Slashdot Mirror

Joined by dozens of other readers, johnmullin writes: "Bell Labs has made the third release of its Plan 9 computer operating system available on the World Wide Web under an open-source agreement. Anyone interested in using Plan 9 may download the system, including source code and documentation, from http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9dist/. Check out the full story here here." Note for the lazy: An English company called Vita Nuova will also be selling "a full boxed set with CDs and manuals." Surely, systems research is not dead ...

Stab writes: "John Carmack updated his .plan file with the startling news that id has had a bit of political infighting recently. In response to an ultimatum laid down to Kevin and Adrian regarding starting a new DOOM sequel, they fired Paul Steed! Read the full story in JC's .plan update." The important news here is that they're working on Doom III, but the decision to do so was a rough one for the company, not the developers. Note to Kevin and Adrian: Firing developers out of spite ain't cool.

Here's another doubleheader review, this time of The Cluetrain Manifesto, the four-author print extension of the Web site of the same name. Hemos and Jason Bennett here dissect the book and provide some insight into where the cluetrain is steaming. The Cluetrain Manifesto author Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger pages 190 publisher Perseus Books, 12/1999 rating Suits:9/ reviewer hemos, Jason Bennett ISBN 0738202444 summary The book based on the website, TCF is a radical vision of the impact of the Internet on business-as-usual. Review One: hemos It's not often that I actually read a book that's targeted at the business market. Such books often get sent to our offices here for review, and we usually hold a short ceremony in which we desecrate the books, then send them out to the vast CEO gulags we've started outside of town.

Scratch that last part. In any case, it is true that I usually manage to avoid "business" writing. I've mostly found that the point the authors attempt to make could have been said in 15 pages, versus the 150 they took to say it. Even the most beautiful graphs cannot disguise a lack of content.

However, when Doc Searls (one of the authors of The Cluetrain Manifesto) passed along several copies of the book, I was a bit taken aback. I'd heard it being talked up by quite a number of people, all of whom were (hurried intake of breath!) Manager-types! But the people writing it -- from Doc, to Christopher Locke, Rick Levine and David Weinberger -- are all folks I've either met, heard or read before and people I respect.

That left me with a bit of a conundrum. If this book was written by people I respected, but as a rule business books have been the closest to Harlequin romances in terms of worth, what the heck was going on? The answer, my dear Watson, is quite elementary: this is not a business book.

Or rather, it is. But not a book about how business today should run and operate, about "disintermediation" and other piles of drivel that I think should be apparent for what they are to anyone willing to think. Instead, Cluetrain gets at the heart of what's actually going with this whole "Internet Revolution" -- people talking to people. And I think that particular message has gotten lost in the haze of convenience, price-difference and all the other media hyped ideas about what's going on with the business side of the Internet. What the authors of the book argue is that what's actually happening, in many ways, is that we are ripping down the artifical walls between producers and sellers. I agree. Disintermediation by any other name, maybe, but their treatment is refreshing in that it focuses on the human side. Any book that includes the mantra: "I am not a business. I am a human being." is good by me. And they also mention "undead evil." I'm serious.

OK, here's my take on the book with some sembalance of mental order: Cluetrain does a great job of exploding much of the hype about the present revolution. Instead, the revolution we're creating is something that humanity had for a while, and lost. We're bringing back the conversation now, and we're taking it global. That's the book in a nutshell. But the folks writing it can actually make that message interesting enough to read for roughly two hundred pages -- enough that you want to read the author credits, and drop them a line, like I did. The book also gathers strength from its use of excellent quotes and examples.

Who should this book be read by? You, of course, but also passing the book along to bosses and friends who are afraid of the Internet. I'm serious -- this book has become my defacto primer for people who don't understand what the Internet is going to do -- and doing -- and are scared about it.

And even if you don't trust me, read the sample chapter. Review Two: Jason Bennet

Background

Greetings, all, and good to be back. After finishing some books in the past month, as well as finally getting some others written up, I'm ready to unleash a string of reviews on Slashdot. The first of these is one of the more talked-about books to come out recently, The Cluetrain Manifesto. I have to admit I didn't see the Web site until recently, and thus am a newcomer to the movement, but I must say the rhetoric is revolutionary, regardless of how much impact it eventually has. If nothing else, take a look at the site and read over the 95 theses. You may or may not agree with them, but they will make you think.

