Big Dave’s Blog

Big Dave’s Blog

  • Gadgets and Being Green

    I like to think that I am pretty green. I have an efficient house, no more SUV, not a ton of garbage, etc. Recently, however, I began to wonder if it is possible to be green if you are a techie and/or into gadgets. Gadget lovers and techies have tons of electronic stuff around the…

  • Google Reader and the iPhone Battery

    The other day I reached in my pocket for my phone, and it was hot. It had gone from a full charge to dead battery in 2 hours. I wrote it off as an app gone nuts. When it happened again a couple days later, I started to investigate. After a lot of experiments, I…

  • DVDs on iPhone

    Recently, I began taking the train into Boston. The train ride is about 50 minutes, so I have a decent amount of time to read, listen to music or podcasts. Sometimes, however, I wouldn’t mind watching one of my many purchased DVDs on the way.  Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to make this happen. Note, I…

  • ‘Neglect’ of Bletchley condemned

    BBC NEWS | Technology | ‘Neglect’ of Bletchley condemned I came across this interesting article regarding Blechley Park. I was surprised to see how rundown the place is. For those that don’t know, Bletchley Park is where the code breakers lived during WWII. It is basically the birthplace of modern computing, and it helped shortened…

  • Measuring Performance and Cost Value Index

    I often ask the question “How can we properly work out pay for performance?” For some teams it sounds pretty simple. Sales, for instance, has some relatively simple metrics. How many encounters? How much did you sell? It’s a little more difficult for Engineering. Here’s an example that I often see: A great product team…

  • Patent Decisions Since 2000 Invalid?

    Anyone see the NY Times article In One Flaw, Questions on Validity of 46 Judges? Basically, a law professor discovered a constitutional flaw in the appointment process for judges who decide patent appeals and disputes.  This goes back to 2000. That means thousands of patent cases and billions of dollars in licenses. The really interesting…

  • Kelly Johnson and Agile Development

    In a previous post about the F-117, I described some of the rules Kelly Johnson had for his projects. As promised, here is how I would map Kelly’s rules to agile development. Kelly: 1. The Skunk Works manager must be delegated practically complete control of his program in all aspects. He should report to a…

  • Follow up to high stakes salvage

    A Crushing Issue: How to Destroy Brand-New Cars Last month, I pointed out an article about salvaging a ship in trouble. The salvage crew successfully saved the ship and its cargo of 4,703 Mazda vehicles (loosing one life in the process), but now what do you do with the cars? Turns out, it’s not easy…

  • POPSignal – Boston, May 15th

    Those of you in Boston may remember Tech Cocktail last fall. If you were one of the lucky 300+ people in attendance, you know how successful it was. I know I enjoyed it, and I met some great new contacts there. Well, Brian Balfour and Jay Meattle are at it again, but now it is…

  • Continuing the Lockheed Skunk Works Theme

    The History Behind the F-35B Continuing the theme of the Lockheed Skunk Works, this is an interesting take on the development of the shaft-driven fan on the F-35B. The inventor discusses how he came up with the idea and how the system works. Like any good research project, there was a risk of failure, but…