OddThinking

The Rational 1000 debugger had an optional feature – the ability to step-forward or backward through the code.

The word “hubris” sounds like should be a good thing. Saying someone has a “sense of hubris” makes it sound like they have a nice mix of a sense of humility, humanity and humour.

Whoever decided it should actually mean “conceit” was clearly having a bad day and made a simple error. Let’s fix it now.

Let me try another magic trick on you, based on hidden conventions.

When I become the CEO of a major car-manufacturer, I’m going to start selling my cars in a very different way.

I examine the causes of poor business presentations, and then evaluate Edward Tufte’s criticism of PowerPoint.

(Note to casual readers: This is a long (6000 word) essay!)

A conversation in the back-streets of a French university leaves me smiling… at first.

In the shadowy world of credit ratings, companies trade behind your back in gossip about your past.

I wanted to see what they had to say about me – what story they have been tattling.

The last gaming console I ever bought was the Sony PlayStation. Maybe I am really missing out, but the PlayStation was so disappointing, I never felt the urge to move away from the PC-based video-games again.

I made a mistake at work late last week, and I am still scratching my head trying to decipher what the lesson might be. I can’t see one. I am posting it here either so others can provide me guidance, or at the very least so it can stand as a warning for others.

After putting in my security clearance application, I got a phone call from someone wanting to check a few details.