It’s Super Tuesday. Time to get down to the business of choosing our candidates.

If you’re in a state voting today, I hope you’ll be there.

For now, check this out. (Links to my “other” blog)

Happy Super Tuesday!

- Brandon

In my last post, I spoke briefly about posting from time to time on the topic of technology that plays a role in fighting poverty. I figured that a good place to start with would be the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, probably the most notable example of such. There’s not much I can say about this highly-publicized program that hasn’t already been said or written elsewhere, so I’ll just share a couple of resources I have come across recently.

For starters, Ivan Krstic, the Director of Security Architecture for OLPC gave a great talk on the technical ins and outs of the XO Laptop at Google back in April. You can check it out here. It’s an hour long, but worth a watch. (Thanks for Phil for pointing this out to me).

Of course, the biggest news in the XO Laptop department is the Give 1 Get 1 Program, which officially begins at 6 AM Eastern tomorrow. (BTW, the OLPC news site is a great resource for exactly that) The gist of the program is this: You pay $399 for two XO Laptops. You get one and the other is sent to a child in a developing country. T-Mobile has jumped into this promotion by throwing in a year of free T-Mobile Hot Spot access for the donor and EA is graciously donating the original Sim City to be included on all of the laptops.

Professionally, I am interested in Give 1 Get 1 because it seems to have potential to enhance the 1-to-1 model of child sponsorship that Compassion has held to for over 50 years. Imagine the impact of a sponsor purchasing one of these laptops, then designating that the other be delivered as a gift to his or her child. I don’t know if this is possible, probable or neither at this point, but I have contacted Ivan Krstic to ask and I am at least looking forward to hearing a bit more on OLPCs future plans for partnering with international non-profits that have similar goals to OLPC.

If you haven’t seen or read much about the program yet, I would encourage you to go check it out. The work that OLPC is doing is pretty amazing on several fronts: they are pushing the hardware and software envelope, all while providing affordable technology with the goal of improving education and peer learning. I, for one, am excited to continue to watch the program and its impact evolve.

• Microsoft: My way or the highway with SOA? Though Microsoft can certainly afford to do “SOA their way” and though such approaches have certainly worked in the past, I wonder if this one might actually hurt them is the long run. As Joe says, “What Microsoft appears to be doing… goes completely against what SOA is supposed to be all about, which is the ability to deploy and run what you need based on what you need, unencumbered by the limitations of vendors’ systems.” Wouldn’t it be ironic if Microsoft’s way of forcing organizations to “do SOA” causes organizations to turn to SOA itself as a way to minimize their dependencies on Microsoft systems?
• Project Zero: IBM enables REST-based development - Not surprising to see IBM adding support for REST, especially since Microsoft is doing the same by adding a Web Programming model to its WCF upgrades in the .NET 3.5 Framework. In many ways, this simply underscores David Chappell’s assertion that the REST versus WS-* debate is over. While we may still have a place in our hearts for one over the other, the major vendors seem to be saying “why not both?”
• Binding SOA to BPM instead of BPM to SOA - Not sure I understand the assertion that we should attach SOA to the swimlane diagram and not BPMN Nick. Pools and Lanes are used heavily in BPMN, so what is it about BPMN that you have an issue with? If it’s the BPEL/automation side of BPMN, then I agree, but I think that BPMN can be very useful to organizations without that side, especially since what you get is a standard Process modeling language where none exists today.
• Why Sales isn’t process driven - According to Steve Jones, the “mechanism for the implementation and measurement of a service” (process) isn’t always the same thing as the drivers for and value of the service (goals). Meaning that our services ought to pay attention to user goals first and the underlying process second. It’s a UCD/UX perspective for SOA…
• PowerPoint: Boon or Bane? I tend to fall into the camp of PowerPoint is a misused tool, not a bad tool in and of itself, though its conventions in the form of automatic title and bullet regions do encourage bad behavior. 
• Stuff - I read recently that it took the self-storage industry 25 years to build the first billion square feet of storage space and only 8 years for the second billion. Yet our houses have grown by 80% and we still face a storage crisis. Stuff is best gotten rid of…

Thanks to Joe Lewis, I’ve been hit with a meme. Everyone says they never do these things, but this one sounds harmless enough since I can say whatever 8 random things I want to in response.

The rules for this meme are:

1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.

