Open Source Conversation is back

I lost sight of this whilst moving computers several times recently - in fact I lost many podcasts.

So I am very pleased to see this one back.

clipped from www.radioopensource.org The Open Source conversation is reborn at the Watson Institute at Brown University.

New CEO at Red Hat

COO who is an ex-programmer.....

clipped from www.news.com In a surprise move, Red Hat said Thursday that Matthew Szulik will step down as president and chief executive on January 1, to be replaced by James Whitehurst, Delta Airlines' former chief operating officer. On a conference call, Szulik said Whitehurst stood "head and shoulders" above other candidates interviewed in a recruiting process. He was a programmer earlier in his career and runs four versions of Linux at home, he said. The surprise move was announced as the leading Linux seller announced results for its third quarter of fiscal 2008. Its revenue increased 28 percent to $135.4 million and net income went up 12 percent to $20.3 million, or 10 cents per share. The company also raised estimates for full-year results to revenue of $521 million to $523 million and earnings of about 70 cents per share.

Test post from Clipmarks 3

Testing, 1,2

clipped from www.linuxinsider.com Open source software developers who were active in the late 1990s might find themselves yearning for those good old days, when venture capital flowed like wine at Napa Valley party. Open source software's fall from grace was dramatic and sobering, but it wasn't alone and it doesn't mean open source is a dead industry. In fact, while investors are magnitudes more careful than they were back in the day, money is still being offered to open source companies that meet VC's often varying criteria.

James Robertson nails advertising

You know he is right - probably less than 1000 people in the entire world don't:

Now, imagine a company with a clue: they would have bought advertising to apear with those clips, and the ads would have been something like "Like what you see here? Visit our site to buy the concert DVD or video download".

Develop Lisp applications using the Cusp Eclipse plug-in

Lisp is an excellent programming language that allows you to expand your knowledge of programming languages due to its largely typeless nature. It can also help those seasoned in the Java™ programming language, PHP, or C/C++ think in new ways when developing applications. In addition, you can do some pretty cool things with Lisp. Find out how to develop Lisp applications using the Cusp Eclipse plug-in.

Bonus: Does your ADSF package files for you!!!

Nokia N8xx

Nokia have just announced a new model of their Internet Tablet (which is not a phone!)

I have been watching the N800 for a while and would have liked to find a store at which to give it a try. It looks cool but what can it really do?

Then the price of the N800 started to drop - so of course a new model was coming!

Here is a comparison of the N800 and the N810 to help me make up my mind as to go with a cheap N800 to try out or splash out for the latest and greatest N810.

Choices, choices!

The rules of war

From Paul Krugman(Reg. reqd):

Anyway, it continues to amaze me how the 21st century is starting to look like the 17th century with fancier technology: tax farmers, mercenaries, and now rentier cities.

Given Paul's previous column on torture, it occurs to me that the end of the 17th century marked the beginning (in Europe) of a period marked by limited wars with conventions of behaviour which limited the impact on civilian populations. The 30 Years War had been the exact opposite with many , many civilan deaths.

Anyway, I wonder if revolution at present day methods will lead to a more restrained era - perhaps we could have some conventions signed at Geneva?

It's the economy stupid

A couple of quotes fro today's Guardian:

Despite opinion poll gains by the Conservatives, Gordon Brown will make a Commons statement on Iraq on Monday, and the chancellor, Alistair Darling, will deliver the comprehensive spending review and the pre-budget report to MPs on Tuesday.

......

But Mr Brown was today dealt a sobering blow by a Guardian ICM poll, which showed that the two parties were both on 38% in the wake of the Tory conference in Blackpool.

Means only one thing - if they push for an election now they must be very worried about the trend in the economy.

RUP: Iteration Planning : Brian Lyons

Having found the NumberSix blogs for the wrong reason, I find this very intersting short piece on when to do Iteration Planning by Brian.

One thing that has RUP diverging from other methods is when you create the Iteration Plan. Personally, I think this causes problems.

Other iterative development methods from Scrum to Barry Boehm’s Spiral Model start each iteration with a planning session for how the team will carry out the objectives defined in the higher-level plan. RUP ends each iteration with a plan for the next one. Considering that this is a one or two day variance, does it matter? I think it does.

Intersting and subtle point.

So RUP is wrong! Whaddya gonna do about it? I’ll tell you what: fix it!

The Rational Unified Process is a set of process content that conforms to the framework of the Unified Process. With v7 of the process it is initially provided in two configurations – RUP for Large Projects and a stripped down RUP for Small Projects – and it is installed along with Rational Method Composer, a tool to modify the process. Does this sound like a process that someone is telling you that you are not allowed to modify?

And a pragmatic answer. Perhaps I'll do this work myself!!

Brian Lyons: RIP

I never met Brian Lyons face-to-face but we did have one interaction after my "CMMI Made Practical" presentation in March. It is very sad to see a relatively young person with a young family pass away, especially one who was also very highly thought of in the inustry.

