APPropriate Behaviour
The book about all the things software writers do that aren't writing software.
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Category Archives: whatevs
The Vizzini Effect
A bunch of the topics I wanted to discuss all turned out to have a common basis, so I’m going to write the post about the commonality using a couple of examples from the specific topics for illumination. Maybe I’ll … Continue reading
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“Best practice” is less of a scam than claimed
Another day, another developer explaining that they don’t follow some popular practice. And their reason? Nothing more than because other people do the thing. “Best practices don’t exist,” they airily intone. “They’re really mediocre practices”. In one sense, they’re correct. … Continue reading
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The problem with musicians these days is they don’t work hard enough to make Daniel Ek, Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Jeff Bezos rich.
Another non-year of Desktop Linux
Let’s look at other software on the desktop, to understand why there isn’t (as a broad, popular platform) Linux on the desktop, then how there could be. Over on De Programmatica Ipsum I discussed the difference between the platform business … Continue reading
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Falsehoods programmers who write “falsehoods programmers believe” articles believe about programmers who read “falsehoods programmers believe” articles
For reasons that will become clear, I can’t structure this article as a “falsehoods programmers believe” article, much as that would add to the effect. There are plenty of such articles in the world, so turn to your favourite search … Continue reading
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On the features of a portfolio career
Since starting The Labrary late last year, I’ve been able to work with lots of different organisations and lots of different people. You too can hire The Labrary to make it easier and faster to create high-quality software that respects … Continue reading
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Applications and Spelling of Boole
While Alan Turing is regarded by many as the grandfather of Artificial Intelligence, George Boole should be entitled to some claim to that epithet too. His Investigation of the Laws of Thought is nothing other than a systematisation of “those … Continue reading
King Arthur: By what name are you known?
Why is it we’re not allowed to call the Apple guy “Tim Apple” when everybody calls the O’Reilly guy “Tim O’Reilly”?
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Hyperloops for our minds
We were promised a bicycle for our minds. What we got was more like a highly-efficient, privately run mass transit tunnel. It takes us where it’s going, assuming we pay the owner. Want to go somewhere else? Tough. Can’t afford … Continue reading
Eating the bubble
How far back do you want to go to find people telling you that JavaScript is eating the world? Last year? Two years ago? Three? Five? It’s a slow digestion process, if that’s what is happening. Five years ago, there … Continue reading
