Month: August 2003

Mach II 1.0 Released!. The 1.0 release of Mach II is now available for download from the Mach II website. There are two new sample applications (Roulette and ShoppingCart) as well as an updated version of ContactManager…. [An Architect's View]

Darwin: A More User-Friendly Direction. Ben Shneiderman. Consumer pressure would push companies to produce improved designs that are more reliable, learnable and usable. Then improved testing would eliminate more of the problems and quality control would become an obsession. When the software was shipped, it would be more likely to work reliably. [Tomalak's Realm]

InfoWorld: Blaster worm spreading, experts warn of attack. A new worm that exploits a widespread vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system continued its spread on Tuesday, making Monday's outbreak the most serious since the appearance of the SQL Slammer worm in January, according to security experts. [Tomalak's Realm]

Information pollution.  Write less is the key message from the August 11 Alertbox. Jakob missed another key recommendation, however: throw away the crap that you have already written. Most web sites could get an immediate boost in usability if they just cleaned up the pollution they have already created.  [ia/ – information architecture news]

Annual Physical Checkup May Be an Empty Ritual. To the growing numbers of medical experts who preach evidence-based medicine, there is no more inviting target than the annual physical. By Gina Kolata. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

One last thing before going to bed. That Vice President I talked with today, from one of the largest title insurance companies in the world, told me “we are making big investments in digital technology.” He told me it's starting to pay off. “A few years back, we lost a lot of employees who didn't… Continue reading

One last thing before going to bed. That Vice President I talked with today, from one of the largest title insurance companies in the world, told me “we are making big investments in digital technology.” He told me it's starting to pay off.

“A few years back, we lost a lot of employees who didn't like being computerized,” he said. “They didn't like having to learn a new system, and instead went to work for a competitor who said they'd keep doing things 'the old way' and not make them learn something new.”

This VP said his company is having the last laugh, now, though. Now his competition is starting to computerize, but in the meantime, is losing market share to his company (which is #2 right now).

Now he's having no trouble recruiting. Why? Word has gotten around that at the computerized company, employees can look up far more reports, and have to do far less work (and can work at home, which they can't do at the competitive company).

Also, because of the cost savings that the computerized company has achieved (hey, partly because of shipping developers to India) they will lay off fewer workers in the next few months. Also, they have been able to diversify to new markets, because they have information stores that their competition doesn't have.

What's the biggest barrier to computerizing the entire mortgage industry? Governments, who still want everything on paper. How's this VP dealing with that? Computerizing anyway and working with governments to try to get them to computerize.

That's my kind of evangelist!

Why don't I name this guy? For one, I don't want our competition to have any clue about who this guy is. He loves Microsoft stuff and he controls thousands of seats.

For two, he was extremely candid with me. I doubt he'd be that candid if he knew all his comments would end up on a weblog in the morning.

For three, his company is publicly traded, so I don't wanna get him in trouble for admitting to me that mortgage refinance business is dropping through the floor.

Hint: his stock price is gonna drop through the floor too. He told me to buy it in January or February after the market figures out how bad the refinance business is gonna get.

Translation: I just gave you a stock tip. If you own stock in anything that has to do with refinancing, watch it closely. The last quarter they saw record profits. Don't be fooled. The next quarter is gonna be bloody if interest rates continue to rise (and Hillary Clinton said they will, cause the Federal Government is sucking up cash as fast as it can to pay for our war and for our various unemployment problems).

Oh, is this journalism? I guess so. It sure isn't any kind of journalism you'll see in mainstream press anywhere.  [The Scobleizer Weblog

An out-of-the-box contract provision to help prevent lawsuits — General counsel or the CEOs of both contracting parties must meet before either may file suit. The July 28 issue of The National Law Journal has an interview with Frank Sherer, general counsel for Timex Corporation. The Journal reports one way Sherer helps prevent litigation: Timex… Continue reading An out-of-the-box contract provision to help prevent lawsuits — General counsel or the CEOs of both contracting parties must meet before either may file suit

Get Your #@%!$ Paws Off My PDA!. Geeks who barely trust spouses to touch their digital devices are perturbed that security checker at airports are going to be fiddling with their laptops and other gadgets. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News]

ISSN for weblogs. The definitive reference, by Clark. [Jeffrey Zeldman Presents: The Daily Report]

SitePoint: Exploring the Limits of CSS. For better or worse, the vogue of Web design has evolved to favour a layout similar in style to a newspaper. Common design elements include: a header and footer that each spans the page horizontally content constrained by page width vertical scrolling is acceptable, within reason navigation and secondary… Continue reading SitePoint: Exploring the Limits of CSS