DRM - Daniel’s Random Mutterings

A couple of days ago, The Wall Street Journal ran an article,
titled “Battling Google, Microsoft Changes How It Builds Software” (also linked from Slashdot), which had a couple of points in it which I found interesting. In fact, while the article was intended to put a positive spin on issues, I found the amount of problems it uncovered with Microsoft’s software engineering processes to be totally astounding.

Let’s ignore all the the potential wisecracks and cheap shots about statements such as the one that Microsoft “cranks out a new, generally bug-free version of basic Windows every few years” (Yeah! when’s the last time MS shipped a bug-free version of Windows?). Go to the Slashdot article comments if this is what you’re looking for.

Writing the first post into a newly installed blog is a bit like speaking your first message onto your very first telephone answering machine. You feel a bit stupid, as you’re talking to yourself. You don’t really know who’s going to hear your message. You have a vague idea of what you want to say - but once you’ve said it, it sounds strange.

“Hi! This is Daniel’s blog. Daniel is not in at the moment. But if you want to know more about him, you can read this blog. If you really care, you can leave a message after you’ve read it. If you leave your email address, maybe he’ll even mail you back.”

I guess at the moment I’m writing this more for myself than for anybody else. Why am I starting this? Well, in the course of the day, I come across stuff that I find interesting, funny, enlightening or just odd. I need a place to store this, and to add my comments. A blog seems a better place for that than an old shoe-box.