This was passed to me…

A mechanical engineer, chemical engineer and software engineer are driving on a beautiful spring day. Suddenly, their car breaks down. The three engineers discuss how to fix the problem.

“It must be a mechanical fault,” says the mechanical engineer. “Let’s pop the hood and repair the engine.”

“No, there’s something wrong with the gasoline,” argues the chemical engineer. “We need to filter or replace the fuel.”

Both argue with each other, until the software engineer offers the solution: “Just close all the windows, and then open them again. That usually does the trick.”

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the Free Software Foundation. The FSF project that gets the most buzz in the media, of course, the GNU General Public License, which serves as the underpinning of many high-visibility open-source projects.

Writing about the GPL is great sport, especially because it drives some commercial developers (like Microsoft) into conniptions. We technology analyst and journalists love a good theatre, and Microsoft vs. GPL will be selling popcorn for many, many years.

If you focus on just the GPL, and Richard Stallman’s unwavering advocacy for free and open-source software, you’re missing what I consider to be the real goodness: the bits created by the GNU Project.

Consider the GNU Compiler Collection. gcc is the de facto standard everywhere (except in the Microsoft-specific world). Even where you have commercial compilers, such as those from Intel, the baseline for compatibility and performance is the gcc.

Want more? There’s the Emacs editor, the gdb debugger, the GIMP image manipulation program, the Mailman listserve software, the gawk string-manipulation language, and dozens of other tools, utilities and applications. The software create by the GNU Project tend to be ignored, mainly because they just work, but also because they don’t present the drama inherent in software licensing.

So, we celebrate a quarter century of the GNU Project. See Alex Handy’s coverage of the GNU anniversary and of the latest updates to gcc. And remember, there’s more to the Free Software Foundation than license squabbles with Microsoft.

I believe in the Endowment Effect. That’s an economic hypothesis that says that people place a higher value on things they already possess, compared to its nominal value if they didn’t already possess it.

Imagine if you own a 2005 Toyota Camry, and someone offered to swap it outright for a 2007 Toyota Camry. Would you do it? You’d be getting a more valuable car. The answer? Probably not. Or someone offers to replace your favorite watch, or your favorite leather jacket, with one that’s more valuable. Would you?

We grow attached to what we have – even if we have the opportunity to “upgrade.” There are good reasons for this behavior. One reason is, we want to minimize our unknowns. We already know our car and have come to term with its quirks and defects. Even though the newer car may be more valuable, its possible quirks and defects might be ones that we won’t accept. The new watch might not keep accurate time. The new leather jacket may not fit as comfortably.

Another is that we feel that we are invested in our decisions. We rationalize why the 2005 car is a “better” car, why the watch we have is a “better” watch. We say that monetary value isn’t everything, because we weren’t looking to sell them in the first place. Their value to us is in their utility and the pleasure they provide, not what they’d fetch on eBay.

Yet sometimes, the Endowment Effect might have a negative effect. Consider the choice of tools platforms, deployment targets, programming languages, reusable component suites, methodologies, even service providers. We have an emotional and financial investment in what we’re using. We’ve spent time learning and training. We’ve justified to ourselves (and our teams, partners and managers) that we’ve made the very best choices, and we’re going to stick with what we’ve got.

The reality is, however, that technology moves on. Yes, the best choices for our business two years ago, or five years ago, may still be the best choices today. But then again, they may not be the best choices.

All too often, we decline to evaluate new choices, insisting, “We did our evaluation, we made up our mind, and we’re sticking with it.” That’s fine when it comes to personal possessions. However, in a business context, we should be more open-minded. Perhaps we like our older car – or our familiar toolchain – and it could be uncomfortable to change on the short term. But maybe, just maybe, a different one might be a better choice.

Last night, SD West gave out the 19th annual Jolt awards. As one of the creators of the Jolt awards, there’s a soft spot in my heart for what they represent.

Each year, the Jolt award judges (and I was one for many years, until the award owners realized that I was nominally a ‘competitor’) looked for the products that truly jolted the productivity of individual developers, or of development teams. The top product in each category won the coveted Jolt award, while a few runners-up were given a Productivity award.

My hat goes off to the many judges who have maintained the Jolt awards over the years, but especially to rest of the launch team: J.D. Hildebrand, Larry O’Brien and Michael Mulholland. (You can read J.D.’s first-hand report about the creation of the Jolt awards in “In Praise of 1990’s Best.”

Who produces the Jolt awards? Over the years, ownership and stewardship has moved. At first, they were given out by Computer Language. Computer Language was renamed as Software Development, of course, and then it was folded into Dr. Dobb’s Journal. During this period, the Jolt awards were overseen by the appropriate magazine’s editors. Today, without a publication to work with, the awards are run by the SD West show management team.

