Tag Archives: Tech

Google and the Smoking Gun

Posted on 2015-08-05 by jcs

Regular readers know that I’ve been critical of Google in the past. But their business model doesn’t mean that some state attorney general with an agenda gets to use the power of government to do the bidding of the MPAA … Continue reading →

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I Know the Feeling

Posted on 2015-06-08 by jcs

Here at the International Irreal Headquarters, we’ve felt this way for some time: In a few years there'll be enough computers in your home that getting hacked and being haunted will be functionally indistinguishable. — Cliff (@moonpolysoft) September 14, 2014

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Collecting and Using Data in Schools

Posted on 2015-05-20 by jcs

Regular Irreal readers have probably figured out that I’m a data freak. I’m always collecting, tabulating, and analyzing data about myself and the things around me. That’s one of the reasons I found the use of digital methods in hospitals … Continue reading →

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The Case Against Agile

Posted on 2015-05-02 by jcs

Back in early April, I wrote about Nic Ferrier’s take on agile. Ferrier understands it as a way of increasing communication in development teams. He makes a good case that agile is at worst benign and that in most cases … Continue reading →

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The 500 Mile Email Limit

Posted on 2015-04-26 by jcs

If you’re in our business for any length of time, you accumulate a number of amusing stories. Most of them are in-jokes that outsiders wouldn’t get or find funny. One of my favorite such stories concerns a problem with email … Continue reading →

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Working with Customers

Posted on 2015-04-24 by jcs

We’ve all been there: True. "@amyengineer: Also found this gem on software development – it *is* a winner. pic.twitter.com/r1qkTF2bzq" — Anna Nachesa (@ashalynd) April 14, 2015

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Happy Birthday

Posted on 2015-04-18 by jcs

Via Karl Voit: Happy Birthday to the Word “Hack”.

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RMS and GNU in 1989

Posted on 2015-04-13 by jcs

If you enjoyed the New Yorker article on RMS and GNU you may also enjoy this 1989 New York Times article on the same subject. It’s almost surrealistic to read about the GNU project from a 1989 point of view. … Continue reading →

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An Interview with Russ Cox and Sameer Ajmani

Posted on 2015-04-12 by jcs

Michael Hicks is doing a series of interviews with PhDs in industry working on programming languages. In his latest post, he interviews Russ Cox and Sameer Ajmani both of whom work for Google on the Go language. As many of … Continue reading →

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The Tricorder Draws Nigh

Posted on 2015-04-10 by jcs

First Prototype of a Working Tricorder Unveiled at SXSW

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