Q: Define "On Demand Software"
A: "Make your technology suffciently complex, so you want to outsource it to IBM!"  

Last week I got invited to patrol with our local Neighbourhood Crime Watch team. There was a time where I was rather the type of person such a team would look for when on patrol then for being the patrol, so I was amused. Since I'm the only Ang Mo (Hokkien for "White Man") in our block my role probably was to give the group a more multi cultural touch.
So Saturday evening we went for our round with two police officers. We checked the cleanliness of the common areas, some id cards of people having their weekend beer on the void decks and talked to some neighbours who overdid the sound- and incense- level of their worshipping.
I had a nice chat with the comity members and the officers. We even got a highlight: Seeing us approaching two migrant workers, obviously with something to hide, started running. Since crime chase is police work only the officers started to run. What a silly idea from the other guys to try to outrun a Singapore police officer, man they were fast.
Me patrolling is kind of repeating history. After world war two, when the German police force hasn't been rebuild yet, a lot of places in Germany had civil patrols. My late father used to participate in these. He pushed it further and joined the village council and even became the major for a few years.

I just completed my registration for this year's Metta retreat at the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery. I'm exited. While I was living in Munich I used to attend a Taj Chi retreat (our master was a Chinese Benedictine monk) and I've been on a pilgrimage to Lourdes in southern France twice (during my national service at the airforce).
Metta is the Pali word for "Loving kindness". It is the mental state that forms the very foundation of self development in the Buddhist believe. Brother Richard teaches a very easy to perform Metta meditation during the basic Buddhism course:

Contemplation On Loving-Kindness (Metta)

May I be well and happy.
May I be free from enmity, disease and grief.
May I take care of myself happily.

May all beings in front be well and happy.
May they be free from enmity, disease and grief.
May they take care of themselves happily.

May all beings in the right direction be well and happy.
May they be free from enmity, disease and grief.
May they take care of themselves happily.

May all beings behind be well and happy.
May they be free from enmity, disease and grief.
May they take care of themselves happily.

May all beings in the left direction be well and happy.
May they be free from enmity, disease and grief.
May they take care of themselves happily.

May all beings above be well and happy.
May they be free from enmity, disease and grief.
May they take care of themselves happily.

May all beings below be well and happy.
May they be free from enmity, disease and grief.
May they take care of themselves happily.

May all beings in the surrounding ……………….
May all beings who are dear to me ……………….
May all beings who are neutral to me ……………
May all beings who are unfriendly to me ………..
May all beings be well and happy.
May they be free from enmity, disease and grief.
May they take care of themselves happily.  

From the " Handbook of Software Architecture":

" Software is invisible to most of the world . Although individuals, organizations, and nations rely on a multitude of software-intensive systems every day, most software lives in the interstitial spaces of society, hidden from view except insofar as it does something tangible or useful.

Despite its transparency, as Bjarne Stroustrup has observed, 'our civilization runs on software.' It is therefore a tremendous privilege as well as a deep responsibility to be a software developer. It is a privilege because what we do collectively as an industry has changed and will continue to change the world. It is a responsibility because the world in turn relies on the products of our labor in so many ways".

Go read it and then rethink development resources and project management.