What's the book about?

Before addressing the various essays that make up the manifesto, I'll try to summarize the ideals and ideas behind the movement. Basically, commerce as we know it is a lie. For most of human history, trade has been about interacting with other people. Going to the market, seeing your friends, checking out the various stalls, conducting business, and generally doing the important things of life. Craftsmen proudly displayed their wares to all who would see, touch, and smell them. People discussed which merchants were fair, who had the best quality, and so on. The market was the center of human interaction, where politics, society and business merged (see the Greeks for an excellent example). The Industrial Revolution changed all that, however. With the advent of mass production and economies of scale, production and consumption became all important. Craftsmanship was discarded in favor of turning out as much interchangeable product as possible, using interchangeable workers in interchangeable factories. The marketplace ceased to be a conversation, and became a one-way street, aimed directly at the consumer. The rise of mass media completed the transformation from conversation to lecture. No longer did customers roam the marketplace, but instead consumers were lulled, bribed and manipulated into buying the latest and greatest, because TV told them so. The idea of the interchangeable consumer came to be the industrial ideal. Nothing was left to chance: You could get anyone to buy anything made by anyone, and all that mattered was the money. This ideal never totally came to pass, of course, but it was the driving force behind many decades of business.

The Internet has broken these chains, however. The market no longer stares exlusively at the great tube, but instead is engaged in the greatest conversation in human history. Customers now tell each other what is happening, and shoot down the grandiose marketing schemes of giant corporations. You can now talk to hundreds of people in your town about the latest restaurants, which car dealer is best, or what doctors give the best care. The bazaar has returned with a vengeance. The mass media assume we are stupid; the Internet makes us collectively smart. The Internet is a conversation.

Commensurate with the redemption of customers from the bondage of industry, workers are no longer cogs in a great production machine, but are now talking to each other in ways they never could before. Hierarchies are broken when you can e-mail anyone, anytime, to give or get help. It doesn't matter where you sit, or what your place is, everyone has access. Even worse, those employees (nee' resources) and those customers can now talk to each other easily. The two great conversations, inside the business and inside the market, are on a collision course. The only question is, will that collision propel your business to new heights, or destroy it?

Chapter 1 is more or less an overview of what is to come, and where I drew the above summary from. In short, because of the Internet, you, the customer, now have a voice, the ability to make yourself heard to others over the din of advertising and other stilted "business communication." You know what business-speak sounds like, you know what people sound like, and you know what you prefer and who you believe. Just as the customer is empowered, so is the worker, precisely because of the knowledge that a network allows to flow. These conversations threaten to completely overthrow business as we know it, and their merger will transform the market.

Chapter 2 quickly sums up why we so desperately want our voice back: because we sacrificed it, traded our souls, to be good professionals. The Web allows us to be ourselves again.

Chapter 3 discusses what's behind the Web: the unique voice of each person participating in the conversation. These voices are carried along various conduits: e-mail and mailing lists, newsgroups, chat rooms, and personal Web pages. The chapter details various ways that these modes of communication are already breaking down the barriers among customers, and between business and customers, including a very interesting newsgroup exchange about Saturn automobiles. Most of this will be old hat to Slashdot readers, but likely not to suits. Authenticity is the key here, along with spontaneity and a human touch. All of these things are conveyed by people in a conversation, and not conveyed by brochures or Powerpoint presentations. It doesn't matter so much that your company participates in all of these conversations, as it does that it is honest when is does participate. Some examples of honest, open organizations (United, Sun's Java team, at least at first) and closed organizations (Intel with the Pentium bug, Java later on) are analyzed, with clear results: those companies that try to talk succeed, while those that don't talk only hurt themselves. Someone will be talking, and it had better be you.

