2000-2009 A life in Nick As I listen to all the decade review podcasts and read the looking back websites, I wanted to do the same. My website obviously will only be interesting to those to know me and useful for looking back in 2019 when the internet is piped directly into my brain. My goal is to do this in sections and bulleted form. This makes it quicker and frankly my brain thinks that way: ...
In economic times such as these it is imperative that architects and leads alike look beyond the glossy software catalog and instead to the web. In the past we often discounted open source as unsupported and hacker-like in the development efforts. One would hope that in this day of enterprise open source powering the majority of web applications that we could back away from the mantra of yesteryear. The argument often heard in corporate America is without a company backing it, how can you trust the source of the code? In the same bated breath they will speak to Microsoft and Oracle as pristine trophy holders of American Ideals. In this global economy and 24×7 development cycle there is very little code still developed stateside only. The pond and time zone allow for rapid development cycles and releases. It is ignorant to think that Microsoft’s code is not spattered with code developed in foreign countries. The bazaar development paradigm has extended well upon the weird GNU hackers in their basements, even Microsoft and other commercial entities have opened the doors to this development process. ...
Information technology and assurance both are commonly seen as negative costs in a budget. Deploying a new or replacement server is seen as “sunk” cost for very little gain. In the same vein implementing costly security packages before an attack seems imprudent. “We haven’t had security issues thus far” is a slogan to be plastered on the side of Silicone Valley. Sticking with legacy platforms and code bases to dodge the upgrade bullet only serve to hit you with cost later down the road. As a good friend of mine Marc states “plan to do it right first or plan on doing it again later.” ...
As we progress down the road of technological advance we must learn to remove from our minds the grasps of time and space. It is in the advancement of technology that both constraints are no longer at the mercy of our lives. I have had the pleasure of getting to know a young lady in Romania who I have since shown parts of Washington DC this trip via Skype and a webcam. Did I mention this was via a cellphone card while riding back with a coworker? At the most superficial level this seems like an ample use of technology. Yet, we must divulge this moment as did Mr. Bell as he sent the first spurts across the ocean to another part of the world. The mere possibility of knowledge share at this level changed our entire world. ...