Of course, while yours truly is no longer associated with the Jolt awards, I’m happy that two of the learned judges are SD Times columnists. One of them is Jolt award co-founder Larry O’Brien. The other is Andrew Binstock, who presented the Jolt awards last night.

Let’s have a big shout-out for Andrew, and a heartfelt congratulations for this year’s Jolt award winners.

It was 1988 or 1989 — can’t be sure exactly. That was the era when there were dozen of personal-computer manufacturers, and when it was vital to make the twice-annual pilgrimage to COMDEX. That’s where you’d not only find the hottest new computing hardware and software, but also no-expenses-spared booths and floor shows starring models, celebrities, magicians, dancers and athletes.

At one COMDEX of that long-ago epoch, I was speaking about cutting-edge laptop computers, and that gave me access to the speaker’s lounge. When I wandered in for a moment’s relaxation, I saw an enormous man wearing a leotard. The heavyweight wrestler King Kong Bundy, who at that time was the pitchman for HeadStart Computers, was sitting alone at one of the tables.

To make a long story short: I sat down next to the huge man, and we started talking. He had a very normal voice, and so if you didn’t look at the bald-headed giant, it was just like having any other conversation. We chatted about computers, and it turned out that he was fairly PC-literate; he was knowledgeable about the latest modems, monitors, processors, all sorts of COMDEX-related things. I recall thinking, this is a savvy businessman — not the stereotypical muscle-bound dumb guy.

During the remainder of the show, I passed by the HeadStart booth several times, and if King Kong Bundy was there, he’d wave or smile in my direction. What a nice guy.

Maybe I’m not sufficiently romantic, but there’s always been something strange to me about Valentine’s Day. From being forced to bring little Valentine’s cards for my classmates in elementary school (as a mandatory classroom activity), to being relentlessly bombarded by marketing messages from greeting card, flower and candy companies, something hasn’t been right.

Was it me? Was it only me?

I guess not. CNN contributor Roland Martin says it clearly with in his essay today, “Please don’t be my Valentine.” Here’s an excerpt:

First of all, Valentine’s Day is not built around a religious event like Christmas or Easter; nor does it have any special meaning to the nation such as Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

It is nothing more than a commercial holiday created by rabid retailers who needed a major shopping day between Christmas and Easter in order to give people a reason to spend money.

Now folks, I love my wife. She is truly an awesome woman who is smart, talented, fine, and, did I say fine? But do I really need a special day to show my affection for her?

He continues,

And Valentine’s Day really isn’t even a two-way street. Men are utterly irrelevant except to serve as pawns in this commercial game, emptying their wallets in order to satisfy their lovers or those around them. Oh yea, retailers know the con game.

I’m with you, Roland. Considering that I took my wife out on a dinner date last night, it’s clear that we don’t need a special day to show our affection. We try to make every day special. I think I’m plenty romantic.

We don’t need to support a retail-driven holiday that guilts men into buying specific products on a specific day in order to demonstrate their love for their special ladies.

Read Roland’s commentary. What do you think?

San Diego — At the SharePoint Best Practices conference here today, the keynote speaker provided the ultimate SharePoint resource: a list of 10 steps to success with SharePoint.

SharePoint Best Practices is produced by Mindsharp, which is a technology training and education company. This is their second SharePoint Best Practices conference; the debut event last year was in Washington, D.C.

The keynote speaker was Joel Oleson (pictured), who is a SharePoint Evangelist and Senior Product Manager at Quest Software. However, he’s probably best known for his tenure at Microsoft, where he architected Microsoft’s internal SharePoint deployment, and also served as product marketing manager for the launch of SharePoint Server 2007.

Here, without further ado, are Joel’s 10 steps to success with SharePoint. What’s in bold are his points; the descriptions are my summary of his comments.

1. Confront reality. Assess the situation, and determine where you are right now, with skills, resources, culture and plans.

2. Create a governance plan. You need a governance plan to define services, resolve ambiguity and mitigate conflict within the organization. The plan explains defines services by using people, process and policies.

3. Get an executive sponsor. Because a successful SharePoint implementation will necessarily affect organizational policies, processes and culture, it’s important to have genuine, sincere and consistent top-level support.

4. Create a dream team. You’re not going to have a successful SharePoint deployment if your team consists of a single guy who’s designated as the new SharePoint admin, and maybe a developer who’d rather be playing with AJAX.

