Sunday, September 16, 2007

Voodoo Programming

One of the reasons I’m a consultant is because I love to solve problems; this does not mean, however, that I enjoy all the problems I solve, nor that the pursuit is always rewarding in itself. This week I got stuck in a mind-bender that had all the satisfying crunch of a soggy pretzel.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Competition is good.

The Common Council of the city of Peekskill, New York had a public hearing tonight to hear citizens' comments on the proposed granting of a cable franchise contract to Verizon. Some Verizon suits were in attendance, as well as an obligatory Cablevision weasel; what surprised me was the vocal support of Peekskill residents, most of whom are not Verizon employees. It's nice to live in a forward-thinking community. It will come as no surprise that the Council's vote in favor of the contract was unanimous, but the epiphanic moment was toward the end of the public commentary when a Verizon rep. was attempting to recall the website address for more information: he got stuck after "it's verizon.com, eh..." and nearly the entire gallery finished "FiOS".