Matthew’s Weblog

A perspective on why to hire great programmers instead of average ones:

A Guide to Hiring Programmers: The High Cost of Low Quality
Followup to “A Guide to Hiring Programmers”

Really good points, and some interesting ideas about how to drive the idea through the HR process.

Technorati Tags: hiring, coding, code+quality

Because the idea of neo-patronage here is being applied to writing (and kind of associated with all arts) it sounds new… but when I actually sat down to write about how cool I thought it was and how it was related to the Baen Free Library and other many-words kinds of things, I realized — this is really the basis of Open Source software and donations for people’s work and all that is new here is the name.

That said, I really like calling it ‘Neo-Patronage’…

Technorati Tags: neo-patronage, books, library, open+source

Ah yes, more to the specific point, which God is more powerful:

A)
The god that creates everything in [one fell] swoop 6000, filles with
incosistancies (sic) and plotholes and has to step in every so often to
adjust settings here and there.

B) The one who can plan out
events billions of years in advance, making everything fit so perfectly
together, using simple rules that are capable of fractal growth into
marvelously complex systems that continue to run flawlessly for
millions of years without intervention?

In a head to head battle, I have a feeling that God B will have figured out how to win before the fight even begins.

by Clambake

An interesting WSJ article on Google’s management advantages.  The one that I think is the largest advantage is that no one thinks they’re “infallible seers”… priests of high technology that get ideas handed down from some divine providence.  I’ve seen too many technological answers mandated by upper management that doesn’t understand what they are doing.  And I’ve seen the results…

Technorati Tags: google, management

From Dictionary.com…

apposite \AP-uh-zit\, adjective:
Being of striking appropriateness and relevance; very applicable; apt.

I’ll have to remember that one.

I’ve never been good at staying focused, and have wondered if there is some low-grade ADHD embedded in my bones. However, more and more folks are noticing that technology these days pushes us into more-interruptible lives. The most recent description came via Steven Levy about continuous partial attention. I think it really reflects the state of things right now…

The question is, how do we solve it? I’ve wanted, for a long time, a technological fix - a filter that stands between me and the world, knows what I’m doing, and is aware of what is worthy of interrupting me with. Hasn’t happened yet, though a lot of people are working on it.

My answer always has been mundane, because I can’t handle anything more complex. Don’t look. Ringers off. Close the laptop, turn the TV off. I don’t even play music because that distracts me. One activity at a time, when I need to. It’s hard, and I’m still working on it - and my wife will tell me I’ve got a long way to go…

So I ran across an article about Finding Your Blue Flame - discovering where your interest burns hottest, and targeting that with purpose.

I will be doing that over this holiday.

Hate automated phone trees? I heard about Paul English and his magic list of IVR bypass codes. Very cool!

I just had a clear definition explained to me… awfully handy.

Procedures are what you do and how to do things.
Policies are why people perform the procedures, and incorporate:

• Metrics
• Regulations that apply
• Who the policy authority is
• Consequences if procedures are not followed

Interesting…

I’m starting to get interested in AJAX apps… so here are some items I’m reading…