There’s a very old mantra around project quality that says, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” I disagree. We recently remodeled the bathroom in our master bedroom. Rather than taking my own sledgehammer to the walls, tub and toilet and then hanging my own sheet rock, my wife and I hired a local contractor who came in, did the demolition and reconstruction, and in the end we wound up with a room with which we’re very happy. I can tell you without reservation that had I done it myself the project would have turned out disastrous because I confess to a certain measure of incompetence when it … Read More
Tag Archives: software failure
Did NASDAQ’s App Glitch Cause FB’s IPO Hitch?
Isn’t it ironic? Facebook, the galactically popular social networking site that for so long has weathered friction regarding weaknesses in its software – particularly around security and privacy issues – may have seen its own IPO effort submarined by a software glitch in the NASDAQ stock exchange. In reporting on NASDAQ’s response to the technical difficulties it encountered on Facebook’s IPO day, Bloomberg’s Nina Mehta writes: Computer systems used to establish the opening price were overwhelmed by order cancellations and updates during the “biggest IPO cross in the history of mankind,” Nasdaq Chief Executive Officer Robert Greifeld, 54, said yesterday in a conference call with reporters. Nasdaq’s systems fell into … Read More
Fix a Hole, Stop a Bug
After a very mild winter this year, the Northeast part of the country found itself stuck in a prolonged “early spring” where it seemed like but for a couple of days temperatures refused to warm up from the 40’s and 50’s. We seemed to be stuck in the ether between “actual cold” and “comfy warm” for quite a while until the past week or so. When finally the temperatures turned upwards into the 60’s and 70’s, I happily threw open all my windows in the house to “air the place out.” Apparently, though, the insect population of my neighborhood seemed to be waiting for this moment as well and took … Read More
Cloud Gives Clear Vision to IT Portfolio
This blog has long professed the need for businesses to analyze, measure and assess their IT application portfolios to identify those issues with application software that cause a whole spate of headaches, from application failure, to business risk to increased technical debt. To this end, Large enterprises have been able to apply an automated solution to perform this assessment has meant installing a comprehensive platform that analyzes and measures existing applications and can also scrutinize application software during the build or customization processes to catch issues as they happen. However, smaller businesses and individual developers generally do not have access to these large platforms and even some larger enterprises have … Read More
Quality is a Happy Place
I love my job! I’ve always been an avid writer, even as a kid. So when it came to career choices my decision to enter a profession that demanded writing skills seemed like a natural fit. I started out as a newspaper reporter, following in my father’s footsteps, but as the jobs and money there began drying up in the mid-1990’s I took my interest in Technology and made the jump to writing for high tech companies and have been happy doing this job ever since. For many years, I served as something of a “ghost writer,” writing press releases on behalf of my employers or articles for magazines, journals, … Read More
Replaying the Data Breach Blues
My tastes in entertainment are pretty broad. While I really enjoy attending sporting events and when Bruce Springsteen is in town I lay aside nearly everything else to attend his concert (as I did in Boston on March 26), I’m also one who enjoys catching a Broadway or Off Broadway Show now and then. In fact, I over the next six weeks I will attend two Red Sox games and two shows at the New World Stages theatre in Midtown. For a simple night out, though, give me a small club featuring one of the area’s top Blues performers. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s a cover band playing … Read More
New Year, Same Fear
I’ve never been much of a horror movie fan. I think my deep-seated love and background of history and my fascination for things that are real diminishes my ability to kick back and allow my wits to be uprooted by monsters and other ghoulish figures like Jason from Friday the 13th or Freddie Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street. That doesn’t mean I don’t like scary movies. Movies featuring psychotic predators that do not exceed the realm of possibility keep me both glued and frightened. If you want to frighten me, give me Max Cady from Cape Fear or Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. Of course, even these characters are … Read More