2011-11-10

How Science Works

Recently, I found myself in a discussion around science, religion, and whether or not god exists. It was fun.

But I was slightly frustrated by it, too, because the person I was talking to demonstrated a slight misunderstanding on how science works, what science, in effect, is, that to me is at the heart of any debate over whether or not science can answer questions like the above. It’s not the first time I’ve seen this misunderstanding.

There are good examples of explaining the scientific method around; much better than I can sum up in a few words on a blog. However, you don’t need to understand all the bits and piece to understand the fundamentals.

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21:18 | Filed under: philosophy | 6 Comments »
2011-10-13

Dennis Ritchie & Steve Jobs

I haven’t commented on the sad death of Steve Jobs before, but now that I found out Dennis Ritchie (dmr) has also passed away, I’m thinking this week marks such tragic losses to computer science/the computing industry that something needs to be said.

Thing is, I find myself a bit too stunned for words.

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11:40 | Filed under: life | 2 Comments »
2011-10-11

Software Craftsmanship

A friend just sent me a link to the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto, a manifesto of values to uphold when crafting software. As I’ve often lamented the common mistakes people make in the software industry, you’d think I’d love that manifesto.

As a matter of fact, I saw it a few years ago and decided, after some deliberation, not to sign it.

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09:56 | Filed under: philosophy, programming | No Comments »
2011-10-10

Standing Desk: Aftermat(h)

This article is part 7 of 7 in the series Standing Desk

Ah, the punnery!

I decided to revive the series on my standing desk experiences with a very brief update.

First, some have asked me whether I still work standing up, and the answer is: yes! It’s been about three months since I started, and I’ve not had any inclination to stop.

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14:28 | Filed under: life | 6 Comments »
2011-09-22

Dependency Management & Versioning

As you can see from my previous rant on dependency management, one aspect that will rear it’s head in any dependency management solution is that of version numbers.

Branding

One of the things that’s not immediately obvious is that version numbers mean different things to different people. In particular, the version number you, the user, read is not necessarily the version number that means anything to developers. I’ve heard people describe the version number that users get to see as “a branding issue” — and that’s not far off the mark. After all, Windows 2000 (to name an example) was really Windows NT version 5. For branding reasons, though, Microsoft decided to rename it.

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14:43 | Filed under: programming | No Comments »