Software Metrics

Published on Friday July 4, 2008 10:59:15 a.m. +0200

I've been reading Bruce F. Webster's articles and blogs lately. He's written an article on project management metrics (more directed on IT and software development) on BaselineMag.com. In his article, he quotes The Metric Law of 90s:

The first 90 percent of a development project
takes 90 percent of the schedule.
The remaining 10 percent of the project
takes the other 90 percent of the schedule.

I have to agree with this! When I first started working (not 3 years ago!), a former colleague once told me (tounge-in-cheek): If you ever have to put a date on a delivery for the business, think in your head how long you think it will take, and then multiple that estimate by 3.

We Own the Night

Published on Friday July 4, 2008 07:38:54 a.m. +0200

(Spoiler warning! If you're planning on watching We Own the Night, please don't read this entry!)

I watched We Own the Night last night over dinner, and noticed how they portrayed the New York Police Department like a mob family.

On the one hand, you have the mafia or mob who are known to value family and loyalty over law at any point. They tend to support each other in time of crisis, without second guessing the impact it might have on their individual selfs (selflessness).

On the other hand, you have the NYPD in movie, who did exactly that! Moreover, the measures the brothers took to seek revenge was far beyond what the police or law enforcers are allowed to do (I know, I know, it is just a movie!).

I just felt that the writer and director James Gray portrayed the NYPD indistinguishable from the Russian mobs. At least to me, the movie did not have feel that it was about Cops vs Robbers, Good vs Evil, NYPD vs Russian Mob smuggling drugs. It felt more like 2 mob families going at each other.

(Maybe there's some artistic edge to it)

On the whole, I thought the movie was pretty great. Some really good direction and acting. Joaquin Phoenix did do justice to his role. I would recommend it if you're into crime drama.

One down for EBay

Published on Tuesday July 1, 2008 03:08:58 p.m. +0200

Apparently the French courts have ruled againts EBay to the tune of £30m in a bizzare case (at least from my point of view).

LVMH (who own a number of designer brands from Christian Dior to Louis Vuitton) sued EBay for allowing EBay's users to sell counterfeit designer goods. I think this is just ridiculous. EBay are in the business of providing a service to perform online auctions, and really should not have to take blame for what their users sell. LVMH really should have gone out for the counterfeiters themselves.

The concept is pretty simple: there are many companies out there that provide a "service" for their end consumers, and it's their consumers who actually make the conscience decision to utilise it. If someone doesn't like it, the service provider really should not be blamed here. The end consumer is at fault. The same argument can be applied when an organisation like RIAA sues an ISP - it's not the ISP who downloaded all those songs, its the users!

So, what's next ? A person who just had his house robbed sues the car company that the robbers used as a getaway vehicle ?

Paranoia

Published on Saturday June 28, 2008 12:07:17 p.m. +0200

I just skimmed through a BBC article that states WIFI might be dangerous.

I find this very interesting. There have been (are?) plenty of reports and studies showing mobile phones can affect your health, but that did not really ditter the general public from taking on mobile phones on a daily basis. This is going to repeat with WIFI. Even though it might be harmful, everyone will continue to use it, because the practicallity out weighs the effects multiple times over.

What I find shocking is that BBC Panorama actually wasted spent money and man hours on a report, that at the end of the day, makes absolutely no difference to the daily lives of the general public.

Firefox 3 Released

Published on Wednesday June 18, 2008 06:09:08 a.m. +0200

Firefox 3 is out! Grab it from http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/.

One thing that I noticed is that at times the site will take a long time to respond. I suppose all the buzz about Firefox is really hitting their servers hard.

Initial impressions: much faster, much more light-weight than Firefox 2. I would definately recommend anyone with a lower end machine to upgrade. Downside: finding all my favourite Firefox extensions and plugins that are compatible with Firefox 3. The search begins!