I retired from personal blogging in July 2008 but you can find me over at blog.xero.com
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New toy for the beach holiday. The Air Force One Presidential Crusier from 3G Bikes. Ordered over the phone from Burkes, here next day. Now hope the rain stops so I can get out and use it.
I love that companies build stuff like this.
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On SiliconValley.com, people who’s coffee shop is their office.
In Wellington (CafeNet) I’d recommend
- Liquidate (The Terrace)
- Expresso Republic (Featherston Street)
- The Jimmy (Courtney Place)
- Laffare (College St)
In Auckland (Reach)
- Mecca (Viaduct)
But remember the code
- Keep drinking
- Don’t tie up tables during the busy periods
- Don’t talk loudly on your mobile
Alan Coopers article in Visual Studio Magazine has an interesting insight …
Software products consume no raw materials and have no manufacturing and transportation costs. They require no welding, hammering, or painting. The information age involves little or no variable cost, whereas variable cost was the dominant factor in the late industrial age. The absence of variable cost is what makes this a new economy.
preceded by …
I believe we are in a new economy—and that the dotcoms never even participated in it. Instead, they were the last gasp of the old economy—the economy of manufacturing.
And this point speaks to the accounting treatment of development. Right on!!
One hour of programming isn’t related directly to one product sale; you can sell the same code repeatedly, so it’s not a variable cost. However, it’s not a fixed cost either. Writing software is an ongoing, revenue-generating operation—not the same as constructing a factory. Some might suggest that programming is research and development; the comparison works, but traditional accounting separates R&D from revenue-generating operations, so this doesn’t fit either. You’d be wrong to discount this little terminology mismatch as a minor quibble for bean counters to debate. It has a huge effect on how software is funded, managed, and—most significantly—regarded by senior executives.
Now I’m a Tablet PC user I’ve been teaching myself OneNote.
I tried to just dive into it but got very frustrated. Following a post on TabletPCBuzz.com I did the OneNote online tutorials and now ‘get it’.
It’s actually quite cool. You need to get how the Folder/Section/Page structure works and the difference between ‘penning’ and ’selecting’. I actually used a Side Note today as well.
So today I used in my first meeting. Not bad. With a bit more practice I’ll get better.
It’s going to be interesting to see how it develops over the next few versions.
I like it!
- The pen sucks
- There’s heaps of hidden goodies, like how to change orientation on the fly
- Resolution is fab
- Needs a case
- The screen is nice to write on
- Its fast
- Wish it was thinner
I think tablets are still for those on the bleeding edge. Next software version (LoneStar) and smaller lighter kit will be required before they become mainstream.
On ComputerWorld this morning.
Xbox Live could provide new year bill shock
“When I host 16 player RTCW on my Telstra uncapped cable I consume about 90MB download and 210MB upload per hour (thats 300MB/hour in total).”
I was once told by an ex Telecom staff member that if you call Telecom’s call centre and mention the words “Bill Shock” the operators have discretion to reduce your bill a significant amout.
My new Toshiba Tablet arrived today.
First impressions …
- I like the 1400×1050 resolution
- Browsing in portrait mode rocks
- The writing surface is really nice
- Wish it was a bit thinner
- The Toshiba accessories seem really useful
- Set up experience was excellent
Power installing Office etc now
I was recently asked what do NZ software developers want in terms of Research & Development Taxation policy.
We simply don’t want to be penalized for doing products.
Because of the difficulty to get investment in New Zealand, IT companies trend to become Service Companies (as opposed to Product Companies), selling time.
If a Services Company determines they have a specialty, say in Time Recording, when they decide to productize that, they get penalized. The labor expense must be capitalized, so the organization cannot expense all of their costs. This is a disincentive to investment.
My suggestion is: Allow business owners to decide whether they use their employees for Services work or for Product work. Say over a quiet period, the developers might be used to build Intellectual Property around the skills they have developed in their Services assignments.
Of course the products that come out create more revenue and therefore more tax.
Therefore by allowing business owners to use their already committed Salary and Wage expenses, as they see fit, the Inland Revenue Department doesn’t loose anything and has created opportunities to grow their revenue base.
It’s just common sense.
Noticed on Matt Williams site.
IBM Research releases their thoughts on next generation email.
http://www.research.ibm.com/remail/
Lots of these ideas are in Outlook 2003 but some good visualization ideas show how mail clients may evolve.
Scoble does a great review of Lonestar that is easier to duplicate than link to. My M200 is due tomorrow. Anyway …
Chris Sells posts the door to where you can start the process.
http://members.microsoft.com/partner/proposals/
DevHawk writes …
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SQL Service Broker is probably the least known new feature of SQL Server “Yukon”, but I can’t wait for it. It makes messages a first class object in the database. If you’ve ever had multiple processes banging on your database or you’ve ever used a flag on a row to indicate if it’s been processed or not, you want SQL Service Broker too. |
The Office XML Schemas are available online.
New Tosh PDA is bundled with VOIP client. Article at GeekZone.
Another reason why Wellington is great place to live. We are Wired!
If you don’t walk faster than 7kph, you can now hold a wireless VOIP call right down the golden mile.
At the NZ Softare Association AGM and dinner last night a director of a large recruitment firm commented that last year there was a lot of demand for java developers.
This year, there is a shortage of .Net skills and java opportunities seem to have dried up.
Interesting that after so many years it is still cgi scripts and not yet based on MS technology.
On the Bombardier Recreation web site a concept video on the new gyro bike.
Much bigger than what I had imagined.
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