If you’re like me and you’ve bought music from both iTunes and MSN Music then you know the problem: The songs are copy-protected to prevent you from giving them away. I don’t have an issue with that, but what does irritate me is that the digital rights management (DRM) schemes employed by Apple and Microsoft are a real pain for honest music fans like me who simply want to play their music on any capable device they own. Read the rest of this entry »

Peppermint Altoid mint + Starbucks Mocha Latté = Waste of $4.

Merriam-Webster provides the following definition of insanity:

Insanity. n. … 3 a : extreme folly or unreasonableness b : something utterly foolish or unreasonable

It’s also cynically stated as:

Doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.

As a consultant with the opportunity to work in many different environments, I see people and companies repeatedly commit the classic error of failing to plan sufficiently. In the world of computer systems this mistake is fatal. Read the rest of this entry »

At the beginning of the year I collaborated with a client on a project proposal to the National Science Foundation.

Today I learned that the proposal was approved and that the project will be funded! The icing on the cake is that apparently NSF’s standards are quite high and the vast majority of proposals received are rejected the first time they’re submitted. This one was approved the first time!