tech-realism

Structure projects around delivering incremental value and eliminating unknown unknowns.

The U.S. Air Force’s chief of staff wants the service to develop an affordable, lightweight fighter to replace hundreds of aging F-16s and complement a small fleet of sophisticated F-35 stealth fighters. But an affordable, lightweight fighter is exactly what the F-35 was first conceived to be.

How does Elon Musk achieve such game-changing breakthroughs in electric cars and rockets... at the same time? Running Tesla and SpaceX is quite a feat. Doing so while also being an industry leader (in both) is another thing altogether. Musk calls himself an engineer at heart. It begs the question: is there some kind of secret recipe to Elon Musk's engineering prowess?  Above: Elon Musk provides some unique insight into the engineering process in order to

To avoid spending billions of dollars maintaining legacy technology, motor vehicle departments across the country have made a push to modernize their complex licensing and registration systems with new off-the-shelf or customized software. Though no two states’ systems are exactly alike, officials say the key to a smooth DMV modernization is more than just swapping out servers, but adopting new methods of governance and ensuring their offices are staffed with the right skill sets. Though DMVs aren’t known for showcasing the best quality-of-service that government has to offer, modernizing IT systems is one way that agencies have begun addressing common issues like long wait times and a lack of digital services. California has seen dozens of system outages, accidental voter registrations and botched Real-ID rollouts caused by its aging systems, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to overhaul DMV leadership last year. Minnesota, meanwhile, spent a decade and more than $100 million trying to build an in-house […]

Computerworld covers a range of technology topics, with a focus on these core areas of IT: Windows, Mobile, Apple/enterprise, Office and productivity suites, collaboration, web browsers and blockchain, as well as relevant information about companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Google.

A few words on the Unix philosophy of building small programs that do one thing well, and compose for comprehensive functionality.

To be successful at digital transformation you need to optimize the key feedback loops in your software engineering organization

you build it you own it

A web-app framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.

The governor of New Jersey recently mentioned COBOL, a 60-year-old programming language. What exactly is it? And why is it still the lynchpin of the financial world, despite the fact that few people still know how to use it?

Issue: March/April 1999 | PDF

While much attention has been focused on high-level software architectural patterns, what is, in effect, the de-facto standard software architecture is seldom discussed. This paper examines the most frequently deployed architecture: the BIG BALL OF MUD

Internet companies like Facebook and Twitter are sparking controversy due to their rapidly growing valuations. With scars from the heyday of Webvan and Pets.com still fresh in the investor psyche, people are asking, “Isn’t this just a dangerous new bubble?”

Discover 20+ key takeaways from all of Jeff Bezos' letters to Amazon’s shareholders for insight into how the world’s richest man thinks about efficiency, retention, management, & more.

why design is more important to the tech industry than it used to be