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I had to look around at what has been done out there. I am not sure it is that funny, but the hair-raising thought of an MS SmartClippy[^] deserved an extra look. 
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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Very good 
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My favorite is that a large German ISP was reported to encourage the use of Bittorrent. It should help balance up- and download traffic of end users.
Reason was said to be that the copper cables, once planned to transfer analogue voice, suffered from nowadays usual HF transmissions causing the skin effect to concentrate currents in a small area near the cable's surface. The concentration was said to be so intense at 4GHz+ that copper atoms were moved out of their lattice position. The predominant download caused the drift to amass in one direction, degrading signal quality.
The ISP had to reverse the most heavily affected cables' direction including a lot of expensive ground digging, so that the same effect restored the original atomic lattice. Process had to be repeated every few years, the report said.
Absolutely hilarious.
Ciao,
luker
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XKCD April Fool...Lorenz[^]
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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I made it 6 clicks deep and hit RANDOM! 
<sig notetoself="think of a better signature">
<first>Jim</first> <last>Meadors</last>
</sig>
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Only seems to play in IE[^]. It's possibly worth having a look at.
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I can't see the difference between IE and Chrome...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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What version of IE are you using?
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I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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On my tablet, it's a pretty picture, with no sound, spoiled by Bing... 
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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I see a picture of the Falkirk Wheel[^], a pretty nifty bit of kit.
Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.
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Nothing now, it was an Aprils Fools Day thing from Microsoft. There was a Song Thrush singing as the animated backdrop. The kicker was that it was singing opera.
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Yes. Very annoying to have that go off every time I opened the browser to search for something.
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Wonder Woman's Invisible Plane[^].
I'm sure this must have been posted before so apologies in advance but I don't recall seeing it, so here it is for further amusement...
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair.
Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection
nils illegitimus carborundum
me, me, me
me, in pictures
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I have a little GPS
I've had it all my married life
It's better than the normal ones
My GPS is my wife
It gives me full instructions
Especially how to drive
"It's thirty miles an hour", it says
"You're doing thirty five"
It tells me when to stop and start
And when to use the brake
And tells me that it's never ever
Safe to overtake
It tells me when a light is red
And when it goes to green
It seems to know instinctively
Just when to intervene
It lists the vehicles just in front
And all those to the rear
And taking this into account
It specifies my gear.
I'm sure no other driver
Has so helpful a device
For when we leave and lock the car
It still gives its advice
It fills me up with counseling
Each journey's pretty fraught
So why don't I exchange it
And get a quieter sort?
Ah well, you see, it cleans the house,
Makes sure I'm properly fed,
It washes all my shirts and things
And - keeps me warm in bed!
Despite all these advantages
And my tendency to scoff,
I do wish that once in a while
I could turn the damned thing off.
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 GPS = Gabby, Pesky Spouse. 
I originated this acronym and retain all rights therein, thereof, hitherto henceforth and forevermore (or less....).
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It's somewhat easy to guess that you used to work for Apple 
I will never again mention that Dalek Dave was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel.
How to ask a question
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I have been reading a lot about the downfalls of RAD and Agile. I am personally an advocate, and my overall approach is agile, but I am not working on HUGE projects, where other methodologies or just different approaches may be better.
But it dawned on me, the problem is STILL one of expectations. I think if we compare building a relatively complex piece of hardware, like a new Digital Video Record with Networking Access and multiple record and playback channels...
Now, I have NEVER built hardware that complex. But lets just assume you have an IDEA:
- You specify it completely
- You design it (considering maximum through puts, etc)
- You build it in a simulator (maybe, or just components)
- You build a prototype (Hand soldering, huge connectors, etc)
- You test it, and revise the designs accordingly
- Then you have to shrink it down, so you redo the board layout, etc
- You send it out to be built in a small batch
- You assemble it and you test it again, repeat until perfectly acceptable
- You then order large numbers and start the process...
But, building software, you get to step 4/5, and everyone wants to go live.
And at the same time, everyone expects it to be as stable as the Hardware we have just described.
I am curious if others feel the same way?
Are expectations to blame?
Do some of you REALLY push a process that says "it is unknown until it is known!", or do you do a paid project to analyze what needs to be done (step 1 above)?
How are you guys handling the more complex projects?
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IMHO, the problem is that you can't design software without a metric for completion or failure. I have yet to be on a project with a clear definition of either and I have been on some BIG projects. Agile is just a methodology but business users think it means, we don't need to know what we want. Which is really "Ad-Hoc" not Agile.
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I think you are basically right. The problem (which is not going away), is that software is much easier to patch live vs. a hardware recall.
Users have become conditioned to accept software 'patches' that fix broken software. And this factors in to the managements decision to go live.
And finally, time is money. If you are the first to market with an acceptable solution, you make more money than the guy a few months late with a moderately better product.
---
The lifecycle of hardware creates a more rigid process.
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A properly run agile project is really about running lots of mini-projects. Each sprint includes requirements analysis (creating the stories for the next sprint), design, development and testing. If your business environment is such that people release things without testing or feedback, they're probably going to do agile wrong as well and not include the test and feedback parts of the sprintly cycle.
Although an in-theory reading of agile texts would lead you to believe that you can go from knowing nothing to getting a product, that's not really true. Like everything, a project run under agile methodologies still has a budget, a manager who's looking out for a successful outcome, and an objective. The objective may not be clear in its detail, but there's still a traditional requirements analysis phase (albeit shorter and less detailed) which finds out what it is and what acceptance criteria there are going to be at the end.
Rather than 'unknown until known' I'd describe the agile approach as 'we know what, but not how' – because when people say this they never know exactly what, which is where the agile feedback from the product owner comes in, and they're open to adjustments based on what is actually possible or things being easy/hard as development proceeds.
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