Can Features be Removed?

Jeff at Coding Horror has a great topic this week: Why does software spoil?: In the software industry, the release of newer, better versions is part of the natural order. It’s a relentless march towards perfection that started with the first personal computers, and continues today. We expect software to get larger and more sophisticated over time, to track with the hardware improvements that Moore’s law has provided us for so many years. Rapid evolution is a good thing, and it’s one reason the computer industry is so exciting to work in. If you don’t like the way things are…

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FogBugz World Tour

Joel Spolsky is taking to the road next month to promote FogBugz (his company’s bug tracking system) on a 21-city tour through the US and Canada: Here’s what you can expect if you show up. There will be some really, really expensive coffee and maybe a muffin or something if the hotel in particularly cheap. If you come a bit early, it’ll be a great chance to meet some interesting software people in your city. I’ll show off some of my favorite features in FogBugz 6.0, but mostly, I’ll talk about the software development process in general. I’ll leave a…

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SplashBlog.com Shutdown

This past week SixApart announced that the SplashBlog mobile blogging site will close down in a month. I’ve been following SplashBlog and its use as a mobile blogging client: In February 2005, SplashBlog.com launched as a free hosting service for SpashData’s SplashBlog mobile client (initial price $20). When launched, the client could post to either the TypePad or SplashBlog services. In September of that year, they released client version 2.0 which was now free, but only connected to their own SplashBlog service. The service was free for up to 100 pictures and about $30/year for an unlimited account. In March…

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Palm Desktop Near the End?

Having worked for Palm for as long as I did (and having managed the desktop software team), I’ve continue to stick with Palm Desktop to keep track of my contacts, calendar and so on. Today it crashed on me, so I clicked Yes to send the error report to Microsoft. I know there’s no one at Palm that will ever pick up these crash reports, but it’s an old habit. The Microsoft Windows Error Reporting site gave this summary of my problem: This problem was caused by Palm Desktop. Palm Desktop was created by PalmSource, Inc.. Microsoft has been unable…

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