One of the things I like most about Agile development is the open and honest communications - making software development more transparent to management and stakeholders than the current approach(es) which seem much murkier and confusing.
This is one of the reasons I was so intrigued about working for the Sunlight Foundation - taking that same passion for transparency and openness and trying to apply it to (American) government.
We’ve set up a developer-focused blog at the Sunlight Labs (the “technical” arm of the Foundation), in which we will talk about transparency in government, especially from a technical view, and discuss the software that we’re releasing into the Open Source community.
If you’re interested in governmental transparency, please feel free to visit or subscribe to our feeds, and give us feedback on our efforts and our ideas.
Celebrate Petrov Day by enjoying modern life and its conveniences. Look around you and say “You know, we may have problems, but at least Stanislav Petrov was smart enough not to start a nuclear war based on faulty equipment”
The latest tool from the SunlightFoundation - EarmarkWatch is out, and we’d love for you to check it out, give us feedback, and if you like, help us Digg it up to the front page.
The train from DC to NYC does indeed have power outlets, but no wi fi. My associate Greg has a broadband wireless card (as do I, but not functioning (thanks Apple!)), which worked most of the way, except in the tunnels.
The stations are a little dingy, but it is definitely much easier to board. I wasn’t expecting all the stops, but they seemed people on and off quite quickly.
There are 200 restaurants within a 2 block radius of my office, including two malaysian places and two “House of Kabobs”.
Food in general is quite expensive, but there are several places where it’s fairly cheap, if you hunt around a bit.
This is definitely a “Who do you know” kind of town. Unfortunately most of the interesting people I know in person are all on the west coast or down south.  I know a few interesting bloggers in the DC area, and I am looking forward to meeting them.
Given the time it takes to get to the airport, get through security and get the plane off the ground, I’m not sure that a 2 hour and 45 minute train ride is meaningfully shorter.
Plus, it’s a big adventure, since I’ve never taken a non-commuting train ride before.
Kevin Rutherford talks about Smiley Faces, Magnets and Pubs in the latest Carnival of the Agilists. How does this relate to Agile Development? Read the Carnival and find out!
Oh, and a heartfelt Happy Birthday to my wife, Christy. Â She rarely reads this blog, but if she should happen to stop by - I love you!
One of the recommendations is to have an architect on every project team (or one for every few projects) to help ensure that the project, done in an agile way, is still in alignment with the enterprise architecture.
This can be expensive, of course, but then, having an architecture that isn’t used, or having teams that don’t deliver useful software is also quite expensive.
Today on the train ride in, I noticed an attractive woman, fairly tall, who looked suspiciously like MeganMcArdle.  She got off at the Foggy Bottom station, which happens to be one of the closer stations to the offices of The Atlantic.
That was my commute in this morning, door to door. Wow.  That’s going to take some getting used to.  The traffic wasn’t bad, but the transitions add up.
And it’s going to cost me about $17/day for commuting cost, vs $6/day in Atlanta.
The good news - I have various ideas on how to shave time off of the commute, and, of course, much of it was on a train, so if I can learn to use that time effectively, it won’t be so bad. Â This first time, however, I just wanted to watch and learn.
Other than some shared names, The Bourne Identity - the book - is virtually nothing like The Bourne Identity - the movie.
Pouncey Tract and Short Pump are both quite whimsical street names
The increase in gas mileage from using Super Premium essentially pays for the extra cost of the gas. If gas prices go much higher, but maintain the same 10 cent pricing “tier” - it will be cheaper to buy Super Premium than regular.
My new Verizon WWAN card won’t latch into my MacBook anymore. Grrr…
Stardust - my wife agrees that it is every bit as good as The Princess Bride