The anecdote which opens chapter 4 sums up the theme: even after hearing about markets as conversations for several hours to a group, some people still don't get it. The first few paragraphs basically repeat what has already been stated: markets stopped being conversations around the time mass production and mass marketing took over. What replaced this conversation was a one-way message, delivered from business to consumers. Unfortunately, no one really wants to listen to an overblown hype machine. The entire role of marketing is to make us want what we are supposed to want, but don't really want. This anti-conversation, however, is slowly but surely being pushed back by the rich tones of conversation on the Web. The knowledge contained in these conversations increases exponentially as more and more people join the party. Attempts to dominate this conversation with targeted message, i.e. push technology, have failed utterly. No one wants another television. In point of fact, conversation built the Web, manifested in the open source movement. Apache, Linux and the rest are all products of conversations. These are living examples of what can be accomplished when the market talks. The only way for marketing to survive is to work with the conversation, to give it what it wants. No more brochureware, but real information that the market recognizes as such. Work with the customer on price. Truely reposition, don't just spout different lines. Marketing sees the consumer as the enemy. The conversation is waiting for them to realize what's happening. All you have to do is talk honestly, and people will listen and talk back.

Chapter 5 details the other side of this sea change -- the change within business. In a "hyperlinked organization," people don't need the fancy office building or the top-down bureaucracy, they just want to be able to work with those people that best let them get a job done. Employees (or, dare I say it, resources) need no longer be bound by lines on an organizational chart. People go to who they need to get what they need. Centralized control is replaced by a web of people working with whoever they need. Groups form and collapse on an ad-hoc basis to meet the demands of the moment. All of the knowledge generated is managed through people telling each other stories. We already have tons of information; what we need is more knowledge, more understanding. Human communication generates this understanding. Because of all of this communication, and lack of hierarchy, it is inevitable that your customers will join in. Business intranets will expand to include customers along with employees, working together to make sure everyone gets what he needs. Business as a message is dead; Business as a conversation is beginning.

Chapter 6 summarizes the points made so far, then launches into a treatise on the future of the Web. Unfortunately, we're asking the wrong questions. We don't need to ask questions out of fear of the Web, but out of our desire to converse. The conversation we have will shape the Web the way it needs to be. There's no easy way to do this, just a journey into the unknown.

Chapter 7 concludes the Manifesto by stating that the revolution has already begun, and it's too far gone to stop. What we must do now is break our old habits, and start behaving in a new way. It's so tempting to keep an old, patched machine going even when everyone knows it needs to be replaced. Just remember, "I am not a company, I am a human being."

What's Good?

This book will blow your mind, all the more so if you're new to the Internet or unsure about what it means. It presents a radical new way to think about how we interact with commerce and with each other. To some extent or another, I think we all feel what is being communicated here. We're all tired of being cogs, of being consumers, of being resources. We want to be people, friendly customers, employees. As the conclusion says, it's already too late to stop this transformation. The Internet will only grow, and its fundamental nature means that the old is gone, and the new is come. If you are in business, you need to understand what is happening. You can either surf the wave, or drown in it.

What's Bad?

Any controversial book has its issues, and Cluetrain is no exception. The only reason I gave the book a Geek rating of 7 is because you already know what is being said. You know how people talk in newsgroups, and you probably don't want to read 50 pages telling you that. You don't need to hear this message repeated five times in the course of 200 pages. It's a good read, but know that you're likely to skip some parts, because you're tired of being beaten over the head with something you've already figured out.

Having said that, I do have quarrels with a few points that Weinberger makes when he discusses how the Internet came to be. I get the impression that he feels that the Internet sprung from chaos like Athena from Zeus, magically appearing out of the mist of conversation alone. He certainly believes that hierarchy is counterproductive in the Internet age. "[T]he most complex network ever imagined...[the WWW] has been implemented without any central control whatsoever," he writes on page 130. What exactly are the IETF and the W3C then? Didn't a small group of people design TCP/IP? There was a conversation, of course, but there was also control and hierarchy. No good open-source project lacks a leader, and every movement needs its inspiration. The Internet might not be the encrusted bureaucracy of a megacorporation, but authority is helpful in getting things done. I find the quote "[t]he Web succeeded where the Internet failed ..." (page 142) especially interesting. Although, as he says, the Web gave us the user-friendly browser, I'd rather think the Internet spawned the Web, since it is what transports the Web. Oh, and if someone can tell me what a "Unixlike language (145)" is, I'd appreciate it. I also find humorous the notion that e-mail has to be poorly written to be authentic. Finally, Chapter 6 is far too much of a political rant for my taste. Wanting to push pornography to the side does not make one a control freak. Control is not a bad thing. Anyway, I'm ranting now myself. It's a good book, despite these issues.

