Hello and Welcome

Well, I was feeling the lack of a Blog—my last one was with Reg Developer.

This is going to be a lot of random jottings, based on some 30 years experience with, mostly dysfunctional, IT. My usual POV is of someone who has heard most sales pitches before (whether for products or processes or frameworks or methododogies) and the pitch is usually, more or less, that “everything that came before is rubbish and this one will Really Work”. As well as many years as a journalist and analyst, I’ve worked in DBA, programming QA, Internal Control/security and network management (I have a very rusty Netrare 5 CNE) for large organisations, so I’ve experienced these pitches from lots of different angles.

My POV is very much, if something failed last time, even under a different name, what have people done this time to make things any different? Usually, BTW, it failed last time because of People and Process issues—which is probably why it will fail this time too.

So, just a warning to vendors—if you don’t like what I’m saying, feel free to comment in disagreement. And brief me, so I will be better informed, if no wiser, in future. And I am sometimes enthusiastic about cool ideas which seem really new!

And for “real readers”. these are my honest opinions at the time I write. Bear this in mind—this is a blog, not a carefully fact-checked article; there is a difference. If you disagree, or know more than I do, please start a discussion. I don’t mind being wrong, I would mind not learning from it…

Oh, and a Norfolk Punt is a very fast kind of sailing canoe—which I would love to be able to sail. Unfortunately, although I learned to sail on the Norfolk Broads, I am sportingly incompetent in most areas and no-one sensible would let me loose in one…