Smelly coders, profitless stacks, & digtal whatnot - Coté Memo #17
Make sure to go vote, early if possible!
This issue is a round-up of some links and content I've been up to since last time.
I've had the iPhone 7 Plus for several weeks now. I really, really like it. I was afraid it'd be too big, but I think it'd perfect. I just updated to iOS 10.1 which has the "portrait mode." I'm eager to see how that works; hopefully I can finally take a new headshot photos. The Live photos on it are highly addictive as you'll know if you follow me in Facebook.
Of meta-note: I'm moving my main podcast - Software Defined Talk - over to fireside.fm. It's costly, but I really like the features and the totally integrated suite of stuff (e.g., it has a blog, etc.). I put my Lords of Computing/Coté Show podcast there recently and really like it.
It also means I can just use the plain old domain name for it instead of the twisty turny combination of SoundCloud and WordPress blogs and feedburner to host it. See SoftwareDefinedTalk.com for all the glory, and subscribe!
Consequently, I have a paid for SoundCloud account for much of the rest of the year. Maybe I'll put some rando crap up there.
Also on that note, since Fireside is around $420 a year, I'm looking for someone to "sponsor" Software Defined Talk. I always figure my job sort of indirectly sponsors it, but for $500-$1,000 a year you could be one of those "well respected insutitional sponsor types" that we mention each time. Email me!
Events & Travel
My time "grounded" is coming to an end. There's several events over the next month I'll be at, up in Kansas City, Omaha, and Dallas. See below for the details:
Nov 1st, DevOpsDays Meetup in Kansas City - come check out my "doing software better" talk.
Nov 2nd, Cloud Native Roadshow in Kansas City - a free event where you can learn all about what Pivotal does, from my hand-wavey "keynote" to actual running code.
Nov 16th, Cloud Native Roadshow in Omaha - can't make it to Kansas City? Come on over to Omaha for the same!
Dec 6th to 8th, Gartner Application Strategies & Solutions Summit - I haven't booked yet, but I'll be at the conference formally known as "AADI" in December. I went last year for the first time: good stuff. This year Tony from Home Depot is speaking in our sponsored slot, which I'm looking forward to.
Coté Content
There's more listed over at cote.io, but here's some highlights of stuff I've been publishing:
Pair programming – you'll never guess what happens next! - The Register column — www.theregister.co.uk
I discuss "pair programming" and the mystery of why, if people who do it say it's awesome, it's done so little.
Convergental and the battle for the new stack - Software Defined Talk Episode 76 — www.softwaredefinedtalk.com With a new integration between Kubernetes and VMware, we once again discuss what exactly the battle of the new stack is and how companies could be angling to make money off it. Also, mole and recommendations.
Michael Coté at Dell EMC World 2016, on theCUBE — www.youtube.com
I was at DellEMCWorld last week and was lucky to be on theCUBE with Dave Vellante & Stu Miniman. As you may (but probably not) recall, Barton and I were on there long ago, in 2012 when I worked at Dell.
Links
The Locker Room Talk, CBS News — www.cbsnews.com
A helpful approach of talking to your kids about assholes and their shitty way of talking.
Why Big Companies Need Lean Startup Techniques, Gartner
A lead-gen-y blog post, but with some good stuff, e.g.: "Gartner estimates by 2021, more than 50% of established corporations will be leveraging lean startup techniques at the business level to increase the pace and success of business transformation." Nice MVP/small batch framing.
Puppet momentum, ~$100m annual sales
Growth, in terms of customers and revenue, appears to be significant. About 34,000 companies use Puppet’s software to automate data center operations, with 6,000 added last year, Kanies said. The company is approaching $100 million in annual sales and is expanding its headquarters in Portland, Ore.
Cloud Platform Adoption: Lessons Learned — Philip Glebow, Gap
Good overview of how the Gap uses Pivotal Cloud Foundry and some lessons learned. See my notes, and/or the video on it's own.
IT/Business alignment: why it’s different this time — cote.io
Good framing from Nick at 451 on what all this "digital" stuff is.
Living life one quarter at a time, maybe it’s fine — cote.io
Tyler Cowen suggests that we shouldn’t be freaked out by the emphasis on quarterly returns. There's also some discussion of going private as a tactic if you don't like this "short term focus" life-style.
I've been re-reading HP Lovecraft's stories. This one - with Brown Jenkins - was one of the funner ones to re-reard. When I first read Lovecraft, long ago, I didn't really catch-on to the idea that all the "monsters" were actually aliens, as highlighted strongly in this one.