So What's In It For Me?

I think I've already said that. :-) This is an important book. You might love it. You might hate it. You'll likely feel threatened by it. Nevertheless, you owe it to yourself to at least read the 95 Theses. They will make you think. If you're a business type, read this. You need to, especially if you're still learning this Internet thing. If you've been around, read it if you want. There'll be some full parts, but it will mean a lot. The revolution has already begun.

Purchase this book at ThinkGeek.

• Table of Contents
• Foreward
• The Cluetrain Manifesto
• Introduction
  1. Internet Apocalypso
  2. The Longing
  3. Talk is Cheap
  4. Markets are Conversations
  5. The Hyperlinked Organization
  6. EZ Answers
  7. Post-Apocalypso
• Acknowledgements
• About the Authors

gabedude writes "Quake3 Arena Demo is released for Linux." At long last it's here, and Linux players can start joining the fun. You can find it at the Quake 3 Arena page. I'm still hoping to snag one of the special tin versions, but this will let me get in some fragging.

Joseph DiLascio has written up a recent speech/interview with a Compaq engineer, dicussing their Linux plans. Given recent news about what's going over there, very interesting read. According to Compaq Joseph DiLascio
11 Sep 99


At the last FLUX (Florida Linux Users' Exchange) meeting, the guest speaker was an engineer from Compaq who came to discuss the company's support of Linux on the Alpha processor. With all the discussion on Slashdot recently I thought I'd try to answer some of the questions brought up, because I think the people inside Compaq pushing Linux on Alpha are doing good things.. despite what anyone may think of the company as a whole.

1. What's Compaq's "OS plan"? (Are they dropping Tru64 and moving to Linux.. etc.) In the server area, at least, they're focusing on three:

• Tru64 on Alpha for high-end, high-performance, high-etc. applications
• Linux on Alpha for not-as-high-end-etc.-etc.
• SCO on x86 for.. well.. the x86 market

In their role as a hardware vendor, they are officially "OS Agnostic", though.

1a. What about Linux on x86? Not likely to be really supported by them any time soon. They make good money with SCO and that's what they'll keep trying to do.

2. What's the deal with this new C/Fortran compiler? (Are they using glibc.. Is it GPLd.. etc.) A number of customers liked the idea of Linux on the Alpha, but didn't like the performance and/or lack of source-compatibility with other Unices in the area of threading, etc. of GCC and the standard libs[1]. So Compaq figured it would be a good idea to make the development tools consistent between Tru64 and Linux... so they undertook the task of porting their Tru64 compiler and runtimes (no, not glibc) which is what that story on Slashdot was all about. The result is code that more fully exploits the power of the Alpha processor. As far as the GPL... the Alpha people tend to prefer BSD-ish licenses; as far as opening up the compiler and libs.. not right now, but maybe someday.

3. Does Compaq really give a damn about freedom and openness.. or are they just jumping on the bandwagon in the hopes of quick profit? The impression I got was a bit of both. They've already released source and hardware specifications to get Linux running onAlpha... but they can't necessarily do that for every component of their systems (i.e. video controllers which aren't Compaq's, but come from other companies). Yes, they're out to make money... but, like many of the other big players who have been getting into the Linux game (IBM, etc.), there are people inside the company that like Linux and free/open software for what it is, not just because it'll make them a buck.

3a. Isn't Compaq a slave to MS like so many other hardware vendors? Not when it comes to servers (see #1). I don't think they're looking at putting Linux on desktops at the moment (like Dell seems to be). Compaq and Microsoft do go a long way back, and the relationship apparently is a great one for both of them.

