Month: September 2005

Getting Real: Forget feature requests. Ok, so I’m positive this post will be misunderstood and we’ll be branded as arrogant, self-centered, customer-hating snobs. But here goes anyway… When you launch your products, customers will send you hundreds or thousands of feature requests. Just take a look at the Basecamp Forum or the Backpack Forum —… Continue reading Getting Real: Forget feature requests

The Weakest Factor is STILL the Human Factor in Security. At SMB Nation I was re-enforced with the notion that human nature will trump security best practices time and time again. While sitting in the hallway in the Microsoft Conference Center with Susan Bradley, preparing for our talk on securing Small Business Server, I was… Continue reading The Weakest Factor is STILL the Human Factor in Security

Matz manages Ruby team through Basecamp. Matz, the creator of Ruby, has signed up for a Basecamp account to help the committers team collaborate on the development of Ruby. What an honor. Note, the intentions are not to use Basecamp as a ticketing system (it’s not well suited for that), but rather as tool to… Continue reading Matz manages Ruby team through Basecamp

The Trail of Mismanagement WSJ . A blow by blow account of the misplaced priorities in Congressional and Presidential decision making since 9/11 that led to the disastrous federal response to Katrina. There seems to have been a systematic failure of the entire Federal emergency response apparatus. A failure to allocate funds to the correct… Continue reading The Trail of Mismanagement

Reed Hundt on Emergency Communications. Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt has some erudite observations on the state of emergency communications: Katrina overwhelmed the nation's complex communications system, raising serious questions about whether federal and local governments need new powers to organize a rapid response by the wireless, wire, cable, satellite, and broadcast industries. Moreover, it… Continue reading Reed Hundt on Emergency Communications

Sleep-deprived doctors might as well be drunk – study. CHICAGO (Reuters) – The long workweeks of doctors in training leave them so fatigued that their reaction times are comparable to someone who is slightly drunk, researchers said on Tuesday. [Reuters Health eLine]

Security Lessons of the Response to Hurricane Katrina. There are many, large and small, but I want to mention two that I haven't seen discussed elsewhere. 1. The aftermath of this tragedy reflects on how poorly we've been spending our homeland security dollars. Again and again, I've said that we need to invest in 1)… Continue reading Security Lessons of the Response to Hurricane Katrina

Insights from David Greiner of Campaign Monitor. Workhappy.net recently interviewed David Greiner of Campaign Monitor, the email newsletter and list management tool built for web designers. David on having a unified voice: Also, the guys who designed and developed the software are also the ones who answer support emails, post to our blog and answer… Continue reading Insights from David Greiner of Campaign Monitor

The sysadmin's home office. It's been an interesting experience setting up my home office over the past few days. I remember my parents going through a similar experience when I was in high school–they bought a copier, a fax machine, a new business phone, waited for the telco to install a new line, dealt with… Continue reading The sysadmin's home office

How Do You Keep Track of Your Goals?. How do you keep track of your goals? I'm a big fan of long-range planning because planning helps me consciously choose what to do instead of just react to whatever life gives me. I like thinking about who I want to be and what I want to… Continue reading How Do You Keep Track of Your Goals?