The high fixed costs of Mergenthaler linotype, rotary presses and distribution systems were eliminated by cold type, and few regret the change. But the cold type systems have their own fixed costs that only get higher, which has surprised many in the publishing industry as it struggles for survival.

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Software development may well be the closest activity to perpetual motion that can be achieved in the real world. Approaches and techniques once thought new are more often than not a bad solution to an old problem. Cascading Style Sheets is one of those ancient wheels badly reinvented.

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Because real money is involved, the Build or Buy decisions are made close to the business case. There’s another level of procurement below this that the business seldom knows about.

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The nice thing about offering free software is that there’s no need for customer support. It’s always someone else that has to clean up the mess.

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Leave it to California to come up with a radical new business model, thanks to the efforts of State Senator Darrel Steinberg’s move to require withholding from independent contractors’ billings. The consequences are not likely what the Senator had in mind.

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We learn by our mistakes, which is part of the price we pay for not being omniscient. The risks of using increasingly complicated software to control powerful equipment could be reduced by some simple fail safe procedures, but getting these in place might take some time.

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All those Flashy ads are collecting more than impressions. They are garnering information about you, to be sliced and diced and rented to anyone. Here’s how to stop them in their tracks.

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Rich Internet Applications are often the basis for Web 2.0 sites, where increased functionality comes at the price of more extensive development and coding efforts. Here’s an excellent overview from a JavaScript perspective that will help anyone and everyone who wants to master this, from beginners to seasoned professionals.

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As if yet another reason might be needed, there’s more than trouble in River City when paying customers have to deal directly with the cartelized medical industry. It’s really a matter of incentives, knowing who calls the tune. And it’s definitely not the customer.

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