Category Archives: Rantage

The first failure is ignorance. The second failure is misplaced enthusiasm (“/This/ time we know how to do it right!”) Any subsequent failures are ego, or self-delusion.

“Excuse me, /I/ speak Product Management.” (turns to PMs) “We need a team-centric methodology to synergize prioritizations of the key enabling scenarios.” “But our alignment strategy requirements were solidified in S0!” “Hard cuts enable broadening the taxonomy into a customer-facing … Continue reading →

We were on our way to a meeting when we encountered one of our team’s developers leaning over the railing of the fourth floor balcony in our building’s atrium, grimacing as if he was trying to pass gas. We asked … Continue reading →

A “best of” the Xbox Live “ban” forum postings here. I would weep (especially for the Lost Art of Spelling), except that I’m too busy shaking my head and hitting Next. “Cuz” is not a word. And people should be … Continue reading →

If you make a chart like this one: (original here) … as a red-green colorblind person, I hate you. [Solution: copy into a paint program, match-up RGB color values]

[Disclaimer: I work at Microsoft. I would probably still be saying the following even if I didn't, though] I’ve had a Windows 7 Phone, the Samsung Focus, for a couple of months now, and thought I’d give a quick report. First, … Continue reading →

In conversation: “I needed a new disk drive, and found that I could have a terabyte drive delivered that afternoon, in about five hours.” “Also, we needed milk, so I added that to the order, too.” I’d love to take … Continue reading →

If I ever set up another email system for a company, I’m going to configure a dud internal address named asshole, with a filtering rule set so any message composed with asshole as a recipient (either To: or Cc:) gets … Continue reading →

“Walkies!” It was 4:00 in the afternoon, and time to walk to the dump, out past the sewage plant, and talk about hard problems. I’ve had some of my best ideas while out walking. I’m 6’4″ with long legs, and … Continue reading →

Here are the rules of SCRAM, which we found on a notebook lodged above the ceiling tiles of an office whose former occupant had been Dismissed Without Favor Under Abrupt and Very Mysterious Circumstances. May these serve you well. —- … Continue reading →