The Single Source of Search

There's more information on the Internet than one could apprehend in a hundred lifetimes, and it's growing too - and (most of the times) kept up-to-date. Different organisations, places and networks holding that information make it hard to get it all together, so how to make that information homogenous, and uniformly accessible?

Can it be done? Should it be done?

Cloud and Social: the tectonic plates of IT 2.0

We're on the verge of a new era in IT. Web 2.0, E2.0, SOA 2.0: anything 2.0, which I combinedly call IT 2.0

My first IT experiences dating back 25 years, I've noticed that it basically provides humans with machines. Or more accurately, human tasks are slowly replaced by machine tasks where possible

The pitfall of Enterprise and Social: evolution takes place in small steps

Enterprise architecture is the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure reflecting the integration and standardization requirements of the firm’s operating model

Thank you MIT, and wiki!
Enterprise Architecture is a well-debated topic. It certainly is an ambitious goal, and encompasses a rather huge area: the enterprise. One could compare it with city architecture, although those folks usually take a bit longer for redesigning and -building entire cities. In IT, almost everything seems to have to fit into a 5- or 10-year roadmap

Politics - what's the ROI of that, actually?

The question popped into my mind while commenting on Armano's latest blog post - and I just wrote it down

As it is like it is, things you focus your attention on become much sharper to see, and suddenly you spot them all over the place, and start to increasingly wonder about them

So, this post is about the P-word. As always, kudos to the magnificent wiki

Failsafe application development: a visual as to how (exceptions)

Probably the last in this series for this weekend, this post is showing how exceptions can be perfectly handled. It builds on to my last post visualising error handling

For starters, every function, module or program should always have a safety net. I'm going to use the well-know catch-try mechanisms as an example

What was the goal again? To not suffer from memory-loss, i.e. whenever you're hit by an exception you stand ground, collect all evidence, and gracefully exit

Here's how, visualised. For the concept, read my first post on this

Failsafe application development: a visual as to how (errors)

I'm doing a series on failsafe application develoment this weekend it seems, driven by pure passion and inspiration. My first post described the what, my second explained the why, and this one's on the how

Having some insight into or experience with programming will help, but I hope you can also grasp the concept if you just think geeks are cute
As an example, I will take an easy creditcard transaction

First, I have to get two paradigms out of the way: the combine conditions as much as you can paradigm, and the combine functions as much as you can paradigm. They're both deadly wrong

Failsafe application development: a parable as to why

If you haven't got a clue about IT and applications, that will have changed after reading this. This post is about every day life, family, management, and control. It's a follow-up on my last post where I introduce failsafe application development - my way

In your life, you are the one that is aware of everything that's occurring around you. That doesn't mean you understand it, but it is enough that you can narrate it afterwards. With camera-equipped mobile phones everywhere, you can even objectively replay what happened - how's that for awesomeness
So, if anything out of the ordinary happens, you're there, you notice it
That doesn't mean you know why that happens because you don't always know the circumstances. If

Failsafe application development: everyone can do it

Error handling and solving has become a lost art. Over the last years the focus has shifted to delivering functionality rather than preventing errors. Hacks, hoaxes and viruses are some of the results, low-quality applications and user-unfriendly error messages are another

The reasons for this are simple. Increased business dynamics demanding quicker results, easier to understand programming languages lowering the threshold for programmers to code, ready-made reusable components available in increasing quantities and at decreasing cost are among the most important

It isn't that hard to write programs that never fail. Of course exceptions and errors will occur every now and then, but there's no reason to not catch them - which I describe as failing. I devised a simple, twofold mechanism that works in almost any programming language. I'm saying almost because I want to be careful, not because I've encountered a language in which it doesn't work

Application development over the last decades: increased but hidden costs

Over the last decades a few trends have been made visible within application development. Methodology is one of them, introducing a.o. RUP, Agile and XP. COTS and code generation is another, trying to reduce the number of errors by pushing back the human contact with code

Apart from benefits, there are concerns here.
Methodology has put more focus and the project and timely delivery itself, forgetting that an application only spends 20% in initial development, and 80% of its lifecycle in maintenance. The human factor has been greatly increased by these methodologies, mirroring the increased dynamics of business
On the other hand, software building has greatly decreased the human factor

Social integration: I = (NC)2

Social media integration is getting bigger and better these days.
LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Yammer, they're all interconnected somehow

From within Twitter, for example, you can update other social networks by using socalled hashtags. For instance, #fb will trigger Facebook, #in will update LinkedIn, and #yam will go into Yammer

Just the other day I saw a Tweet from @armano who was updating Twitter and LinkedIn at the same time: "Want to join Edelman?". A very clever move actually, as David was letting know his 23+K Twitter followers as well as his 500+ LinkedIn connections at the same time that his new company is looking for new people
(It was Michael Krempasky who started the tweet, but David was the first to spread it to LinkedIn simultaneously)

IT utility and Cloud. And why Salesforce.com is stuck

IT utility is a widespread misconception. Whenever we name utility, we think of our own utility: gas, water and electricity
We cement those into the walls, floors and ceilings of our house, and feel perfectly happy about that. Why?

Because they're boringly static products. Water nor gas nor electricity have changed in the last 50 years nor are they going to change in the coming 50 years. Redefining the meaning of static. And boring.
But, we don't have TV's, ovens or microwaves coming out of the wall. Nor phones, PC's, lamps, etcetera. Only the stuff that feeds them.

Now, over to IT utility. The more boring the IT, the better you can "Cloud It Out". Infra comes to mind,