Month: December 2003

BitTorrent Model for Tech Sales. Reading Scoble's post on Dave's sour encounter with Best Buy and Scoble's suggestions on how to improve the tech sales/purchase experience made me think about the problem as well (the blogosphere is like this in that blog posts are like can openers.  Reading a post could open your can.) A… Continue reading BitTorrent Model for Tech Sales

Microsoft Hiring Hypocrisy. Anway, I thought it was amusing that a company started by Bill Gates, a dropout like me, requires its engineers to have a degree.  Thinking that it might be a fluke, I checked some software architect positions at Microsoft Career pages and found that all of them requires a degree in CS… Continue reading Microsoft Hiring Hypocrisy

How BitTorrent Works. BitTorrent can be difficult to understand so I'll try to explain how it works.  Let me know if there are any mistakes. BitTorrent is NOT Napster BitTorrent is not a file sharing technology.  It's a download sharing technology.  With BitTorrent, you share with others what you are downloading while you are downloading.… Continue reading How BitTorrent Works

Developers and users perspectives. If you’re a software developer, you need to understand the perspective of people who use your software. I ran across a good, small example of the difference between the two perspectives, via an email from a NetNewsWire user. I mention it because it might be illustrative of one of the ways… Continue reading Developers and users perspectives

Looking for leadership in all the wrong places. Fingerprints of Unhappy Companies All Look the Same. John R. Brandt writes the column Brandt On Leadership for Industry Week. His latest article Come On, Get Happy, is another gem. Brandt says, It never ceases to amaze how completely the managers and employees of unhappy companies —… Continue reading Looking for leadership in all the wrong places

Gi-Fi?. Om Malik breaks the latest story: high up on the spectrum, it's gigabit wireless: While you can squeeze gigabits per second out of long-haul wireless using equipment from Proxim and a few others, short-range Wi-Fi-like gigabit networking is out of the question. Or is it? Om Malik finds that a serial successful businessman in… Continue reading Gi-Fi?

Unveiling The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, 2nd Edition. The second edition of my book, The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, is out!: My co-author Adam Engst and I spent three months on this revision, which was originally planned to be a small update to the original 360-page book, but blossomed into 560 pages for the same… Continue reading Unveiling The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, 2nd Edition

Web-Host Outsourcing. Saw this tonight in the newsletter. Langa Letter: Web-Host Outsourcing “Fred Langa explores the pros and cons of outsourcing Web sites and spotlights reader recommendations for finding the perfect Web host.” Definitely noting this one for myself to look at in March when I have to decide whether or not to renew with… Continue reading Web-Host Outsourcing

Software Craftsmanship. Writing code is not production, it's not always craftsmanship (though it can be), it's design. Design is that nebulous area where you can add value faster than you add cost. The New York Times magazine has been raving about the iPod and how Apple is one of the few companies that knows how… Continue reading Software Craftsmanship