5. Build services, not stuff. A SharePoint deployment requires software, data, metadata and other artifacts, duh, but that’s not the point of the deployment. Don’t forget: The reason you deploy SharePoint is because of the services it offers the organization.

6. Define clear policies and standards. Users across the organization want guidance about what they can do, what they can’t do, who does what, what’s appropriate, and so-on. Ambiguity and vagueness are bad.

7. Invest in scalable information architecture. When planning the deployment, understand where the scalability pain points are, so you can plan for them.

8. Don’t forget change and risk management. The SharePoint deployment you envision is not going to be exactly what happens. Be sure to plan carefully — but stay flexible and responsive to changing needs and changing realities.

9. Adoption is what counts. The job’s not done just because the software is running. If information workers aren’t using SharePoint, you’ve lost. If workers aren’t taking SharePoint farther than you expected, you’ve lost.

10. Keep It Simple Stupid. Make your SharePoint project a series of many easy wins. While it’s great to have big plans, use a phased approach that is realistic about what you can accomplish, and go from success to success to success.

For those of you who have been following my separate Mac & iPhone blog: As of today, Feb. 1, it’s taking a little vacation.

My blog had been provided courtesy of TechWeb’s bMighty small-business site since 2007. I’ve received a lot of fan mail, and know that there are many followers who like my matter-of-fact, non-fanboy commentary and analysis about Apple’s technologies and products. No Kool-Aid here!

Sadly, TechWeb notified me last week that due to budget cuts, they were discontinuing my blog.

I’m looking for a new sponsor for my Mac & iPhone blog, and will let you know when it’s found a new home.

Thank you for your support!

Did you know that BZ Media was started nearly a decade ago? We founded the company in 1999. Right now, we’re finishing up the 9th anniversary issue of our flagship, SD Times, the Industry Newspaper for Software Development Managers.

We launched SD Times in a recession, and we’re in another one today. We’re glad that our company is well-positioned to ride out the storm.

Not only is SD Times healthy from both a readership and advertising perspective, but we have strong additional properties, including our new SPTechCon: The SharePoint Technology Conference. SPTechCon just concluded its debut event in the Bay Area, and will be coming to Boston on June 22-24.

Even with the new products, the heart and soul of BZ Media is SD Times. Happy anniversary — and thank you, everyone, for your support over the past nine years. Onward and upward!

Another software-development publication bites the dust, as 1105 Media Inc. shutters Redmond Developer News. RDN was a twice-monthly newspaper for Microsoft-centered development managers that launched in 2006. Think of it as a short-lived “SD Times Lite.”

Today, 1105 shut down RDN, which will be “folded into” another 1105 publication, Visual Studio Magazine.

Business-wise, this is similar to what happened a few weeks ago, when United News & Media shut down Dr. Dobb’s Journal after its February 2009 issue, and “folded” it into Information Week. The business benefit to 1105 is that Visual Studio Magazine can save a lot of money this year by absorbing RDN’s subscriber list.

Of course, 1105 is being careful to position this as a huge win for VSM subscribers, while downplaying the part about shutting down the unsuccessful Redmond Developer News.

1105’s press release is entitled, “Visual Studio Magazine Announces Expanded Coverage, New Content Chief, Staff.”

The news about closing Redmond Developer News is in the fourth paragraph, “As part of the transition, RDN print coverage will be folded into Visual Studio Magazine. The RDN Web site will continue to operate and will provide expanded news, reporting and analysis for the .NET developer community.”

You have to wonder if VSM’s readers really want “RDN print coverage” added into their programming magazine. If it’s a tradeoff that requires slashing VSM’s popular technical content… readers may not be happy. We’ll see how it goes.

When a publication folds, that usually means layoffs. In this case, the layoffs are taking place at VSM, as RDN’s editorial management team is moving over to Visual Studio Magazine. Sadly, VSM readers are losing two editors, Patrick Meader and Guy Wright (a friend and colleague since 1987!). Good luck, guys!

You can read the official 1105 announcement here, and see comments by RDN’s editor-in-chief, Michael Desmond (who is taking over from Patrick as e-in-c of VSM) here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Coming Off Its Blow-Out Bay Area Conference, BZ Media Launches SPTechCon Boston in June 2009

The Only SharePoint Technology Conference in the Northeast U.S. will satisfy a strong demand for education on Microsoft’s popular enterprise platform

Huntington, N.Y., January 27, 2009 — BZ Media LLC today announced that it is bringing SPTechCon™: The SharePoint Technology Conference to Boston in June 2009. This follows the incredibly successful debut event, SPTechCon San Francisco, which was held January 27-29, 2009.

