Object Monkey RIP???

So Jason Gorman seems finally to have pulled the plug on the ObjectMonkey website. True, lately it had turned into a potty-mouthed Private Eye wannabe, with the recent stuff being particularly virulent. Indeed Jason seemed a bit sheepish when I pegged him as Mr ObjectMonkey at the BCS Mini-SPA last year. Nevertheless some of the older material was refreshingly frank and insightful into the realities of software engineering and the project lifecycle, as well as being laugh-out-loud funny. It's like reading an DevX column written by Roger Mellie.

One essay in particular, "The Emperor's New Code", contained a very useful list of advice for a business project manager who needs to make a success of an IT project. Unfortunately the advice is headed Don't be a sh*thead. As a consultant I couldn't give that to a client: they won't read the advice, they'd just think, "He's calling me a sh*thead!". That's the problem with swearing. It is big and it is clever, and a well-timed expletive can be funny. But many people will grep out everything except the cusswords. It's all very well saying, as the Sub-Genius motto has it, "F**k 'em if they can't take a joke" but sometimes it's just not worth it. We end up alienating the people we most need to reach.

Alas, all this, the insights and the profanity, is now 404. Still, unlike Ozymandias, Jason Gorman has left behind more than a few broken links. Thank you Google cache!