Forgot your password?

typodupeerror

Comment: It's in her hands (Score 1) 527

by Auxbuss (#33253308) Attached to: Preserving Memories of a Loved One?
Buy her a beautiful book and ask her to fill it with her life. Her story of her life told in her own way. There is nothing that matches the written word to connect with someone, and years down the line you and you daughters will want to experience that feeling of connection. It will hurt, but the stories and the details it contain will stir all sorts memories and emotions, but in some way, you'll feel together again for a while.
IT

A petition to demand UK Govt. review IT processes->

Submitted by RobBowley
RobBowley writes "A petition has been launched on the Number 10 E-Petitions website to demand the government reviews it's outdated approach to IT Project procurement and development. This has been initated in response to the countless reports of billions pounds of taxpayers money being wasted on failed IT initiatives such as the National Programme for IT (NHS). There are many other cases and a recent article in the Independent calculated that £26 billion had been thrown away in such a manner*. Many in the software development community believe is largely due to the out-dated IT processes they advocate and use.

The petition has only been going a few days but has already been signed by many of the most influential software developers, managers, coaches and authors in the UK. It also includes employees of the BBC, many of the investment banks (where most of the best software developers work) and some of the up and coming tech organisations such as SongKick and 7digital.com.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ITProcessReview/

Many reasons have been given for these blunders, but what most people outside of the software development community fail to understand is it is the way in which these projects are managed from the outset which dictates their failure — that of commiting to huge and unrealistic goals in a manner which fails to appreciate the organic nature and constantly changing understanding of requirements that simply does not fit within rigid "Waterfall" style IT processes**.

The software community is increasingly and rapidly moving away from this failed model for software development to more incremental "Agile" or "Lean" approaches. These have been widely adopted at most of the leading technology organisations such as the BBC, Guardian.co.uk, Google and numerous others and are proving a far more effective way to deliver IT projects and software. It is unacceptable that the UK government continues to advocate and use these failed practices and many believe this is the overriding reason so much money is being wasted.

The petition can be found on the Number 10 E-Petitions website here:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/ITProcessReview/

My name is Rob Bowley. I am an experienced software developer working at 7digital.com. I've been involved in the software development community at large for many years, talking regularly at conferences and often attend many smaller community events..

Regards,

Rob

* http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labours-computer-blunders-cost-16326bn-1871967.html

** The National Audit Office advocates the use of the "Waterfall" method in the "Review of System Development" document which can be found here: http://www.intosaiitaudit.org/auditguides.htm#United%20Kingdom"

Link to Original Source
Cellphones

Apple and AT&T 'struck VoIP deal'->

Submitted by Auxbuss
Auxbuss writes "It's going to come as a huge shock to Slashdot readers, but AT&T has admitted that it struck a deal with Apple to prevent iPhone applications from using its network for VoIP. After you've taken a few minutes to recover from the shock, read the scoop."
Link to Original Source

Comment: Re:You could split the difference... (Score 1) 730

by Auxbuss (#29063611) Attached to: Why Should I Trust My Network Administrator?

Hold them accountable. Track everything they do, and audit that it was in fact necessary and honest.

I'm an IT Manager, and it scares me to think anyone would set up an arrangement like this and not have auditing in place, with reporting going to the customer (i.e. this guy.) I would assume as part of the initial contract, there were requirements in place that specified audits and reporting and transparency. You don't want to know everything they are doing in detail but you need to have enough information about what work is getting done, and the status, so that you can report to the CEO. That means auditing, that means project tracking. And you need to review those audit reports. Or at least, I would do that.

Or you could just talk to folk.

But perhaps you work in an environment with a blame culture.

Comment: Re:You should trust them (Score 1) 730

by Auxbuss (#29063513) Attached to: Why Should I Trust My Network Administrator?

Except that my accountant has her CPA - a real life honest to god certification. (Not the take-a-class-and-take-a-test mickey mouse 'certifications' of the IT industry.)

She also has a code of ethics, belongs to a serious professional organization, and has a body of law that restricts what she may or may not do and an oversight organization over the top of all of that.

Pretty much none of which IT 'professionals' have.

Some of us do.

Here in the UK the professional organization is called the British Computer Society. Full membership requires that you pass exams, have the required amount of validated experience, and attend a panel interview to be evaluated. All the usual requirements of a professional organization.

Gain entry and you acquire the moniker, MBCS. If you meet the additional requirements of their associated engineering body, then you may also become a CEng, a Chartered Engineer.

And, of course, you sign up to their charter and code of ethics.

For me, membership not only opens a lot of doors, but it makes the trust element void. I step into a business and folk open up straight away. That's what being a professional, in the literal sense, brings with it.

It also means that when folk say, "Ah, but you're not a 'real' engineer". You can smile and say, "Well yes, yes I am".

Comment: Re:Blue collar??? (Score 1) 157

by Auxbuss (#28797311) Attached to: Cloud-Sourcing's Long-Term Impact On IT Careers
I once dropped an EDS60 http://www.chilton-computing.org.uk/gallery/ral/prev/r12600eb.jpg on my foot. It was EDS11, which was the boot disk. The boss spent an afternoon checking the alignment of the platters to ensure it wouldn't crash when loaded. We used to clean those things too, btw, with alcohol and cotton swabs.

Comment: Re:Yeah, Sorry Guys. (Score 1) 280

by Auxbuss (#28129769) Attached to: Mozilla Jetpack and the Battle For the Web

It's not democratic. It's another way for people who want something for nothing to remove ads. I was onboard for trying to make information free. Well, now a large part of the information is and I'm not about to hurt the companies who embraced the "alternative business models" I supported. I like their services, and would like them to be able to pay for the server. Keep in mind if people can't pay via their advertising, they'll likely start charging again. Major step backwards.

Big, big assumption.

What is actually means is that a new model will emerge. If we're going to stretch the meaning of democracy in this thread, then I'm going to stretch evolution,

But that's what we have here: variation; struggle for existence; natural selection; origin of species.

Of course, the dogmatic, conservative business droids remain wedded to their belief in "intelligent design".

Comment: Re:Already available (Score 1) 280

by Auxbuss (#28129495) Attached to: Mozilla Jetpack and the Battle For the Web

What I find really annoying is the summaries assertion that this is somehow 'web democracy'. Removing adverts and altering how other peoples work is used without their permission is about as similar to democracy as the concept of being able to punch someone in the face for saying something you don't like.

The hand-wringing over blocking adds, on the basis that you are altering folks' work, in hypocrisy.

Advertisers routinely licence snippets of audio from songs. They licence from the publishers, who have the "rights", but the complete track was the artist's intention. Thus, the work is being altered.

To say nothing of an entire album. Hands up who has never played an album track without listening to the whole album?

Of course, advertisers do the same with other artwork. Just because it's "out of copyright" doesn't mean using sections of it isn't altering the artist's work.

And you can go on.

We're still at Web 0.1 (beta) and its associated business practices are far behind that.

Marketing droids need to innovate as much, if not more, than the techs. But do the marketing droids know how?

We prefer to speak evil of ourselves rather than not speak of ourselves at all.

Working...