Receivers & Amps

Project managers are ultimately responsible for making sure projects are completed on time, on budget, and with the features and functionality specified by the project's stakeholders. So why aren't they reviewed with those metrics in mind? One PMP has a better idea.

The UK's top share index has its biggest one-day points fall ever as Chancellor Alistair Darling tries to reassure financial markets.

Ted Shelton: "Frankly I felt that BlogOn was a waste of time and money."

I think the BlogOn conference was overproduced. In the name of professionalism the organizing firm turned off potential speakers, oversubscribed sponsors, etc.

I would have liked a debatable topic (aside from *blogging = journalism*. Two people slugging it out. Or a devil's advocate taking challenges from the floor.

I would have liked more hard numbers. Facts. Charts. Diagrams. We have the analytic tools to BS-check them; harder on vague opinions and single-points-of-observation.

I found it disturbing how much money was being commanded (from both attendees and sponsors) for a conference at a university. Maybe it was because it was at Berkeley? Maybe we should have taken over a community college or a Cal State or a DeVry. The facilities costs would have been cheaper at least. I heard an organizer apologize and say the next one would be at a hotel, like that would have been better.

Cost wasn't the whole problem. We're at a stage where early adopters are meeting folks who want to leap the chasm. Huge gaps in knowledge, experience, context, culture, vocabulary. It's the gap.

There are huge ideas to be explored, even in the world of applying blogs to media strategy and the enterprise. And most of the big ideas weren't even on the agenda at BlogOn. Probably because it was catering to those who want to commercialize, fund, and otherwise exploit (excuse me, "get in on") the emerging medium.

Let's fork these conferences so advanced topics on business and technology and culture fit the participants. 

[a klog apart]

While this iPhone security hole isn't nearly as gaping as the last one we covered (which was fixed by Apple), it too exploits the emergency call feature in password-protected mode. In password-protected mode, there's an option to disable SMS preview, so if someone picks up your locked phone, they can't see incoming text messages. However, if you activate a locked phone's emergency call mode, and it receives a text message, it'll show you the full text in preview. And yes, this is with 2.1. Again, a sorta minor security oversight, but if you're super-secret about your texts (for whatever reasons), this is definitely a problem and needs to be fixed in the next update. [Karl Kraft via Daring Fireball]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slid for a fourth straight day on Monday, leaving the Dow below 10,000 for the first time in four years, on fears the global economy was hurtling into recession despite government efforts to contain the fast-spreading financial crisis.