Frank Uncovers Excellence in Leadership

© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Lenovo To Make Windows XP Available Until 2009
Hewlett-Packard will also provide Windows XP to business customers that want to downgrade from Windows Vista after June 30.

I installed the Vista upgrade advisor and—after finding that most software wouldn’t work—came fast to the conclusion to stay with XP.

And you?

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conclusion  live forever  vista upgrade advisor  windows xp
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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

There are hundreds if not thousands of applications available that support management in tracking hours worked.

And still, we all have seen those awkward spreadsheets used to track hours and projects employees and contractors work on. Studies have shown that the use of automated systems are less error prone and save HR hours of work.

How fast will you get rid of those spreadsheets?

Do you think it’s the right way to manage time?

Is this even time management?

Tags:

automated systems  spreadsheets  support management  time management
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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Damn, we don’t normally do too much media-on-media stuff, but reports are surfacing that tech mega-publisher Ziff Davis (owner of PC Mag, EGM, DigialLife, etc.) is fricking filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy as a shield from some $225m in debt.

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chapter 11 bankruptcy  egm  pc mag  ziff davis
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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

It’s official: The German supreme court approved the “Bundestrojaner “. German link only, but I am sure many links in all languages will follow soon…
Anyway, the Bundestrojaner is a trojan horse the government put’s on your computer.
The spying is only ok if human lives or the existence of the state are endangered. What do think how many other countries love those German politicians and judges right now? And especially Germany, a country haunted by their Third Reich past.

We all know how those things work out: Give the government a finger and they’ll rip out your arm. Or more.

We all know that laws are broken; by bad guys the so called criminals and by the good guys; just look at the news and the amount of complaints and lawsuits. But putting spyware on peoples computers?

1984 wasn’t that bad, or was it?

Or maybe this was a stroke of genius from the German government - to decrease unemployment rates. Think about it: Now everyone will get busy to get more and more anti-spy-software. Anti-government software. And the Government will get busy to write more and more trojans. It also gives a totally new meaning to buyer beware: “This computer is officially government infested.” Welcome to the world of the anti-anti-anti-trojan…

Of course the one thing you will not see is that this trojan will land on the computers of those government officials that do wrong, steal, lie, betray, molest, abuse power….

What a sad day for human kind.

Wouldn’t you agree?

PS: Germany, the same country that has states paying hackers to decrypt Skype conversations…

Tags:

abuse power  anti spy software  bad guys  bundestrojaner  conversations  german government  german link  german politicians  german supreme court  good guys  government officials  government software  hackers  lawsuits  legal government  sad day  stroke of genius  third reich  trojan horse  unemployment rates
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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Tags:

design  languages  program  software engineer  tests
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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Just check this directory listing:

Directory of D:\Hardware\Hardlock2
01/01/1601  12:00 AM    <dir>          .
01/01/1601  12:00 AM    <dir>          ..
               0 File(s)              0 bytes

I wonder what happened on January 1st 1601 ?

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01 01 1601  1601  computer  directory listing
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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

Can programmers really become good managers? Programmers act more like bean counters, just by the nature of things. Time really isn’t the number one priority. What matters most is that the task at hand get’s finished without the user having to face bugs. Being creative minds most programmers really do not find the pleasure in strictly ruled and well defined environments. Managers on the other hand have to concentrate on two things: Time and organization. Programmers have to be pushed constantly to finish in time.

For the programmer becoming a manager it means doing what they hate and stop doing what they love. While the success of this really depends on the person, for many programmers this turn is impossible.

For the business that finds a programmer being able to become manager the advantages are clear:

1. The manager is respected by the programmers
2. Good programmers come with project management skills and team leading skills
3. Time estimates will be more accurate
4. Decisions for the right technology will be more fact based than buzz word driven
5. The manager has hands on experience

Tags:

accurate decisions  bean counters  bugs  buzz word  creative minds  environments  good managers  hands on experience  nature of things  pleasure  priority  programmer  programmers  project management skills  right technology  time estimates
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© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008

In case you are using Windows (please, let’s not start a flame war over that) and

• your startup folder becomes simply unmanageable
• or you want to start specific programs only every once in a while
• or some programs depend on the start of others
• or…

then this little program will come in handy for you!

Launcher does launch the programs that are described in a normal text file. If not parameter is given Launcher will look for the file cmd.dat . Here is a sample cmd.dat file and it is also included in the zip file. Comments in the command file start with #.

Just put the executable in a folder of your choice, modify cmd.dat and you are done!

Launcher has a BSD license (Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted…).

Initially I used Delphi 3 (boy, that was way back then!). Create a new Delphi project, put the code into the DPR file, compile, enjoy! Or just download the zip file with the executable…

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delphi  flame war  launcher  startup folder  windows  zip file
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