Category Archives: Uncategorized
AWS Configuration: Admin Server
This is the second post in a series designed to describe our Amazon EC2 environment. Our environment uses a server, called the admin server, to provide NFS mounts. This server is a critical component in the architecture and does pose … Continue reading
How to Handle Negativity in Social Media
Quite often I am asked if a company should engage a person who is disparaging their brand or products. The answer is, “Absolutely, yes!” My response comes in two flavors: If someone wrote something that was not based on factual … Continue reading
4 Ways Companies Use Twitter for Business
I just read Gartner’s report on using micro-blogging (Twitter) in the enterprise and I can’t imagine the authors of the report have much experience with Twitter. The statement, “it is not imperative for every corporation to be actively participating at … Continue reading
Sprint Task List and Burndown Chart Template
Here is a template I use for the Sprint Planning and Daily Stand Up Meetings. The initial estimates are entered on the first day and the sprint ends at the final stand up. Beyond that, everything is pretty self-explanatory. A … Continue reading
Commodity Hardware
I’ve seen this statement made hundreds of times: Google doesn’t invest in high-end hardware, rather they use the commodity hardware that you can find in a typical desktop PC. This spurred a debate with a collegue of mine, “what is … Continue reading
Quote of the day
“Measure the output, not the input.” -Me
Design it for yourself
I can’t begin to tell you how many product meetings I have been in where the product manager replied to an engineer suggesting a new idea with, “Our customers are not like you” or “Our users are not expert users … Continue reading
Money is not an asset
If somone gives you money, you should spend it! If I give you money, you should spend it! The money I gave you is an investment and I expect a return. If the money is sitting in the bank, the … Continue reading
Taking Notes
It seems every six months I find myself changing they way I collect and store information. I tried Google Notebook, pads of paper, GTD-style, and many others and never felt comfortable with the results. I recently came across a combination … Continue reading
When to say when
You never know how a product with work when the rubber hits the road. The demo was perfect, the pilot was good, and the implementation was….? Well you hit some rough patches, found out support was offshored to a non-English … Continue reading
