Managing reality in Information Systems - strategies for success
Systems Modelling Ltd. http://www.sysmod.com
Welcome
Euro features
News: Goodbye to national currencies
Paper: "Britain’s best interests lie out of the euro" (download)
Management issues
Review: Not moved by the cheese (download)
News: Personal Software Process
Opinion: Email marketing opt in/out
News: XML Exploit
Off topic (personal) & light relief (humour)
13 Web links in this newsletter
About this newsletter, Feedback, and Archives
Disclaimer
Subscribe and Unsubscribe information
_______________________________________________________
I'd really appreciate your feedback on the newsletter. What has been most valuable to you, what you like to me to continue to focus on in 2002?
Because I am sending this out as plain text, I have given the web links in the text.
Patrick O'Beirne, Editor
_______________________________________________________
The mayor of Rome threw his last lira into the Trevi fountain. In Ireland, we said goodbye on 9 Feb, but down the country things move a little more slowly. Driving to the popular seaside resort of Rosslare, Co. Wexford, last weekend, the Bed and Breakfast (B&B) signs were still advertising room rates in pounds. (By the way a room for £40, 50.79 euro, is good value for those of you looking for an inexpensive holiday break in the Sunny South East). No sign showed the rates in euro! In Dublin's Dame Street, a bureau de change is advertising "1 for 1" Irish pound to euro They are obviously relying on people not knowing that a few blocks down, the Central Bank will give 1.27 euro for a pound. If you're not already convinced about price inflation effects, see the Irish Independent article:
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=705446&issue_id=6997
Virulent row erupts over euro changeover 'rip-off'
"A major row has broken out among consumer watchdogs and business groups over whether or not there was a euro rip-off during the changeover.
"
_______________________________________________________
This also marks the end of euro coverage in PraxIS. I'll still draw your attention to developments in so far as they affect the UK, Sweden, or Denmark, but the main focus will be back to the main business line of software quality and software development. The lessons learned in the euro changeover will stand us in good stead for a while. But now, there is a pent-up wish to move on to new challenges, and I look forward to discussing them with you. Please continue to give me your feedback on what you find most interesting!
_______________________________________________________
Readers in the UK, Sweden, and Denmark: Are you doing your euro contingency planning?
Are you sure your software applications can support all the requirements for the business changeover to the euro? Get an independent assessment on their "compliance" or "euro-readiness" with our euro software certification service.
More: http://www.sysmod.com/eurocert.htm
_______________________________________________________
EC advisor says Britain’s best interests lie out of
the euro
http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/business.cfm?id=210732002
Scotland on Sunday reported: "Andrew Hughes Hallett,
professor of macroeconomics at Strathclyde University, says
in an unpublished paper that the UK economy would be best
served by remaining a member of the EU single market but not
joining the single currency. An analysis of the economic
cycles in the two decades from 1975 to 1995 shows that the
UK is out of sync with the rest of the EU".
Although the paper is as yet unpublished, readers of this newsletter can get a sneak preview of it. It has already been discussed in the euro2002 list, introduced there by Jay Levin of the Economics Department of Wayne University in Michigan, the author of "A Guide to the Euro" (Houghton Mifflin, 2002). "Britain and the Euro: A Study in Reluctance" will be published imminently in a new book, "The Euro and Britain" edited by Ali El-Agraa (Palgrave-MacMillan, London). He also asked to receive any feedback from the list.
If anyone would like to see the paper, email
HHPAPER (at) SYSMOD (dot) COM with the word
"REQUEST" in the subject line. That will trigger
my autoresponder to email you a link to where you can
download the paper. (By the way, in case you are wondering
why I spelled out the email address like that, it's to foil
spambots that ceaselessly search my website for email
addresses to harvest and spam.) To comment on the paper, I recommend you join
the euro2002 list, which has now naturally changed its focus
to the DUKS (Denmark, UK, Sweden): send an e-mail message
containing just the word SUBSCRIBE in the body of the
message to:
euro2002-discuss-request (at) euro2002 (dot) com
You can find more about Prof. Andrew Hughes
Hallett at his home page:
http://www.economics.strath.ac.uk/frames.html
_______________________________________________________
http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/article.html?id=020218001285 EUROPE: Euro changeover cost banks a 'year's profit' Financial Times; Feb 18, 2002 CECA estimates that the first phase of preparation, until the end of 1998, cost Spanish savings banks some Euros 900m (Pounds 552m), or Euros 45,000 per branch, with the majority of the investment going to upgrade information technology systems. The preparation for the physical introduction of notes and coins cost Euros 300m, or Euros 15,000 per branch, mostly in lost foreign exchange fees. In Germany, the cost is estimated at about Euros 50,000 per branch for a total of about Euros 1bn.
_______________________________________________________
The euro book
"Managing the Euro in Information Systems: Strategies for Success", Addison Wesley 1999, ISBN 0-201-60482-5. The accompanying CD has software, fonts, web links, and europapers. The book is aimed at IT managers and business executives. It covers history, regulations, business strategy, I.T. strategy, project planning, conversion methods, and case studies. 11 chapters, appendices, 368 pages. Book description and ordering: http://www.sysmod.com/maneuris.htm
_______________________________________________________
Peter de Jager ("Managing Change & Technology") has written a book review, a perspective on the bestselling book... "Who moved my Cheese" by Spencer Johnson M.D. Unlike the turgid reviews where people try to impress with their verbiage, this is passionate and indignant. I liked it. You can download it as a PDF from http://www.sysmod.com/news.htm
_______________________________________________________
The Personal Software Process as designed by Watts Humphrey is a disciplined approach to improving one's software development process. Through a series of cumulative exercises, developers learn to record their time and track defects, estimate software projects, design and code reviews and quality management for defect reduction. Basically, the aim is to spend more time on creative problem-solving and implementation and less waste re-working defects.
