I just finished “Shaping Things,” by Bruce Sterling. It’s a very broad look at the way technology, people, and society have changed – and changed each other – over time. And since it’s by Bruce Sterling, it’s mostly focused on the possibilities of tomorrow. My favorite quote: “Tomorrow composts today.” Very cool – both the [...]
Category Archives: technology
Hacks and Hack-Nots
Posted by svec on April 18, 2010
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The world is divided into two kinds of people: Hacks and Hack-Nots. Hacks people hack. They want hardware and software (aka “technology” or “tech”) they can change, optimize, use as they please, modify, destroy, etc. – in short, they want to hack. Hack-Nots people do not hack. They don’t want to know what “hacking” means. [...]
Baby Steps
Posted by svec on July 22, 2008
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A few seemingly unrelated thoughts, and then a tie-’em-all-together thought: 1. Rands’ recent post on “Saving Seconds” really resonated with me. I forwarded it to my wife and said, “See, this is how I think!” so that she could better understand why I optimize the shortcuts on our PC, or the way I load the [...]
The Death Of the Desktop
Posted by svec on June 17, 2008
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And no, this “death of the desktop” post is not about how mobile devices or the browser is taking over the world – it’s about taking a step back and rethinking how we actually use computers (desktop, mobile or otherwise), and then trying to take a more usable step forward. Thanks to Chris Jones for [...]
Data is more agile than code
Posted by svec on June 16, 2008
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Peter Norvig talks about the need for a startup company to go fast – and also in the right direction – at his Startup School 2008 talk. “Sure you gotta go fast, but if you’re not getting feedback to figure out if you’re going in the right direction it doesn’t matter how fast you go.” [...]
Knuth hates XP
Posted by svec on April 25, 2008
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In this recent interview, Donald Knuth says: “Still, I hate to duck your questions even though I also hate to offend other people’s sensibilities—given that software methodology has always been akin to religion. With the caveat that there’s no reason anybody should care about the opinions of a computer scientist/mathematician like me regarding software development, [...]
Why bother with RSS?
Posted by svec on March 30, 2008
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(cut-n-pasted from my reply to a “Business of Software” forum question) I resisted using an RSS reader for quite a while, mainly because it was “the new hotness” that I didn’t see any use for. What made me start using it? I read a fair number of websites, and I like to know when something [...]
Note to Dell: You are forcing me to waste your money.
Posted by svec on February 25, 2008
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I have a Dell LCD monitor, still under warranty. It has stuck pixels. A lot of them. I would like to get a replacement monitor. I would like to get the replacement taken care of with the minimum hassle for either of us. A simple email with my customer #, perhaps. Or maybe a web [...]
Understanding C pointers: Part 1
Posted by svec on January 1, 2008
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As I said in “Understanding C pointers: Part 0,” I’m going to try to explain how C pointers work. Let’s start with the basics. Here’s some simple C code: int x = 23; int y = x; You can think of each variable as a box which holds the value of that variable. So in [...]
Understanding C pointers: Part 0
Posted by svec on December 28, 2007
2 comments
“C/C++ Pointers are evil. Ditto direct control of memory via malloc, free, new and delete. Java, C# and other ’safe’ languages are the wave of the future, man!” Even if you shouted a hearty, “Amen, brother!” after reading those sentences, the C/C++ languages can teach you something useful. Understanding how to directly control memory with [...]
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