04-Nov-2005

NewtonGate

TrickyDicky in Zenit Translations posts an article, Isaac Newton's great swindle, a translation of Historias de economistas ilustres: Los trapicheos de Isaac Newton by Francisco Cabrillo published in Libertad Digital on 4-Nov-2005.

Acquiring new software: Intuition

Juan Palacio in Navegapolis writes that there are three strategies that clients can apply to the difficult task of acquiring new software:

• Hire a professional experienced in the acquisition of new software

• Review the curriculum of the provider

• Apply intuition

Although the last strategy appears to be the least rigorous and professional, it may be the most successful. Speaking from his experience as a general consultant, there are three factors which encourage a project to fail:

• The client wants to purchase software. (As opposed to looking for a solution to the problem the business is facing).

• The provider wants to gain money. (All the approaches of the supplier to the client are directed towards winning the contract).

• The client does not get involved in the project. (He expects to pay out the money and wait for the solution to be delivered).

Amazon Mechanical Turk: what human beings can do

gallir in Ricardo Galli, de software libre posts a link to the new project by Amazon, Amazon Mechanical Turk, in which anyone can perform Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) and get paid for them into their Amazon account. The tasks are things like, “Can you see a specific object in the photo?”, “Translate...”, “Evaluate artistically which...”. Typically, Google are enhancing the power of their search engine technology with human assistance in Google Answers.