Ignoring all the other problems with using Outlook 2011, one problem I had and solved:
Having set it to use IMAP, I then set the Preferences - Accounts - Advanced - Sync IMAP folders every xxx minutes to OFF.
Which stopped it hanging every 5 minutes.
Category: LifeUniverse&Everything
Software Quality — the Whole not the Parts
Ben Higginbottom makes a significant point right at the top of this question about the Knight Capital fiasco:
Was the Knight Capital fiasco related to Release Management? On August 1, 2012, Knight Capital Group had a very bad day, losing $440 million in forty-five minutes. More than two weeks later, there has been no official detailed explanation of ...
Ben Higginbottom: Nightmare scenarios like this are not the result in the failing in any one discrete components that can be 'fixed' simply and sweetly by improving the process, but by small failures in multiple domains (I'm kind of reminded of a fatal accident investigation). So coding error, gap in the unit testing, weak end to end testing and poor post release testing coupled with a lack of operational checks when live. I can understand the desire for a 'silver bullet' fix, but in any complex system I've never known them to exist.
Sometimes, it's the whole, not the parts, that needs fixing.
The loudness war
nuff said.
Sherlock Holmes … the Death and Life
A one man show by Roger llewellyn is possibly the most impressive one man show you'll see anytime soon. Half a dozen characters interact and by the interval you face the puzzle of how exactly the relationship between Arthur Conan Doyle and his creations can work out. And whereas this kind of frame-breaking has been with us for a long time, this is the first time I've seen it done convincingly.