Ugo Cei’s Weblog
As anticipated by ThinkSecret, here are the new iMacs!
Outstanding features (for the 20″ model) are:
A real cool-ass machine. I’m going to order one ASAP!
Interesting discussion at micampe’s on software release policies. Basically, Michele is taking issue with one of the “Golden Rules” for surviving software projects:
Rule Number 1: Never promise a release date.
This is contrasted unfavourably with one of Open Source mantras:
Release early, release often.
My take on this is that both rules can be applied, depending on circumstances. Remember, there are no absolutes.
To put things in perspective, you should keep in mind the three variables that govern every software development project:
(We might add “quality” as a fourth variable, but that should be a constant instead, valued 100%, as we all know that compromising quality in the hope of reducing time rarely works.)
As every good project manager should know, these three variables are not independent. A customer cannot fix scope (features) and cost while, at the same time, set an arbitrary release date.
Moreover, the relationship between cost on one side and scope or time on the other is never linear. If you are late, you cannot usually go quicker by adding more developers.
With these facts in mind, consider a project where a customer is demanding a given set of features and is not willing to compromise on them. In this situation it is very dangerous to commit yourself to any release date. You won’t be able to stand by your commitment, that’s a fact.
Admittedly, this is an extreme situation. Unless you’re developing software to be put onboard a space probe that must be launched in a very specific time frame, when all the necessary, planetary alignments are in place, it’s usually the case that those features that the customer says she just can’t miss can be scrapped without too much pain. Scope can almost always be negotiated.
And when scope is negotiable, I agree with Michele that it’s better to release early, release often. This approach is the same as is advocated by XP: choose a number of stories at the beginning of each iteration and no matter how many of them you have actually implemented, never move the end of the iteration.
See also the description of “Timebox Development” on Steve McConnel’s Rapid Development (p. 575).
This is unbelievably cool:
But perhaps more interesting than that is the possibility of mixing SVG graphic elements directly into the markup of regular XHTML pages, freeing vector graphics from the small rectangle of a browser plugin and opening up a host of exciting new possibilities for web developers. This is enabled by the integration of SVG directly into the Gecko rendering engine, instead of as a browser plugin.
Combine this with Ajax techniques and you get asynchronous, interactive, data-driven web applications without the need for plugins or other proprietary technologies. Applets have been dead for a while, but this, considered in the context of Macromedia’s acquisition by Adobe, could also mark the beginning of the end for Flash’s dominance as far as dynamic graphical content is concerned.
Just think how fast, responsive and accurate Google Maps could be if it used vector SVG data instead of raster images. Think zooming in and out with almost infinite precision without reloading a full set of tiles.
I’m one day late with this, but I’ll blame it on the time zone difference. Anyway, here are my Best Wishes for your big fifty, Dave!
Dave Winer: “If you want to wish me a happy birthday, first, let me say, thank you, mazel tov, a blessing back at ya, namaste and let’s have fun. I have one request, which I get to make because it’ll be my birthday tomorrow, and I’m getting in practice for one day of pure selfishness. Instead of sending an email, if you have a blog, how about posting your wishes on your blog with a link to mine? I could always use some more flow, and I’d love to climb a few notches on the Technorati list, truth be told.”
Even though I rarely agree with what you write, especially your endless whining about how Google et. al. are perverting your RSS brainchild ;), I must say that I’ll be glad if, when I’m turning 50 eight years from now, I’ll be able to turn back and see that I’ve accomplished one tenth of what you’ve done.
Grant Robinson: “After creating Montage-a-google, several people wrote to me suggesting I make a game based on the same technology. Montage-a-google is a simple web app that uses Google’s image search to generate a large gridded montage of images based on keywords (search terms) entered by the user. Guess-the-google reverses this process by picking the keywords for you, the player must then guess what keyword made up the image - it’s surprisingly addictive.”
Nice game, but after having played it three times, a fair number of already seen montages start to come up again, making the game a little too easy. Anyway, my best score so far is 287.
(Via Ben Hyde.)
I’ve been a Skype fan since I started using it a few months ago and have bought some SkypeOut and Skype Voicemail credit already.
Not being much of a traveller, I haven’t used much of my credit, yet, but I can foresee using it much more when I’ll start working from home and traveling more, this summer.
Anyway, I’ve always recommended Skype to everyone, but now that I can make some money doing it, the better. So, I signed up for the Skype Affiliate Program and started by putting a small button in the “Ads” column on the right side here.
If you want to discuss this or anything else, please feel free to Skype me!
On related news: the latest Skype beta for OS X (1.0.0.30) supports multi-user chat. Besides being great for VOIP, Skype is quickly becoming my favourite IM client.
Note to self: remember to buy a new headset with mic to replace the old one that is breaking down.
Here’s a very interesting interview with Richard Dawkins on the subjects of evolution and religion:
Still, so many people resist believing in evolution. Where does the resistance come from?
It comes, I’m sorry to say, from religion. And from bad religion. You won’t find any opposition to the idea of evolution among sophisticated, educated theologians. It comes from an exceedingly retarded, primitive version of religion, which unfortunately is at present undergoing an epidemic in the United States. Not in Europe, not in Britain, but in the United States.
Let’s just hope the new Pope isn’t helping to spread the epidemic to Europe.
(Via Pharyngula .)
This is just too fun to let it pass without a comment. The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera was able to read the full content of the U.S. Army report regarding the March 4 Baghdad shooting in the course of which Italian secret agent Nicola Calipari was shot dead by U.S. soldiers, including those parts that were blackened out before releasing the report to the public.
How could the clever hackers at Corriere della Sera manage to pull off this trick? Well, simply by selecting the blackened text in Acrobat Reader, copying and pasting into a MS Word document! How cunning!
Here’s a page linking to the original as well as the decoded report.
