Z Trek: The Alan Zeichick Weblog

Kent Beck classifies software changes

Kent Beck and Ken Pugh are smart, smart fellows. Listening to them discuss the art and science of software development is guaranteed to excite the neurons… and leave you feeling supercharged with energy and ideas.Both Kent (pictured) and Ken…

For Dummies, a month-long celebration takes two months

How long should Dummies Month last? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?The correct answer, according to the For Dummies folks, is "two months." It's like an all-day Happy Hour!Celebrate For Dummies in March and AprilFrom fashion to Facebook,…

Will Virtual COMDEX include Virtual Cab Lines?

United Business Media is relaunching COMDEX as a virtual trade show.This is hysterically funny. Laugh-out-loud funny. Roll-on-the-floor funny. The benefits of attending COMDEX were talking to people, seeing and touching new products, talking…

Thinking about enterprise software

If you’re reading this on Monday, Mar. 1, today is the first day of the Enterprise Software Development Conference. As conference chair, I’m running around like the proverbial chicken with my head cut off.As I write this, however, we’re…

Fascinating interview with a Nigerian scammer

I'm not sure I believe everything the scammer says in this three-part interview with Scam Detectives, but this is interesting nonetheless.Read all three parts:Part 1: January 22, 2010Part 2: January 26, 2010Part 3: February 2, 2010Z Trek…

Happy Birthday, SD Times!

We don’t aspire to be the next Industry Standard, Release 2.0, Fast Company or Wired. We simply want to be your favorite newspaper. The only paper that reports on what is happening in our growing, fast-moving industry—the software development…

Facebook FAIL and the helpless of using SaaS platforms

Wow, did Facebook blow it with its latest redesign. The new, simpler navigation system, unveiled on Feb. 4, was intended to make it easier for people to stay updated, discover content and interact with applications. Instead, the new nav structure…

Super-excited about the SharePoint Technology Conference

We're racing toward the finish line for SPTechCon San Francisco, BZ Media's SharePoint Technology Conference. It's next week, Feb. 10-12, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in Burlingame. And it's going to be huge… here's why.• So…

Learn why SD Times is the print-publishing leader

An article in Media Business quotes my partner Ted Bahr in an overview of business-to-business publishing in the technology sector. It says,… an upstart brand, BZ Media's SD Times, has become a print leader in the sector. “That kind of left…

Google fights the good fight against old browsers, spaghetti code

Old browsers are a pain in the butt – not just for users, but for Web application developers that must keep supporting them. Sometimes that means dumbing down Web apps by avoiding new standards and capabilities. Sometimes that means spaghetti…

Ex-Borland Auction for Haiti Relief

I'm pleased to pass along this message from my friend Michael Swindell, a long-time Borlander who now works at Embarcadero Technologies. There's lots of cool stuff on their eBay auction site, and of course, this is for an important cause. I've…

It’s time for reader nominations for the SD Times 100

Give us your leaders, your innovators, your visionaries who have improved the art and science of software development. Send those, the best and brightest in the land, to SD Times!Yes, it’s time again to begin the process of determining the…

Apple, Dell, Fujitsu, IBM: A Tale of Four Old Laptops

This week, Apple is expected to announce its new tablet computer. Will it be the iSlate? The iPad? With it include built-in 3G or WiFi? Beats me, Jack. As I write this, it’s a week before the announcement. So, let’s talk about something…

Come help us put the ‘SD’ in ESDC

Are you planning to attend the Enterprise Software Development Conference? I hope you’ll join us at ESDC as we continue the fine tradition of excellent in technical education and community-building that we enjoyed at the old SD West conference…

12 features I’d like to see on the next iPhone

Earlier this week, my friend David Coursey asked a question on Facebook, "What must Apple do with the next iPhone to make/keep you happy? Features? Software? And what would make you change to a different handset?"Well, at the risk of perhaps…

NetWitness announces an offering with the catchy SKU NW-536F6C657261

This is fun! Here's how a funky press release starts... seems like the usual PR blather, eh?NetWitness(R) Announces New B.O.S. Competitive OfferingCompany Releases Offering Designed to Match Capabilities of Other Network Security Monitoring…

Those really were the droids you were looking for

This classic motivational image has been floating around the Internet for a while. Wish I knew the artist to attribute it to.Click the picture to see it larger.Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick

Lame press release of the week: Client to get media interviews thanks to PR agency

However much this company is paying for its press relations advice… it's too much. This is the start of a release that a company put onto the wire last week:Jedi Mind to Receive Media Coverage at CES in Las VegasCARDIFF, Calif., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/…

Wells Fargo Bank’s annoying automated phone calls

Over the past few weeks, my son's cell phone has been receiving dozens of unwanted phone calls — sometimes three, four or five calls daily. If he answers the phone, a recorded message tells him to contact Wells Fargo Bank about his overdrawn…

Kent Beck, Ken Pugh lead an outstanding conference faculty

The Enterprise Software Development Conference kicks off in less than two months, with an all-star faculty led by keynote speakers Kent Beck and Ken Pugh.The three-day conference will take place at the San Mateo Marriott, San Mateo, Calif.,…

The Apple iTablet cures cancer!

The frenzy around Apple’s assumed-to-be-forthcoming tablet computer is reaching a feverish pitch, with major news outlets, from the New York Times to the British Broadcasting Corp., covering and feeding the speculation. I haven’t seen this…

New Years Resolutions for software developers

It’s traditional to make resolutions to celebrate the New Year. Often those resolutions involve battles with personal demons, such as losing weight, stopping smoking or going to the gym.In fact, according to USA.gov, popular New Years resolutions…

A decade of change since Y2K

It’s been ten years since the first digit of the calendar changed from a “1” to a “2.” For those of us in the computer industry, change happened at a dizzying pace over the past decade – as it has for every decade since the 1950s.Think…

It’s the future! Where are the flying cars?

My favorite New Years story goes back exactly 10 years. I was here in San Francisco, and my wife was visiting friends and family in Scotland.It was wonderful when Carole called just after midnight, her time, to wish me a Happy New Year. Even…

Go on, be a Tiger!

Spammers understand the business benefits of tailoring a marketing message to fit current events.I checked my Postini spam trap this morning — it's been over a week since last time it was cleaned out. There were several spam messages with…

We get the best reader comments

We receive many wonderful reader comments on sdtimes.com. Most are thoughtful and add genuine value to our news and analysis of the software development industry.And then there are spam comments which try to drive links to external scam websites.…

The newest iPhone app developer: Microsoft

Pigs are flying all around my office today. According to The Weather Channel, the temperature in Hades is a nippy -40 degrees. Oh, and Microsoft has created an iPhone app available through the Apple App Store.The application is called Bing,…

The perfect car for James Bond, Jr.

Gosh, isn't this the cutest Aston Martin ever?The Aston Martin Cygnet concept vehicle is described as a luxury commuter car. That's quite a change from the company's usual mantra, "Aston Martin is a name that needs little introduction. It has…

Scammers now contacting via Facebook messages

A scam just arrived in my Facebook inbox. It was apparently sent from a Facebook account named Tofa Maxwell. It's unclear how to report such messages to Facebook in any meaningful way. My advice is to simply delete such messages without responding.…
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PR angels in the outfield

This just in, from the aptly named "Pitch Public Relations." This particular fastball, sent to a technology analyst (me), was high and to the outside… though, one could argue, by my blogging the pitch, the agency is getting the coverage it…