Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips Handwriting is not dead. It lives on despite the computer age. Cursive, however, is on the way out, and I for one am happy to see it go. (Start writing comments about how bad a person I am) Time magazine mourns the death of handwriting. That is a nice headline, but I […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Most organizations have “magic words.” Utter these words and things happen. If you don’t know the words, work slows and frustration rises. None of this makes any sense, but nonsense continues to exist and often thrives. Years ago, a colleague who lived in a nearby rural area wanted to construct a building […]

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by Dwayne Phillips It is easy to draw incorrect conclusions on cause and affect in organizations. One of the major reasons for these bad conclusions is time. Good organizations will succeed and bad ones will fail in time. I have yet to find a way to predict how much time that is. Google is in […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Shortcuts have always led to more work for me, not less. The past two weeks have emphasized that to me. They have also taught my a new definition to “shortcut.” Sorry, there is no magic here. Wiktionary.org: A path between two points that is faster than the commonly used paths; A method […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The computer has become the learning appliance. Don’t believe me? Just ask my six-year-old niece. So what do schools do now? “What are you searching?” That was a simple question. Last weekend I was in Chattanooga, Tennessee visiting with relatives. I was sitting in front of my portable computer studying and modifying […]

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by Dwayne Phillips Location has something to do with a person. It is, however, a small and maybe diminishing factor. I live in Virginia. Start making assumptions about what that means. But first, ask yourself, “which Virginia?” There are three Virginia-s: Federal Virginia Navy Virginia Virginia Virginia I live in Federal Virginia and worked in […]

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by Dwayne Phillips For writers and those who name products and services: standard items have shorter names than special ones. Attach modifiers to exceptions to the rule, not the rule. Apple recently changed their line of laptop computers. As expected, the newer computers have more performance and a lower price than last year’s models. In […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The digital devices we have can dominate our lives. That still doesn’t change a simple fact – this is an analog world inhabited by analog people. We live in a digital world. Cell phones, Internet, digital cameras, digital video camcorders – all digital. At its heart, the digital world comprises only two […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The current administration is running into all sorts of obstacles that it didn’t have during its campaign. There are countless “stupid rules” inside government. These rules were created because at some time in the past someone cheated. Cheaters are the origin of rules and regulations. The Obama administration has been criticized for […]

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by Dwayne Phillips The May/June 2009 issue of IEEE Software has a paper by Greg Wilson on books that are “Not on the Shelves.” In it, Wilson gives the synopsis of 12 books that should be on the shelves, but are not. At least he can’t find them. Wilson asks for more suggestions of such […]

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