Skip to main content
A sign on the blue ridge parkway reading View Graybeard Mountain. The view is completely obscured by fog.
The view of Graybeard Mountain in North Carolina from the Blue Ridge Parkway, September 2002. It was a little overcast.
Source: John Williams

Welcome to Thudfactor

A branch of a shrub with a newly sprouted green leaf; the leaf and the branch are encased in ice

Why scrum fails

Scrum seems like it works. I've seen it work; it's working for me now. Why do so many people think it's a failure?

 Sunset over a large, mostly still body of water. The sun is already below the horzion, so the water is dark and the sky is fairly dark as well. There are a few wisps of clouds near the horizon that lighten the burt orange of the sky there.

A Fairy-Tale about Capitalism

A story that illustrates what we were all told about capitalism, and most of us still feel to be true. Even if we know better.

 An old sawmill with a water wheel sits in front of a bunch of trees. The wood is very weathered, the sun bright, and it is mid-summer.

18 months (or so) with AI

A check-in on the AI front, both technically and culturally

 A bookshelf showing a complete set of the Great Books of the Western World, a wooden jack-o-lantern, and a ceramic lamp shaped like a pair of siamese cats. Off to the side you can see a couple of media shelves with variety of DVDs.

The last Kindle

Confessions of a data-hoarder in the midst of late capitalism.

 Three knit swatches. The top is a stockinette swatch knit in the round. Bottom left is a yellow swatch in broken rib, and bottom right is a flat-knit stockinette swatch.

Playing catch-up

Where my head is at after a three-month hiatus

 Closeup of a Mochamaster coffee pot with coffee and condensation in it

Agile’s insistence on co-location is disabling

Does “face to face” communication require our bodies to be in the same space, too?

 Banner that reads We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.

Don’t drive screws with a hammer

Sometimes developers will solve problems with the handy tool, not the right tool, just because it seems like less work. It's probably not.

 A very life-like sculpture of a security officer.

The Regrettable State of Cross-Browser Testing

Update-by-default has pushed the platform forward, but has also put browser testing out of reach for many
More posts…