Although it's a little heavy on IBM-specific acronyms and trademarks ("Agility\@Scale"), this relatively brief (20-page) whitepaper from Scott Ambler does a good job showing how agile processes are not just laissez faire "let them hack" chaos. Although this diagram makes me cringe a little (what's with the I Ching …
more ...One of the buzzwords that has become more popular in recent years is "continuous delivery." The idea is that you fully automate your deployment pipeline and put a new version of your software in front of your users at least every day. If features are partially implemented, you use the …
more ...It turns out that your iPhone keeps an unencrypted datafile containing your approximate location. You can review this datafile by using this application.
So the first question is: "What? My iPhone is 'tracking' me?" And the answer to that is, "yes, generally, but not to 'Enemy of the State' levels …
more ...Kokua For Japan - A Hawaii Benefit Concert For Japanese Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami Disaster Relief.
more ...Apparently, they have two low-cost catalysts that can help dissociate water into hydrogen and oxygen which apparently is an advantage because ""a lot of the cost of a solar panel is in the …
more ...Coding Relic: Non-blocking Programmers.
In which D. Gentry makes the excellent point that high programming productivity is unlikely to result from a single cause, but from a multiplicity. He lauds typing speed and criticizes excessive swearing (dammit).
I am skeptical about "typing speed" but I've come to think that "navigation …
more ...Yesterday, I heard a presentation on the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, a planned telescope that will take a wide-angle photo of the sky, read the data out, and then move on to the next patch of the sky. This is in marked contrast to the highly planned targeting and relatively …
more ...I used to be on top of Artificial Intelligence -- I wrote a column for and ultimately went on to be the Editor-in-Chief of AI Expert, the leading trade magazine in the AI field at the time. I've tried to stay, not professionally competent, but familiar with the field. That has …
more ...We have to be very quick to ask if the astonishment we feel at Watson's performance on Jeopardy is a projection. Eliza, the computerized Rogerian psychoanalyst does little more than slightly disguise the question "why do you feel that?" -- a question that people are so delighted to answer that they …
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