Author Archive: bfwebster

Webster is Principal and Founder at Bruce F. Webster & Associates, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University. He works with organizations to help them with troubled or failed information technology (IT) projects. He has also worked in several dozen legal cases as a consultant and as a testifying expert, both in the United States and Japan. He can be reached at bwebster@bfwa.com, or you can follow him on Twitter as @bfwebster.

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Thanksgiving Day menu

Thanksgiving Day menu

| November 27, 2008 | Reply

We have family and friends coming over for dinner (actually, two of our grandsons have been here since Sunday; we’ve been having a great time with the Wii, the ping pong table, and the air hockey table), a total of 10 people. Here’s what I’m fixing for dinner: roast turkey (22.5 lbs) corn bread stuffing […]

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What goes up must come down

What goes up must come down

| November 26, 2008 | Reply

Here’s a graph of US housing prices since 1975, both the stated prices and the same prices adjusted for inflation: As you can see, once you adjust for inflation, housing prices have peaked and then fallen three times in the last 30 years. I remember looking at a $35,000 house in the semi-rural area near […]

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Wisdom from the past

Wisdom from the past

| November 26, 2008 | Reply

I have recently been re-reading The Ancient State by Hugh Nibley and just this morning finished reading “The Hierocentric State” (originally published back in 1951 in Western Political Quarterly 4/2). The article itself suggests that key aspects of the vast nomadic cultures of Central Asia (e.g., the Mongols) were idealized and emulated by more sedentary […]

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Yet another bailout request

Yet another bailout request

| November 26, 2008 | Reply

Hell, this makes more sense than a lot of what Congress and the US Treasury are doing right now: True fact: I own a Pets.com sock puppet. I keep it in my office to remind me of the idiocies of the late 90s Tech Bubble. Problem is, I’m not the one who needs reminding. Hat […]

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Is this what “trickle-down economics” means?

Is this what “trickle-down economics” means?

| November 25, 2008 | Reply

Image o’ the day: At least the contribution is voluntary. Hat tip to The Consumerist.  ..bruce w..

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Don’t screw with the Marines

Don’t screw with the Marines

| November 24, 2008 | Reply

About 250 Taliban insurgents took on 30 US Marines in Afghanistan. Guess who won? The vicious attack that left the humvee destroyed and several of the Marines pinned down in the kill zone sparked an intense eight-hour battle as the platoon desperately fought to recover their comrades. After recovering the Marines trapped in the kill […]

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And speaking of nailing it…

And speaking of nailing it…

| November 22, 2008 | Reply

…Victor Davis Hanson pretty much pounds the nail on the head, ten times in a row: 1. Four years of high-school Latin would dramatically arrest the decline in American education…. 2. Hollywood is going the way of Detroit…. 3. All the old media brands of our youth have been tarnished and all but discredited…. 4. […]

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This is so on target

This is so on target

| November 21, 2008 | Reply

This guy pretty much nails it: Flying still seems magical to me. Hat tip to Bad Astronomy.  ..bruce w..

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The vast and widespread consequences of global warming

The vast and widespread consequences of global warming

| November 21, 2008 | Reply

It makes you wonder how earth (and humanity) ever survived the Medieval Warm Period or the Holocene Maximum: Hat tip to Instapundit.  ..bruce w..

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The five books every IT manager should read…right now

The five books every IT manager should read…right now

| November 20, 2008 | Reply

I’ll add “software engineers” as well, not to mention CIOs and CTOs. My latest Baseline column is up, and in it, I discuss just why you should read these books — or, if you have read them already, why you should re-read them.  ..bruce w..

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