SEP Radio: Fed up with the "cloud"!

Cloud computing is popular, but it's no panacea. Listen to our expert guests discuss the pitfalls of cloud computing, which applications just won't work well in virtualized environments, and how it takes planning from the ground-up to reach success.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Software

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

SEP Radio: Living in a 64-bit world: making apps work with 64-bit OSes

Windows developers Anna-Jayne Metcalfe, Inbar Gazit & Sushil Sapre talk about their experiences with developing software for 64-bit OSes. In a world where 64-bit OSes have become standard our guests Anna-Jayne Metcalfe, Inbar Gazit & Sushil Sapre talk about their experiences with developing software that not only runs well in this increasingly common environment, but can take advantage of it as well. Tune in for advice on the issues to consider for making your apps compatible with 64-bit OSes, and hands-on advice in making the transition.

Be sure to check out:

Inbar Gazit’s Linked.NET user group
Anna-Jayne Metcalfe’s blog
Sushil Sapre’s engineering company, Xoriant

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Software

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

This Week on Bear radio: Greedy civil servants

In this episode the Optimistic Bear rants about how the public sector employees are now paid MORE than private sector counterparts and that there is no way to save the unfunded civil service pensions.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Optimistic Bear

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

This Week on Bear radio: 1987 déjà vu and the bubble in Treasuries

In this episode we discuss how markets are following an eerily similar path to 1987. In addition, we talk about whether the rally in treasuries is going to crack as well as the growth in the barter economy and private currencies like Bitcoin.

You can check out more about the new private currency, Bitcoin, here:
http://www.bitcoin.org/

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Optimistic Bear

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

SEP Radio: RIP: The death of .NET?

Software engineering experts Grant BlahaErath and Richard Minerich join me to share their thoughts on the state of the .NET development platform today and where it is headed. Do the added costs of licensing proprietary technology still make sense in a world with increasingly mature open source internet platforms?

You can check out Grant's latest venture here:
http://fizzik.com/

You can also take a look at Richard's blog:
http://richardminerich.com/

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Software

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

This Week on Bear radio: Neither bull nor bear, just trading the trend

In this episode Steve tells how his strategy of trading trends allows him to make money in both bull and bear markets. The trick is to have the discipline to stay with a system. Stop listening to the pundits, just follow the trend and adhere to a system.

You can check out Steve's trading ideas here:
http://brooklynborntraders.com/

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Optimistic Bear

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

PS: Thinking small as the path to software engineering

In this episode, Michael Vax shares his strategy of keeping his software under continual use in a production environment to keep a agile engineering environment. It takes a re-thinking of software development, but by doing work in a series of very short, modular, sprints it is possible to improve quality and get direct customer feedback to avoid wasted effort building the wrong thing.

You can check out Michael's blog on efficient software development here: http://www.getelastic.com/

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NOTE: Practical Software is the official podcast for the Software Engineering Productivity group on Linked:In. You can listen to other episodes of Practical Software.

PS: The language matters

In this episode, Richard Minerich tells why the language developers use can have a huge impact on their productivity. New high level languages, like F# (one of Richard's favourite languages), free engineers from much of the traditional drudgery leading to faster development cycles and better quality.

You can read more of Richard's ideas here: http://www.atalasoft.com/cs/blogs/RickM/

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NOTE: Practical Software is the official podcast for the Software Engineering Productivity group on Linked:In. You can listen to other episodes of Practical Software.

PS: Software engineering productivity: more than just a measurement

In this episode, Timothy Fong explains how measuring software engineering productivity is not just a matter of counting lines of code. What good is it to release a bloated piece of software on schedule that is never used? Before you can even talk about productivity you have to first define your business goals.

You can write timothy at tim.fong@opshub.com to ask for a white paper on 3 principals to using metrics for large scale agile.

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NOTE: Practical Software is the official podcast for the Software Engineering Productivity group on Linked:In. You can listen to other episodes of Practical Software.

This Week on Bear radio: Kit Kitredge shows the way with deflationary frugality

In this episode we discuss how changing consumer preferences, and product substitution play a key role in the deflationary process. Already we see people downsizing their expectations, taking in boarders to their homes, and switching to lower priced substitutes for all kinds of things. It’s starting to look at lot like the Kit Kitredge movie, set in the 1930s. We also talk about how surprising it is to see how long the process of de-leveraging and mal-investment purge is taking.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Optimistic Bear

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

This Week on Bear radio: Gold as antidote to uncertain times

In this episode Doug Eberhardt explains how gold should be a part of every portfolio, providing safety in both inflation and deflation. Additionally, Doug compares the deflationary experience in Japan to what is happening in the US. Our panelists also discuss how there is no economic theory that adequately explains why nations with increasing money supplies (like Japan) can experience deflation.

You can check out Doug’s web site for more insights on deflation and advice in gold investing.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Optimistic Bear

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

Linked:Seattle Radio - An insider's view of Microsoft's past and future

Listen to ex-Microsoft employees discuss how the company is addressing the challenges and opportunities before it today, and what lies in store. Is Microsoft headed to genteel decline, or is it about to embark on a new era of growth and technological development? Be sure to check out the Linked:Seattle community at http://bit.ly/LinkedSeattle.

