Gute Idee: Bücher als pdf

Der Bonner Galileo-Verlag hat's professionalisiert, was Bruce Eckel seinerzeit mit seinem "Thinking-in-Java" das erste Mal stilvoll vorführte: Gute Literatur als pdf kostenfrei zum Download anbieten.

Dies ist beileibe kein pauschales Lob aller Galileo-Bücher, sondern ein Lob für diese Initiative. Sicher für manche IT-Praktiker hilfreich: "Praxisbuch Objektorientierung" - mit Beispielen verschiedener OO-Programmiersprachen.

Never argue with your customer - but move on to _real_ communication!

A nice post by Esther Derby (which I happen to not know personally). She describes three rules of communication - which are _very_ valid in conversations between client and consultant (and equally valid between managers and software-developers!):

1. Never argue with your customer - you'll always lose.


2. Consider the context: It does not matter if it runs on YOUR machine - if it fails at the customers`site!


3. Consider that you might have different definitions for the same words.

Next time I visit my optician, I'll remember Esther, for sure!

IT-architects, please note: blog for arc42

arc42, the portal for software-architecture, now maintains its own blog.

Informationssysteme sind Wirtschaftsgut!

Ich habe ein neues Editorial für arc42 geschrieben - und weise darin auf die häufige Fehlbehandlung hin, die der Informationstechnik in vielen Unternehmen immer noch zuteil wird.

Upcoming Presentations and Talks (September 06 - January 07)

I learned from Stefan that it might be useful to inform you about my upcoming speaking engagements. Here's what's fixed so far from September 2006 until January 2007:

• 19.-20. Sept. 06: CON.ECT: 2-day public course: SOA and Business Integration (Vienna)


• 21.Sept. 06: SOA Technology Days, Bonn: "Enterprise Architecture"


• 28. Oct. 06: CM-Workshop, Karlsruhe: "Der Faktor Sicherheit in Software-Architekturen" (public, but limited attendance)


• 6. Nov. 06: W-Jax 2006, München: "Untiefen von SOA-Projekten"


• 14. Nov. 06: 10th anniversary of Sophist-Group: "Reisebericht aus Architektonien" (semi-public)


• 15. Nov. 06: Prio-Conference, Baden-Baden: "Software-Produktionsprozess"


• 27. Nov. 06: iX-Conference on better Software, Frankfurt: Half-Day tutorial: "42 für Architekten: Effektive Architekturkommunikation"


• 12.-15. Dez. 06: Intensivtraining Software-Architektur (public), Munich, together with Peter Hruschka.


• 22.-25. Jan. 07: OOP-Conference, Munich: Together with Stefan Tilkov I'll be Track-Chair of the 5-day SOA-Track. With Peter Hruschka I'll be managing the Software-Architecture day and with Matthias Bohlen and Peter Hruschka I'll be talking on "IT-Trends (nicht nur) für Manager".

plus some private engagements, that's practical boredom-avoidance for a while :-)

REST on Rails

Bruce Tate, well-known author of award-winning Java books (Better, Faster, Lighter Java) now takes the R-Train: Apart from releasing a book called From Java to Ruby he has written about two hot topics in one article: REST on Rails.

Quote:

The core abstraction in REST is a remote resource instead of a remote procedure call.

In a nutshell, REST queries and manipulates resources with HTTP.

Why there will always be tears

It is not IT, but well worth digesting: Daniel Gilbert, Harvard professor, reasoned "He who cast the first stone probably didn't" - and gives some pretty good examples of (mismatched) action and reaction. (free registration required, unless you already have an NYT account)

His conclusion: "Until we learn to stop trusting everything
our brains tell us about others — and to start trusting others themselves — there will continue to be tears".

Pretty fundamental stuff!

Full article appeared in NY-Times, came to me via Peter Hruschka and Tom DeMarco from Atlantic Systems Guild - thanx, guys.

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Some useful software for Mac OS X

• Desktop blog editor qumana, currently available for free (beta version).


• Managing multiple iPhoto libraries with iPhotoBuddy (freeware)


• Let the mac to the typing: typeIt4me (27€)


• kgtd: Outliner-support for the GTD (getting-things-done) productivity method (book published by David Allen)


• Dobry backuper - for scheduled backups, either incremental, versioned or full. This is one of the things I preferred under Windows - a "real-time" backup with autoversioning (approx 30US$).


• RemoteDesktop - a cool client (by Microsoft) to connect to Windows machines. Way better than vnc or similar stuff - freeware!


• BurnXFree to burn CD's and DVD's, freeware, proudly made in Argentinia.


• SerialMail to send mails to more than one recipient (as I'm sometimes coordinating larger groups of people, this is really helpful. Do not use it for spam, will you?! Donationware.


• Of course, no Mac-SW-list will ever be complete without Quicksilver - the smoothest application experience I ever had - really! Freeware.


• Witch to switch to specific windows of applications (apple-tab just takes you to the app - not what I always want)


• Oh - I'm using the whole OmniWare palette...

Tags: mac, software, gimmicks

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