Colechurch Consulting

IM translation tool

Hopefully, this new bot offering English to Chinese translation will make GTalk IM communication that much easier. Wonder how the idioms will do compared to babelfish...

SourceForge makes a buck

SourceForge builds a new business model on the many valuable open source projects hosted there. The open source projects remain free, but services like support can be purchased directly from SourceForge for a 10% cut. Would former ACS developers applaud, or roll in their tcl graves?

Words to live by

From Joel Spolsky's talk at Yale:
If there’s one thing I know, it's that managers have the least information about every technical issue, and they are the last people who should be deciding anything. When I was at Microsoft, Mike Maples, the head of the applications division, used to have people come to him to resolve some technical debate they were having. And he would juggle some bowling pins, tell a joke, and tell them to get the hell out of his office and solve their own damned problems instead of coming to him, the least qualified person to make a technical decision on its merits. That was, I thought, the only way to manage smart, highly qualified people.

Analog object of desire

Customizing jeans online didn't pan out, but customizing M&Ms are a hit.

Sharpies get in on the game with www.mysharpie.com. Do people really need a Sharpie tailor made for them? Of course not -- but Sharpies are somehow just fun, and a custom, dire warning might be a way to keep them from disappearing off my desk ...

Fill up and set your course

GoogleMaps are coming to your gas pump, enabling direction-challenged folks like me to stop pestering the people behind the Plexiglass.

Wonder if this will raise privacy concerns -- I can envision a future scenario where logging into GoogleMaps at the pump ties in your searches and recommends retail opportunities en route...

Press release generator

Tools I wish I'd built: Web 2.0 BS Generator

Why your development dates are slipping

Here it comes. Getting a line of code written this week won't be easy.

How undergrads use technology

Educause released its fourth annual study on how undergraduates think about and use IT. There are some compelling technology and learning/course management findings, but I was most drawn to the online usage stats:

• Average time online: 18 hours per week, with 6.6% of respondents reporting 40+ hours/week


• 81.6% reported using social networks like Facebook, and most of those reported using them daily


• 78.3% of respondents play computer /video games online or offline

Interesting for the marketers and advertisers eager to reach those audiences, although measuring social network engagement remains a tough nut to crack.

Surprisingly, many undergraduates still prefer email to realtime online correspondence for communication with their college/university.