Tag Archives: Tech

There’s a substantial body of lore associated with Dennis Ritchie and his work. One of the minor stories involves his PhD or lack of it. The most common story is that Harvard refused to award Ritchie his degree because Ritchie … Continue reading →

I just came across this link to a 1965 short BBC interview of Isaac Asimov concerning his famous three laws of robotics. Those laws, as Asimov stipulates, are purposefully ambiguous to that he can use that ambiguity as a vehicle … Continue reading →

I just came across a story that offers us several lessons. It’s a tale about a programmer who withdrew a trivial function from NPM and subsequently caused several applications to fail. Some of failures were second order effects in that … Continue reading →

If you’re involved with computer/software engineering and aren’t just starting out, you’ll be familiar with Sun Microsystems. For a long time their computers seemed to many of us to be the very apotheosis of a “workstation”. Many software folks still … Continue reading →

Sadly, our industry is undergoing another of its periodic spasms of layoffs. Most of the major software companies—Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and many others with the exception of Apple—have announced significant layoffs. Almost all of us have experienced this and … Continue reading →

One of the things I really admire but that also makes me feel guilty is people who have all their computer cables under control and mostly hidden from sight. Every time I see one of those videos by someone who … Continue reading →

Periodically I see a reference to Ken Thompson’s 1983 Turning Award Lecture, Reflections on Trusting Trust, and I almost always end up commenting on it. It’s, by far, my favorite CS paper and I’m always delighted at the brilliant trick … Continue reading →