4. Will they kill Alpha if/when IA-64 becomes viable? The three main goals of the Alpha are:

• Speed
• Performance
• Going Fast

That said, Alpha will be around as long as it's the quickest thing out there... which it probably will be for the foreseeable future.

4a. Will the loss of NT on Alpha affect the viability of the Alpha platform? Not likely. NT on Alpha wasn't selling very well (but that isn't all the fault of the Alpha people *ahem*MS*cough*).

So it looks like Compaq's support is a pretty good thing for the Linux community on the whole (at least, for the adoption of Linux at the high end... those who value freedom (open code, etc.) above all else may not be satisfied). That doesn't mean I'll be buying a desktop PC from them any time soon... but the Alpha is a neat processor and Linux can do neat things on it. Advancing the development of 64-bit Linux programs and Linux in general is something I personally can respect and appreciate.
Final note: The above information may or may not be completely accurate. I base all this on my impressions of the talk and Q&A session with a representative of Compaq who spoke at the last FLUX meeting. If you know of any errors, please let me know.
Also, thanks to the other FLUXers on the mailing list for their thoughts. [1] - One of the more interesting parts of the presentation was a historical view of the development of "Unix". I personally learned quite a bit about what makes up the thing we call "Linux" today. One thing Linux currently lacks is a 100% complete kernel threads implementation. Pthreads are mostly there but they don't work the same way as on other Unices, and Solaris threads (arguably more "standard" than pthreads among many software vendors) aren't there at all.

Joseph, all Slashdot contributors now receive *free t-shirts* from Copyleft. To get yours, please send your shipping address and shirt size to roblimo@slashdot.org.

Hilton Hotels has stated that theya re not planning on a space hotel as had been initial reported. This rumour had been bouncing around for a while, apparently the child of a PR stunt gone amuck. Shoot - I had a lot of "experiments" that needed to be done in zero g.

soulhuntre wrote to us about thirty-days.com. They're running an odd little experiment-trying to open a company, and make the whole thing "open". As he says: We are telling the whole world what's going on, you can call us, watch us via our webcam and ask us anything you want. Live or die, we have 29 days and counting to secure an investor. " They've got the phone numbers, the real business plan-it's sort of like Jennicam for B-school graduates. Or the Real World gone tragically wrong. Update: 08/03 12:58 by CT : for those of you who haven't caught on, this site is really stupid. Stop emailing me to complain- we shared it because we thought it was stupid.

jfoust writes "A House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee approved Monday a nearly 10 percent cut in NASA's fiscal year 2000 budget, with most of the cuts in science and aeronautics. If approved, it would mean most of the currently-planned space science projects, including missions to Mars, Pluto, Europa, and comets, plus new space telescopes, would be canceled. Check the details at NASA Watch and SpaceViews. " If you're a US citizen-write your Congressperson. This is idiocy.

Bocephus writes "CNET news.com reports in this story that the RIAA, despite its Secure Digital Music Initiative project, will allow MP3 to continue to exist so that portables like the Rio or Nomad may play MP3s. However, MP3s ripped from new CDs will be unusable if downloaded from the Net. " Yeah, essentially the RIAA is saying that current players can still play ones, even the existing illegal ones, once specs from the recording industry has been made. I wonder how long it's going to take them to figure out that they lost.

Yes, it's YALC - Yet Another Linux Conference. This time, it's in the Great White North. Andrew J. Hutton is organizing the Ottawa Linux Symposium (if that link doesn't work, try this one), a smaller conference, aimed more towards developers than the casual user. Talks include a QoS tutorial, and a keynote by Alan Cox. Andrew asked me to reiterate that this is a "conference and party, not a trade show".

