The Interface is the Program, and it ain't Agile: "I've seen a lot of Agile projects crash and burn after about their third external iteration for lack of good architectural foundations. It doesn't take much architecture to shape the whole -- just enough to keep Conway's Law happy and to lay a foundation for the interface -- but it takes much more than Ron Jeffrie's fabled "ten minutes of design." Maybe a sprint's worth is enough to get started.

If an interface is unproductive or inhumane, users notice it only after a long enough time has elapsed for habit formation to be a factor. You don't notice such things when you test drive the program; the clumsiness is hidden behind the familiar Redmond look-and-feel or behind some graphic artist's sugar coating. "

Pacifism is fruit of family tree: ""bring the other side to their senses, not their knees.""

Nabaztag 2 to launch tonight: "AT MIDNIGHT (FRENCH TIME) DECEMBER 12th, or today as it's otherwise known, Violet is set to launch the second-generation of wireless Internet enabled rabbits, with some big improvements we've mentioned before."

Our Nabaztag is a vocal member of staff now. Last week we were pondering that, as we have him tied into our build process and announcing progress/setbacks there, perhaps we should also get him into our new biz/contacts database (for which we use FogBugz) so we can have him scream for joy when we bring in a new project...

Analysis Paralysis: "If you can’t define what it is you actually want to achieve then you need more analysis.  If you are in the 10th hour of meetings to discuss what particular shade of green will most inspire customers without having developed a functional prototype to see if the solution is even viable then you are wasting valuable time and brain power with analysis paralysis. "

Interesting, if contradictory, story re Carphone Warehouse: "Pan-European retail giant Carphone Warehouse is planning to pre-install its own content portal in the handsets it sells. Carphone is set to launch its Java storefront – called mymobilelife – in the UK this week as an OTA download delivered via WAP push."

Leaving aside whether this is pre-installed or delivered OTA (which will make a radical difference to its takeup), and the standard of execution, I like the approach: putting content closer to the customer rather than expecting them to browse around to get it. Hopefully the portal will do a bit more than just replicate WAP menus with some extra UI chrome.