We heard from Crag Larman, chief technologist for Valtech this morning. He was a great presenter and really drove home the point of the necessity of a balance between total command and control (Stalin five years plan) system and total laze faire system. I learned a few good things about the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. We should anticipate change, welcome change and seek to lower the cost of change. This was how Toyota was able to penetrade US market begin with the oil crisis in 1973. We learned one Japanese word, Gemba. He advocated that leader should be where the actions are (no private office), maximum face to face interactions between developers.

John Blundell, Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs spoke at today Texas Public Policy Foundation luncheon about Margaret Thatcher and the war of ideas. I love the British accent. Got an autographed copy of his book, Waging the War of Ideas.

I picked up a really cute bright red Hermes tie. The design looks just like this one.

The presentation of Ruby on Rails by Matt Ratliff was the most interesting of three presentations in the afternoon.