RUAOK writes "I put up a page dedicated to creating an OpenSource alternative to the CDDB system. The CD Index project (working name) is already up and running, ready for CDs to be submitted. All the code and submitted data will be covered by the GPL to protect this from happening again. "

IBM will release DB2 for Linux Beta on December 7th. However it will still lack database extenders and data replication. It may or may not include Java stored procedures and Java user-defined functions (time to clamor ;-)). The article also says IBM will announce on December 1st that it is enabling its enterprise file systems sofware for Linux. Anyone know what that might mean? Another filesystem? IBM does appear to understand the role that Linux could play on attacking the desktop. Remains to be seen about HP and Sun. Update! tpepper wrote in to say he believes the big Dec. 1 announcement will be that IBM's ADSM client is becoming available for Linux. An unsupported version has just become available and ADSM is described on this page "

This is an amusing article which suggests the computing industry should not use its customers as a paying quality-assurance lab. Instead a "computer user's bill of rights" could be put into the hands of a Software Quality Administration, similar to the FDA. Indeed one person went so far as to say "We have been voting environmental laws and urban-planning schemes to which architects conform. Shouldn't we also have the right to cast a ballot to decide in which way and within what limits software architects will be allowed to shape our mental environment?"

This site explains how to disable PICS in Netscape. I guess it was a good idea for awhile at least :) The hack was created (and sent in by) Brian Ristuccia. Update News.com picked up the story too. They have a writeup here. Thanks again to Brian for letting us know.

In a truimphant sophmore return, Jason Bennett has sent us in a review of Software Project Survival Guide. Part of ongoing series of books reviwed by Jason, the goal is to walk through a number of valuable software engineering books. For the full scoop, check below. Software Project Survival Guide author Steve McConnell pages publisher Microsoft Press rating 9/10 reviewer Jason Bennett ISBN 1-57231-621-7 summary

Steve gives a good once-over of the software development process, and backs it up with good examples and on-line documentation.

Background

This being the second review in my series of software engineering books (process and management being key components of said concept), I thought it would be good to give an overview of where we are, and where we're going. Last week, we looked at Frederick Brooks' Mythical Man-Month , the seminal classic of software management. This week, we'll be looking at the latest book by a new classic author, Steve McConnell. Now, I might as well say right upfront that Steve is a Microsoftie (at least part-time). You can take that as praise or criticism, but it's truth nonetheless. Fortunately, Steve is above idol worship, and thus his books are quite palatable, even if you have to support the Evil Empire in the process. No matter who he consults for, however, Steve knows what he's talking about. In the end, that's what matters. We'll be staying in Steve country for this week and next (his Code Complete is next), after which we'll move on. For now, however, enjoy this review/summary of Software Project Survival Guide.

What's the book about?

To a large extent, this book is the culmination of many years of writing on Steve's part. His previous books are Code Complete, which focuses on the details of writing code well, and Rapid Development, which focuses on the software lifecycle, with some management thrown in for good measure. Now, with Software Project Survival Guide, Steve has written a quick-pass tutorial on how to deal with getting a program out the door. One major focus of this book is on process, that is following the steps of development closely to catch problems as early as possible. Echoing a sentiment expressed by Brooks, Steve points out that the earlier a problem is caught, the cheaper it is to fix. It's dang easier to erase a line on a whiteboard than to rip out multiple modules/objects full of code and correct them (a lesson which my project at work is currently learning).

The book is divided into four major parts:

1. The Survival Mind-Set
2. Survival Preparations
3. Succeeding by Stages
4. Mission Accomplished

The first part addresses the underlying concepts of the book (process, finding problems early, what a successful project looks like, etc), giving the reader an understanding of what it means to properly take a project through the valley of the shadow of failure. Steve also first mentions the concept of "staged delivery" in this part, something he will harp on throughout the book. Basically, staged delivery is how most open-source projects run: having multiple release dates with integral increases in functionality. For vertical or internal applications, however, this is a rarity. When software is driven to a releasable stage multiple times, it establishes the exact state of the software, allowing for better schedule estimation and allows the user to obtain a minimal, but possibly critically functional, piece of software early. Staged delivery differs from multiple versions released over time in that the final staged delivery fulfills one set of requirements stated at the beginning, while multiple versions will each have a unique set of requirements (which will typically bloat for every further release).

