http://williamweber.net just about anything Tue, 04 May 2010 17:52:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://williamweber.net/?p=99&cpage=1#comment-201 Eric Zierdt Tue, 04 May 2010 17:52:54 +0000 http://williamweber.net/?p=99#comment-201 It's been a while since you published this and I think that in the time since you published it, foursquare is in a much better position. They have done away with the location issue you describe, now locations aren't tied to a city, you don't loose your badges when you move to a new city and Foursquare is working with Business Owners/managers to offer specials to foursquare users/"mayors" and really use it as an advertising means. Gowalla has tweeked their "pins" and "items" delivery method and I have gone over a month without getting a new item to trade...that coupled wiht the fact that often I'm standing at the front door of a locatilon and I can't check in because the Lat/long is off for the location...very frustrating. It’s been a while since you published this and I think that in the time since you published it, foursquare is in a much better position. They have done away with the location issue you describe, now locations aren’t tied to a city, you don’t loose your badges when you move to a new city and Foursquare is working with Business Owners/managers to offer specials to foursquare users/”mayors” and really use it as an advertising means. Gowalla has tweeked their “pins” and “items” delivery method and I have gone over a month without getting a new item to trade…that coupled wiht the fact that often I’m standing at the front door of a locatilon and I can’t check in because the Lat/long is off for the location…very frustrating.

]]> http://williamweber.net/?p=117&cpage=1#comment-195 Will Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:18:26 +0000 http://williamweber.net/?p=117#comment-195 Oh, I can definitely see that scenario. It's certainly true in just about any profession that people abhor change. You've got the old guard who think the way they know works just fine so any threat to that is attacked without any regard to whether new solutions can do the job better. A lot of it has to do with people feeling like their being pushed into obsolescence, which in a lot of cases is probably true. If you aren't willing to keep up on where your profession is going then whenever something new comes along you're going to rail against it with all your might. Oh, I can definitely see that scenario. It’s certainly true in just about any profession that people abhor change. You’ve got the old guard who think the way they know works just fine so any threat to that is attacked without any regard to whether new solutions can do the job better. A lot of it has to do with people feeling like their being pushed into obsolescence, which in a lot of cases is probably true. If you aren’t willing to keep up on where your profession is going then whenever something new comes along you’re going to rail against it with all your might.

]]> http://williamweber.net/?p=117&cpage=1#comment-194 Sven Helmberger Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:42:54 +0000 http://williamweber.net/?p=117#comment-194 I'm not really sure if it were the NoSQL proponents who started the ridiculousness. To me, it seemed like some of the RDBMS guys got really defensive, because they thought they had learned all about databases they'd ever need -- which led to amazingly emotional and confrontational responses. I’m not really sure if it were the NoSQL proponents who started the ridiculousness. To me, it seemed like some of the RDBMS guys got really defensive, because they thought they had learned all about databases they’d ever need — which led to amazingly emotional and confrontational responses.

]]> http://williamweber.net/?p=108&cpage=1#comment-182 Nate Klaphake Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:26:14 +0000 http://williamweber.net/?p=108#comment-182 Oh Snap! :) I like your thinking on this one and I am actually considering reading this book you guys have been talking about and passing around. Accountable people or organizations really don't need intra-organizational SLAs because everyone should be taking accountability for stuff if it goes wrong and working there tails off to fix it as fast as possible. If they need SLAs then people are obviously not being trusted OR are just plain not taking responsibility/accountability for their individual and team actions. Just because there is a SLA doesn't mean things are going to get fixed faster or things are going to go wrong less they just mean it’s easier quantify the punishment on the employee or team who worked on it. Let me be clear in saying that you need some way of monitoring your employee and teams but I just don't think SLAs are the way. Maybe have more than one performance review a year or something like that to measure how a person is doing. A good example is what if a tech company sustains a massive failure of something that was maybe a bug in the system or something totally random or unforeseen and your systems go down. The team or teams who are responsible for these systems all get to work immediately on the problem and work through the night to fix the issue on let’s say Christmas Eve. Those teams end up missing a SLA that was in place and at the end of the month even though everyone is appreciated for working a ton of overtime to fix the issues the individual, team or teams get docked because they missed their SLA. That may be an extreme example but it proves the point that SLAs do not measure whether a person is a good worker and cares about the company and his or her work or even the effort put in to keep or get the company running. SLAs if missed turn the focus of everything into what went wrong instead of ok we had an issues but Jim, Todd and Suzy banded together and fixed the issues in 15 mins with great teamwork. Oh Snap! I like your thinking on this one and I am actually considering reading this book you guys have been talking about and passing around. Accountable people or organizations really don’t need intra-organizational SLAs because everyone should be taking accountability for stuff if it goes wrong and working there tails off to fix it as fast as possible. If they need SLAs then people are obviously not being trusted OR are just plain not taking responsibility/accountability for their individual and team actions. Just because there is a SLA doesn’t mean things are going to get fixed faster or things are going to go wrong less they just mean it’s easier quantify the punishment on the employee or team who worked on it. Let me be clear in saying that you need some way of monitoring your employee and teams but I just don’t think SLAs are the way. Maybe have more than one performance review a year or something like that to measure how a person is doing. A good example is what if a tech company sustains a massive failure of something that was maybe a bug in the system or something totally random or unforeseen and your systems go down. The team or teams who are responsible for these systems all get to work immediately on the problem and work through the night to fix the issue on let’s say Christmas Eve. Those teams end up missing a SLA that was in place and at the end of the month even though everyone is appreciated for working a ton of overtime to fix the issues the individual, team or teams get docked because they missed their SLA. That may be an extreme example but it proves the point that SLAs do not measure whether a person is a good worker and cares about the company and his or her work or even the effort put in to keep or get the company running. SLAs if missed turn the focus of everything into what went wrong instead of ok we had an issues but Jim, Todd and Suzy banded together and fixed the issues in 15 mins with great teamwork.

