By bfwebster on Apr 4, 2013 in Main, Maintenance | 2 Comments
I bought my first iPad (original model) about six months after they came out, and replaced it with an iPad 2 about four months after they came out. So I’ve been using an iPad for about 2 1/2 years. For most of that period, my typical iPad usage has included checking e-mail and blogs first [...]
By bfwebster on Nov 8, 2012 in Art of 'Ware, Articles, Development, Main, Management, Professionalism, Software engineering | 0 Comments
Thanks to Cat Mikkelsen [yes, ex-NeXT people, that Cat], I read this article. It’s written by Linds Redding, an art director and animator down in New Zealand who just passed away a few days ago. But it is very, very relevant to software engineering, particularly the ‘heroic’ model of software development. In it, he talks [...]
By bfwebster on Oct 3, 2012 in Architecture, Competition, Education, Main, Marketing, Product development | 0 Comments
With the growing swell of articles about the still-hypothetical iPad Mini — see, for example, this thoughtful analysis over at Vodkapundit – I find it interesting that I see very little written about one of the hottest consumer niches for the iPad: kids. Which is surprising, since kids desperately want to get their hands on [...]
By bfwebster on Sep 25, 2012 in Business, Main, Product development, Professionalism, Quality assurance | 1 Comment
I travel a fair amount on business, though it can really vary from year to year and even during a given year. As it happened, I traveled a lot last year, requalifying for Platinum status on American Airlines. My wife traveled with me a lot as well, and she actually ended up with Gold status, [...]
By bfwebster on Sep 18, 2012 in Complex systems, Main | 0 Comments
Via Slashdot come a link to this MIT video (sorry, can’t find a way to embed it) about the work that Rodney Baxter (founder of iRobot) is doing to develop a new kind of industrial robot: cheap (~$22K), safe, and programmable by factory workers. What rings true in Brooks’ commentary is that people will find [...]