Julio Santos

The author does a fantastic job at taking a potentially very boring subject (if you’re not into licenses) and making it interesting and educating.

I was tired of policy based on fear and ignorance. I suspected already but realize now, that most people don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to licensing (and it’s only fair, it’s a fairly complex subject) and prefer to err on the side of “do nothing because if you do something, anything, someone might sue us for it”.

This book doesn’t tell me everything I can or cannot do, it doesn’t tell me when it’s okay to wish someone Merry Christmas for example, but it opened my eyes to what can and should not be done when it comes to open source licensing. What are the risks (perceived or real), how to make money with open source, what license to use, etc.

I don’t think I’ll read another “Legal book” for awhile, though I’m glad I read this one. I feel that I’m “more aware”.

By the way, the author refers to this site quite often, and indeed it comes with a wealth of data.

Joel compiled a series of essays on software and put them in a book: “The Best Software Writing I”. It’s gem after gem.

I thought I would have read at least half of these essays before. I was definitely sure I was not going to learn much from the book. Why I even bothered buying the book is a mystery…maybe because the cover looks so great?

Anyway, I’m really happy I read it. Not only I had never read any of the essays before (and they’re all online), I also learned a whole lot.

The essays cover many topics that should be of interest to developers, managers, testers, interviewers, and geeks in general.

You could just read these essays online and save a few bucks, but you would be missing Joel’s intros. I believe the book was printed on paper from evil trees only, so there’s another incentive.

Now to wait for “The Best Software Writing II”…

We’re just sitting here in the hotel lobby, waiting for the airport shuttle. Meanwhile, I came across some tips on how not to get mugged while visiting NYC. It looks like I’m going to make it!

Sidewalk yesterday…(no rain then!)

Since the strike was over, we took the subway to Brooklyn then walked all the way to midtown.

Morgane showed me how to do multi-exposure with Picasa and so I had some fun with it.

Just finished reading Thinking for a Living. It’s about how knowledge workers are fundamentally different from, hmm, other workers. What keeps them going, how they should and should not be managed, why that’s important, etc. If you’re a knowledge worker and are unsatisfied with little things here and there, this will give you a solid foundation for improving things. If you’re a knowledge worker who happens to manage other knowledge workers, this is a must.

Towards the end the author argues that managing knowledge workers needs to evolve from old-style management to management of this special class of workers. It goes a little like this:

- From overseeing work to doing it too
- From organizing hierarchies to organizing communities
- From hiring and firing, to recruiting and retaining
- From building manual skills, to building knowledge skills
- From evaluating visible job performance to assessing invisible knowledge achievements
- From ignoring culture to building a knowledge-friendly culture
- From supporting the bureaucracy to fending it off
- From relying on internal personnel to considering a variety of sources

The scientific way I use to know if I liked a book, is by the amount of text I underlined. The more I do it, the more it means I’m enjoying what I’m reading. I’ve used half a pencil on this one, very good sign.