Teleworking

The company I work for does teleworking, and it’s expanding after a decision was made NOT to build another building, or to rent more office space. It really turns out that the only real impedement to a successfull teleworking of staff overflow isn’t the technology, it the perceptions of Management. The distrust of the employees to not fiddle when they should be working.

I have found that usually I get more work done while working from home. There are so many less distractions here. I don’t have to listen to the general office noise. And I take shorter lunch breaks. Usually only a few minutes long. Management should try it for themselves, it works.

And since the customer is as far away from here as at the office. It makes no difference.

Of Zero’s and Ones, a journey

I have worked in the IT world for over 25 years, and while I’m not really trained as a ‘Computer Scientist’ I classify myself as one. So when I got the opportunity to tutor Java to a first year computer science class at UCC (in Cork) I more or less jumped at the chance. I am not a great Java programmer, in fact I am only just a beginner in Java, but my career has put many languages in my tool belt, COBOL, RPGII, FORTRAN IV, BASIC, Pascal, Ada and C. So Java just became another language I’d learn along the way. And I had no problem keeping a page ahead of the class. But what I learned, and I usually learn a lot along the way, was this issue with Turing. The in-computability issue actually. And it’s been under my skin for ages.

I actually think that Turing is laughing his ass off about this, as it’s really a logic issue. Or rather a Logical Fallacy of Bifurcation issue. It’s a known logic problem, and is best illustrated with a joke. “Answer Yes or No! Are you still kicking your dog?” See, any answer is wrong if you can only answer yes or now. This is a problem inherent with computer binary decision making. It’s either Zero (0) or One (1), true or false. So if you have a computer look at color, and ask “Is it blue or Red” and what is presented is ‘Green’ the compute can not resolve it.

So MY years in IT could therefor be summed up as trying to convince computers to stop listening to Turing, and to explore the world in between Zero and One. . Because the world is a gray area, hence I have, over time, more or less drifted into the database areas of IT. As from there comes the gray matter of IT, Information.

One other computer science aspect I encountered from the professor of the class, was his delight for recursion. And I have to admit that through the years I have never used recursion in any of my development. This professor produced the prettiest Java recursion solution for the old CompSc problem, The Towers of Hanoi. Now I was impressed, recursion was a neat way to solve that problem. But then I put on my IT hat and looked at how that problem appears in the real world. And guess what? It only works when the Tower’s a at the starting point. That seems to be the problem with recursion, it has to start and end in known, and knowable states. Almost the exact problem as the Turing one, it has to know where 0 is, to get to 1. Hence the reason I have never used it in the IT world, or have never seen anyone else use it in production computing systems.

In the IT world there is almost never a situation where you can know where the start and end of a program must operate. Business and engineering is operating in the Analog world, the world in between 0 and 1. Bringing to the fore, the problems concerning Turing and recursion. This is probably a factor almost every computer program operating in the world must solve, hacking around the analog world. A vast attempt to abstract the zeros and ones into the world in between. It’s not too much of a stretch of the imagination to understand why computers crash. A confrontation with the analog reality wall.

This is probably why I get obsessive about politics. It’s that same fallacy, your either a Nazi Republican pig, or a Commie Left wing Democrat!. Or to get elected, you have to be a Democrat, or a republican. And then have to adopt the ‘platform’ of the party, even if this is not who, or what you as a candidate truly wish to be, or represent.

It’s that old Analog world, full of grey issues, and gray solutions. And the current political situation in the U.S. cannot be solved with zeros and ones anymore than a computer can. It must process the gray in between world, it must solve the in between problems.

F*** Bombs and Innovation

With all the F*** Bombs falling out of Microsoft is it any wonder that there is so much talk about the impending implosion of Microsoft?

With leadership of this caliber, what would you expect, Vision? Innovation? Vista? This kind of attitude is indicitive of the bully, striking out at what they themselves can not provide.

What next for poor Struggling Microsoft?

Outsourcing India

My Indian Buddy tells me that Indian outsourcing company’s are having a hard time finding qualified IT staff. And that the search is draining staff from all the other tech areas of India. That includes Science, the Universities, and Hospitals. Any one who can do IT is being hired away with tempting salaries.

On another front, while the Indians are worried about the lose of Manufacturing jobs to China, that don’t appear to be very worried about IT jobs moving to China. As they believe that Superior english skills in India will give them an edge.

