Confessions of an IT Manager_Phil Factor

Section II: The Strange
Business of Software
"Have you ever played a computer game where you stand there and ghastly
slavering monsters come charging at you out of nowhere, one after another,
making blood-curdling noises? You are required to stand there killing them one
after another. I can't play them: it is just too much like the real life experiences
of a successful software vendor."
So begins Phil's reminiscences on the strange business of software. After a
few decades in the industry, Phil has lived through many of its mad ideas and
cyclical phenomena, and is still around to tell the tale. From the halcyon days
when marketing your software meant buying advertising space in one of the
two PC magazines, through the wild west dot.com boom days, when IT men
wore sharp suits and winning smiles and business plans were optional, to
modern day Microsoft with its software bloat, and marketing-speak that often
defies parody.
Out of his tales fall a few eternal truths about the software business that
people ignore at their peril, but ultimately do anyway.[TD]