Project Management with EVM and EVA is hard to do, and stakeholders never understand what EVA really means. It is even more difficult to measure when executing an “agile” project with phases and progressive elaborations.
Here’s an article that explains how to do it right…
Doug
http://www.gourmet.com/food/2009/04/spiders-in-grapes
Pardon me, sir, is that a poisonous spider in your organic grapes?
Confirmed cases in Ohio, Boston, South Africa, and the UK.
From the article:
“As the market for organic produce has grown over the last decade, so has reliance on natural predators like spiders, which have acted as a kind of biological pest control in rice paddies, fruit orchards, and corn and cotton fields for centuries. Without harming the grapes, spiders prey on the insects—aphids, caterpillars, leafhoppers—and mites in vineyards that hamper production. On the whole, the results of integrated pest management (IPM) are positive: Crop yields increase while chemical use decreases, resulting in better air, soil, and water quality. […]
spiders account for 95 percent of all vineyard predators, with some 10-50 spiders per vine. Of that number, however, an increasing percentage are black widows (highly venomous spiders whose bites can cause severe pain and, in very rare instances, death).”
Yet Another Thing to Worry About…
Your beloved cell phone could be compromised
Did you know that bad guys can track you based on your cell phone in the time it takes to step off a plane and get to a taxi? An article in the Washington Post on March 3, 2009 talks about how foreign governments are using our beloved PDAs to track our whereabouts and actions.
The article quotes an official (Joel Brenner) from the office of the Director of National Intelligence. Some interesting points:
- your phone’s microphone can be turned on when you think it is off
- an iPod’s ear buds can be converted to recording devices when not in your ears
- Thumb drives are described as the biggest source of ETDs “electronically transmitted diseases”
From March 3, 2009 Washington Post, page A11
Your Cell and Your Berry: Tools of the Enemy
By Walter Pincus
Tuesday, March 3, 2009; Page A11
In the new electronic information world, your cellphone or BlackBerry can be tagged, tracked, monitored and exploited by a foreign intelligence service between the time you disembark from a plane in that country's capital and the time you reach the airport taxi stand.
Link to full article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/02/AR2009030202852.html
From the Wall Street Journal today:
You know it’s bad when Honda is asking for assistance from their government in Tokyo to fund their US operations. Maybe they can get in line for some US TARP money too.
Excerpt and link to article:
Honda said it is seeking a government loan to help shore up funds at its U.S. operations, becoming the latest Japanese auto maker to ask for Tokyo's help in doing business abroad. The development comes one day after the financial arm of Toyota, the world's largest auto maker by sales, said that it is in talks with Japan Bank for International Cooperation to line up financing.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123616606827228383.html