Slashdot Com

I have been a long time reader of slashdot.com as a source of geek information. I was a reader a long time before I even became an official registered member. And I often read it still, but the disscussions always degenerate, and even when I think I have something to contribute, I don’t bother, as I don’t think anyone would read it. Or it would get ‘mod’ed down some how.

Too bad, in the age where blogging has taken hold slashdot is fading. Is this happening to other types of ‘forums’ as well?

CRM, BS and real Customer Relations Management.

A new article on CRM Forrester: CRM Market Rife with Dissatisfied Customers Does not surprise me in the least. An particularly as Seibel is mentioned The article states

Overall, Forrester found that Siebel continues to lead the pack by offering the most comprehensive software for enterprise-class organizations and the largest array of front-office technologies tailored to specific industry challenges and opportunities.

Having witnessed Seibel in action, I can state without a doubt this is BS, as in BULLSHIT!!!

When Seibel arranged to be used as a CRM replacement at AT&T Wireless a few years ago. The arrangement was through the CFO not the CTO, a deal that could only happen when palms are properly greased. The ‘Goal’ of the CFO pushed on the CTO was replacing the ‘Cadilac’ in-house CRM (thing) with a ‘Volkswagen’ simpler, cheaper and easier to maintain.

From the outset there was trouble. As I was working for the Infrastructure Architecture group at the time, we were brought in early to assist in the prototype environment. And in the first meeting the Seibel Tech team, and Anderson consulting it was apparent that the System the Consultants had configured, a Sun server, had never been used by Seibel, and over the next three YEARS the Seibel team ported a PC-NT application to Solaris. An operating system they had never used. The Other shoe in this story is the BS I mentioned earlier. They had Absolutely no knowledge, or understanding of the Wireless business, or any other telecommunications business model. So between the hundreds of junior programmers, and roach like consultants querying the AT&T staff about what the existing systems did, or were supposed to do the system grew and grew.

Now to make matters worse the CTO saw the writing on the wall and quit, and was replaced with an ‘Outsourcing Genius” who thought that he could outsource the entire ID department. So he brought in foreign staff to shadow the already harassed staff. This so called Chief Technical Officer was also the genius who declared that “Any computer with more than 4 CPU’s was a waste of electricity” and refused to purchase any of the Sun E10K systems that were required and order only 4 processor Sun systems to fill the place of the 8 (then 12 and then 32) E10K’s that were originally required. Yes you read that correctly 32 E10K’s!

So the original in-house CRM system that only need 8 (with 8 hot backups) HP-K Class systems was replaced with, in the end, more than 32 E10K’s (and no hot backups) bringing the total cost to about 15X (times) more expensive than the previous system. And to put the topping on the cake. After three years, when it deployed, it didn’t work. At least not as expected. It took 6 months of hourly hand feeding data in small batches to keep the thing running.

So NO don’t believe Siebel or any other BS that is being pushed about the virtues of the current crop of CRM systems.

The real business of dealing with Customer Relations are simple, know your business, know what you can and can’t do FOR your customer treat your customer in an ethical way. As noted also in blog space here A Networked World

Interesting article

If you want to drive the bus.

This is a classic transference thing, where someone projects their own success in one area of endeavor , into another field.

I once had an IT director with an MBA tell me that any computer with more than four CPU’s was a waste of electricity, while standing in a computer room filled with more than 200 Computer systems all with 8 processors or more (some more than 24) all spinning their hearts out.

Go figure.

Work Life and Retirement

I was doing some face time at my work site in Donegal and I was staying in a hotel as opposed to my usual B&B. It was a nice hotel, but what struck me were the tourist arriving in Buses and staying at the hotel. I noticed that most were retirees and a thought came to mind that this might be the last generation able to retire.

There is talk in the UK and Ireland for raising the retirement age to 67 or 68 to save the pension systems. I have quite a few years until my retirement, and by that time, the mandatory dates might continue to slide away from me as I approach my retirement, to the point I may never be able to retire. Or worse yet to not be able to afford to retire. That’s enough to scare you into an early grave, come to think about it, that may be the real plan all along.

Industrial development and food service

I’ve been in the U.S. on vacation and I’m of the opinion that the U.S. is in trouble. Not the first time I’ve thought this but the news here is very strange. The first bit is that the foreign car makers have chosen to manufacture cars in Canada instead of the U.S, due to the illiteracy of the U.S. work force. Not much of an endorsement for the U.S. education system.

The other bit is a personal observation, the only industry in the U.S. advancing is the restaurant business. There are more food shops starting in the U.S. than people to eat in them. And the thought comes to mind, who’s eating in them. It’s no wonder that people in IT are working now in food services. It’s the only place that’s hiring.

