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PayPal’s stuck another clever little location-aware payment option into its smartphone app, with the Beacon tool letting users pay for items without even having to sigh and pull a mobile out of a pocket. The money will just be flying out of your pocket
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Ok, Who all read that as Paypal Bacon........ 
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That's bacon with a 2% conversion fee?
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TTFN - Kent
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From 6x13 Fixed to Ubuntu Mono, get your fixed-width on. All hail the slashed zero!
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That was all the way back in 2008 (and 2010 for the article). New fonts, mango, new fonts. I figure I can re-use this every two years for the rest of my life 
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TTFN - Kent
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With longtime Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer having announced his plans to retire, everyone is hungry to find out who his successor will be. And while early rumors pointed to outgoing Nokia CEO (and longtime Microsoft exec) Stephen Elop, some prominent voices are pushing for the company to hire someone that specializes in turning around troubled firms. Because ... quality is job #1?
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Former DEC exec wonders how Microsoft can weather the storms it's created "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
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And here I thought it was because no one would pay top dollar for the best when "good enough" was so much cheaper.
 Ah, DEC, how I miss thee.
Now excuse me while I power up an AlphaServer...
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Pour one out for them. Just not on the Alpha.
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TTFN - Kent
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Don’t get me wrong, there are lots of great developers and nice people who are software developers, and there are lots of great supportive environments and thriving communities in software development land, but there are also lots of jerks. Here be dragons (and trolls)
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I think this article is quite the navel gazing...
My take on it? Assholes, assholes everywhere!!!
There is no particularly higher concentration of it in IT... 
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Super Lloyd wrote: There is no particularly higher concentration of it in IT..
True dat, but I don't have to (usually) deal with a-hole lawyers, accountants, etc. Just the IT ones, and while they may not be everywhere, they sure are noisy.
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TTFN - Kent
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Navel gazing means you see navels.
If you are seeing a**holes, then you are a**hole gazing! 
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The scheme sold as the world's biggest agile software project, the UK's £2.4bn Universal Credit programme, has run into cost overruns and delays. So what went wrong? There are no silver bullets
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Kent Sharkey wrote: So what went wrong?
Uh...
Kent Sharkey wrote: agile software project
As in, most likely, insufficient due diligence in understanding existing systems, poor up front architecture, design and planning to incrementally replace legacy systems, and poor architecture, design and planning before hand in implementing new systems.
OK, I'll got read the article now.
Marc
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Having worked on projects for HMG (Her Majesty's Government) in the past, I don't need to read the article to know why it's gone wrong. The litany of failures will be the same - too many consultancies with vested interests in maxing billable hours; endless meetings that achieve nothing; poorly understood requirements; lack of involvement from the people who will actually be using the software (normally they are kept at least 3 arms lengths away by the consultancies mentioned above); any change of scope resulting in endless renegotiations (and let's face it, agile is normally seen as one long change of scope by traditional contracts); poor planning leading to the wrong parts being delivered, leading to major reworking of components as new functionality is added in; lack of acceptance criteria; poor CI/QA practices; complete lack of ownership by anyone with any real knowledge/ability to affect change.
I could go on, but I'm off to read the article now.
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You sir, are psychic. Or perhaps a witch. I think you hit just about all the problems they hit.
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TTFN - Kent
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The disturbing thing is that they never, ever learn.
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: The disturbing thing is that they never, ever learn.
And what's really disturbing is the money they've spent on this project. My god, man, if they have that much money, wouldn't it be better served pumping it directly into education / training programs for people on welfare, heck, anybody?
By the way, the article says:
Touted as the world's biggest agile software project, the £2.4bn Universal Credit programme was supposed to showcase how the software methodology could be used on a grand scale.
Well, wasn't the failure of the prototype of Agile Development, the Chrysler Comprehensive Compensation project, sufficiently "grand" to show that agile doesn't work?
Marc
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The former Apple CEO, who fired Jobs in 1985, gave his most illuminating explanation ever of the move at a Forbes conference in Bali last week. Ooops?
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Microsoft is preparing to launch its next-generation tablets at an event in New York City on September 23rd. Maybe someone will buy the new ones?
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Inside the massive data centers that drive things like Google Search and Gmail and Google Maps, you’ll find tens of thousands of machines — each small enough to hold in your arms — but thanks to a new breed of software that spans this sea of servers, the entire data center operates like a single system, one giant computer that runs any application the company throws at it. My brain's not big enough to understand Docker, but it apparently rocks
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My favorite strange-loop story. It’s actually
a story about software security, and the kinds of stunts you can play with
software if you’re clever and subtle. It’s the story of the Unix C compiler, and the virtually invisible back-door security hole inserted into it by Ken Thompson – a story he told in his Turing award lecture.. Fun and games with compilers. Hopefully not for profit.
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The release is available for download now on the Visual Studio product website and is a "go-live" release. Starting today, developers can also download Windows 8.1 RTM via their MSDN and TechNet subscriptions. Oh look: new C++ features?! How did those get in there?
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