Tech Op/Ed

Who da man? -
What does it matter that the top IT leaders of today are more and more akin to the Pointed-Haired Boss instead of the Pocket-Protectored Practitioners of the past? An IT department is just a commodity service provided by a collection of people needing to be supervised, so any MBA will do… right?
Well, interestingly enough, [...]

CIO Magazine has an archive of issues stretching back to 1994.  If you want to know what’s been on the minds of IT leaders over the last decade, CIO Magazine is a definitive source.  Notable among their works are the CIO Surveys.  After a decade of unparalleled innovation in computing, one might expect that the role of the IT [...]

There are surprisingly few computer geek haikus (Haiku/Haikus? My Tao is weak on Haiku pluralization) out there, and most are over a decade old.  Here are some j.ello originals. If you like them, Digg ‘em & I’ll bring more.  And yes, Digg, you can use the I-Ching one.
12/03 - Welcome to the [H]ardOCP gang!  I’m flattered to make the big [...]

Mistaking good values for good values -
There are a few themes that I’ll go back to over and over again. Here is one:
“Your IT is a reflection of your organization’s values.”
That’s a good thing, right? You organization values the work it does, those it employs and those it serves, so if your IT is following [...]

I was thinking to myself about how many setbacks the industry has had in the last few years, and how all those setbacks have a face… so I want to take a quick break, and celebrate the poster children of retrograde progress. 
This month, Patricia Dunn.  
I truly wish I could have been a fly on the wall, watching [...]

Before we look at IT as a whole, let’s take a look at a more obvious example.  It’s pretty easy to define the job of a programmer.  They take a set of requirements and write code that meets the requirements.  It’s also easy to make that case that programmers can be used to generate value… [...]

It’s the boss’ fault.  There… I said it.  But that’s not important right now.  First, a lesson in macro-economics, innovation and human nature.
Is computing a commodity?
A commodity is a bulk product that has no differentiation among vendors.  Commodities are bought and sold almost exclusively based on price as opposed to quality or other unique values and features.
As I mentioned, [...]

What’s IT?  For a complete, clear and detailed explanation, we turn to Wikipedia.  Well, ok, so I jest… it’s woefully vague, probably inaccurate, though not entirely indefensible.  The current entry just doesn’t annoy anyone enough to bother changing it - it’s a “democratic truth”.  Fact is, IT used to mean something, but misuse, time and evolution have diluted [...]

I have been in the so-called “IT” profession for more than half my life.  I am shocked to find how little has changed in that time… and how much everyone thinks it has.
I was pleased to find a lovingly-written article on the perennially reborn, long-beloved operating system called GEOS.  If you haven’t heard of it, [...]

Well hello world, glad to see you again.  If you don’t recall, seven years ago I started a little e-zine called the j.ello | report.  I kept up with it for a couple years, had a good number of subscribers… but, as it was a labor of love as opposed to revenue based business, I had to [...]