By a strange quirk of fate I arrived in S. Africe on 3rd September to do another presentation on CMMI - I guess we won't be exchanging thoughts on that one :-(


Found via Grady's blog.

Do You Love IT Conversations? Show It!

From Phil Windley:

I hate public radio pledge drives. Who doesn’t. Nevertheless, I recognize the need. I hope you’ll forgive this low-key request for support for IT Conversations.

Add the button!!

Common Lisp Tutorial

Peter Siebel makes a plea:

So imagine my dismay when someone pointed out to me today the Google results for “lisp tutorial”. The top hit is a page which apparently hasn’t been updated since around 1999 and isn’t really a tutorial anyway, so much as a large list of links including a link to the Hyperspec when it was hosted at harlequin.com.1 The next few “lisp tutorial” hits are — with all due respect — exactly the sort of dated, dry tutorials that inspired me to write Practical Common Lisp in the first place and to do a deal with Apress to allow me to keep it online even after the dead tree version was published.

With that in mind I did a small bit of search engine optimization today to make sure that the phrase “Common Lisp tutorial” appears on the main page of the Practical Common Lisp web site. If you also think Lisp might be better served if PCL was at least one of the results returned to a would-be Lisper searching for a Lisp tutorial you can help out: if you have a web page where it would be reasonable to do so, consider linking to the url http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/ with a link text of “lisp tutorial” or “common lisp tutorial”. Yes, I’m asking you to participate in a Google bombing. But it’s for a good cause. Think of the children.

You know that he is right - I remember that 1999 page from when I started with Lisp - it has had its day. And Peter's book is excellent, with the first chapters being a very good tutorial.

So if you want a good Lisp Tutorial or Common Lisp Tutorial, look no further than here:

http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/


The initial chapter of Successful Lisp is also a good place to start .

Smalltalk by Example: PDF and on Lulu

Want to get started with Smalltalk? Look no further than: Squeak by Example.


Released under Creative Commons "sharealike" license an can be used with Squeak (obviously) which is free and free!!

I have just started on it, so can't give a full review, but from a quick scan it looks very promising.

A test post from Google Docs!!

How does this go?

It works!!

I wonder how labels can be added?

Back from South Africa

Just back from a business trip; when I say S.Africa it was actually just Joburg, and apart from a few drives to customers it was entirely Sandton, a suburb.

Weather was very nice - hot but not too hot. I was there just as winter turned to summer; apparently spring no longer happens!

A nation of great contrasts - shopping malls with lots of wealth on display vs. the townships I saw going to and fro to the airport.

I attended a conference where the message was about the changes required to move SA to being a software powerhouse like India. Perhaps these efforts with the investment taking place for hosting the World Cup in 2010 will help.

Martin Fowler turns TV critic: Dr Who

Martin Fowler gives a great introduction to Doctor Who. He does a great job of pointing out the real highlights (and there are many!)

This made me chuckle:

You see Doctor Who is only secondarily about entertainment, it's primary purpose was always to scare the living daylights out of small children. I may be too old now to get behind the sofa, but I do remember how much I enjoyed it.

I remember hiding behind the sofa - I swear that a black and white TV that vibrates wit h the theme tune is ideal for Dr Who. That said my kids love the new stuff even without the hiding!

Live from Ulaanbaatar

Rob is the son of a friend of mine and is doing a year with VSO in Mongolia:

Upon arrival we made our base camp in a gir (a large tent which nomadic Mongolians use as their home). From here we went for a walk, going past traditional herdsmen and their cattle. Almost everyone I past was on horseback. It was fascinating to see the traditional, nomadic style of life still being followed in this region. Completely different to anything back in the UK!

inbox zero

Merlin Mann talks about GTD etc. at Google:



Feedburner

Well, I didn't know Google had bought Feedburner - time to get back under my rock!

Anyhow, I have added this blog to Feedburner so I can see what all the fuss is about.

No Dolphin Smalltalk, No Open Source Dolphin Smalltalk

There will no doubt be a number of you who would suggest that we Open Source Dolphin. Of course, you are free harbour such opinions and to discuss the idea on the newsgroup but please do not expect us to be persuaded. It simply will not happen! Both Blair and I dislike the Open Source movement intensely and we would rather see Dolphin gradually disappear into the sands of time than instantly lose all commercial value in one fell swoop.

......

At this point, I cannot sign off without commenting on the enthusiasm and talent in the Dolphin community that has sustained us all these years. There are people on the Dolphin newsgroup who have been with us since the early days back in 1997. There are a number of you who have supported Dolphin far beyond the call of duty and I sincerely thank you for this. I don't want to name names for fear that I forget someone but you know who you are and I thank you again. Doubtless, many of you will be disappointed by this decision but I hope that you understand now why this has to be.

Hmmm. The author seems to rule out Open Source as a viable business decision under any circumstances. Might have built a larger community around Dolphin, maybe even more profitable (especially with on-going client work)

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