Stuff Yaron Finds Interesting

Tools of the Software Program Manager Trade

Administrator — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

In my previous article about what a PM does I talked about contracts. While I didn't mean contracts in the literal sense of a legally binding document the best PM groups I've worked with do produce a specific set of documents which serve to record what has been agreed to, track status and help to identify and resolve problems. Below I walk through those documents and what their purpose is.

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What does a software program manager do anyway?

Administrator — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Asking what a program manager (PM) does in the software industry is a bit of a trick question because so many different and only tangentially related positions are called PM. So I can't provide a universal answer but I can explain what the PM groups I have worked with over the years have done/do. The short answer is that we are the conduit between the core Development team (e.g. Development/Test/PM) and the rest of the known universe. Our job is to bring data from the outside world in, bring the core Development team's ideas out to the world, negotiate a "contract" between the two as to who is to do what/when and then be held personally responsible for making sure everyone honors the "contract".

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What to buy in our 529 Plan

Administrator — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:00:00 +0000

After looking at the various options available in 529 plans from stock mutual funds to bond mutual funds to age appropriate funds and so on the choice for us came down to TIPS mutual funds or CollegeSure CDs. We have decided to use CollegeSure CDs to save for our daughter's education. Yes, they have a horrible return and are quite possibly not FDIC insured (read the fine print) but of all the options this is the one that seems most reasonable.

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Asset Location for College Savings

Administrator — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Asset location is not so much about what investment to buy as where to locate it. A typical asset location problem is - do I put money in a taxable account or a tax exempt account? In the case of saving for college there are at least four different ways to save money for college that have some kind of tax exemption. Below I explore the five options (taxable and various tax exempt ones) that I could find and explain why we settled on using a 529 savings plan (as opposed to a 529 prepaid tuition plan).

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My Resume

Administrator — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0000

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I believe TechCrunch missed the point on Yahoo!

Administrator — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0000

TechCrunch claims that Yahoo!'s handing over data on a Chinese journalist to the Chinese government was, on balance, appropriate behavior. What I believe TechCrunch completely misses the point on is that Yahoo!, of its own free will, made the decision to become a 40% owner of a Chinese company that hosted sensitive personal information within the reach of the Chinese government. That is Yahoo!'s real ethical failure. The fact that the Chinese government used its powers to grab that data was the inevitable outcome of Yahoo!'s actions. I believe Yahoo! should have refused to have involved itself in any situation that would see its users sensitive data stored in a country with such an abysmal human rights record. I personally believe that Yahoo! deserves enormous criticism for its actions and some kind of movement to refuse to do business with Yahoo! until it gets sensitive data out of the hands of the Chinese government seems completely appropriate.

To the folks who read this blog, who are mostly in the on-line services business, this issue isn't just theoretical. Everyday we make decisions that affect the privacy and security of our users. Where do we host our data? What kind of interception facilities do we put in our networks? What kind of logs do we keep? We all have an obligation to act ethically, to use our knowledge to help people, not harm them. When we record more than we need, keep it longer than we need, make it too easy to recover/intercept and store it in the wrong place we fail in our ethical obligations and for that we all need to be held to account.

The office of the privacy commissioner of Canada nails social network's business model

Administrator — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks to the ACLU of Washington's blog I got a link to this outstanding video on the privacy commissioner of Canada's website. It absolutely nails what social networks are about from a business perspective and why users need to be concerned. This is just yet another argument for why we need open social networks that let users host and control their own data instead of being forced to live in other people's walled gardens. It's a pity that efforts like OpenSocial (which has absolutely nothing to do with freeing user's data) use the name "Open". Because we could really use a real OpenSocial. It wouldn't even be hard. Take a dollop of standardized data schemas, a side of REST and sprinkle some OpenID on top and you are basically there. For dessert we could even fix OAuth to enable true interoperability. [Ed. Note: I realize that my readership already understands what's in that video but maybe you can pass it on to your friends who haven't been quite clued in yet.]

11/6/2007 - General Election - Redmond, King County, Washington

Administrator — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

So far the most important issue on the ballot is Initiative 25. If you want any possible hope of having a meaningful vote in King County please vote yes for I-25.

This isn't an election, it's a denial of service attack! The whole point of representative democracy is that citizens have neither the time nor the background to make detailed choices about how the day to day activities of government are to be run. But in this election we am being drowned in no less than 9 different measures in addition to 14 different elected offices of which only 3 appeared on the primary. This is just nuts! The only consequence of dumping this many issues and elected offices on the citizenry is to so overload the citizenry that they either don't bother to vote or vote blindly.

Initiative 960 - Yes
Referendum Measure 67 - Approved
Senate Joint Resolution 8206 - Rejected
Senate Joint Resolution 8212 - Rejected
House Joint Resolution 4204 - Rejected
House Joint Resolution 4215 - Rejected
King County Prosecuting Attorney - Bill Sherman
King County Assessor - Scott Noble
Port of Seattle - Commissioner - Position No. 2 - Bob Edwards
Port of Seattle - Commissioner - Position No. 5 - Alec Fisken
City of Redmond - Mayor - John Marchione
City of Redmond - Council Position 1 - Hank Myers
City of Redmond - Council Position 3 - Dayle (Hank) Margeson
City of Redmond - Council Position 5 - Richard Cole
City of Redmond - Council Position 7 - David Carson
Lake Washington School District No. 414 - Director District 1 - Jackie Pendergrass
Lake Washington School District No. 414 - Director District 2 - Chris Carlson
Lake Washington School District No. 414 - Director District 5 - Ravi Shahani
Public Hospital District No. 4 - Commissioner - Rebecca Hirt
Public Hospital District No. 5 - Commissioner - Jeanette Greenfield
King County Initiative 25 - Yes
King County Proposition No. 1 - Medic One - Approved
Sound Transit Proposition No. 1 - No

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Interoperability Wars - Episode 6 - Part 1 - Revenge of Babble

Administrator — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Nothing said in this post (or on this blog for that matter) reflects the views of the blog owner's employer of the moment.

Dedication: To George Lucas for as Harrison Ford once said to Mr. Lucas, "You can type this shit, George, but you sure can't say it."

Announcer: Join us for the exciting first part of episode 6 of the Interoperability Wars - Revenge of Babble!

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8/21/2007 - Primary Election - Redmond, King County, Washington

Administrator — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 00:00:00 +0000

Since I do not associate with either the Democratic nor the Republican parties I don't vote in either of their primaries. So I will only be giving my opinion on non-partisan positions and various measures. I went to the King County Voter Guide which generates a custom on-line guide just including positions/issues I'm eligible to vote for. I then checked the voter guide candidate text, check the candidate's web site, check the PI, the Seattle Times, the Stranger, the Municipal League of King County and searched the net.

Port of Seattle - Commissioner - Position No. 2 - Thom McCann
Port of Seattle - Commissioner - Position No. 5 - Alec Fisken
City of Redmond - Mayor - John Marchione
King County - Proposition No. 1 - Yes
King County - Proposition No. 2 - Yes
City of Redmond - Proposition No. 1 - Yes
City of Redmond - Proposition No. 2 - Yes

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