In a time when the way you say something can be important than what you say. When the act of lying has been renamed “spin”, it is refreshing to be remind of how the right attitude overcomes:

"Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, 'Dammit, stop!' I don't know what Thompson's committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did. From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: 'Tough and Competent.' Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write 'Tough and Competent' on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control."

- Gene Krantz, NASA

Stewart Baird is working on a new book that explores the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-43), drawing lessons form today. The book is expected to be published n early 2008 and has a companion Web site Lessons From Stalingrad.

GDS Director, Stewart Baird is back at FishServe helping the team get the solution out the door. The project team had done a great job getting the features close to complete and just needed some help with focus at the end.

GDS Director, Stewart Baird has been asked to help a local software vendor with their user interface design. The client is re-developing their core software product, using the Microsoft .NET Framework. It's a Windows application and that brings a whole heap of challenges. GDS will help design not only the new interface but also deliver development process that can be used throughout the company.

After 18 months of fun and adventures Stewart is finishing his contract at FishServe. They’ve grown into a great team over the multiple releases and iterations that have helped to deliver their .NET solution. FishServe’s IT and business staff have proven their ability to learn a whole bunch of new technologies and process while still maintaining their sense of humour.
Ed and Noel are sticking around until the bitter end – good luck and happy hunting!

Software Education asked us to help them by developing a Web site for their Business System Analysis (BSA) course attendees. The result is a PHP-based solution that allows closer communication between course attendees.

Go on a BSA course and you’ll get the chance to use the site!