I’ve heard the future of Open Source during a recession debated quite a few times recently. It’s a pretty hot topic now, what with the downturn in full effect. Andrew Keen, the author of “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture”, blogged (irony noted) his thoughts earlier in the week.… Read More
Qwitter Points out How Boring You Are
If you don’t use Twitter, proceed at your own risk of boredom. If you’ve used Twitter for a while, specifically the web interface, you may have noticed you followers count fluctuates without any rhyme or reason. Well wonder no more. I read about Qwitter in Mashable last week; it’s a very simple service that notifies… Read More
Firefox Still Pwns the Field
Generally, I prefer choice in software. Intertubes browser is no different. However, in this particular category, I am an unabashed Firefox fanboy. I’ve been using it since 0.8, and it hasn’t let me down yet. I’ve tried the field, both for personal and professional purposes: Chrome, Opera, Flock, Safari, IE (all versions, 3-8), Netscape/Mosaic, even… Read More
Macs in the Enterprise
I noticed that the Cult of Mac converted another member this weekend. Floyd bought an iMac. He’d been pondering the jump for a while, and now, his love for Mac has leeched over into his work. Full disclosure here, I’m a convert too. So is Dan. So are Paul, Rich and I assume Anthony, too.… Read More
Does Blogging Matter Anymore?
Or is it just a matter of perspective? This piece in Wired today seems like flamebait, and several bloggers have gladly obliged. The title alone begs you to clickthrough, i.e. “Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004”. It reminded me of a conversation Paul and I had months ago; the short version was “does… Read More
WhereCamp PDX Roundup
This weekend was WhereCamp PDX here in Portland. WhereCamp is another Bay Area-born unconference imported here by the great folks at Legion of Tech As you can probably guess, WhereCamp focuses on geo-geeking. It began in 2007 as a way to extend and build on conversations and topics presented at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference. There’s… Read More
Another Reason to Network
The layoff parade continued this week with cuts announced by several companies. I won’t call out all the names; you can find them listed on Techmeme pretty quickly. Having been riffed twice during the dot-com era, I cringe whenever I hear about layoffs. For me, getting laid off was a lasting lesson that forever changed… Read More
Thoughts on the OpenWorld Blogger Program?
Now that the dust has fully settled on OpenWorld 2008, it’s probably time to start planning next year’s iteration. Justin and I spoke recently with the people who manage the Blogger Program to debrief about the event, how the program was received and ways to improve it for next year. If you read that sentence… Read More
The Complicator’s Gloves
Thanks to Chet “for great” Justice, a.k.a. ORACLENERD, for passing along this gem from the Daily WTF. Alex Papadimoulis lists three types of developers attacking good software development, the Amateurs, the Career Amateurs and the Complicators. The Complicators are the focus of the post; I love the description: They’ve acquired a sort of sixth-sense: the… Read More
Communities Exchange Recap
The Communities Exchange conference wraps up today. I spoke yesterday and then bailed to meet a previous commitment today. This was an interesting conference, unlike any I’ve attended. For starters, there were only 45 attendees, small by design. Also a surprise to me, most of the 45 attending were from out-of-state, including several from overseas,… Read More
Low Tech Wins
So, I’m speaking at the Communities Exchange conference in San Jose today, filling in for Paul. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind since he announced last week that he couldn’t make it. Hence the lack of content here. Anyway, looks to be an interesting conference, only 45 attendees, small on purpose. I hope to… Read More
Why Social Networking is Good, Reason 61
For a few months now, I’ve been planning to write a post on how to get involved in your local tech scene. I caught a tweet from Matt earlier today. He was on his way to Startup Rockstars DC#3. Sounds like fun. If you follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably seen me tweet about any… Read More
Find Paul at the Communities Exchange Summit
Paul will be one of the featured presenters at the 2008 Communities Exchange Summit, next week. His presentation is called “It’s Not About the Tools: How Oracle Builds Customer Communities”. There’s a teaser Q&A session posted, if you want more incentive. If you’re in San Jose next week and want to check it out, here’s… Read More
Is Simple the New Black?
Thanks to Matt for covering Geode. I have to agree with his assessment of location as awesomesauce when mixed with Intertubes. Continuing my mission to slog through all the unread feeds I have left over from the week of OpenWorld, I noticed an item from Mashable about the simple and elegant Umbrella Today? The concept… Read More
Location, location, location. It’s all about location..
While Jake is busy working on his super secret project he’s asked me to fill the rambling spot for him. Hopefully, I can make this a regular place to spout my technolutionary thoughts. In a previous life I did a lot of work with Oracle’s Location and Spatial products. There really is nothing like putting… Read More
ORA-01403:no data found
Curious? That seemed like a clever title, given the subject, and my lack of pithy title for the post. I’ll back up a bit. I’m still slogging through feeds from before OpenWorld, which is pretty tough considering Paul’s got me cranking hardcore on a new project. I plowed through Slashdot today and found an item… Read More
Why Flickr Rules, Part 2
Wow, after a slew of posts from other people, it’s back to just me. I’ve documented my affection for Flickr in the past. Recently, Rich put me on to another reason to love Flickr. Groups. While I was at OpenWorld, I was chatting with Rich about a little iPhone hobby I have. I like to… Read More
20% of My iPhone Apps Are Worthless
Our guest blogger, Matt Topper, is a friend of the Lab, an ex-Oracle Ace, turned Oracle employee who always has something to say. He’s currently running the identity management team for Oracle’s National Security group, playing with Collok in his free time to fix the conference experience. The other day Eddie tweeted that he was… Read More
While we’re talking about design…
I’m a code geek that likes to tinker with design and illustration. My weapon of choice is Xara Xtreme. Most people in this arena choose Adobe Illustrator, but Xara works for me. It’s also faster, easier to use, lighter and cheaper. The only drawback is that it’s Windoze-ware only. Actually, there is a Linux version… Read More
Adventures in Bad Design
I am a bit of a closet designer. No I don’t have the funky glasses, but I appreciate great design and get a good laugh at poor design. Sometimes I run across designs that I just don’t understand. Here are two of my recent gems: The first is this novel coffee mug from Delmonico’s Steakhouse… Read More