It's been a while since I posted here, but it's not for lack of things to write about. There's plenty going on, and I have several blog posts/rants/articles pretty much ready to post. Just haven't had time to get them up.
Blog
🕑Mar 31, 2008 🖋John Locke
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Information Technology in Business: The big picture
Computers and information systems are essential parts of every business today. Like accounting and legal, every business needs to invest in technology to compete. Technology is both a cost of doing business, and an opportunity to do more business. Most people I talk with recognize the necessity of having a computer, an email address, and a web site, but still look at the upfront cost more than other issues.
After spending some time working with dozens of businesses, I think it's time to take a step back and look at the big picture of technology in business. Let's take a reporter's view of the topic, and ask the basic questions: who, what, where, why, when, and how much?
🕑Mar 03, 2008 🖋John Locke
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The EU crashes Microsoft’s party
A couple weeks ago, the EU slapped Microsoft with a $1.35B fine, less than a week after Microsoft had made a big fanfare about their new "open" policies.
Todd over at Napera asks,
🕑Feb 02, 2008 🖋John Locke
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Mythbusting PHP: 10 common myths about PHP
PHP development is one of our specialties at Freelock Computing. I've written quite a few PHP applications, some from scratch, some starting with other people's code, some as extensions for open source projects.
🕑Feb 02, 2008 🖋John Locke
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The three spheres of web application platforms
There are thousands of languages out there, but only a couple handfuls are used for web applications. Of these, PHP is a runaway success. Yet I constantly see it criticized by developers of other languages, often for completely untrue reasons.
🕑Jan 25, 2008 🖋John Locke
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All about our customers
It's been far too long since our last newsletter. There's a lot more stories to tell, but today I'm going to talk about some of the reasons I haven't written in so long: our customers.
Open Source Consulting: Helping people get the most out of Free Software
Web sites are the most visible thing we do, so I'd like to highlight a few of the ones our customers have launched in the past few months. Our newest core offering is an e-commerce system called ZenCart, and we've had two of them launch in the last month.
🕑Jan 19, 2008 🖋John Locke
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New E-Commerce software: Magento
Just ran across a new Open Source shopping cart system, Magento. We've been using Zen Cart for a while now, and it's great to see an alternative.
🕑Jan 19, 2008 🖋John Locke
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I give up. Trackbacks and Pingbacks now closed.
It's too bad the spammers are out to piss all over the public commons. Since I've started writing more regularly here, I've been getting inundated with pingbacks and trackbacks, and have to keep marking them as spam, a couple dozen a day.
🕑Jan 19, 2008 🖋John Locke
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Reliable code: building in robustness
Ok. Last post on the quality code series. One of the downsides of getting older is realizing you do have shortcomings. You know how when you're young, going into a job interview, the toughest question is the one about your weaknesses?
🕑Jan 19, 2008 🖋John Locke
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On Vendor Lock-in
I was listening to the latest episode of LugRadio the other day, and they had a discussion on vendor lock-in by open source distribution companies.
🕑Jan 19, 2008 🖋John Locke
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On Patents and Free Software
I've spoken with a lot of entrepreneurs around Seattle, who have a misconception that using open source might somehow force them to give away their intellectual property.
🕑Jan 19, 2008 🖋John Locke
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Customizable code: writing future-proof code
Before code can be customizable, it must be clear. But clarity is not enough, if you're going to be using a codebase in multiple places.