For people who don’t use Windows, the day that Microsoft’s grip on the desktop is broken can’t come soon enough. The reason is simple: the technical divide created by the dominance of one operating system means that people who choose to use something different face constant discrimination
I was brought up to believe that men and women are created equal. Then I hit puberty and the issue became a lot more complicated. Later, at university, I was exposed to the feminist movement which, to be honest, left me more confused than ever. Though it created a heightened awareness of the issue of gender equality, it became difficult to separate dogma and ideology from real problems
Ever since the first vi user met the first emacs user, the IT industry has been plagued with intense debates about very little. No fact or rational argument will convince either side they might be wrong. As the discussion depends on what the participants believe, these are often described as religious debates
If your project manager is a real monster, just think about how you would react in the same situation. The monster could just as easily be you
One of the things I love about the IT industry is the constant hype. There is always some new idea or silver bullet that will fix everything. The hype can provide endless hours of amusement and it can be great fun to watch the clash of the old with the new, the believers versus the Luddites. And of course it provides great mental exercise — deconstructing the hype, trying to understand it, trying to debunk it and trying to see where the hype is real.
When I was renting a piano for my daughter recently, I found an obvious spelling mistake in the lease agreement. This provided great amusement for the rental agent — he had been using the same contract for 20 years and I was the first person to point it out. Unfortunately for me, it was a bitter reminder about one of the key problems of documentation — nobody ever reads it
