire that IBM will release its moribund OS/2 operating system as open source software. It’s time to give it up, folks. And I say that affectionately as the founding-and-only editor of OS/2 Magazine, published by Miller Freeman from 1994 through 1997. OS/2 is over, […]
Today, we posted the winners of the Software Test & Performance Testers Choice Awards 2007 onto the ST&P Web site. We hope you enjoy reading them! They had been previously announced at STPCon Fall 2007, and published in the December issue of ST&P. For 2007, the winners were divided into the following categories: Data Test/PerformanceFunctional […]
Microsoft has announced the dates for its Professional Developer Conference (PDC) in 2008: October 27-30 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. You may recall that Microsoft had planned a PDC this year, scheduled for October 4-8, 2007, in Los Angeles. The company pushed it back last May, saying that it was merely postponed: “We are […]
I can completely relate to David Pogue’s latest column on NYTimes.com, where he rails against the latest moronically named Web sites, like Zoogmo, “Your Online Backup Community.” Pogue doesn’t address the curious question of whether I want my online backups to be part of a community… it’s just the name he targets. What does Zoogmo […]
(My Zeichick’s Take from Thursday, Dec. 6.) Are you looking for some great gifts this holiday season? Of course you are! And do you want to buy technology books? Of course you do! Here are three that I recommend, either for you or for your development team. “Automated Defect Prevention: Best Practices in Software Management” […]
Back in August, Nate Orenstam wrote a blog post on Valley of the Geeks which answered the question: What if the Gartner Magic Quadrants were, indeed, covering magic, and ranked Albus Dumbledore and Gandalf? Well, despite the inclusion of non-magical creatures like Bill Gates and Richard Nixon, I think Nate captured the essential spirit of […]
When we do research studies at BZ Media, we often offer an incentive to people who take part in the study. If they choose, they may be entered into a drawing for a small prize. We’ve offered several prizes, including gift cards, but the one that seems to interest the most people is an iPod. […]
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a success, but it’s the IT revolution that many pundits proclaimed. This was supposed to the Year of SaaS. Between Google and Salesforce.com, the buzz was all about hosted applications. When you mashed SaaS with service oriented architectures and with outsourcing/offshoring, it looks like the future of IT would be centered for […]
When I used a paper Day-Timer organizer – which I did for nearly 20 years – I clearly understood the difference between writing something into my appointment calendar, and penciling something into my appointment calendar. When you write something into your calendar, the assumption is that it’s a commitment. Sure, you might erase or change […]
Over the past week, I’ve been thinking about which new books to recommend for holiday buyers – either for themselves, or their technology teams. Three recommendations will come out in SD Times News on Thursday this week. (I’ll repost them here afterwards.) While you’re waiting, I urge you to check out a tremendous article by […]