Developing in a Scrum

It looks like it's only going to be USC and UT in the running for the Rose Bowl! I hope we don't slack off in our next couple of games as a result, but I'm sure that the team is pretty focused at this point. I hope your weekends went well. I think mine was pretty productive and I've been anticipating the completion of this weekend because it includes two tests and a final, and the last tests I'll have until my remaining finals in December. So wish me luck or pray or whatever! It was a surprisingly slow weekend for news, but I did find out that there's a new agile software development technique out there named 'Scrum', supposedly after the huddle in rugby bearing the same name. Microsoft has started using it for some projects and as I understand it, your team meets for about thirty minutes at the start of each day and then break off to get done what they need to get done. I think the idea is to keep the project on track with realistic short-term goals rather than follow specs for a long-term deadline. It sounds like what should be done anyway, but I suppose on larger projects things like that get pushed aside and people on a team may communicate more through e-mail. Anyway, now you've learned a new techie word and can impress your friends.

Another thing you can learn about today is OpenOffice. If you've never tried out the free alternative to Microsoft Office before then now would be a great time because NewsForge is offering free training videos online that are basically videos showing the procedures live with a voiceover. A research group at MIT has developed a program aptly called HitPredictor that they claim analyzes current trends and a song to determine how popular that song will become. Maybe we're more predictable than we think we are. I mentioned the halt on Sony rootkits a couple of days ago, and now the EFF thinks that their EULA (end user license agreement) is much worse. Do you think they'll realize how greedy they are before the next time they shine their gold shoes? If you want to get a unique mp3 player this Christmas rather than an iPod then you'll want to read this article listing the top contenders. It's funny how many different ones there are that none of us have even heard of. Lastly, if you've had "Disc Read Error" problems with your PS2 then you may be entitled to some dough.

Since I had a pretty picture today I thought I'd share that first. It's a more cleaned up version of the CG version of Ghost Rider for the movie. I'm pretty shocked and almost offended that Chicken Little is still #1 in the box office. Why did $32 million worth of people see that movie but not good movies like Good Night and Good Luck or Serenity? The big flop this weekend though was Pride and Prejudice, which pitifully made under $3 million despite getting much better reviews than the paranoid chicken's movie. If you're in the mood for a weird foreign trailer than you should check out the new ones for the Russian horror movie Daywatch, which comes out over there on January 1. If you're more interested in animation then there's a trailer out for Monster House, which looks neat to me because it almost looks like a children's book come to life. Lastly, voting has begun for the People's Choice Awards, but I'm not totally satisfied with all the nominees.

Now for some Unconscious Mutterings (surprise, surprise):

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Mighty::Joe Frazier
   
2. Gotta find time to ....::sleep
   
3. Statistic::STA 309
   
4. Midnight::12:00 AM
   
5. Thaw::Chicken
   
6. Hips::Curvaceous (just how I like em ;)
   
7. Reader::'s Digest
   
8. Related::Relative
   
9. Brilliant::Smart
   
10. Posture::Hunch