Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips My grandson taught me about the physical limitations of eBook readers. Those limitations are real. This points me back to the best use of eBook readers – holders of workplace documentation. I wish we would go back to the projection glasses that people tried a couple of decades ago. I guess the […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I learned something big and useful this week – really useful. After kicking myself for not knowing it already, I grew some humility. Learning comes from unexpected people, times, and places. I resolve to use what energy I have to pay attention for the next thing coming my way. I learned something […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Video on personal computers is messy. Some format play on some operating systems if you download the right video players. It should be simpler. I have been playing with video the past couple of weeks. It has not been fun, but it has been educational. I needed to do a demonstration of […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Has the Internet killed the newspaper? It has helped, but the microprocessor is more important. What else contributed to the death of the newspaper. How about the good old microprocessor? Tremendous power in a small, inexpensive package. Twenty-five years ago, I could read the news online via CompuServe. At the time I […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Kids today. They do new things at dizzying speeds. Sometimes it is a big waste of time, but sometimes it is quite productive. They are entering the work force in droves, so be ready. Yesterday 6AM – I wake my son. He wanted to ask me something about headphones, so he left […]

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By Dwayne Phillips I had to explain the concept of a subroutine in a computer program. The humble subroutine is a type of a module in a system. Modules in systems are wonderful devices. Often, however, we forget about them and how to use them well. Now and then, a fundamental concept comes back to […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Some system developments take a long time and drain people. You walk in to work and there is no energy. A demonstration of capability is one way to awaken people and bring focus to a project. Several years ago, I was working with about a hundred people on a large ($100 million) […]

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by Dwayne Phillips What do Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) have to do with engineering, project management, systems development? I am afraid that the answer is “too much.” Intellectuals are taking PEDs. College professors are the latest to join the crowd. They are using ritalin to extend and focus their concentration. I suppose the professors are […]

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by Dwayne Phillips I have seen many “critical” systems built with commercial products that are available at the mall, Best Buy, Circuit City, you name them. The result can be disastrous. Please be careful. About ten years ago I worked on a small project that built a data link. We were sending short, simple text […]

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by Dwayne Phillips In part 1 of this post, I covered the mathematics and truth table of implication. Implication shows that If I accept something that I know is FALSE, I can prove anything else that I know is FALSE For example, if I accept that “1=2”, I can prove that “2=3”. I know that […]

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