The Soul of (All) New Machines

Remember the Tracy Kidder book, “The Soul of the New Machine“? Required reading in business school from almost the day it shipped, the author embedded with teams at Data General in Massachusetts, in their quest to build a new and better mini-computer (remember those?) in those in-between days between big iron mainframes and the eventual […]

Everybody Out of the Pool!

Note: I started this post in late February 2020, before the pandemic lockdown, to remind and describe how companies have “pivoted” (hate that term) in the past due to societal mandates. Now I finally went back, post-surgery, to finish it… See the “Mad Men”-esque image above. Where’s your organization’s secretarial pool? Not long ago (my […]

Dear AT&T…

To:     AT&T, Uverse Division Fr:     Gary Szabo, a loyal but disgruntled customer   Dear AT&T: I’m writing to recommend some changes to your next version of the Pace 5031NV DSL modem, aka “the 2WIRE Uverse modem.” I UNDERSTAND the importance of making a trouble-free device; one that’s so bulletproof and simple in its’ […]

Pining for PINE

Every now and again, I have a technology-themed “Marcel Proust Moment”… In the first volume of Marcel Proust’s ‘Remembrance of Things Past,’ he dunks a cookie into his tea and immediately he’s transported back, into a reverie and remembrance of his life years before. That’s how I feel when I hear the latest news about Pine, […]