According to the Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) this past month, OS X users have tripled in less than two years, from 25 million at the end of 2007 to 75 million in June 2009. Of course, a huge part of this spike is due to the success of the iPhone since it uses a mobile version of OS X and technically counts.

The CEO of Platinum Solutions, Laila Rossi, was recently featured in the June 2009 issue of Washington SmartCEO Magazine describing Platinum’s employee on-boarding process. New employees, having gone through a rigorous interview process designed to weed out all but the top 10% of candidates, are rewarded on their first day with a hand-written letter from Ms. Rossi, an engraved Platinum Solutions coin, a company jacket or polo shirt, Platinum candy, and a cubicle decorated with balloons.

When I was working for IBM in the early 90s, a co-worker and mentor of mine brought me a set of disks containing software I needed. I’d been seeking for the software for weeks, but had just mentioned it to him that morning. I asked him how he was able to get them so fast. I have never forgotten his answer: “Burke, it’s not who you know…it’s who I know.”

I recently finished reading Venkat Subramaniam's latest book, Programming Groovy: Dynamic Productivity for the Java Developer. Over the past couple of years I've read quite a few books covering the Groovy language, but Venkat's book has by far been the best.

I've had the chance to hear Venkat speak a few times and his presentation skills are top-notch. Not surprisingly, I discovered that many of those strong communication skills transferred into his writing as well. The book is written in a clear and concise manner. Each chapter is relatively short and focused making the book easy to digest.

For technology enthusiasts living in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area there is never a shortage of interesting technical and networking events to attend. Most IT professionals in the area are aware of the larger organizations (NOVAJUG) and events (NFJS), but if you’re looking for something a little more specific, one great resource to use is the D.C. Tech Events Calendar.

I get it, I just don't want it.

I'm hearing the phrase User Experience thrown around quite a bit these days. It's become an overloaded term that means different things to different folks, yet we all seem to agree with the premise that a positive user experience is essential.

Did you know that the Hudson project has grown from 200,000 to 500,000 lines of code since January of 2007?

Did you know there's a guy in France (Jim Meyering) who has contributed to the GCC, CVS, Emacs, and Perl projects?

The website ohloh.com has this and lots of other interesting information about open source projects.

At the Macworld keynote address, Steve Jobs introduced the MacBook Air. It has been dubbed the world’s thinnest notebook, measuring 0.16-inches at its thinnest and 0.76-inches at its maximum height. I think the closest competitor to the MacBook Air is a notebook from Sony.

Researchers at Newcastle University in the UK are working on a project they call 'Draw a Secret'. Instead of using traditional textual passwords, 'Draw a Secret' allows users to draw a picture as their password. Originally this project was focused on providing a password alternative for users of handheld/mobile devices, for which pen input is easier than text input.