It's a Hairball!

CIO Magazine has an interesting take on IT operations that devolve into bottlenecks. Read the entire article: it's quick and interesting. It uses the snarky description of Hairball to discuss an uncontrolled development environment that evolves over time. (I think I'll steal that one.)

The article has one point with which I would quibble, the use of IT steering committees that become roadblocks instead of gates through which things move quickly. It says steering committees inherently become bureacratic tools for infighting. Maybe. A poorly organized one does. I've been a part of two that worked very, very well because they had a good charter, good participants, and good executive oversight. 

But, like I said, I quibble.

Capitalism! Is there nothing it can't do?

It looks like in the very near future, commercial space launches will be viable and SpaceX will be the leader.

The future: be there or be square!

Now They Tell Me!

This clip is from the Drudge Report at 2:32 p.m. EDT on Aug 22, 1917. The link is to an article that doesn't show well or else I would have linked to it directly. Here it is if you want to take a look. https://www.spectator.com.au/2017/08/big-data-finds-the-medieval-warm-period-no-denial-here/

My point? Well, if you look through my driveling over the years you'll see several references to the Medieval Warm Period as a counterbalance to argument that we're in the hottest times ever. 

And now, the popular press may be catching on. I'm curious to see how quickly and how far this spreads.

Ah, heck! Just Keep Rubbing It In, Already!

You may be getting tired of hearing it but the U.S. shale oil industry just keeps playing the hits. They get more efficient and economical over time. In the last five years they've become the swing player in global oil prices and soon they'll be the dominant player.

This chart compares U.S. oil fields and their productivity and the article at this link goes into more detail about how we soon will be the driver of world oil pricing. Our ability to bring production on-line and take it off-line quickly as demand waxes and wanes will be the key.

I don't know about you but I feel like hugging a fracker.

Danger Will Robinson!

(If you get the reference, congratulations. You're AARP card is in the mail.)

There is, indeed, danger in using these 12 practices in managing your IT operation, which you'll see if you follow the link. (If you don't have an IT operation, then maybe they'll apply to something else you do in the business world.)

I've been in IT for 35 years and most of these warnings hold true in my experience. Let me take just one as an example and you can read the article for the rest.

I first heard this in the 1980s (Yes! the 80s) and I doubted it then. My professional colleagues are my colleagues and we work together for a common purpose: to serve our real, paying, customers. The CIO article has a pretty good take on why this is a bad idea and I urge you to read it and see if you agree with this and the eleven other practices that are (to put it kindly) counter productive.

If You Want It, Here It Is, Come and Get It!

The title's from a Badfinger song, if you want to hum along. Yesterday I found a link with an enormous (and I do mean enormous) amount of graphic evidence of temperature changes going back centuries.

This clip shows the Medieval Warm Period, which I've shown previously. If you follow the link at NoTricksZone you'll find more charts that you can drink. I'll come back and repost on them when I've had a chance to absorb them.

Ding Dong the OPEC is Dead!

Well, maybe ... probably. In the 70s, OPEC was the big bad wolf or the bogeyman under the bed.

Check out this article on the demise of the cartel and (I hope) come one step closer to my belief in the power of free people and free markets.