Part II addresses the initial, planning phases of a project, before actual detailed work is done. This includes oversight boards (of varying size, just as long as someone is reviewing the decisions), effective configuration management, risk analysis, and scheduling. Requirements are also done at this point, an architecture crafted, and QA/QC brought on board. At this point, everyone who will be involved should know what is going on, and all planning and infrastructure should be in place. Unfortunately, this stage has a tendency to drag on, as people waffle over who will do what, and what exactly will be done. My project in particular experienced some serious delays in this area, as the customers were incapable or unwilling to tell us what they needed, and when they needed it, beyond "everything, in a month." We finally got past this point, but not without wasting way too much time.

Part III digs into the meat of the process -- keeping on track while the software is being written. Brooks addresses this part of the process in MMM with his famous quote, "More programming projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time than for all other causes combined." The man speaks truth. Steve takes the project through stage planning, detailed design, construction, testing and release. These steps will then be repeated for each stage of the project, until all stages are completed. As discussed earlier, this will allow maximum delivery in a minimum time, especially of critical features. Steve also emphasizes "miniature milestones" to better gauge where the project is. There's a true saying that "90% of the project is done 90% of the time." Of course, what that really means is that no one really ever knows how much of the project is completed. However, setting small, concrete milestones all along the timeline will allow an excellent gauge of where the project is. "How does a project get to be a year late? One day at a time. (Brooks)"

Part IV discusses the project aftermath, especially learning from the project. This is a short part, and mainly emphasizes archiving all documentation and reviewing what went right and what went wrong. Steve also offers a nice list of project management resources, including other books and web sites.

What's Good?

Steve McConnell is a proven author, and as such does not disappoint. The chapters are clear and concise, with excellent checklists at the end of each. He also has an entire website devoted to supporting the book. He steps through the process methodically, making sure all parts are covered. For those of you interested in the SEI's CMM practices, Steve has drawn heavily from them for this book. My understanding is that Steve is not wedded to the model itself, although he certainly sees it as an excellent step forward. In fact, following the recommendations of this book will definitely bring a project closer to level 2 compliance.

What's Bad?

Well, if I thought the book wasn't useful, I wouldn't have reviewed it. :-) Anyway, the book does not have any glaring flaws. I think Steve tends to emphasize organizations that need five member change boards over those where the board is likely to be the manager (which is probably most organizations). If, however, you can adapt his ideas to your situation, you and your project will benefit.

What's In It For Us?

Once again, where does Open Source come into this? I'm going to end up repeating myself somewhat from last week, but I am firmly convinced that open source projects need more process and structure. The software community has managed to survive for forty years with little process, and open source has done the same for twenty. Now, however, that chapter must end. We need increased productivity and better organization to be truly effective. We need written requirements to keep the projects on track and stop the waste of time and effort that non-required code brings. We need solid design (and detailed design) to keep everyone on the same page. We already do staged delivery (to some extent), but we need to pre-document when and how this will happen, instead of putting out a release when we feel like it. Too many projects wander off into oblivion because of gold plating or lack of vision and purpose. The better we can focus our passions and efforts, the closer to victory we will come.

Purchase the book over at Amazon.

• Table of Contents

• Acknowledgements
• Preliminary Survival Briefing

1. The Survival Mind-Set
   1. Welcome to Software Project Survival Training
   2. Software Project Survival Test
   3. Survival Concepts
   4. Survival Skills
   5. The Successful Project at a Glance
2. Survival Preparations
   1. Hitting a Moving Target
   2. Preliminary Planning
   3. Requirements Development
   4. Quality Assurance
   5. Architecture
   6. Final Preparations
3. Succeeding by Stages
   1. Beginning-of-Stage Planning
   2. Detailed Design
   3. Construction
   4. System Testing
   5. Software Release
   6. End-of-Stage Wrap-Up
4. Mission Accomplished
   1. Project History
   2. Survival Crib Notes