Ok, so 8 random facts about me:

1. I received my undergraduate degree in MIS from Baylor University. Since then (all apart from my full-time job), I have considered seminary, law school (took the LSAT even), business school and seminary again. I enrolled in an LIS program at the University of Denver last Spring, then moved into a CIS program at DU’s University College after the faculty decided that technology isn’t that important to LIS programs. I’m a vagabond student, what can I say. If somebody is willing to give me a Master’s degree where I pick all the curriculum, I think I’d finally be happy. Of course, I could do that now. It’s called learning on your own…
2. A few weeks ago, I started teaching myself Ruby on Rails for grins. I’d been interested for a while, but I finally took the plunge and bought Agile Web Development with Rails, 2nd Ed. I haven’t had this much fun doing development in a while.
3. My dream career is to be a writer (and actually be able to live off of it). I’ve wanted to be once ever since I learned to read and have written on the side actively since I was eighteen. One of these days, I’ll force myself through NaNoWriMo and finally move in that direction.
4. My wife and I sponsor three children with Compassion International, the organization which I am privileged to serve. The names of our children are Denis (Tanzania), Immanuel (El Salvador) and Ana Maria (Dominican Republic). Last year, I was in the Dominican Republic and was blessed enough to be able to meet Ana Maria and her mother. It was an amazing experience and one I will never forget and I am reminded every day how fortunate I am that I get to do something I love for an organization who is on the front lines of ending poverty.
5. My Myers-Briggs personality type is ENFP (stealing one from Joe). Apparently, I am an idealist and am also terrible at follow-through.
6. I love technology, but my hobbies (running, biking, hiking, backpacking) take me outdoors where I feel free without my digital leashes.
7. I am an avid GTD-er. I love the book, the ideas, 43Folders and all things GTD. Right now, I am actually supposed to be doing my weekly review. I think this blog post (though on my action list) took longer than 2 minutes…
8. I wish I was as smart as Edward Tufte.

So that’s that. Now to pass this albatross on to others:

1. Ken Scott
2. Dempsey Williams
3. Jason Foster
4. Dan Fox
5. Rob Fay
6. Adnan Masood
7. Phil Ripperger
8. Russ Debenport 

Now how’s that for some structured procrastination?

100 years ago today, the forward pass was “invented” in football. It was less than a year from first use to when the forward pass was added to the football rulebook.

This got me thinking. What would happen if the forward pass were invented today?

Some ideas:

• ESPN.com would unleash articles from their masters with opinions on either side of the argument. Len Pasquarelli would probably claim that the forward pass dilutes the purity of the game and should be sqelched immediately. Mark Schlereth would claim that America needs to wake up and recognize that Football is a business and if the business needs to evolve to attract fans, it should be allowed to do so.

• Bill Simmons would, of course, weigh-in in some humorous way (that manages to cull from 80’s pop culture, music and movies) and generate a ton of fan mail from smarmy frat boys who engage in textual one-upsmanship by emailing questions like:

Hey Bill,

Is it me, or are leather helmets a 10 on the Unintentional Comedy Scale? Also, I’d like to submit Jack Schneider as a member of the Ewing Theory team. I mean, he couldn’t catch a forward pass if the ball was a Koosh and was lobbed underhanded!

More Cowbell,

Pete in Yonkers

How about in the world of politics. Of course, the politicians can’t help but get involved:

• Democrats would claim that the forward pass was a ploy by Republicans to divert attention from the war in Iraq during mid-term elections. Then they would question whether the forward pass is a sign that steroids are a problem in football and organize commitees to investigate the possibility of government regulation of the sport.
• Meanwhile, Republicans would claim that the forward pass is the work of Al-Qaeda and an attempt by international terrorists to attack us by changing our way of life. A vote for the Republican party is a vote against Al Qaeda!

Of course, the forward pass would never survive the media frenzy, Bradbury Robinson, the offender who dared to throw the pass would be demonized (along with his coach, Eddie Cochems) and the sport of football would remain in the stone age forever.

Just kind of makes one think… Maybe I am just making generalizations, but wouldn’t you agree that all of the things I listed above, funny or otherwise, aren’t really that far from the realm of possibility?

Sports, Football, Forward Pass, Bill Simmons, Politics

I am an avid reader of Joel on Software. I read the book and actively follow the blog. I admire Joel, his career and his willingness to speak his mind. I don’t always agree with Joel, but I always respect his opinion. He has a fundamental way of looking at seemingly complex things that can tend to oversimplify the issues, but they can also bring about understanding and foster discussion.

Apparently, his Language Wars post from last week upset DHH, a self-described “Emo Programmer,” because Joel claims that Ruby on Rails isn’t “Enterprisey” enough. David doesn’t seem to agree and claimed that Joel’s post was a textbook example of FUD in action. If this turns into Adam Curry v. Dave Winer, it could be interesting to watch.

Now I am probably out of line in declaring this a flame war when Joel has yet to provide a direct response to DHH. But DHH is doing his best to shake the trees. See Exhibit A, Two posts and two updates to the second post all in the course of one day.

DHH missed the point of Joel’s post, which was to say that for enterprise applications (read: internal) there are only a limited slate of options (.NET, Java, PHP and 1/2 Python). I think he’s right. And don’t get me wrong… I really like Rails. I love the flexibility; I love the simplicity. I love the “fight the power” attitude that comes packaged with the bits. I have used it a bit on the side and will continue to do so when free time lands in my lap. I’ve even considered repurposing this blog in Rails to add some AJAX-y goodness.