SPTechCon Boston will be held June 22-24, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge. The three-day conference will offer more than 60 technical classes and workshops for IT professionals, systems administration managers, line-of-business managers, business analysts and software developers.

Extreme Early Bird pricing for SPTechCon Boston attendees is open through March 12, 2009.

BZ Media is the publisher of SD Times, the newspaper of record for software development managers as well as Systems Management News, the authoritative source for IT professionals and systems administrators.

Based on the strong attendance at the debut San Francisco event (see separate release), and on early responses from SharePoint users asked about a summer event in the Northeast, more than 500 attendees are expected at SPTechCon Boston. It’s a possibility that the conference will reach sell-out levels of 700 attendees.

The first day at SPTechCon Boston will be filled with intensive full and half-day workshops, while the next two days contain several keynote addresses and dozens of concurrent classes. All classes are focused on maximizing the benefits of using Office SharePoint Server, a Microsoft technology that provides a single, integrated platform where employees can efficiently collaborate with team members, find organizational resources, manage content and workflow, and leverage business insight to make better-informed decisions.

With faculty drawn from Microsoft’s SharePoint team, as well as Microsoft MVP experts in the field, there’s no better place to get a SharePoint education than SPTechCon Boston.

Many classes at SPTechCon also cover complementary Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Windows Server, the Microsoft Office System, and Windows SharePoint Services. The conference will also have a trade-show floor where exhibitors and sponsors can demonstrate compelling third-party applications, add-ons, plug-ins, tools and services built for Office SharePoint Products and Technologies.

Ted Bahr, President of BZ Media, said, “In today’s difficult economy, enterprises and organizations of all sizes are using SharePoint increase employee productivity while managing or even reducing IT and line-of-business operation costs. No matter the industry, the workshops and technical classes at SPTechCon Boston will help attendees deploy SharePoint faster, use it better, and offer more benefits to their companies faster. We’re proud to offer SPTechCon to serve this pressing educational need.”

Tom Rizzo, Director of SharePoint at Microsoft, said, “Microsoft Office SharePoint Server is the key to unlocking the productivity hidden within every business. BZ Media’s SPTechCon, coming to Boston this June, is the key to unlocking the productivity inside your SharePoint implementation. In today’s challenging business climate, there’s no better time to realize the tangible benefits of using SharePoint in your organization — and extending your use of SharePoint to more parts of your operation. Whether you’re an administrator, business professional or developer, you’ll benefit from the practical training at SPTechCon 2009 Boston.”

About BZ Media

BZ Media LLC® is a high-tech media company combining the best of print and Web-based publishing, offering industry-leading magazines, newspapers, Web sites and conferences.

SPTechCon™ San Francisco (Jan. 27-29, 2009) and SPTechCon™ Boston (Jun. 22-24, 2009) are the leading SharePoint Technology Conferences for IT professionals, business managers and developers.

“Former President Bush.” Those are three of the most beautiful words in the English language.

What a great speech our new president gave. I’m proud to be an American!

Here we go again, as the company which once had the best brand in software development jumps back into the blender.

You’ve probably seen the cheery stories that broke yesterday, about Tod Nielsen, former CEO of Borland, becoming COO of VMware. The positive, “isn’t this great?” coverage was skillfully orchestrated by VMware’s crack PR team, who did such a good job that nearly every Web reporter wrote nearly exactly the same upbeat, happy-happy, group-hug story.

What was neglected in almost all of the media coverage is — what about Borland? Because VMware’s PR team didn’t talk about Borland, few reporters bothered to look at the mess that Nielsen created during his three-year tenure.

(It’s striking that at Macworld, I was talking to a software developer and casually mentioned Borland. He asked, “Are they even still in business?”)

Nielsen (pictured) joined Borland as president and CEO in November 2005. During that time, all that he succeeded in doing, as far as I can tell, was to spin off the tools division, which operated for a while as a subsidiary called CodeGear. CodeGear was purchased by Embarcadero Technologies in May 2008.

So, as Nielsen moves from the command chair at Borland to a supporting role at VMware, what has he left behind? When announcing his departure on Jan. 6, Borland also announced preliminary 4th quarter revenues in the range of US38.5 to $40 million. That’s a big drop over 4th quarter 2007 revenues of $61.5 million.

The company also announced that it will layoff 130 employees, or about 15 percent of its regular full-time staff.

Goodbye to Nielsen, who looks like he jumped before he was pushed. And good luck to new Borland acting president/CEO Erik Prusch, who previously served as CFO. He’s going to need it. (By the way, when a company promotes its CFO to acting CEO — instead of advancing a sales or product executive — that’s a good sign that the company’s going to be sold soon.)