Careers: Responding to a reader’s question about budgeting in such a way that is quantifiable, Bob Lewis calls it by name: Functional Point Analysis. “Not for the faint of heart. I can’t endorse it myself,” he writes in this Advice Line post. That said, Lewis concedes that he knows practitioners who claim it allows them to estimate with high levels of precision. “My personal opinion: The best way to estimate projects is to break them into small chunks with go/no-go gates in between.” There’s another alternative, too. Columnist’s corner: The current writer’s strike all over the media got Tom Yager reflecting about how many IT creations generate revenue long after the work is done. “I can’t count the number of companies that hired me to create solutions for them, then fired me as soon as I got the solution working and documented,” he writes. If Hollywood screenwriters worked in IT. Then again, Yager adds, “every IT worker who gives blood while being paid for water has also jumped jobs for a big raise. It’s smart to get what you can, but for all of us, the most valuable residuals from employment are continued employment.” Notes from the field: Crying it like he sees it, once again, the indefatigable Robert X. Cringely calls out the U.S. government on its double standard for privacy. Just like a snooping relative who pours through your e-mail, Web surfing and lord knows what other online accounts when you’re not looking, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Donald Kerr, “staked a claim to all of your Internet records,” Cringe reports in My nosy Uncle. “My Uncle is your uncle, and his name is Sam.” The counter argument? “Terrorism trumps everything. But I don’t buy that. There’s always an ‘ism.’ Before terrorism there was communism. Before communism there was anti-Americanism and generic xenophobia.” Careers