http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/this is the Opinion Home rss feed24 August 2008Opinion PiecesPhil FactorWhen an IT manager is selected as a victim of office politics of a large corporate, it is time for him to engage in intelligence-gathering. Phil Factor exposes a ruthless streak when called to account over an Engineering Workflow system.http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/bunnikins!/20 August 2008Opinion PiecesBob CramblittSimple Talk asked freelance writer Bob Cramblitt to sit down with the two people behind the agreement that Red Gate will be responsible for the future development of .NET Reflector, and discuss with them what it means to the community and the future of Reflector.http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-future-of-reflector-/14 August 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisAndrew Tanenbaum has had an immense influence on the way that operating systems are designed. He provided the inspiration for Linux, in his lightweight kernel Minix, and his classic textbook 'Operating Systems: Design and Implementation' that Linus Torvalds  described as ‘the book that launched me to new heights.’ http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/andrew-tanenbaum-geek-of-the-week/31 July 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisProfessor Ross Anderson is one of the foremost experts in Computer Security in the world. He has published widely on the economics of security. cryptology, formal methods, hardware design, and the robustness of distributed systems in general. He is best known for his book 'Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems'. He has never been shy of controversy, and we were intrigued by the influence he wields at Cambridge University; so intrigued  were we that we sent the taciturn Richard Morris to find out more from himhttp://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/ross-anderson-geek-of-the-week/17 July 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisLinus Torvalds is remarkable, not only for being the technical genius who wrote Linux, but for then being able to inspire and lead an enormous team of people to devote their free time to work on the operating system and bring it to maturity. We sent Richard Morris off to interview Linus, and find out more. http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/linus-torvalds,-geek-of-the-week/04 July 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisSimple-Talk's Geek of the Week is Dr Richard Hipp. His code is probably running on your PC, and running completely reliably, for he almost single-handedly wrote SQLite, the most widely deployed SQL Database system in the world. Then he put it in the public domain for all of humanity to benefit from. We sent Richard Morris off to ask this remarkable man why he did it.http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/dr-richard-hipp,-geek-of-the-week/04 July 2008Opinion PiecesPhil FactorThere is often more than a twinge of embarrassment when an Email goes astray, and is received by the wrong person. Phil remembers an occasion when it nearly ended a career, but somehow, ironically, changed it for the better.http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-wrong-fabia/02 July 2008Opinion PiecesAnna LarjomaaDavid Caminer, who died on June 19th must surely be the First Business Application Programmer. He invented the software concepts and systems that we still use today to develop business software. He wrote the worlds first working computerized payroll system, introduced in 1954, followed by the first stock control system and a host of other business software. He went on to create the VME operating system for ICL and supervise the construction of the European Commission's computer network http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-first-business-application-programmer/20 June 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisWe interview Simple-Talk's Geek of the Week, Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee OM KBE FRS FREng FRSA. , ranked first in The Telegraph's list of 100 greatest living geniuses, and director of the World Wide Web Consortium. What has he achieved? He invented the World Wide Web, Browsers and Web Servers. You could reasonably argue that he invented Wikis and Blogs too. And he's still inventing things.http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/tim-berners-lee,-geek-of-the-week/05 June 2008Opinion PiecesPhil FactorWhy do Phil's eyes water whenever he hears the poem 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'? Is it the voice of his conscience or memories of struggles selling software services to large companies? Why does he identify so strongly with the eldest oyster?http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-walrus-and-the-manager/27 May 2008Opinion PiecesRichard MorrisIT companies sometimes don't survive an incident that damages their reputation. Often, when happenstance brings a commercial disaster, businesses make things worse by their instinctive reaction to clam up. We sent the square-jawed Richard Morris off into the rain in his trench coat to find out more. As 'reputation-management" is his daytime job, he was soon back in the dry with some tips on what to do when the night-soil hits the ventilation system..http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/risking-your-reputation/29 April 2008Opinion PiecesRichard MorrisIt would seem bizzare that IT staff who depend on their quick wits for their living should ever think it a good idea to fry their brains with recreational drugs. It is therefore worrying to hear that there has been a 34 percent increase in IT employees in the US testing positive for cocaine usage in the workplace. We sent the taciturn Richard Morris to find out more.http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-burning-men---the-it-drug-habit/29 April 2008Opinion PiecesPhil FactorPhil cheerfully admits to his fair share of accidental IT disasters. His experiences some time ago with the Time Bomb, where his software crashed and threatened civil unreast in a far-away country were, however, deliberate.http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-time-bomb/23 April 2008Opinion PiecesNeil DavidsonAs we get swamped by more and more information, and more and more choices, we're going to need more and more help filtering the data and making our choices...It's a paradox: the more we can remove middle men, the more we need them.http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-paradox-of-the-middle-man/14 April 2008Opinion PiecesRichard MorrisSuddenly, Bloggers aren't just writing the news, they are the news. Are we expected to believe that the pressures of the job are enough to cause premature death and disease amongst professional bloggers? Is it now time to feel sorry for the high-profile personalities of the blogosphere? Once again, we send our own journalist, Richard Morris, out into the rain in his trenchcoat to find out.http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/blogged-to-death/27 March 2008Opinion PiecesAndrew ClarkeIn some ways, wanting to make a living as a Software tool writer is like wanting to be a professional rock star or footballer. The success-stories are more visible than the others. Here, Andrew Clarke salutes the others and explains some of the pitfalls. Despite everything, he is always keen to wish anyone luck who wants to give it a try. http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/selling-software/25 March 2008Opinion PiecesPhil FactorWorking in IT, one meets all sorts of people, but rarely quite so odd, or creepy, as a 'New Man'. Phil Factor relates how a brush with such a character got him the sack on the second day in a new job.http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-new-man/16 March 2008Opinion PiecesRichard MorrisAlthough the IT industry is usually blamed for security breaches in confidential databases, it is likely that it is usually the staff that operate the databases that are responsible. Should we be designing IT systems that log and report every access by the users? We sent our roving reporter, the steely-eyed Richard Morris, to find out. http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-dark-arts-of-journalism/27 February 2008Opinion PiecesRichard MorrisThe Federal Government in the States accepts tenders for their IT projects from a wide-range of competent, innovative software companies. In Britain, by contrast, 11 firms account for 80% of the UK government IT projects, despite some spectacular disasters. Why is this? We send Richard Morris to investigate. http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/level-playing-field/05 February 2008Opinion PiecesRichard MorrisThere are several initiatives that have ambitions to replace the Internet. Some of these, in the States and Europe, we know about, but the ones that should concern us are the ones we know almost nothing of. In China, the funding and the political will is at its strongest. 'They are so much more clear sighted than we are. And they need the money!' . We sent our man in the raincoat, Richard Morris, to investigate. http://mail.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/exporting-our-competence/