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  September 2003

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The economic corollary, cleverly exploited by Billy Beane, was that players who walked more often were being systematically undervalued by the market and could be had more cheaply. Software development has an equivalent to the base on balls: a module that doesn’t have to be written new because it already exists and can be reused.
We [...]

This morning we were flicking through some 1923 issues of The Magnet, marvelling at their “Wireless Dictionary for Boys”, and all the ads for stopping blushing and stammering, curing baldness and growing two to five inches.
We were also rather perturbed to discover a ad for postage stamps offering example stamps from several countries we’d never [...]

We describe extensions to the Excel spreadsheet that integrate user-defined functions into the spreadsheet grid, rather than treating them as a “bolt-on”. Our case study is unusual in that it highlights the way that programming language insights can be applied to a product not normally considered as a programming language.
Even more unusual, our design is [...]

I used to think it was because I’m in a classic low-tech industry, but I spend a lot more time sorting out internal problems than I do coming up with ways to incorporate the latest wrinkle in envelope folding. Most managers do not manage change. Change takes them by surprise. What we’re actually managing is [...]

Just show up - you’re a winner 80 percent of the time. Most accounts are won because nobody else is calling on them.
Show up on time - what could be more annoying than a salesperson who can’t deliver the first thing he’s promised to delivery - his own body.
Show up on time with a [...]

Marilyn Bend, a schoolteacher in Oregon, totalled her car, and barely escaped alive. She wasn’t about to buy the same model, so she went to another dealer. He didn’t have what she wanted in stock, and he wouldn’t order it without her making “a commitment” in advance to buy it. She finally ended up back [...]