Z Trek: The Alan Zeichick Weblog

Microsoft PDC 2008: October in Los Angeles

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…

What’s with Thoof, Raketu, Etolos and Zoogmo?

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…

‘Tis the season to buy tech books

(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…

Who’s in the Magic Quadrant: Bill Gates, Albus Dumbledore or Richard Nixon?

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…

Which MP3 player would you like: a Zune, a Zen or an iPod?

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…

Is Software-as-a-Service as big a deal as everyone predicted?

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…

Why can’t I pencil an appointment into my digital calendar?

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…

Now’s the time to build up your Bruce Schneier library

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…

Team Alpha Super Awesome Cool Dynamite Wolf Squadron

Wouldn't a t-shirt (perhaps with a camo pattern) saying "Team Alpha Super Awesome Cool Dynamite Wolf Squadron" be neat?That's, of course, from the Dreamworks movie "Shrek the Third," where some of the magical creatures are plotting:Donkey: Alright…

Schedule for the 2008 SD Times 100

I’ve received several inquires about the deadlines for the 2008 SD Times 100. That’s the newspaper's annual recognition of the top innovators and leaders in the software development industry.Winners of the SD Times 100 can include commercial…

Maybe branding isn’t dead, Ted Bahr says

Maybe we're ready to move beyond the "Revenge of the Sock Puppet" phase of anti-branding.That’s what Ted Bahr, the “B” of BZ Media, writes in his new blog on Foliomag.com. In “Maybe Branding Isn’t Dead,” Ted ponders a possible backlash…

Gave up waiting for Western Digital’s 320GB drive – went external instead

Why settle for 320GB sometime in the indeterminate future, when you can have 450GB right now?Western Digital has repeatedly pushed back shipment of its 320GB 2.5-inch notebook hard drive. When the company announced the WD3200BEVT drive a month…

The Capability Immaturity Model

The Capability Immaturity Model was described today in an article by Mike Bohlmann (pictured). In “Best Practices: Are Your Company’s Processes Mature,” he writes,In the CIMM, there are four levels in which an organization can fail at…

The joy of receiving voicemail from PR professionals

As most of my friends and colleagues know, I’m an e-mail person. In the time it takes me to listen to one voicemail message, I can delete dozens of e-mails. Maybe hundreds. When you receive as many messages as I do (and as many people in the…

How could I forget to blog Alexa Weber Morales’ Vagabundeo/Wanderings?

I’m embarrassed that I never wrote about Alexa’s new CD, “Vagabundeo,” which came out over the summer. (I previously blogged her first disc, Jazzmérica.)Here’s the review I wrote for it on Amazon:This CD is wonderful. Even more than…
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I love my super-comfy Steelcase Think office chair

I am consistently amazed at how comfortable my Steelcase Think office chair is. For years, my back had been sore and stiff if I sat in front of my computer for more than an hour or so. In early 2005, I mentioned that to a friend, and he said,…

Andrew Binstock: The fallacy of 100% code coverage

So, let's start at the foundational level: 100% code coverage is a fallacious goal. Unit testing is designed to provide two principal benefits: 1) validate the operation of code; 2) create sensors that can detect when code operation has changed,…

What would you do with a milliom dollears?

A friend received this curious phishing message, reproduced below verbatim.Subject: END OF YEAR AWARD 2007 PUBLICATION RESULT BONAZAA!FROM STAATSLOTERIJ INTERNATIONAL B.V AWARD DEPARTMENT. MAARSHOF,3064HA,HILVERSUM,THE NETHERLANDS.This…

InternetNews’s nice writeup of the Total Eclipse panel at EclipseWorld 2007

Right after EclipseWorld 2007, my newsreader pulled down a story by Darryl K. Taft, a reporter for eWeek, who covered the Total Eclipse panel in a Nov. 7 story. This panel had some great conversation and insights from Eclipse Foundation’s…

Nine things your church or synagogue Web site needs

I was recently asked to advise local lay leaders about the sorts of things that a church or synagogue should have on its Web site. Here’s a short essay written in response. I hope this is interesting for other local-area non-profits as well.1.…

Have you signed up yet for FutureTest 2008?

It’s hard to believe that it’s been two months since we announced FutureTest 2008. That's our thought-provoking symposium for senior leaders in enterprise test/QA, as well as top executives in test/QA product and service companies.We have…

Intel and Microsoft will clean Negroponte’s clock

I think the One Laptop Per Child nitiative is a great idea. I just hope it survives.The idea of a $100-or-so laptop for the developing world is important. Nicholas Negroponte is a brilliant visionary. He demonstrated that time and again at the…

WSJ: Unclear on the meaning of ‘format for printing’

Why would you embed a video in a Web page that’s been reformatted for printing? You need rich text, certainly. Ads and graphics, yes, that makes sense too.How about an embedded video playback window? That’s just stupid. But that’s what…

Ultimate Santana’s Game of Love with Tina Turner

I’m a huge Carlos Santana fan, and have nearly all of his albums. So, when Arista Records announced yet another collection – Ultimate Santana – it barely registered on my radar. Why buy a collection when you’ve got the albums?Tina Turner.…

Being creative is no excuse for being flaky

I was rather dismayed by a story on CNN.com this week. Mary Lorenz wrote a story in its “career” section that excused flaky employees as free spirits with untapped creativity to contribute.Well, perhaps I’m too corporate, but that’s…

End of the month for the giant Western Digital hard drive

According to a spokesperson for Western Digital, the new 2.5-inch 320GB hard drives — which I wrote about on Nov. 2 — will be available the last week of November.This is a delay from the announcement on Oct. 31, when the company said the…

Happy birthday, CodeGear

It wasn't the easiest of births, but this week, CodeGear — the tools division of Borland — turned one year old. Borland had been flailing around. One minute their execs were saying that tools were important, the next minute they were irrelevant.…

We’re launching a newspaper: Systems Management News!

I'm delighted to announce a major new launch for BZ Media: Systems Management News, which will debut in April 2008.If you're familiar with BZ Media's SD Times, then you're already familiar with our flavor of management-level news and news analysis.But…

It’s time to buy and donate an XO laptop

As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the “One Laptop Per Child” program has a short-time offer: Donate one of their XO laptops to a needy child, and get one for yourself, for $399.Normally the devices are intended purely for donation, but for…

Spammers never cease to amuse

My antivirus software blocked this malware carrier's payload, but I enjoyed reading the message. You think they'd at least run spellcheck.Dear Bzmedia Member, We have temporarily suspended your email account. This might be due to either of…