Services
Helping you help others is what we're all about. Read about the services we offer and the organizations we've helped.
Welcome!
As retired professionals, we love to travel, and we love to help others. One of the ways we give back is to support organizations and businesses doing good works with cost effective IT services. Our goal is to help you have the technology you need so you can focus on making the world a better place. […]
Why Big IT Systems Fail
Small IT systems usually deliver successfully. They are delivered on time and on budget. When they are delivered, they usually meet the needs of the business, they are secure, they are reliable, and they are easy to change. Large IT systems usually do not deliver successfully. They are delivered late and over budget, if they […]
Balance
Balance doesn’t mean an equal 50-50 split I’ve discovered. It could be that 50-30-20 feels like balance, or 90-10. It depends. I strive to balance things between work, health, relationships, travel, hobbies, spirituality, and more. There are times when work takes up 30% of my time and hobbies only get 5%. And other times travel […]
The Problem of IT Complexity
When it comes to IT failure, there is no lack of “the usual suspects”. We can look to failures in project definition, project management, and needs assessment. We can point to flawed architectures, implementations, and testing procedures. We can focus on communications failures between the business and IT, between IT and the user community, and […]
Washing Machines and IT
I have two friends. Both own washing machines. I’ll call them Charlie and Sally. I recently got to observe their washing machines in action. Charlie’s machine is amazing. It has 30 different buttons and a dial. I figure there are 25,000 different ways you can clean your clothes. And this doesn’t include the button that […]
Cutting board reflections
One of my morning joys is unhurriedly savoring a fine cup of coffee (black) and reflecting on life and the upcoming day’s activities. This morning I was thinking of doing some updates on Roger and my ObjectWatch website, and was lamenting that most of the stock photos I looked through for using on the website were […]
Decluttering IT
When I moved from a country house to a city apartment, I decided that I would use the opportunity to get rid of stuff. I had way too much stuff. I was ruthless. I made endless trips to Goodwill, Half Price Books, and the town dump. When I was finished, I had nothing extra. I […]
Macchiatos and IT
As I write this, I am staring at a sub-standard Starbucks Macchiato. It is ten degrees too cold. The chocolate powder is missing. The sugar is sitting at the bottom of the cup like a sleeping slug. Having drunk thousands of Starbucks Macchiatos, I am highly qualified to judge their quality. This one is definitely […]