Continual Improvement

• 40 Fastest-Growing Software Companies
  BMC, Openwave, Red Hat, and some other interesting software companies listed here…
  (tags: via:mrchippy via:cote software company fastest growing BMC Openwave Vignette Oracle Microsoft)
• Alistair Cockburn on what’s agile, what’s not
  Ouch, by Alistair’s standards, most companies are not agile; however, I do agree with him that the word is way over/mis-used
  (tags: cockburn agile software crystal scrum)

• Top 50 analyst bloggers « Technobabble 2.0
  Some nice Internet notice for the Redmonk guys…
  (tags: blog analyst redmonk cote via:bwhichard blogging ranking analysts)

• Regular exercise is no longer optional
  This is a great article. I’ve written many things about the benefits of exercise. Making a career and business case for doing is another motivational method, beyond the obvious reasons.
  (tags: career fitness work exercise health via:bwhichard)

• Column info : 11 Ways Agile Adoptions Fail
  11 Ways Agile Adoptions Fail - You can tell that Jean knows what she’s talking about. These “weaknesses” are difficult to keep out of the Agile process.
  (tags: agile software jean adoption process)

• Advice on Conducting the Scrum of Scrums Meeting
  I like this article but tend to disagree with the individual contributor attending in place of the scrum master. I’m not sure how one individual contributor would know what the entire team did.
  (tags: scrum agile cohn software sos meeting)
• The True Role of a PM on Agile Projects
  I like this quote: “it is almost impossible for leaders to over communicate project vision and it is a critical step for effective leadership”
  (tags: agile ProjectManagement pm scrum software)

• Eight Sound Reasons Not to Use MySQL
  >> Why and when should you give the thumbs down to MySQL? …not that often you hear the other side of story.
  (tags: mysql databases comp comparison)

• Miss Burst vs. Miss Busy: Working Enough vs. Working at Capacity
  Cote’s take on an old but always controversial debate. Wouldn’t “pay per feature” be a solution to this debate?
  (tags: management work cote career productivity)

• VCs pump less money into Austin during Q1 - Austin Business Journal:
  OUCH!
  (tags: VC startup money investment austin)

• Growth Fund of America Tips the Scales [Fool.com] April 24, 2007
  “Overall, Growth Fund has posted favorable long-term returns, with a 10-year annualized return of 13%, versus 8.2% for the S&P 500 Index and 5.5% for the Russell 1000 Growth Index through March 31.”
  (tags: american funds mutual-funds money growth-fund-of-america)
• VCs pump less money into Austin during Q1 - Austin Business Journal:
  OUCH!
  (tags: VC startup money investment austin)

No, this is not the beginning of a multilevel marketing pitch. In fact, the pitch is an old story with a different twist, and it begins with the old adage that exercise is good for you. Shocker!? Here are a couple of facts that the local health club rarely mentions.

It’s now and has been a proven fact that exercise will make you smarter. Simple blood flow and increased nerve growth in the brain improve cognition and decrease the amount of degeneration of brain cells. In other words, exercising isn’t about being vain; it’s about being smart.

An additional item rarely mentioned is that exercise helps with sleep. When someone sleeps more sound, they need fewer hours of sleep, which could result in doing something much more productive like being awake. In addition, exercise helps wear out the body physically, which allows one to fall asleep faster and decrease insomnia.

The combination of these two improvements could very well provide a business justification for 45-60 minutes at the gym. An alternative take on this is that regular exercise will prolong a person’s ability to think and focus as they age, which is a bonus that needs little salesmanship.

As any personal trainer or dietitian will attest, the best way to increase general fitness for most people is to cut back on the food, but can cutting back on the calories increase your lifespan and healthy years besides just losing a few pounds? While most associate healthy eating with a lack of obesity diseases, there is a substantial amount of research that says a lack of eating actually decreases the aging process.

One article goes so far as to say that every unnecessary calorie avoided increases your lifespan by 30 seconds. While this statistic might be a little hard to believe, there is hard evidence that reducing calories will slow the metabolism. Unfortunately, eating a lot and exercising it off doesn’t seem to result in the same life extending aspects, even though exercising has its own benefits. Interestingly enough, both of these theories seem to hold true to the health adage that fitness is 80% diet and 20% exercise.

• eVapt Inc
  Divakar’s company
  (tags: evapt divakar SaaS web software)

• YubNub - YubNub.org
  Command line for the Web
  (tags: yubnub command-line command software web tools social)

• www.canvaspress.com - Canvas Prints, Custom Canvas, Put your photos on Canvas Today!
  Doak’s company has a new Web site. It’s cool seeing high tech ideas that are useful for everyone.
  (tags: doak digital image canvaspress picture)

• How To Be A Good Product Manager: Product management tips
  A blog on product management… Looks like Roger and Brandon have a new addition in this space.
  (tags: product-management software blog marketing product)
• Fun with Scrum
  The daily standup in mockumentary style…
  (tags: via:texflats meeting humor SCRUM agile standup work)