• Epilogue
• Notes
• Glossary
• Index

Samuel M Bowles writes "The Senate has passed a bill entitled the "Murkowski/Torricelli rider" which much of the Internet community sees as a government endorsement of Spam. In response Mickey Chandler, a Texan paralegal and president of the Forum for Responsible and Ethical Email (FREE), is sponsoring the Pink Pages Project. A project very similar to the Green Ribbon campaign, but instead of a small ribbon web sites are turning a spamish pink to protest the new bill. Chandler says "If this amendment becomes law, it could make electronic mail virtually useless." For more information read Wired's article or check out FREE's pink-out page "

Henrik Abelsson writes "The KDE project and Troll tech have founded the 'KDE Free Qt Foundation', that will "guarantee the availability of Qt for free software development now and in the future" The foundation will have to approve changes to the license, and makes sure the development of QT is continued even if Troll tech goes down. Read more at this location "

Jamie Zawinksi wrote in to tell me to tell everyone to lay off Mozilla.org and try one of the many mirrors- the huge demand has crippled the machine. Hit the link below to get a decent list of com and edu mirrors. Update:Couple of neato things, A screenshot of NS5 was sent in by Christopher Blizzard, and an insider who requested anonymity sent us a picture from this mornings big event, wrote "The main three people in this picture are Jim Barksdale, Jamie, and Tara Hernandez. Tara is manager of the build team. Just to the left of JimB is Jim Roskind, who led the Java-ectomy." Thanks guys.

ftp://odin.appliedtheory.com/pub/mirrors/mozilla/

http://www.gbnet.net/public/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.landfield.com/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.epix.net/pub/mozilla/

ftp://netscape.primehost.com/pub/ftp.mozilla.org/

ftp://wuarchive.wustl.edu/packages/www/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.muc.muohio.edu/pub/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.bogalusa.com/mozilla/

ftp://sod.off.net:211/pub/mozilla/

ftp://mirrors.javanet.net/pub/mirrors/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.tux.org/pub/net/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.cache-world.com/mirror/mozilla.org/

ftp://ftp.dqc.org/pub/

ftp://powermike.com/powermike.com/pub/ftp.mozilla.org

ftp://ftp.tos.net/pub/ftp.mozilla.org/

ftp://pfaffben.user.msu.edu/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.shuttle.org/mozilla/

ftp://mirror.neosoft.com/pub/mozilla/

http://www.us.inside.net/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.cise.ufl.edu/pub/mozilla/

http://sunsite.utk.edu/ftp/netscape-source/

ftp://mirror.tummy.com/pub/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.one.net/pub/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.mindwell.com/pub/mirrors/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.ntr.net/pub/mozilla/

ftp://ftp-netscape.connectnet.com/pub/netscape/source/

ftp://mozilla.meer.net/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.inetdev.org/mirrors/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.yggdrasil.com/mirrors/site/ftp.mozilla.org/pub/

ftp://mozilla.savages.com/

ftp://mirrors.xmission.com/mozilla/

ftp://ftp.dsnet.net/pub/

Here with another exciting almost Star Trek quality news bit, we have Mike T sending us This one where you can read about Austrian Scientists who think teleportation may be possible... can they get me to the LinuxExpo cheap?

Just days after Pepsi announced that it would advertise its products in space using a Russian startup, the company now says it will no longer pursue the plans, avoiding what likely would have resulted in significant public criticism. Slashdot reader schwit1 shares a report from SpaceNews: The publication Futurism reported April 13 that PepsiCo's Russian subsidiary was working with a startup there called StartRocket to advertise an energy drink called "Adrenaline Rush" using satellites. The company has proposed flying a set of small satellites in formation, reflecting sunlight with Mylar sails to create logos or other advertising messages visible from the ground after sunset and before sunrise.

PepsiCo's headquarters in the United States has shot down the idea. "We can confirm StartRocket performed an exploratory test for stratosphere advertisements using the Adrenaline GameChangers logo," a company spokesperson told SpaceNews April 15. "This was a one-time event; we have no further plans to test or commercially use this technology at this time." The company didn't elaborate on the "exploratory test for stratosphere advertisements," but it appears to refer to a high-altitude balloon test of the technology that StartRocket says on its website it planned to carry out in April in cooperation with Russia's Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, or Skoltech. "People have a visceral dislike of space-based advertising," adds schwit1.