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Caution: Semi-long rant, but a valuable message at the end. I've had my fair share of troubles with poorly implemented online systems (I'm looking at you Citibank), but my experience today with Comcast takes the cake. This is an example of how digitizing traditional processes with state-of-the-art online payment systems might reduce costs for large corporations, but if not implemented correctly can backfire by deteriorating the brand image. After ...

Quantum of Solace opened this weekend, and as any self-respecting die-hard Bond fan would, I had to go watch the opening show. Lines were long, seats were suboptimal, but thankfully, the movie wasn't a disappointment. There's no denying that Quantum of Solace is stellar. It helps further the new direction that the Bond franchise is moving in. It's a thrill-ride (yes, it's cliche) for the die-hard Bond fan as ...

At my day job at Yahoo! Research, I get to interview my fair share of engineers. Almost always, the candidates seem to fall into one of two types - the specialists and the generalists. The specialists are those who come from a strong background of fundamentals. Over years, they have honed and assimilated the details of their language or technology of choice. The generalists are the hungry scavengers. ...

Imagine if the attempts by startups in the genome space like 23andMe were to succeed at cataloging everyone's DNA. Would this piece of DNA become the ultimate representation of who and what you are? What would be the effects of having all the things that make you uniquely human be reduced to a string of characters? It's interesting to wonder if there would exist social networks around your DNA. ...

Wordpress 2.5 finally launched after a few delays, and it hasn't disappointed. I was glad to see them concentrating on revamping the Dashboard and the general Admin area. Wordpress has proven itself to be a solid extensible platform, but their admin area lacked in usability and flexibility. The upgrade process was a snap thanks to this guide.

There's plenty of news and opinion about what will ultimately happen with the Yahoo buyout deal. What with news of talent exodus, golden parachutes, lack of formal rejection letters, and proxy battles. But stepping aside from the mainstream opinion clouds, let's look at some of the other pervasive and completely tangential what-if scenarios: Apple buys Yahoo! - As some have discussed here, Yahoo! provides Apple with a huge entry ...

... and not a moment too soon. Meh, only been waiting for about 2 years.

Is Google finally showing some signs of becoming too big for itself?

Seems like my love affair with the wine industry is like the one between Jim and Pam in the Office. No matter how many times I reconsider, I can't help going back to it. (Must be the 14% alcohol) Anyway, after (more than) a few months of work, we're finally launching The Wine Shelf (www.thewineshelf.com). The Wine Shelf is the brainchild of Rod Haden - wine connoiseur, collector and marketing ...

The Joel Spolsky keynote was one of the most engaging, interesting and downright hilarious presentations I've heard this year. He really knows how to talk to the crowd. A few suggestions from Joel on creating great software: Make people happy Think about emotions Obsess over aesthetics Joel is right - developers don't necessarily want to think about beautifying their applications. Developers largely work on the middle-tier and supporting backends, and like everyone, ...