From the monthly archives:

August 2006

Totalitarian Powerpoint

by Pete Abilla August 31, 2006

I once received a powerpoint presentation from a colleague; in the business world, powerpoint presentations are often amourously called “powerpoint decks.” Well, this deck was a huge one — 80 pages long. And, no, I didn’t read it, not one single page of it. I am a huge fan of Edward Tufte. In his book, [...]

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Today is the Day!

by Pete Abilla August 31, 2006

All — today is the final day to join the Free Amazon.com Schwag Raffle.  If you win the raffle, you’ll get [5] free authentic Amazon.com shirts.  Details of the raffle can be found here.

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Hooked on Django

by Pete Abilla August 30, 2006

Forget what I said earlier. I’m back on Django; and Python is just the best language for what I want to do. My list of current personal projects include work in combinatorial auctions and something else.  Django, Python, and MochiKit are what I’ll be using. I experimented with Ruby on Rails, but didn’t get too [...]

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Linkedin: A Network of 35% Strangers

by Pete Abilla August 29, 2006

I’ve been a user of Linkedin for over a year now. I receive invitations from people for me to join their network and, until recently, I’ve unthoughtfully accepted any invitation that came my way. Well, I looked at my network today, and I honestly don’t know half of these people. Sure, there’s an argument that [...]

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12 Questions with Mary Poppendieck

by Pete Abilla August 28, 2006
This entry is part 6 of 7 in the series Book Review

Last week, I invited the readers of shmula to pose questions to Mary Poppendieck, the author of Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit for Software Development Managers (Paperback), which won the Software Development Productivity Award in 2004 and, the sequel Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash (Paperback) which will be available in early [...]

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Team Dynamics: Size Matters Redux

by Pete Abilla August 26, 2006

I’ve written about the importance of team size before, here, here, and here. Previously, this is what I said: I’ve written about efficient teams before here and here. At Amazon, there is a concept of a 2-pizza team: no team should be larger than 2 pizzas can feed. It’s a great approach to team size. [...]

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Team Dynamics: Size Matters

by Pete Abilla August 25, 2006

I’ve written about efficient teams before here and here. At Amazon, there is a concept of a 2-pizza team: no team should be larger than 2 pizzas can feed. It’s a great approach to team size. In my short career, I’ve learned how true that rule is. Here’s another thing I’ve learned – 2 people [...]

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5S

by Pete Abilla August 24, 2006

5S is part of the Toyota Production System, anglicized in the US as Lean. 5S is a reference for standardized cleanup, order, or tidyness. Defined, Sort (Seiri): This refers to the practice of sorting through all the tools, materials, etc., in the work area and keeping only essential items. Everything else is stored or discarded. [...]

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WishList: Industrial Design Redux & the MacBook Pro

by Pete Abilla August 23, 2006

Isn’t that just beautiful.  I played with one today and I loved it.  It’s light, quick, slick, and the Linux distribution is awesome.  I’ve played on Mandrake, Debian, and Red Hat, and the Linux distribution on the Mac is just as good as any pure Linux flavor.  Not to mention the industrial engineering and design [...]

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