Rideshare organizers need to understand their product.

Ride share programs have it all wrong. They are trying to match up riders based on origin and destination. They show a lack of understanding about what car pooling is all about. When you car pool you can easily spend in the neighborhood of two hours a day in close contact with someone. Questions similar to what is asked on dating sites are more appropriate:

• How punctual are you?
• How fast do you drive?
• What radio station do you listen to in your car?
• What do you like to talk about?
• Are you flexible?

These and other questions are what is really relevant. If people knew these things about potential car-poolers then they might be more likely to ride share. Come on Match.com or E-Harmony, do a public service, use you software to match up riders. I'm sure that it will drive business to your site.

Wannop's Law

Getting Wannop's Law to be part of the standard IT lexicon has been a personal crusade of mine for over 15 years. It hasn't been getting much traction so I guess it is time to see what the blogosphere can do.

Wannop's Law states:

"For systems that must be operational over the weekend, do not work on the system after noon on Thursday"

I created Wannop's Law after an experience I had years ago. I was working for a company that produced hotel management software. One of our customers was the Woodstock Inn in Woodstock, Vermont (HIGHLY Recommended!!!). John Wannop was their comptroller I believe, and in charge of their IT systems. He always warned me not to work on their system after noon on Thursday, due to Friday afternoon being their big check-in time.

One Friday I called John with a small change I needed to make. I can't recall what it was, but it was as innocuous as changing a monitor cable. "No way could it affect the system," I told him. After some time I was able to convince John to let me make the change, which I did. Shortly thereafter a butterfly sneezed over the Indian Ocean, and Chaos theory kicked in. By 6:00 pm the system had crashed. I was on pager and got the call from John. It wasn't too serious and I was able to get the system back up rather quickly, but from that point forward I wouldn't even ask - it was Wannop's Law that nobody touches the system after noon on Thursday.

Wannop's Law should be liberally interpreted. If Friday is a holiday, then don't touch the system after noon on Wednesday. Basically, hands of important systems, unless there is an emergency of course, if you are within 28 hours of the close of business before a weekend or holiday. I have embraced Wannop's Law all these years, and it has kept me from having to do a lot of explaining, as well as kept me on the good side of many users, mangers and executives. I highly recommend adhering to it.

What is Apple thinking

Bricking modified iPhones. . . I am rapidly loosing faith in Apple. First the fact that they sold the iPhone locked at all bothered me but to see the extent to which they are going to keep it that way is disturbing.

They don't sell computers that will only run Apple software; don't they realize that the person who will plop down several hundred dollars for an iPhone is willing to do so because they see it as buying a computer, albeit one that makes cell phone calls. Even Apple TV ads recognize this fact. In my mind I will just skip the whole iPhone lock-unlock war and buy something else.

There are some nice phones that run versions of Linux, like the Motorola A780. I wish the battery life was better, but at least I can work with an open source community to address its shortcomings. That is the direction my money will follow.