Mavs win the 2011 NBA Championship

Congratulation today goes to the Dallas Mavericks, who in game 6, have beaten the Miami Heat to win the 2011 NBA Championship. They played like champions, they played hard, and now, they win like champions.

The Mavs played with a core group of people that played like a team. They had less superstars than the Heat, but they played the way the game should have been played. Much of the comments so far have fallen back onto LeBron James. LeBron made The Decision to go to Miami, turning his back on the Cleveland Cavaliers. I did not mind the type of player LeBron was when he was with the Cavs. It was personally disappointing the way he decided to turn his back on that team to go play with D-Wade and Chris Bosh. LeBron is one of the most complete players in the NBA today. He can score, handle the ball, penetrate the defense, as well as defend well. If he had been traded by the Cavs to the Heat, then this would not be a discussion, and I would still think that he is a fair person. The fact that it was his choice has not just upset people like me, but an entire city of fans. I may have his Superman VI shoes, and his Christmas VIII shoes, but I do not like him.

Congratulations, once again to the Mavs, but for 2011/2012...

GO CELTICS!!!

Over-engineering and sales in IT

I see so much over-engineering in my work while I work in the IT field. People have decided on products based on sales people coming in, showing a fantastical presentation, and then get sold on a product that will meet their needs (with the promise of having enough features to make it "future-proof"). In some instances, this may work. In many it fails.

In times like this, I reflect on an article which was written back in 2005 to address allegations that open source cannot compete with proprietary enterprise ready applications (usually the ones that are over-engineered) - Ryan Tomayko's article: IBM Poopheads: "LAMP Users Need to Grow Up".

I suggest that all decision makers in all organizations, regardless where you are on the corporate ladder, has a read of the article and draws their own conclusions. Have a read of the attached comments, and feel free to voice your opinions either there or on this blog.