The method as described in the book (see http://www.sysmod.com/psp.htm) uses paper recording. Most users want to move on to a tool as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the Process Dashboard tool has been withdrawn on the request of Watts Humphrey:
http://processdash.sourceforge.net/news.htm
That's a pity. However, another tool is still available: TIPSI is shareware at www.compapp.dcu.ie/ipssi
_______________________________________________________
What is opt-in ("permission marketing") versus opt-out ("spam") ?
Opt-in is asking people briefly and unobtrusively if they like would something in an area they have already expressed interest in, and taking "no reply" to mean "no".
Opt-in is standing outside a gig offering flyers advertising a related event.
Opt-out is stuffing the flyers in passer-by's pockets at a train station or wherever there is lots of traffic.
Opt-out is sticking the flyers under windscreen wipers at the supermarket.
Opt-out is wiping the windscreen at the traffic lights before the driver has had a chance to refuse.
_______________________________________________________
IE, Outlook run malicious commands without scripting
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/24274.html
http://security.greymagic.com/adv/gm001-ie/
An attacker can run arbitrary commands on Windows machines with a simple bit of HTML, an Israeli security researcher has demonstrated. The data
binding exploit will work with IE, Outlook and OutlooK Express even if active scripting and ActiveX are disabled in the browser security settings.
Thomas Greene comments "Personally I believe MS does this to discourage high security settings in IE which interfere with the rich eXPeriences advertisers have in store for you on the Web, and which MS seems inexplicably eager to vouchsafe. You don't get sick of the slightly scaled-down functionality; you get sick of the endless warnings and eventually capitulate and restore your settings to Redmond-approved, and Direct Marketing Association-approved, levels.
"
_______________________________________________________
I just can't let this one go by without a mention .... my artist wife Megan has now a web site at www.meganobeirne.com to showcase her abstract art work in oil painting and acrylics. There's some photomontage and book reviews too
_______________________________________________________.
(To: xml-dev (at) lists.xml.org 07 Jul 2001 by Sean McGrath)
A. Eight:
1 to create a syntax for expressing light bulbs
2 to create broadly similar yet different APIs for
interacting with light bulbs
1 to argue that the API differences can be resolved by
splitting the universe of light bulb applications into
physical-model and logical-model camps.
1 to argue that no single, cohesive model is possible.
1 to disagree and invent yet another "gee! all light
bulbs can be though of in terms of nodes and arcs"
model.
1 to question the sanity of all this and just get stuff
working by hacking simple lightbulb instances into
relational databases and processing them with Perl.
1 to write the meta-light-bulb joke about it and post it on
xml-dev
_______________________________________________________
Copyright 2002 Systems Modelling Limited, http://www.sysmod.com . Reproduction
allowed provided the newsletter is copied in its entirety and with this
copyright notice.
We appreciate any feedback or suggestions for improvement. If you have
received this newsletter from anybody else, we urge you to sign up for your
personal copy by sending a blank email to
EuroIS-subscribe (at) yahoogroups (dot) com -
it's free!
For those who would like to do more than receive the monthly newsletter, the
EuroIS list makes it easy for you to discuss issues raised, to share
experiences with the rest of the group, and to contribute files to a common
user community pool independent of the sysmod.com web site. I will be
moderating posts to the EuroIS list, to screen out inappropriate material.
Patrick O'Beirne, Editor
_______________________________________________________
ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER
"Praxis" means model or example, from the Greek verb "to do". The name is
chosen to reflect our focus on practical solutions to IS problems, avoiding
hype. If you like acronyms, think of it as "Patrick's reports and analysis
across Information Systems".
FEEDBACK
We value your feedback. Simply copy and paste the following section into a new
email message and send it to newsletter (at) sysmod (dot)
com
_______________________________________________________
On a scale of 0=none, 1=low, 2=good, 3=excellent, how relevant did you find
the information [ ]
What would you have liked more coverage of ?
What would you have liked less coverage of ?
The following questions are entirely optional but your answers would help us
to provide information that is relevant to your needs.
What kind of work do you do?
What internet search engine do you most use?
What search keywords are most relevant to your current interests and work
projections for 2002?
Thank you!
_______________________________________________________
ARCHIVES
To read previous issues of this newsletter please visit our web site at
http://www.sysmod.com/praxis.htm
DISCLAIMER
This newsletter is prepared in good faith and the information has been taken
from observation and other sources believed to be reliable. Systems Modelling
Ltd. (SML) does not represent expressly or by implication the accuracy,
truthfulness or reliability of any information provided. It is a condition of
use that users accept that SML has no liability for any errors, inaccuracies
or omissions. The information is not intended to constitute legal or
professional advice. You should consult a professional at Systems Modelling
Ltd. directly for advice that is specifically tailored to your particular
circumstances.
Copyright (c) SML 2002
_______________________________________________________
Please tell a friend about this newsletter. PRIVACY POLICY: We guarantee not
to sell, trade or give your e-mail address to anyone. To subscribe to this
Newsletter send an email to EuroIS-subscribe (at)
yahoogroups (dot) com To unsubscribe
from this Newsletter send an email to
EuroIS-unsubscribe (at) yahoogroups (dot) com
EuroIS is the distribution list server of the PraxIS newsletter. It also
offers a moderated discussion list for readers and a free shared storage area
for user-contributed files. The archives of this group are on YahooGroups
website http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EuroIS
_______________________________________________________