Mind you I’m not currently visiting any of the centers of technology, but even there, food is king, not technology. There appears to be no industry to speak about. No future in IT or computers, or science not related to food services. Just fat people. My wife will tell you that I’m not skinny, but here I look skinny.

This is very sad Americans are becoming fat dumb and lazy. In an interview with a London residents after the bombings on the 7th of July. The news reporter interviewed a person presenting a alternative view of the bombings and the interviewer cut them off. Even the press here do not want to hear anything that might be construed as un-American.

Someone needs to present a little reality into the American press. Time for a little honest truth about the sad state of the United States. Do you want fries with that?

The ICS and Crayons

I just received a bulletin from Irish Computer Society and it made me feel like it was addressed to first year students. I felt like I should get out my crayons and color in the pictures. It had to do with Software Licensing, and the protection of Intellectual Property issues

(You can read it here. )

The analogy is flawed and the knowledge of the legal mind behind it is indicative of the problem with the Pro vs Anti copyright arguments now going on in the EU. I’m afraid that if this is the kind of discussion going on in the EU Counsel chambers we are doom to repeat all the problems now plaguing the U.S. software industry.

(Update)
I forwarded the ICS bulletin To Richard M. Stallman and he replied. (He must have thought I was trying to subscribe him to this lame article.)

Please remove me from your list. It is not useful for me
to receive notice about speeches that will confuse the public
by speaking of “intellectual property”

The Future of Technology

I recently watched the latest Star Wars movie and while the plot was well known to me, I was very happy that the threads in the movie did a fair job of connecting the movie to the original three episodes. I have observed that the technology displayed in the movies is also interesting in that it does two very interesting and different things. The first is something that should be in everyone’s requirements documents during any IT project, or for that matter any software or technology project.

First in the movies there is a common use of technology, very high tech, but not intrusive in that the technology is what used to be called ‘Appropriate Technology’. Often this has been used in third world countries to describe technology that fits the situation. As in use of solar electronic devices in an area where distributed power is not common, or skipping the ‘Industrial Age’ in favor of the Digital Age. In any case the technology is enough to help, but not enough to intrude. Making the technology a comfortable chair rather than a large lounger/vibrator/bar/desk object that takes up half a room. This could explain the iPod fad, it’s not intrusive, and does only what it was designed to do. The technology should just work for you, you shouldn’t have to work at the technology. This could apply to most things, Operating Systems, entertainment systems, IT information systems. Always available, doing just as needed, and not intrusive.

The other point gleaned from the movies is related but different and that is culture, the technology reflected the various cultural differences, but still provided similar benefits. The spaceships reflected the culture of the planet that operated them. In Ireland, and Europe in general, that is reflected today in automobiles. The cars here are smaller, shaped differently and in some cases are dead ugly functional. Even the heavy equipment here has identifiable differences to those in the U.S. Some of this is due to the environment in which they operate, smaller streets, more expensive fuel, ect. Even McDonalds has adapted their menus here. The one size fits all is not, and should not be a requirement of the technology. It should recognize that there are different cultural and environmental elements to accommodate in the development of technology. I cannot count the number of E-Commerce systems that attempt to sell in Ireland and require an area code or a street number. Here a house address could be a proper name, associated with a village or an estate name, no zip code and no street address. The mapping sites operating on the Internet are going to go crazy here, where the only real way to find some houses are GPS coordinates and the help of the local postman.

Anyway, the point is this, development of technology is as much an element of culture and lifestyle as any other object in use today, and should be incorporated into any requirements analysis for future development. The shape of a computer case, the color of a keyboard, the data entry screen, the controls on an MP3 player must all be taken into consideration. Apple more or less knew this with the creation of colored iMacs and iPods. And the PC industry has often copied this with no real understanding as to why one should do this. This is why! Discrete useful, culturally integrated technology is the goal.

Interesting Rumor: Staff Churn

One of my Indian/American friends here, who has a sister working in one of the Indian outsourcing companies, has passed on this tidbit.

They have between 25% and 40% staff turnover (churn). The cause appears to be job hopping for more money. This has been forcing pay increases in an effort to retain staff. And apparently it’s endemic for all the outsourcers.

Read this as you may, but this can only increase outsourcing costs, making it less cost effective for U.S. firms.

This goes hat in hand with another part of of the rumor, there appears to be, on the surface, a lack of available tech staff available to hire. Seems like they have found the bottom of the barrel, staff wise, hence the staff churn.