RVJ Callanan

Like it or not, Allan McDonald's insider account of the Challenger Disaster is a book for the ages. The early chapters are necessarily tedious which may put off the more superficial or time-pressed reader. Here, I am especially thinking of tech managers who have become so beholden to corporate speak that they are losing touch with their technical grassroots. If you find yourself sliding into this miasma, you will have most to gain from the lessons of this book — as will your employer because any organisation ignores engineering realities at its peril. So take a hit for the team and plough through the minutiae of sold rocket booster design and see what happens when the movers and shakers play God with tried-and-tested engineering principles. But do keep a reference on hand or you may get lost in a whirlwind of acronyms and empirical data. Knowledge that is hard won is best retained and your perseverance in the early chapters will deliver its own rewards. With many unexpected twists ...

They say you should never meet your heroes. Having grown up in 1970's Ireland, when portraits of Pope Paul VI and JFK took pride of place in almost every Irish home, I finally took the plunge by way of Seymour Hersh's well-researched tome to shatter any lingering illusions. When this book was first published in 1997, it was manna from heaven for those who rejoiced at our loss of innocence. But, long before the forces of cynicism and resentment took hold of our national psyche, we knew that the powers-that-be lived by different rules. Just like our favourite Hollywood stars, it was what they represented that really mattered — not their breathtaking hypocrisy. And let's be clear that the "untold stories of the rich and famous" were well-dissected by the dogs on the street long before they became a staple of the mainstream media. Great leaders have always courted controversy, especially in challenging times, because to do otherwise is a dereliction of duty. Great ...

As an early adopter and long-time user of G Suite (formerly Google Apps), I am in a classic love/hate relationship with these potentially game-changing technologies. I say "potentially" because only two of the core apps have lived up to their billing in the enterprise. While Gmail and Calendar have cemented their "killer app" status with business users, their unruly siblings have continued to frustrate those of us who are trying to make a clean break from legacy productivity tools to complete our move to the Cloud. Google Sites (currently being overhauled) is probably the worst offender; but this is, for all intents and purposes, a non-core app which we can quarantine without cramping our style or creating a domino effect. Not so, Google Docs and Google Drive, which are fundamental to our productivity needs and the essential glue that holds G Suite together. Having come tantalisingly close to achieving critical mass a few years back, these ground...

Amid all the talk of housing shortages and sustainable development, a little bit of history is being made in the historic town of Enniscorthy. For the benefit of more distant observers, this is one of Ireland's geological sweet-spots where a rejuvenated River Slaney weaves its way around the iconic Vinegar Hill in the heart of County Wexford. Affectionately known as the model county because of its pioneering role in agriculture and engineering, this far corner of the sunny south-east is now leading the way in tackling one of the most vexing social challenges of our times. Hailing from a different part of the country — and a different branch of engineering — I can offer an outside perspective on this long-smouldering spark of ingenuity which is only slightly coloured by my long association with the main protagonist. He is the embodiment of that unpretentious "can do" attitude which has served his native county well through bad times and good. Never was this more apparen...

Wouldn't you know it? Just when I was putting the finishing touches to my updated Photofeed Gadget for Google Sites, the rug was pulled from under my feet. In the best traditions of Murphy's Law, my valiant efforts to tame this unruly child in an unruly world coincided with the launch of New Sites as a long-term replacement for what is now known as Classic Sites . Since the new hosting service is incompatible with the old, no upgrade path is offered and both versions will operate side-by-side for the foreseeable future. In practice this means that users are now caught in a No-Man's Land where Classic Sites support is waning while New Sites is a long way from the finished article. But the important news amidst all the hype is that public gadgets are on the way out having created many more problems than they ever solved. For what it's worth, my open-sourced Photofeed Gadget for Classic Sites is a novel take on the Web Widget paradigm which extends far beyond Goog...

Have you ever driven a car that is an absolute joy in so many respects but has these incredible annoyances which are all the more annoying because they are so annoyingly easy to fix? Have you ever driven a car that is even more annoying because the annoying manufacturer spends a lot of time listening to annoying customers but does nothing to address their annoyances? Well, that's how I feel about G Suite (formerly Google Apps) and I take no pleasure in saying that I am not alone. Take a nostalgic trip through the relevant  user forums  and you will see that many of us have been yammering on about G Suite's eminently fixable flaws for what seems like an eternity. These are genuine deal-breakers for the type of business user that Google should be cultivating. But, for stickier types like myself, they are sorely testing our patience. Way back in 2006, Google was still finding its feet in the nascent Cloud productivity space following a number of related acquisitions. T...

"You can't handle the fruit" is a popular corruption of Jack Nicholson's climactic outburst in the movie A Few Good Men . Unless you're into exotic cocktails, this comedic twist might invite a more sober interpretation. Because there are still a few good men (and women) out there who will tell you that truth is fruit in the making and our endless capacity for self-delusion is our undoing. Strangely enough, these cold realists are no strangers to fuzzy feelings, fertile imaginations and divine inspirations. They will remind you, however, that when such imponderables bear fruit, hard truths are being confronted somewhere down the line. Of course, when things go pear-shaped for want of a timely reality check, we can all be wise after the event — but not so wise as to avert repeat performances when the lessons are long forgotten. Life goes on and our critical faculties are dulled by the verifiable fact that these bouts of insanity usually fizzle out without obliter...