Once again, I return to the technique of using a metaphor created by a recent South Park episode (Season 13, Episode 10) to illustrate the way things are (in an entirely different subject). Warning: There is adult, offensive language in the video clips I use below. My usual admonition applies. If you are easily offended, [...]
Archive for the ‘Analysis’ Category
The challenge of trying to get a real science of computing in our schools
Posted in Analysis, Education, computer science, tagged computer science, Education, south park on November 22, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Does computer science have a future?
Posted in Analysis, Education, History, Information Technology, Math & Science, flame, tagged alan kay, computer science, data processing, science, scientific computing on August 12, 2009 | 12 Comments »
Update 8-17-09: I’ve revised this post a bit to clarify some points I made.
I received a request 2-1/2 weeks ago to write a post based on video of a speech that Alan Kay gave at Kyoto University in February, titled “Systems Thinking For Children And Adults”. Here it is. The volume in the first 10 [...]
Our economic future
Posted in Analysis, Government policy, History, tagged economics, federal budget, policy, TARP on March 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“We all believed in socialism because we were children of a different generation. Then I realized that if you want to irradicate poverty you don’t do it by redistribution of existing wealth. You have to create new wealth.”
— Narayana Murthy, Chairman and CEO of Infosys, circa. 2002
I’m stepping into an area fraught with politics, which I [...]
Is OOP all it’s cracked up to be?: My guest post on ZDNet
Posted in Analysis, Programming, Squeak, Technology and Software, tagged .Net, C++, History, Java, OOP, Smalltalk on June 2, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Paul Murphy saw fit to give me another guest spot on his blog, called “The tattered history of OOP”, talking about the history of OOP practice, where the idea came from, and how industry has implemented it. If you’ve been reading my blog this will probably be review. I’m just spreading the message a little [...]
Java: Let it be
Posted in Analysis, Programming, Technology and Software on March 6, 2008 | 31 Comments »
Joshua Bloch, Chief Java Architect at Google, gave a talk entitled “The Closures Controversy” at Javapolis in December 2007. I found it online through reddit, and it intrigued me, because I think it illustrates a disconnect between what we as an industry are doing and the goals we have. Bloch also makes what I think [...]
IT: You’re doing it completely wrong
Posted in Analysis, Information Technology on February 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Hi guys. I’m still very busy with other stuff right now. I’ve yearned to get back to my research, and sharing my findings on here. I’ve had to be patient and persistent. It’s going to be slow-going for a while.
I found this article on reddit, called Rental Car IT, by Neal Ford. It encapsulates what I [...]
The death of the computer chain store
Posted in Analysis, Technology and Software on December 9, 2007 | 4 Comments »
I heard on the radio a couple days ago that CompUSA is going out of business. It’s been sold to a private equity company, and the plan is its stores will be gradually liquidated. This is not the end of the computer retail chain as a fixture in our society. Now there are Apple stores, but they’re really the only ones left. [...]
Work like an Egyptian…
Posted in Analysis, Education, Programming on November 16, 2007 | 2 Comments »
…playing off the name of an old Bangles tune…
I ran across a case in point for this, thanks to James Robertson’s blog. Steve Jones is talking about the current state of the art in the organization of IT software development:
So why do I choose to have strict contracts, static languages, early validation of everything and [...]
Reminiscing, Part 6
Posted in Analysis, History, Technology and Software on November 13, 2007 | 6 Comments »
The pop culture
This is my last post in this series. In the other parts I’ve written positively about my experience growing up in the computing culture that our society has created. Now, bringing this full circle, I will be looking at it with a critical eye, because I’ve come to realize that some things have been missing. If you compare what I’ve [...]
The EU: First they wanted WMP out…
Posted in Analysis, Technology and Software on October 3, 2007 | 2 Comments »
James Robertson is no fan of Microsoft, but yesterday he had to call out the machinations of the EU as “stupid”. I agree.
First, the EU demanded that Microsoft sell a version of Windows in the EU market without Windows Media Player. Microsoft complied, with “Windows n” (for (n)o media player), a configuration that became an [...]