]]> http://williamweber.net/?p=108&cpage=1#comment-181 Michael Fransen Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:24:56 +0000 http://williamweber.net/?p=108#comment-181 Nice post Will!! I think it is an interesting point you make in regards to negative accountability, trust and SLA's. I am reading that book right now as well. I am only a quarter of the way done, but there are a lot of lessons to be learned in that book so far. Nice post Will!! I think it is an interesting point you make in regards to negative accountability, trust and SLA’s. I am reading that book right now as well. I am only a quarter of the way done, but there are a lot of lessons to be learned in that book so far.

]]> http://williamweber.net/?p=108&cpage=1#comment-180 SXSW: The Future Application Ecosystem – GigaOM | News Express Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:04:07 +0000 http://williamweber.net/?p=108#comment-180 [...] Is an intra-organization SLA a waste of time? | williamweber.net [...] [...] Is an intra-organization SLA a waste of time? | williamweber.net [...]

]]> http://williamweber.net/?p=99&cpage=1#comment-160 Will Fri, 04 Dec 2009 19:29:22 +0000 http://williamweber.net/?p=99#comment-160 True enough. However, I just seems like shortsighted design. It frustrates me when applications that like to be categorized as "social networking" limit the social or the network. Foursquare is still a great app, it just frustrates me a little more often. True enough. However, I just seems like shortsighted design. It frustrates me when applications that like to be categorized as “social networking” limit the social or the network. Foursquare is still a great app, it just frustrates me a little more often.

]]> http://williamweber.net/?p=99&cpage=1#comment-159 Eric Zierdt Fri, 04 Dec 2009 18:55:43 +0000 http://williamweber.net/?p=99#comment-159 Great article, I have one thing to mention, and that is that it is true that with FourSquare you are stuck in one "City" as they call it, it is really more like being stuck in one Metropolitan area. They don't limit the bounds of that Metro area, so if you are in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, you can still submit restaurants in St. Cloud, or Hudson WI, or probably even Duluth and north....just pick the nearest Metro area. I really don't see this as a weak point, just confusing terminology. Great article, I have one thing to mention, and that is that it is true that with FourSquare you are stuck in one “City” as they call it, it is really more like being stuck in one Metropolitan area. They don’t limit the bounds of that Metro area, so if you are in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, you can still submit restaurants in St. Cloud, or Hudson WI, or probably even Duluth and north….just pick the nearest Metro area. I really don’t see this as a weak point, just confusing terminology.

]]> http://williamweber.net/?p=21&cpage=1#comment-99 alien Tue, 01 Sep 2009 10:09:07 +0000 http://www.williamweber.net/?p=21#comment-99 Tnx! Tnx!

]]> http://williamweber.net/?p=21&cpage=1#comment-85 Ray Tomlinson Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:00:38 +0000 http://www.williamweber.net/?p=21#comment-85 Yes, thanks from me too! Just finished the section on Partitions in the MOC training and realised as I worked through the exercises that nothing was stated about how to retrieve a not insignificant piece of info... The link between a file group and it's associated partion\s Yes, thanks from me too!
Just finished the section on Partitions in the MOC training and realised as I worked through the exercises that nothing was stated about how to retrieve a not insignificant piece of info… The link between a file group and it’s associated partion\s

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