Open letter to online systems developers...

If you are developing an online system that requires me to log on with a session that times out and allows me to input data during my session, please ensure that if my session has timed out and I subsequently try to submit some data that you save the data I was trying to submit so that when I have sucessfully logged in, you can give me the option of saving the data I've enter so that I don't have to input it all over again.

This will save me having to seriously repress the urge to come and hunt you down and do really bad things to you. That and writing realllllly long sentences. 8)

What is the true value...

So, here I sit with my focus on value and I discover that value isn't something as obvious as I thought.

If it cost me $1 to make something and I sell it for $10, then that's a financial value of $9 dollars per sell. That looks really valuable.

But what if it costs me $9 dollars after the sale in support? Then there is no value. How much something is sold for is only part of the equation.

The hard part some of the time is finding the cost. What may initially look good may actually be very bad in the long run. And if things are bad in the long run, things are only going to get worse, not better.

Therefore, we need to find the true cost of what we think is valuable. If it is still valuable with the costs factored in, then do it. If it isn't, then don't. And if we find that we've made a bad decision, then we should change it.