BSA collects over $2M in settlements from U.S. companies: The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a watchdog group representing the nation’s leading software manufacturers, today announced it has collected over $2 million in settlements from 19 U.S. companies that were running illegal software. Compare that to this article from the BSA web site earlier this year:…
Ex-Boss Describes Sys Admin’s Anger During PaineWebber Sabotage Trial | June 8, 2006: On the day a system administrator at UBS PaineWebber learned his annual bonus had fallen short by about $15,000, he leveled an ultimatum at his boss: give him a written contract for more money or he was walking out the door, according…
I am glad industries outside the computer-related realm are picking up what open source has known for a long time: Value can come from those who have not had to go through a job interview process to attach to a project. The power of the Internet is to facilitate communication. Wired 14.06: The Rise of…
Some quotes from an article in the NYT on cheating. This recently came up on a WebCT Users list (usually at least once every year). Maybe the timing is right because the academic year at many schools just ended? Test administrators are usually one step behind the cheaters. There are lots of technologies that have…
Sorry… A comment spammer found my blog today. WordPress did an okay job to moderate the ~150 it tried to post. Rather than see the emails from the spammer attempting to post, I decided that since I don’t get many comments anyway, to just require one to login to post a comment. So, if you…
People are all over discounting email as a useful communication medium. The only difference between email and paper memos is the ability to send them so quickly. In another job, I usually sent important emails to my boss who then rewrote them to make them more palatable for the wide public. In the end, knowing…
Confidence is a tricky thing. Sitting in front of a keyboard logged into a shell running vi to edit HTML, I am 100% confident I can and will do good things. Not so long ago, I yet again went through my lesson to the students assistants in my care. Now, in a new job, I…
In this article, Rands describes the building of a company culture in getting a software product to 1.0. Company culture has become a topic of interest to me lately. In taking a new job in a place with a very different mindset, I want to better understand my component in this machine. Thoughts in my…
Survey: Software engineers top list of best jobs – Computerworld Software engineers have the best jobs in America, according to a Money magazine survey released yesterday. College faculty are number two? I am so going to get my PhD now!