http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/this is the Opinion Home rss feed27 November 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisReal geeks read Verity Stob. Verity writes her painfully funny invective from a powerful advantage, she is a geek herself, and her humour comes from the pain of every-day life as a programmer. Verity Stob, with her unique, and hilarious, contribution to making our lives bearable, had to be our Geek of the Week. We sent Richard Morris to interview her, of course.http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/verity-stob-geek-of-the-week/06 November 2008Opinion PiecesStephan OnisickIt can, and does, happen during the average IT career. Suddenly you have lost your job. It is a time when you have to think carefully about your strategy, what you want to aim for, and then take back control of your IT Career. Stephan Onisick writes frankly about his own successful odyssey to put his career back on track. http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/taking-back-control-of-your-it-career/04 November 2008Opinion PiecesBrad McGeheeEverybody who attended seems to speak well of the IndyTechFest. It is a great example of how to organise a free local conference for IT people who wish to increase their skills and knowledge. So how is it done? Brad McGehee decided to find out by talking to one of the organisers, John Magnabosco who blogs here on Simple-Talk.http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/tech-fest-of-champions-how-to-run-a-community-it-conference/28 October 2008Opinion PiecesPhil FactorA while back, in a Simple-Talk editorial meeting, someone bet Phil that he couldn't come up with a Halloween story. To our surprise he said he could, as long as he didn't have to keep to the strict literal truth. In the end, he came up with a story about a story, and it is true that he first told the story in a data Centre at Halloween!http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-data-center-that-exploded/21 October 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisIt is extraordinary how much 'Peli' has achieved in a short space of time. Here, our choice for Geek of the Week, 'Peli' de Halleux, talks about his contributions to MbUnit, .NET Reflector, QuickGraph and Pex. http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/peli-de-halleux-geek-of-the-week/16 September 2008Opinion PiecesBrian HarrisAs a Technical Author, one of the most important tasks that you face is to make the language of applications as obvious, intuitive and accessible as possible. Google's approach to language attempts to do this AND to reflect its overall ethos - that it's homely and easy and accessible to all. Brian is pondering whether this is a general trend, and how he can apply it.http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/chrome-browser-a-novel-approach-to-language/16 September 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisKalen Delaney has been involved in SQL Server from the beginning. Her talks and her writings are always interesting but, most important of all, she was able to successfully take on authorship of the 'Inside SQL Server' series of books from Ron Soukup, and make them her own. Despite her own protests that she is a trainer first and foremost, she richly deserves our accolade of 'Geek of the Week'http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/kalen-delaney-geek-of-the-week/10 September 2008Opinion PiecesRichard MorrisIn the past, straight-forward sexism was a real problem in the IT industry – women in IT were discriminated against simply because they were women. Overt sexism like that is finished, legally, and in the western societies we have moved on. However, a second, more subtle form of disincentive exists in the way we work; both in terms of hours and in terms of “male” thinking.http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/women-in-it-change-at-every-level/01 September 2008Opinion PiecesJoe WebbMaking a technical presentation is like being interviewed. It is not a skill that you are likely to need often, but when you do, advice culled from experience can make all the difference to the outcome; and like successful interviews, successful technical presentations can really help your career!http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/creating-technical-presentations/24 August 2008Opinion PiecesPhil FactorWhen an IT manager is selected as a victim of office politics of a large corporate, it is time for him to engage in intelligence-gathering. Phil Factor exposes a ruthless streak when called to account over an Engineering Workflow system.http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/bunnikins!/20 August 2008Opinion PiecesBob CramblittSimple Talk asked freelance writer Bob Cramblitt to sit down with the two people behind the agreement that Red Gate will be responsible for the future development of .NET Reflector, and discuss with them what it means to the community and the future of Reflector.http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-future-of-reflector-/14 August 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisAndrew Tanenbaum has had an immense influence on the way that operating systems are designed. He provided the inspiration for Linux, in his lightweight kernel Minix, and his classic textbook 'Operating Systems: Design and Implementation' that Linus Torvalds  described as ‘the book that launched me to new heights.’ http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/andrew-tanenbaum-geek-of-the-week/31 July 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisProfessor Ross Anderson is one of the foremost experts in Computer Security in the world. He has published widely on the economics of security. cryptology, formal methods, hardware design, and the robustness of distributed systems in general. He is best known for his book 'Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems'. He has never been shy of controversy, and we were intrigued by the influence he wields at Cambridge University; so intrigued  were we that we sent the taciturn Richard Morris to find out more from himhttp://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/ross-anderson-geek-of-the-week/17 July 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisLinus Torvalds is remarkable, not only for being the technical genius who wrote Linux, but for then being able to inspire and lead an enormous team of people to devote their free time to work on the operating system and bring it to maturity. We sent Richard Morris off to interview Linus, and find out more. http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/linus-torvalds,-geek-of-the-week/04 July 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisSimple-Talk's Geek of the Week is Dr Richard Hipp. His code is probably running on your PC, and running completely reliably, for he almost single-handedly wrote SQLite, the most widely deployed SQL Database system in the world. Then he put it in the public domain for all of humanity to benefit from. We sent Richard Morris off to ask this remarkable man why he did it.http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/dr-richard-hipp,-geek-of-the-week/04 July 2008Opinion PiecesPhil FactorThere is often more than a twinge of embarrassment when an Email goes astray, and is received by the wrong person. Phil remembers an occasion when it nearly ended a career, but somehow, ironically, changed it for the better.http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-wrong-fabia/02 July 2008Opinion PiecesAnna LarjomaaDavid Caminer, who died on June 19th must surely be the First Business Application Programmer. He invented the software concepts and systems that we still use today to develop business software. He wrote the worlds first working computerized payroll system, introduced in 1954, followed by the first stock control system and a host of other business software. He went on to create the VME operating system for ICL and supervise the construction of the European Commission's computer network http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-first-business-application-programmer/20 June 2008Geek of the WeekRichard MorrisWe interview Simple-Talk's Geek of the Week, Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee OM KBE FRS FREng FRSA. , ranked first in The Telegraph's list of 100 greatest living geniuses, and director of the World Wide Web Consortium. What has he achieved? He invented the World Wide Web, Browsers and Web Servers. You could reasonably argue that he invented Wikis and Blogs too. And he's still inventing things.http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/tim-berners-lee,-geek-of-the-week/05 June 2008Opinion PiecesPhil FactorWhy do Phil's eyes water whenever he hears the poem 'The Walrus and the Carpenter'? Is it the voice of his conscience or memories of struggles selling software services to large companies? Why does he identify so strongly with the eldest oyster?http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/the-walrus-and-the-manager/27 May 2008Opinion PiecesRichard MorrisIT companies sometimes don't survive an incident that damages their reputation. Often, when happenstance brings a commercial disaster, businesses make things worse by their instinctive reaction to clam up. We sent the square-jawed Richard Morris off into the rain in his trench coat to find out more. As 'reputation-management" is his daytime job, he was soon back in the dry with some tips on what to do when the night-soil hits the ventilation system..http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/risking-your-reputation/