Z Trek: The Alan Zeichick Weblog

Trashing my extensive restaurant portfolio

Here’s today’s mis-directed sales pitch. It was good for a laugh, if nothing else. From: Jefrey Heath Subject: Regarding your garbage removal Hi Alan, May I get on your schedule for 5-minute telephone call to discuss reducing…
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Authentic Reform Judaism

This is one of a series of articles I wrote for the monthly Bulletin of Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, Calif. Some PTS families light Shabbat candles every Friday night. That is authentic Reform Judaism. Some families rarely or…
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Possible progress with female software engineers

It looks like the tech industry is hiring more women. Maybe. Maybe not. The statistics are hard to interpret. Also, it’s unclear if the newly hired women are performing technical or other jobs. I’m looking at a blog from the New York…
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The future of Reform Judaism — Thoughts about the Pew study

This is one of a series of articles I wrote for the monthly Bulletin of Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, Calif. Did you know that more than one-third of all U.S. Jews identify with the Reform Movement — and that Reform is, by far,…
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Thank you and please – High Holy Days remarks

My 2013/5774 Rosh Hashanah speech at Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, Calif. A synagogue, like Peninsula Temple Sholom, is many things. Around the High Holy Days, we are a beit t'filah, a house of prayer, worship and spirituality.…
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Justice, justice, let us seek it together — Tzedek, tzedek, tirdof

This is one of a series of articles I wrote for the monthly Bulletin of Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, Calif. Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may live, and inherit the land which the Lord your God gives you. —Deuteronomy…
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Microsoft keeps stumbling

Microsoft’s woes are too big to ignore. Problem area number one: The high-profile Surface tablet/notebook device is flopping. While the 64-bit Intel-based Surface Pro hasn’t sold well, the 32-bit ARM-based Surface RT tanked. Big time.…
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May their memory be a blessing

This is one of a series of articles I wrote for the monthly Bulletin of Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, Calif. The flickering television screen caught our eye as we sat sipping cold drinks at a Burger King in Parker, Arizona.…
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Cloud failures: It’s not if, it’s when

Apple is sporting an nasty black eye, and the shiner isn’t only because iPad sales are slipping – with a 14% year-on-year decline reported. This time, it’s because QoS on the company’s cloud servers is ugly, ugly, ugly. As of…
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The developer is king

“You should double your top line revenue by making your products more awesome, not by doubling the size of your sales department.” That was one of the insights shared during a technology roundtable held last July 16 in San Francisco.…
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Saying farewell to the mouse-man, Douglas Engelbart

Dr. Douglas Engelbart, who passed away on July 2, was best known as the inventor of the computer mouse. While Dr. Engelbart was the brains behind many revolutionary ideas, his demonstration of a word processor using a mouse in 1968 paved…
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Test Early, Test Often

Quality Assurance. Testing. No matter what you call it – and of course, there are subtle distinctions between testing and QA – the discipline is essential for successfully creating professional-grade software. Sure, a one-person shop…
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Building on Microsoft Build

If you were at Microsoft Build this week in San Francisco, you hung out with six thousand of your closest friends. At least, your closest friends who are enterprise .NET developers, or who are building apps for some version of Windows 8. Those…
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Four common mobile development mistakes

Web sites developed for desktop browsers look, quite frankly, terrible on a mobile device. The look and feel is often wrong, very wrong. Text is the wrong size. Gratuitous clip art on the home page chews up bandwidth. Features like animations…
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See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, code no evil

Data can be abused. The rights of individuals can be violated. Bits of disparate information can be tracked without a customer’s knowledge, and used to piece together identities or other profile information that a customer did not intend…
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Hurray for COBOL and the mainframe

Perhaps I’m an old fogey, but I can’t help but smile when I see press releases like this: “IBM Unveils New Software to Enable Mainframe Applications on Cloud, Mobile Devices.”  Everything old will become new again, as the late…
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Big Expectations and Big Challenges for Big Data

According to IDG Research, 80% of business leaders say that Big Data should enable more informed business decisions – and 37% say that the insights provided by Big Data should prove critical to those decisions. A February 2013 survey…
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The roses are magnificent — a year in review

This is one of a series of articles I wrote for the monthly Bulletin of Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, Calif. Roses are sure to brighten up everyone's day. The best place to see roses is the International Rose Tea Garden in Portland,…
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Get ready for the #SDTimes100

The software development world keeps on changing. Just when we think we get a handle on something as simple as application lifecycle management, or cloud computing, or mobile apps, we get new models, new innovations, new technologies. Forget…
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In-memory databases poised for takeoff

The classic database engines – like the big relational behemoths from IBM, Microsoft and Oracle – store the data on disk. So do many of the open-source databases, like MySQL and PostgreSQL, as well as the vast array of emerging NoSQL…
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Power down… or airplane mode?

Like many of you, I travel with a vast array of personal electronic devices – so much that my briefcase bulges with screens, batteries, cables and charging bricks. Some devices are turned off when I’m on an airplane – and some aren’t,…
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Let’s boost developer velocity by 30x

Not long ago, if the corporate brass wanted the change major functionality in a big piece of software, the IT delivery time might be six to 12 months, maybe longer. Once upon a time, that was acceptable. Not today. Thanks to agile, many…
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Snaps for a perfect Shabbat evening with teens and healing

This is one of a series of articles I wrote for the monthly Bulletin of Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, Calif. If you were in the Sanctuary on Friday evening, March 15, you know that it was a perfect Erev Shabbat service. You felt…
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Mobile developer mojo

Tickets for the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference went on sale on Thursday, April 25. They sold out in two minutes. Who says that the iPhone has lost its allure? Not developers. Sure, Apple’s stock price is down, but at least Apple…
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Coping with the data

As I write this on Friday, Apr. 19, it’s been a rough week. A tragic week. Boston is on lockdown, as the hunt for the suspected Boston Marathon bombers continues. Explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas. Killings in Syria. Suicide bombings…
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Big Data and PC Sales Data

Last week, we held the debut Big Data TechCon in Cambridge, Mass. It was a huge success – more attendees than we expected, which is great. (With a debut event, you never really know.) We had lots of sessions, many of which were like…
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Looking for girls who code

I know many female IT professionals. In some parts of the tech field, there are lots of women. In others — including software development — females are fairly rare. Is this a problem? If so, why? Those are legitimate questions. Do companies…
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A strong vote for our spiritual leader, Rabbi Dan Feder

This is one of a series of articles I wrote for the monthly Bulletin of Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame, Calif. I am delighted to report that the Board of Trustees has voted to offer Rabbi Dan Feder another contract to remain at Peninsula…
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The 8-year-old Git is coming on strong

Git, the open-source version control system, is becoming popular with enterprise developers. Or so it appears not only from anecdotal evidence I hear from developers all the time, but also from a new marketing study from CollabNet. The…
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Moving into Big Data mode

Packing lists – check.  Supplies ordered – check. Show bags on schedule – check. Speakers all confirmed – check. Missing laptop power cord located – check. Airline tickets verified – check. Candy purchased for reservation desk…