Most tech folks dislike tickets and everyone hates JIRA

Arnaud Porterie wrote about the "ticketing system" problems most global-5000 tech organizations have. His company "Echos" is trying to help solve some of these problems.  Arnaud gives some very-compelling arguments about why ticketing systems are abused for multiple purposes.  Ticketing system overuse (especially JIRA) disempowers the product or development teams forced to comply with tops-down disempowerment.  I have personally watched this phenomenon taken to an extreme recently.

I agree with the elegance of linking to task tracking using github labels instead of tickets or extra github issues.  I am curious if developers and product teams actually enter data for all the purposes he describes in his company's product.  I suspect many teams are just not good at communicating in general.  I have seen a lot of content-free or incomprehensible updates in whichever system(s) the team is using, even when the team embraces their role of being ticket monkeys.

However, if the leadership of an enterprise is enlightened and wants to empower their teams, the Echos product looks pretty good.

In Extremis by Steve White & Charles E Gannon

The space opera series started by David Weber is picked up by his collaborators.  Interesting economics and politics.  Decent story, 4/5 Stars.

Cheap, thoughtful gift for the Unix expert

click here to order

It's been a couple of years since we could walk the vendor booths at tech conferences and pick up stickers to give out to our teams or put on our laptop lids.  stickermule.com has us covered.  For $1 (including free shipping) you can send your friends a sticker pack instead of or in addition to your Holiday greeting card.

The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker

The updates at the end belong embedded in each chapter.  Getting the 1994 version of the science, and then reading the appendix with updates is unsatisfying and lazy editing. Overall the book is extremely interesting and entertaining, dense with facts, data, and humor.  5/5 Stars.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

After many years of pushing this battered, dog-eared book down on my reading stack, I finally picked it up as a welcome break from space opera and popular science.  The non-stop cajoling of my family finally overwhelmed my hedonistic reading proclivities.   The book and story are as fantastic as my family promised. The deep insights into culture and geopolitics of (what are in 2021) Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Angola are still extremely valuable.  I am sorry I did not read this book decades ago.  5/5 Stars.

Exodus by Steve White, Shirley Meier

Interesting story line with odd, immortal aliens.  3/5 Stars.

Agent Sonya by Ben Macintyre

Fantastic historically accurate biography of the top Russian spy during the second world war.  Well-crafted, entertaining, and still relevant, 5/5 Stars.

Silverview by John Le Carré

The old master has crafted another great story, 4/5 Stars.  The "B" stories are great and the characters are fantastic.

to sleep in a sea of stars

Great space opera with a decent magic system and great characters.  Despite the contrivances and poor motivations I loved the story, 5/5 Stars.