Arnie Rowland: Ramblings of a Harried Technogeek

Rules of Holes #7: Some Will Look Down on You.

ArnieRowland — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:28:00 GMT

I've been extoling the Rules of Holes, hoping to give you both courage to get out of your Hole, and solace for having allowed yourself to get in a Hole in the first place. How about the others, the folks that see that you are up to your neck, the folks...(read more)

Rules of Holes #6: Don't Draw Others Into the Hole with You

ArnieRowland — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:15:00 GMT

In the Fifth Rules of Holes, you were encouraged to seek help from others in order to extricate youself from the Hole. And it should have been clear in that Rule that you want to seek out those that can actually help you. Not everyone, or just anyone,...(read more)

Rules of Holes #5: Seek Help to Get Out of the Hole

ArnieRowland — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:37:00 GMT

You are moving along, doing good work, maintaining a steady pace. All seems to be going well for you. Then BAM!, a Hole just grabbed you. How the heck did that happen? What went wrong? How did you fall into a Hole? Definitely, you will want to do a post-mortem...(read more)

Rules of Holes #4: Do You Have the BIG Picture?

ArnieRowland — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 19:25:00 GMT

Some folks decry the concept of being in a 'Hole'. For them, there is no such thing as 'Technical Debt', no such thing as maintaining weak and wobbly legacy code, no such thing as bad designs, no such thing as under-skilled or poorly performing co-workers,...(read more)

Rules of Holes #3: A Better Shovel is NOT the Answer!

ArnieRowland — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:05:00 GMT

You stopped digging. You looked around and saw that you were still in the Hole. You needed to get out. AHA! Problem solved, you thought. You'll just get a better and more efficient shovel! I regret to tell you that the Third Rule of Holes applies: Switching...(read more)

Rules of Holes #2: You Are Still in a Hole

ArnieRowland — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 21:05:00 GMT

OK. So you followed the First Rule of Holes -you stopped digging yourself in deeper. But now what? You are still in a Hole. Your situation has not changed much, but at least you are no longer making it worse. You need to redirect the digging effort into...(read more)

Rules of Holes #1: Stop Digging

ArnieRowland — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:03:00 GMT

You may have heard of the 'First Rule of Holes'. It goes something like this: " When you suspect you might be in a hole, stop digging. " That seems like obvious, and good advice, but what does it really mean? How does the Rule of Holes apply to you? How...(read more)

Financial Transparency is Good for Community

ArnieRowland — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:44:00 GMT

I was recently in a conversation with several people that had previously organized one or more community events. The topic evolved into a discussion of Sponsors, and eventually, fund raising. Being able to adequately raise the funds necessary is critical...(read more)

Paying for Free

ArnieRowland — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:45:00 GMT

It seems like there is a widespread malaise in the country these days. Everyone's clamoring to cut taxes -but no one wants to have their neighborhood school closed, or fear bridges collapsing underneath them, or damage their automobiles while driving...(read more)

There should only be one ...

ArnieRowland — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:07:00 GMT

When visiting clients, I often find that one or more databases have a table (or several) containing metadata. Most often, these tables have only a single row of data containing metadata about the company, the application, or the database itself. Quite...(read more)

Project Phoenix: Additional Proposals Receive Awards

ArnieRowland — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 01:16:00 GMT

10/23/2010 Two more eligible developers and deserving projects have been selected. Any proposals submitted but not selected this time will be reconsidered at each upcoming award cycle. (Refer to this to review the award criteria, details, and benefits.)...(read more)

Project Phoenix: Early September Awards Announced

ArnieRowland — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 06:13:00 GMT

9/14/2010 Two more eligible developers and deserving projects have been selected. Any proposals submitted but not selected this time will be reconsidered at each upcoming award cycle. (Refer to this to review the award criteria, details, and benefits.)...(read more)

Project Phoenix expands to Australia and New Zealand

ArnieRowland — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:11:00 GMT

A couple of months ago, many Microsoft MVPs received Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate MSDN subscriptions (retail value: ~$12,000) to distribute as we saw fit. I started Project Phoenix , encouraging unemployed or underemployed developers to engage with a non-profit...(read more)

Project Phoenix: Late August Awards Announced

ArnieRowland — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 21:06:00 GMT

Two more eligible developers and deserving projects have been selected. Any proposals submitted but not selected this time will be reconsidered at each upcoming award cycle. (Refer to this to review the award criteria, details, and benefits.) In no order...(read more)

Project Phoenix: Early August Awards Announced

ArnieRowland — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:31:00 GMT