curiouscatdotcom

A bunch of great Dilbert comics on the futility/horrors etc. of on PowerPoint Presentations

Webcast of lean dentist talking about applying lean manufacturing concepts at this dentist office.

Fun attempt by Google to transcribe a google voice message.

Nice screen cast, by my brother, showing Hexawise - a pairwise testing tool and combinatorial testing tool.

"The USA's share of the manufacturing output, of the countries that manufactured over $185 billion in 2008, 28% in 1990, 28% in 1995, 32% in 2000, 28% in 2005, 28% in 2006, 26% in 2007 and 24% in 2008. China's share has grown from 4% in 1990, 6% in 1995, 10% in 2000, 13% in 2005, 14% in 2006, 16% in 2007 to 18% in 2008. Japan's share has fallen from 22% in 1990 to 14% in 2008 (after increasing to 26% in 1995 then steadily falling). The USA has about 4.5% of the world population, China about 20%."

Blogger takes on Goldman Sachs manipulation and NYSE changes rules to hide data. But publicity continued and then the SEC drew up a proposal to ban flash trading. "He was on the cutting edge of bringing attention to the problems posed by flash trades," says Brian Fallon, a spokesman for Senator Schumer. This is what journalism is suppose to be about - exposing corruption that powerful interests try to hide.

Money in news (PBS) and marketing (CBS). Though current mass media outlets (ABC, NBC...) grew from what were news organizations they have become much more like the marketing departments for their corporate parents than news organizations.

The authors of Implementing Lean Software Development, Mary Poppendieck and Tom Poppendieck, open up on topics ranging from stupid ideas for "eliminating waste" to the differences between Lean and Agile, to avoiding project failure. "We are not developing software," Tom says. "We are doing something larger and software is just part of the solution."