What good is open source nobody knows about?
Here’s a pet peeve of mine, because I see it time and time again: Folks work on software or projects, put in a ton of effort, and then do nothing to promote the project or release. (And, for bonus points, complain that they don’t understand why the project isn’t...
What every admin should know about email
Email is a fantastic tool, when used correctly. It almost never is. Rikki Endsley asked me if I’d like to write something for USENIX ;login; logout, and it happened to be right after processing a slew of terrible email: people sending two-line replies at the end of several hundred...
Apple’s “Pathological” Approach to Customers
I think Lawrence Lessig puts his finger on it pretty well with this post about the problems with Apple’s “communication” strategy about bugs/feature removal in upgrades: But the argument I want to advance here is different. It is that in the “hybrid economy” that the Internet is, there is...
Joining Red Hat
When you think of Linux, one of the first phrases that comes to mind is “Red Hat.” When people look to give examples of successful open source businesses, Red Hat is always (rightfully) at the top of the list. They are one of the few (if not only) companies...
Predictions on Tumblr
If you haven’t heard that Yahoo is buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion (mostly cash), then you’re probably not paying a lot of attention to tech news. Here’s my off-the-cuff predictions: Despite Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer’s promise, yes, Yahoo will screw it up. A company that can’t seem to get...
Writing ledes, writing for feeds…
Too many ledes in tech publications and blogs suck. I’ve been doing more editing and more content curation lately. The upshot of that is noticing a lot of really boring, fluffy, slow-to-the-point ledes that utterly fail at drawing the reader in. It’s not hard to do a decent lede...
Thoughts on the iPad
Yes, like thousands of others yesterday I decided to plunk down a little cash for a spanking new iPad. Like thousands of others, I figured I’d give a couple of quick thoughts on my experience with it so far. I’m looking at the iPad in a couple of ways:...
More “bad” English, please
I’d like to see more bad English on mailing lists, and fewer apologies from non-native speakers about their poor English skills. There’s nothing to be ashamed of in trying to communicate in a second, third, or fourth language and not being an expert. And it’d be a shame if...
Corporate sponsors and event funding: Ask early, not often
If you’re hoping to get sponsorship funds for your event, it’s better to ask early than to ask often. And even better to ask professionally… For larger companies (i.e., the ones that actually do have a fair amount of cash for sponsorships) it is vitally important to ask early...
It’s time to retire the mom test
One of the more humorous ad series today is the Geico “caveman” commercials, featuring a caveman complaining about the stereotype of something being “so easy a caveman could do it.” Since we don’t have to worry about offending cavemen (or cavewomen), companies can safely poke humor at that demographic...