Most gas stations in Oregon don't have canopies. If you want to stand out in the rain to pump your gas, you can always go over the state line into Washington.

So your organization uses process change as a euphemism for "firing bad developers we were too chickenshit to fire for being bad in the first place". Sounds like a well-managed company with a recipe for a happy and productive workforce. I would like to subscribe to your newsletter, Catbert.

If your Scrum meeting takes less than 30 seconds, you must not be doing Scrum either. Scrum is not about rigid time absolutes, it's about communication. Too much? Bad. Too little? Bad. Sometimes you need more, sometimes you need less. By the way, Scrum masters are often bad at determining which communication is important and how long stand ups need to last on both the short and long ends.

Ultimately, the question is not your "One True Scotsman" shibboleth, but what is industry standard. And right now, industry standard is standup meetings that run too long, transmit too little useful information, and take up too much project time as a percentage. Are we getting the transparency "bang for the buck" that Scrum promises from its process or were we better off with half-hour weekly status meetings and dailys when projects were coming down to an end? Are standups what bring value to the process or is it all of the other practices that often get snuck in on the back of Scrum? Strict timeboxing on tasks, TDD, continual improvement, transparent status, all of which actually reduce risk? How much does the standup actually bring to the party? More importantly, why is the Scrum community unwilling to discuss questions like this, simply saying "It's not true Scrum, so I don't care."?

Hand me a white-haired cat and I can hand you back the same cat with pink fur about an hour later. And if his name is Gerald, he may be pissed, but given that the ONLY criteria you have are Gerald is a cat and Gerald has fur and Gerald's fur has color pink, he would not be a figment of the imagination. Of course, a month after that, you'll need to touch up his roots, but that's just quibbling.

Another suggestion... Have H1B's auctioned, rather than being free. The more you're willing to pay, the greater chance you have of getting an H1B. Break ties in the last price tranche by lottery. Then we'll see what they're really worth and see if it's really worth the price to society.

'Nuff said. The folks able to keep up with rapid attention shifts will survive. Those who take longer? They'll die sooner and breed less. Pretty soon, we'll "evolve" to the point where we'll al ride around in personal mobility units with our view of the real world is through a single sensor protruding in front of us, after which it'll be a short step to fully enclosed climate controlled pods.

Then, when our evolutionary perfection is achieved, we can crush The Doctor and destroy all other imperfect sentient beings in the universe.

Dear Microsoft...

What the letter above said is that he "doesn't like the Firefox (or Chrome) model for updates". I personally have no trouble with it. He seems to want to leave you all behind, anyway.

Sure, I have a love-hate relationship with you, but it's better than the pure irritation and hatred that seems to ooze from the above letter. He must be a system administrator or something broken like that to hate you so much.

I wouldn't pay much attention to him.

even though I couldn't name a single line of code he taught us that year.

Well, I remember some code from my first programming class (in FORTRAN!):

I = I + 1

Man, I remember it like it was yesterday!

... it's the Republican Primary, they dream of finding someone qualified to manage an Arby's.

Why? They've got Herman Cain - he managed a Godfather's Pizza!

And whom I expect to be announcing in 15... 14... 13... Look out, baby, the clown car's getting even more fullerer!

The problem is that, even if the students there at the time are gone and have been replaced by noobs who have no history, the staff and faculty were still there, still remember, and are in charge of the grinding the wheels of justice. People who put out stupid messages should remember that.

Do you count scheme and clojure? If so, that's nine or so...

Better than 14/86? Maybe 20/80? Or is that too much for you?

The answer is always bitches.

You mean besides chasing cars?

Oh, I thought you were talking about dog archaeologists, not human archaeologists who study dogs.

At least dog archaeologists would know where all the bones were buried...

Most men and women enjoy mixing, as it happens.

Not when we're between 6 and 11 or so we don't! That's the age when girls have cooties!

WARNING!!! If you are a boy in this age range, you must stay away from these creatures during this time period or you could get cooties, too!

Damn, I didn't know people were so uneducated in serious medical matters like these. Stay safe, citizens!