Monthly Archives: April 2009

Hollywood’s Distribution Model

Slate has an article on why we have not yet seen an online subscription-based service for movies: Couldn’t the studios just sign new deals that would give them the right to build an online service? Well, maybe—but their current deals … Continue reading

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Telecommuting

Rands in Repose has a great article about the difficulties with telecommuting. It is pretty exhaustive in explaining what kinds of personalities and work cultures can make telecommuting work or not. I suppose many of the lessons can also be … Continue reading

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Sundries

Or, translated from Australian, miscellaneous items, in this case, too small to write a long blog post on. And a bit too long for Twittering.  So here are a few of those thoughts: Most newspapers have fact checkers for their … Continue reading

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Should Indian Outsourcing Be Banned?

James McGovern, of Enterprise Architecture, writes: So, if quality can be lower in enterprise in-house software, then that allows for lower-quality resources from Indian outsourcing firms to maintain it. Remember that good is good enough and it doesn’t make sense … Continue reading

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Incentives Without Disincentives

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, of “The Black Swan” fame, writes: Do not let someone making an “incentive” bonus manage a nuclear plant – or your financial risks. Odds are he would cut every corner on safety to show “profits” while claiming … Continue reading

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Why They Killed Socrates

In his book, “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, Neil Postman wrote At the opening of Socrates’ defense, addressing a jury of five hundred, he apologizes for not having a well-prepared speech. He tells his Athenian brothers that he will falter, begs … Continue reading

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A Twitter Novice on Why Twitter Matters

I created a login on Twitter user two years ago, but I would still classify myself as a novice user. I blame Twitter for this because the folks at Twitter themselves seem to have no clue what the point of … Continue reading

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Best English Software Blogs by Malayalis

I am not entirely sure why I did it, but I spent a few hours going through every single blog in the Kerala Blog Roll maintained by Manoj Prabhakaran, Asst. Professor at the University of Illinois. Out of those, I … Continue reading

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Providing Negative Feedback to Your Boss

A friend, reading my last post about managers providing feedback to employees, asked about the reverse situation: how employees could provide feedback to managers. A counter-question is why is the question being asked at all. After all, if a person … Continue reading

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