The Problem A SaaS startup had a South Asian outsourced offshore team as its primary application development team. The team had a project leader, who, while very capable and reliable, was a bottleneck for communication with the rest of the team. Stakeholders simply threw requirements over the fence to the project leader and were not … Read more »
Society
Waste Your Vote with Me this Year
Even if you have associated with a given party your entire life up until this point, you just may find that your party’s positions no longer completely represent your values. Do you like the Democratic Party because of its social policies but dislike it because of its emphasis on a strong federal government? Do you … Read more »
I Am the In Between
I have historically not been a very political person. I have always been (and still am) absolutely disgusted with politicians and the media’s coverage of them. Until recently, my strategy had been for the most part just to ignore the rants of advocates and rhetoric of orators. Sure, I had opinions about the role of … Read more »
WTF, Wells Fargo?! You’re a Terrible Bank. (part 3)
Go back to part 2. I’m not gonna lie: saying goodbye to the mortgage lender that screwed up our closing beyond belief felt pretty good. We found another lender with a much better rate that actually seemed to treat its customers pretty well. Kyla did all the legwork on this one. Based on recommendations from … Read more »
WTF, Wells Fargo?! You’re a Terrible Bank. (part 2)
Go back to part 1. The story of how badly the mortgage on our first home was mishandled by Wells Fargo will make you weep. Well, maybe not, but it will probably make you not want to use Wells Fargo for your next home mortgage. If there is any semblance of an excuse on the … Read more »
WTF, Wells Fargo?! You’re a Terrible Bank. (part 1)
I’m writing a series of posts about my experiences with Wells Fargo to document its unethical and/or incompetent business practices in handling my personal accounts over the past 3.5 years. We will be moving our 4 personal and 3 business accounts to one or more other banks very soon — just as soon as this last … Read more »
Racial Linjustice (sorry)
Apparently intentional, ESPN’s since-deleted headline about Jeremy Lin was distressing I woke up on Saturday to find Facebook and Twitter alight with cries for blood over the mobile ESPN article headline that was posted in the middle of the night for 35 minutes before being taken down. It had used the unfortunate idiom “chink in … Read more »
Not Another Sherlock Holmes Reference, Watson
I’ve been following the Jeopardy! IBM Challenge with interest over the past few days. Pitting man against machine in the arena of language comprehension and general knowledge is just good television. I can’t claim to be an expert on Artificial Intelligence, but I am programmer, interface designer, and trivia buff. Let’s get this out of the … Read more »
Music Without Pretense
Like everyone else, I have a certain taste in music. I have hangups that preclude me from liking certain popular artists, but nevertheless I listen to an eclectic assortment. I use the word “eclectic” here very reluctantly because it’s the go-to word that music snobs use to lord over you the fact that they are … Read more »