Esther's Articles

Care & Feeding of the Press

Internet Press Guild. I was lead author of this long document explaining to PR people how to effectively interact with journalists.

Esther's CIO.com articles

This link leads to my author bio and all the articles I've written for CIO.com. (It doesn't include my blog posts, but the bio leads to those too.)

The ABCs of Web 2.0

For CIO.com: Web 2.0 is a set of technologies, a huge set of related functionality and almost a lifestyle choice. This straight-up, non-techie tutorial will help you separate the facts from the hype.

Getting Clueful: Seven Things the CIO Should Know About Telecommuting

For CIO.com: CIO.com presents input from several telecommuting IT professionals about the benefits the practice brings to the enterprise, about processes that help remote workers interact with other team members, and about the irritations that twist telecommuters' shorts in a knot.

Five Things IT Managers Should Know About Software Requirements

For CIO.com: Software requirements documentation was supposed to itemize everything that the application required. But the project was late, the users were unhappy, and the budget spun out of control. Why? Just ask the developers.

Getting Clueful: Five Things CIOs Should Know About Fighting Spam

For CIO.com: The battle for your users' e-mail inboxes probably will never end, but it's not a failure of technology. Experienced e-mail and system administrators share the key points they really, really wish you understood.

All Firewired Up

For IT Business Network, 2006, feature: "In all likelihood, you have a device that uses IEEE 1394, better known as FireWire. It might be a hard disk, a memory card reader, or a digital video camera. But that's today. What's coming up in 1394c? And how will that change the hardware landscape?"

Would You Fire This Person?

For IT Business Network, 2006, feature: "No one likes to show an employee the door, and few of us (thankfully) have reason to acquire the skill to fire someone gracefully and fairly. This article describes a Problem Employee and explores how several dozen IT managers — and workers — would deal with the situation. See if you'd make the same choices."

Keep Yer Paws Off Your PC: Preventing End-Users from Installing Applications

For IT Business Network, 2006, feature: "IT professionals need to strike a balance between user freedom (such as letting them install any app they want) and keeping a predictable and safe computing environment. Several network admins give their advice about the best way to find and maintain that balance -- with tech tips for each operating system." This extremely popular article received a lot of attention from groklaw, and it's one of my favorite ways to craft a "best practices" (or at least real-world) piece: asking people how they address a problem.

Stupid Résumé Tricks

For IT Business Network, 2006, feature: "IT recruiters share the really really dumb things that otherwise intelligent people have done to (and with) their résumés, in the pursuit of a new position. Learn from other's mistakes, before you repeat them."

Review: Is That A Scanner In Your Pocket?

IT Business Network, 2006, product review: "The DocuPen scanner is the size of a fat pen, and does a decent job. Decent, not great. But what do you expect from a full-page scanner that's smaller than a cheerleader's baton?"

The Refactoring Factor

For DevSource.com, 2006, a researched commentary: "Developers rank refactoring — the process by which one improves existing code — at the bottom of their pile. Surely, that doesn't imply that programmers don't *want* to improve their code."

Interview: .NET Rock Star Scott Currie

For DevSource.com, 2004, a one-on-one Q&A: "When customers want help on technical topics in C++, Microsoft's Scott Currie is the one they ask for. Learn his views on Visual Studio's new features, the right questions to ask in a technical interview, and the most common developer mistakes."

Bjarne Again: C++ Poised for its Next Stages

For DevSource.com, 2005, a trade show news report: "C++ might be viewed as a legacy, 'old style' language. Yet at its annual conference, coders see evidence of significant changes in the works, such as debates over the next steps in the C++ Standard Libraries."

Stalking The Wild Software Defect

SD Times, August, 2002, feature article: "Some development managers release impressive software armed with only a spreadsheet, a pile of Post-it notes and a confident attitude. Others, equipped with every QA tool imaginable, have never met a deadline. Clearly, bug-stomping success isn't the result of tool quality, but of your ability to get the most out of the tools available."

Stalking The Wild Software Defect

SD Times, August, 2002, feature article: "Some development managers release impressive software armed with only a spreadsheet, a pile of Post-it notes and a confident attitude. Others, equipped with every QA tool imaginable, have never met a deadline. Clearly, bug-stomping success isn't the result of tool quality, but of your ability to get the most out of the tools available."

OS/2 Has A Future -- It Just Isn't with IBM

eWEEK, 2005, an opinion column. My initial journalism career was founded on my expertise with IBM's OS/2 operating system, my expertise in explaining its technology, and my involvement in its user community. So when eWEEK asked me to comment about OS/2's formal end-of-life, I had to say _something_.

OS/2 Will Run Windows Applications Again

InformationWeek, October, 2001. Connectix's Virtual PC for OS/2 will let OS/2 users run Windows and Linux applications. Short news item

E-learning course: Working on Virtual Teams

I wrote two online courses about virtual teams: this one, about being a member of a virtual team, and another one about managing such teams. I'm rather proud of the results, as the courses really do address the day-to-day issues of living and working in the same house. (For good reason: I've been a full time telecommuter for more than ten years.)

How to Write a Product Review

I've written hundreds of product reviews, most of which appeared in print publications and aren't online. I've also mentored plenty of authors on the process of writing a *good* review; the talent, it appears, does not come naturally. This article appeared initially in my user group newsletter in 2000, but I've pointed a lot of people to it, over the years.

Mobile IPV6 on Linux

For LabRat Magazine, 2005, technology feature: This article explores the issues in developing and testing mobile applications with IPV6. Even if you don't care about the topic (or aren't quite sure what it is), it's a fairly good example of my writing style. [Updated: Labrat, alas, seems to be folded back into its Spirent parent, and the articles are no longer online. This link goes to the Wayback Machine.]

Girl Power

January 2000, Sm@rt Reseller. A column about the role of women in IT.

Return on Interaction

InformationWeek, July 2001. A feature about online community development.

Open Book: Time Out

InformationWeek's "Breakaway" section, May 2002: This week's book has a time-travel paradox, a ginger-ale swilling cat, and an alternate future that never happened. (The Open Book feature encouraged readers to identify a different book each week, for the chance to win a spiffy prize.)

Discussion Software: It Ain't No Party

December, 1998. Sm@rt Reseller. A comparative review of online discussion applications.

Hops To It

InformationWeek, January 2002. An "outside the office" article about home brewing beer. Be sure to note the sidebars.

Beyond Saurkraut

August 2002, ChefMom. A comparative review of German cookbooks.

Exploring the Black Forest by Train

For German Life magazine, 2006, short feature: "An old railway gives you a unique view of the German countryside as it twists and turns through mountainous terrain." You need to scroll down quite far to find the excerpted text of this article.

Product Review: Timestrip Monitors Product Freshness — With No Effort

I occasionally review consumer electronics items that have little or nothing to do with computers. This article examines "smart tags" that let you track how long items have been stored.

Inroads for the Electronic Slush Pile

Feature, BookTech (now Book Business), 2003: A business feature about how one publisher employs technology to acquire new mystery novels.