You can also check out an article I wrote about my experiences at Microsoft here:
http://bit.ly/oOUh4

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NOTE: Click here for a list of all the Linked:Seattle radio show recordings. You can also check out my own "Entrepreneurs Northwest" podcast shows (http://bit.ly/epnwfeed).

This Week on Bear radio: Options expiry shenanigans and summer doldrums

In this episode we discuss the strange way stocks behave on options expiry weeks and whether real action in the market will have to wait till the fall and the end of the summer doldrums. For good measure, we also talk about how recent finance reform legislation does nothing to prevent future financial panics.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Optimistic Bear

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

Japan: the picture of a multi-decade bear market

When most people think of bear markets they tend to imagine a relatively short-term affair that reaches a bottom, over a year or two, and then recovers for many years (or even decades) in the future. Bear markets, in short, are just temporary blips as stock markets (and economies) move on to ever greater heights. Japan’s experience with a bear market that is over 20 years old shows that these simplistic assumptions regarding bear markets don’t always hold true.


A close examination of the Nikkei stock index for the last 30 years is a harrowing study in how pernicious, and grinding, bear markets can be. What is perhaps the most shocking is to see that this multi-decade bear market was punctuated by periods of considerable recovery, and growth, which would last anywhere from 1 to 5 years. There were numerous times where the Nikkei rallied 50%, or even more than 100% over a span of several years, only to lose all those gains and fall into a deeper pit.

The persistent trend downward is unmistakable, standing some 75% lower than its 1989 height as of June 2010, but this masks the times where it looked quite convincingly as if Japan was finally turning the corner.

As the United States embarks on its own deflationary journey it is important not to lose sight of what has happened in places like Japan. It is quite probable that America will also see strong rallies, and periods of apparent recovery (lasting for years, in fact), only to see all those hopes dashed as the economy goes into yet a deeper funk to lower lows. Deflation is a slow process and does not go in a straight line.

This Week on Bear radio: The view from North Carolina

In this episode a caller from North Carolina tells us that the economy hasn't hit bottom there, and that from his perspective as a bank loan officer (with national exposure) a double-dip recession is already baked into the cards. We also delve into the profits and pitfalls of tax lien investing.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Optimistic Bear

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

This Week on Bear radio: Should congress borrow to fund unemployment insurance?

In this episode veteran Wall Street Banker, Bruce Krasting, joins us to talk about how the recent congressional legislation to extend unemployment benefits by borrowing even more money is the final straw. According to Bruce, unemployment insurance is small potatoes compared to the trillions in stimulus an bailouts that have been spent so far, but the insanity has to stop somewhere. Bruce also shares his view on how deflation is likely to win out in the short term, and his views on how emotion can irrationally drive individual stock prices high or low.

You can check out Bruce’s blog on finance at http://brucekrasting.blogspot.com/.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Optimistic Bear

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

Weekly Economics and Finance round-up

The Optimistic Bear discusses the week's economic and financial news with his guests. Is deflation or inflation up ahead? Has the economy turned the corner? What is going to happen to real-estate, commodities, stocks, or gold prices? Tune in to hear a deeper understanding of why things happen in the economy, and what it really means to you or your business.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Optimistic Bear

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

Linked:Seattle Radio - Entrepreneurship in Seattle

In this episode Paul Scarpa tells us about the challenges his startup is facing and Jennifer Cabala (of Seattle 2.0) tells us the attributes of successful entrepreneurs. We discuss the pros and cons of self-funding new ventures and the need to have a balanced approach that covers not only engineering but marketing and sales too. Be sure to visit the Linked:Seattle entrepreneurs group.

Listen to internet radio with Linked:Seattle Radio on Blog Talk Radio

NOTE: Click here for a list of all the Linked:Seattle radio show recordings. You can also check out my own "Entrepreneurs Northwest" podcast shows (http://bit.ly/epnwfeed).

This Week on Bear radio: Can cosmology, technical indicators, or tea leaves tell market future?

In this episode we discuss which, if any, techniques are useful for predicting market directions. We talk about everything from cosmology and technical analysis to tea leaves. We also talk about growing problems with underfunded private and public pension plans.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Optimistic Bear

You can find all the Entrepreneurs Northwest shows here: Entrepreneurs Northwest

Linked:Seattle Radio: Seattle Job Search Mojo

In this episode of Linked:Seattle Radio, professional recruiter John Polhill guest hosts a discussion about "How to get your Successful Job Search & Interview Mojo back & get hired tomorrow." HR expert, and Linked:Seattle Career Center manager, Lesa Keller also joins the show with Matt Youngquist, a career coach in the Seattle area to offer their advice on job searches as well.

If you are wondering whether employers are only interesting in candidates who already have jobs, or if it is career limiting to take jobs beneath your qualifications, or just want to hear about how to keep your energy up as a job seeker, this is the show you need to hear.

Listen to internet radio with Linked:Seattle Radio on Blog Talk Radio

NOTE: The Linked:Seattle Career Center is the best place on LinkedIn to find jobs in Seattle and participate in discussions with area recruiters, career coaches, and job candidates. You can also check out Michael Surkan’s "Tales from the job search trenches" podcasts.