I wish I was there

Just read it

eBay, please fix your search

eBay's search is really starting to annoy me. Example: yesterday I decided I was going to get an iPod mini (which they don't make anymore) for kids songs as they are chewing up valuable hard drive space on my mini. What better place to grab one than eBay. Except, when I do perform a search on 'ipod mini' I seem to get anything BUT ipod minis! I didn't search on screen protectors, docs, fm transmitters, earphones, or chargers, yet I get page after page of results of things I don't care about.

Perhaps they find ineffective searches actually generate more and higher sales, but it's really starting to chase me to Google to do my online shopping...

Agile: it's the people, stupid

Despite my skepticism 6-7 years ago, about four years ago I became a big supporter and avocate of agile methodologies. But a key learning for me recently is that the success (measured by me as the ability for an agile methodology to adjust quickly to change with quality results) has more to do with the people involved than the processes they follow. While that is stating the obvious (I've always held the view that people are more important than process in software development, and my fondness of agile methods is due to their lightness on the process side), it does underscore my favorite line from Good to Great - People are not your company's most important asset... the right people are.

In my particular case, I'm observing an agile process cop actually execute agile (in this case Scrum) in a manner that resists change and slowing development down rather than expediting it. How to solve? Ah, that is the challenge I face, and I look forward to answering that question and blogging about it in the future!

Another year...

another Super Bowl with no Lions team. WTF? Off the top of my head, only the Browns, Saints, Cardinals, and Jacksonville share that distinction (with the Texans getting a pass).

And here we have the Steelers going to the SB in each of the last four decades.

When Ford Motor Company goes to bankruptcy court hopefully the judge makes the Fords sell the Lions.