But Joel’s point goes beyond the classic “My programming language is cooler than yours” mentality that populates playgrounds and UNIX circles. It’s not about cool or fun or exciting. It’s about what the enterprise can tolerate and is ready for. When we make architectural decisions at Compassion, we always consider context. Context is king. It dictates what you can afford to do with what you’ve been given. Context also brings in factors like how risk tolerant your customers are and what your Machine Service Bureau (MSB) or support group is willing to maintain.

37Signals is changing the world with their software, and that’s not an understatement. Do I want to use Rails in house at Compassion tomorrow? Of course, I’d love to give it a spin on something internal. Is that a wise decision based on my current context? Not for another year or two, which is exactly what Joel meant. When the Enterprise is the customer, that’s a reality.

All that being said, Joel is missing something here as well. Rails may not be in Joel’s short list now, but I’d be willing to bet it will be before Python makes the skip to a full option. Why? Because Rails in the poster child for agility and getting things done with software. It doesn’t matter that Python has some of those flavors. Ruby on Rails is a term executives are hearing. Rails is also the poster child for AJAX and when AJAX crosses into the enterprise, so will Rails.

In addition to that, the ubiquity of SOA in the enterprise may make all of this moot eventually anyway. Think about it: If my enterprise has a fully-loaded SOA with all the ESB bells and whistles, why couldn’t development team A create a rails application that used services provided by Infrastructure team B? As long as team A’s app can create and consume the right messages (and don’t even assume SOAP… a good ESB can translate REST to SOAP and back again) who cares what stack team A uses (assuming team A will be dogfooding said app)?

In my opinion, all of this is just smoke and wasted bits when we’re in the middle of a technology shift that is enabling these things to play together. So if personal preference becomes the rule of the day (which Microsoft certainly supports by creating languages in .NET that all compile to the same MSIL code) when will these silly schoolyard squabbles stop?

Ruby on Rails, SOA, Joel on Software, Loud Thinking, DHH, .NET

I’m not in attendance at PDC this week (I’m saving my trip for ASP.NET Connections in November), but I am keeping up with some of the press filtering out. The best I’ve heard so far is “Microsoft Showcases New User Interface for Office ‘12′ Core Applications.” Normally, this isn’t spectacular news, but they are introducing “…the most dramatic changes since the introduction of the toolbar in 1997.” (I shamelessly took that from the article I just linked to)

However, I find the announcement post-worthy because of the included screenshots:

MS Word

MS PowerPoint

MS Excel

MS Access

I’m not a Mac user, I’m a Windows guy. But I’m not so rabid about the debate that I can’t admit it when Microsoft is shamelessly ripping Apple off. This is a clear-cut example of that. So much so, that the first thought that crossed my mind when I saw the screenshot for Word was that the fringe looked a lot like iTunes 5.

But I’m not complaining. I love the look of Mac apps. This way, I can get the great UI without having to buy a Mac.

Office 12, iTunes, Mac, PDC

Last week, I posted a link to an eBook by Seth Godin called “Knock Knock: Seth Godin’s Incomplete Guide to Building a Web Site that Works” and mirrored the download here. This week, seth has posted his follow up, “Who’s There? Seth Godin’s Incomplete Guide to Blogs and the New Web.” I’ve mirrored the download here again, so enjoy. Now I must go and drink it all in…

Seth Godin

I know I’m jumping on the blogosphere (One electroshock for me for using a buzzword) bandwagon for bringing this up, but I think I have a point about GoogleTalk unrelated to the common chatter.

For you Skype purists out there, I know that Google Talk is essentially Skype-lite. I’m only partially excited about Google Talk because of how clean and clear the voice features are. I’m also excited because it’s basic, clean and uncluttered. I’ll let the screenshots speak for themselves.

Here’s MSN Messenger:

And Google Talk:

In a day and age when Microsoft keeps adding tabs to messenger and cluttering the interface with winks, nudges and skins, Google Talk makes me smile. Now I know this is a Beta, so we may see clutter eventually. For now, I’ll enjoy simplicity while I can.

Now that Google is public and no longer the anti-Microsoft, it’s not surpising that They’re giving Microsoft a run for its money as the big bad wolf.

BTW, you need a Gmail account to use this tool, so if you don’t have one, email me. I’ve got plenty of invites to share.

GoogleTalk, Google, Microsoft, Skype

There’s no rhyme or reason, but here are some of the things I’ve thrown into del.icio.us of late:

The List: http://del.icio.us/thesatch
The Feed: http://del.icio.us/rss/TheSatch

The Links:

31 days to better blogging
Tags: blog howto problogger

How to get into blog-reading
Tags: blog blogging blogs howto reference rss web

Getting started with “Getting Things Done”
Tags: 43folders gtd lifehacks organization productivity reference

Web 2.0
Tags: ajax distributed internet rss web web2.0 wikipedia xml

A brief history of Blogging 1.0
Tags: blog blogging blogs killer app web

More Web 2.0
Tags: Web2.0, blog blogging blogs web