Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Leo Simons seems to be having exactly the experiance that pushed me out of Ada and into Lisp 22 years ago.
Java in many ways is kind-of a joke (yes yes its great for some stuff). On the surface its this really type-safe, compiled, predictable language everyone is using for everything. When you dig a little deeper and look at what actually is going on in “real life”, you’ll see that there’s usually some hack to get rid of all that type safety and predictability. For example, you generate source code based on XML, or you generate object code based on XML. And of course we don’t stop there. Since its kind-of hard to sensibly specify chunks of code that are bigger than a “class” (hint: other languages have things like “modules”), we use some huge application library, which we of course configure using more XML. Nevermind that we need to load 500 megs of jars into memory to make all that happen.
Programming languages ought to allow the designer to craft his notations, type models, and execution models so they fit the problem. Not demand that the problem be force fed into the mold handed down by somebody who hadn’t a clue what your problem requires.
Problem is that if you decide to make a switch your forced to write off a vast sunk cost, a network of relationships and a fluent skill set. At the same time your stuck deciding where to jump; and you can not know the color of the grass until your living right on top of it.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
My wife noted that one thing we can be confident will come out of the tragedy in New Orleans is PHD thesis. We have enjoyed enumerating all the different departments (math, engineering, sociology, ecology, history, music, etc. etc.) that will be granting these.
One that I look forward to reading is the book or doctoral thesis on the dynamics of the rumors spreading. The stories about violence in the shelters in New Orleans have turned out thankfully much overblown.
Apparently people are actually quite constructive in these situations, but have a tendency to assume the worst about the behavior of ‘those other people.”
I gather that the textbook pattern for a rumor runs along these lines:
- An exceptional event occurs outside the usual frameworks; so it’s hard to assimilate
- Details that don’t fit the available framework are discarded or minimized.
- Details that fit the available framework are highlighted, or invited.
- The story, now reduced to rumor, can be assimilated.
But these scenarios don’t seem to fit that model. These seem more like given extreme anxiety a demand emerges for some idea of exactly how bad things are going to get. Rumors evolve to fill that demand; and apparently those that increase the anxiety thrive. But maybe not. Every narrative I read about Katrina includes lots of rumors. Many of these rumors, maybe even the majority, are positive – though false. E.g.: the bus is coming today, or supplies are available over at the school.
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Three recent postings raising concerns about the health of the blog pinging ecosystem: one, two, three.
I’ve written a lot about this and done some work, but I’m sanguine about where we are headed.
I’m reasonably optimistic that we will end up with a robust and reasonably equitable feedmesh. I’m less optimistic that some design goals for that will be met. I’m concerned about privacy issues for blog readers. I’m concerned about the terms that small players will be forced to accept when they hook up to the mesh. I’m disappointed that the large players have not found it in their interests to establish a robust governance that assures predictable architecture for ping exchange “marketplace” going forward.
I don’t think there is a crisis. I don’t think there is a conspiracy. I do think that some of the parties aren’t taking actions that they could take in increase the level of trust.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
The last 10% of this interview on NPR is mighty thought provoking. It’s an interview with the director of a key oil port in Louisiana. As the interviewer is wrapping up the interview she casually asks if he is at home right now. He says yes, but that his house isn’t behind the levee system. His farm has it’s own private levee. Which is over topping, “right now.” He and his brother have 16 thousand alligators, on their farm. Notice the nervous laugh.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
The link below is a 12 megabyte animated GIF showing a forecast of Rita’s storm surge. Loading it tends to make powerful machines and web browsers complain. You probably need a gig of memory. It is totally amazing. If you decide to take the risk of loading it make browser window large first.
http://www.cozy.org.nyud.net:8090/ben/r24_bpt.gif
I have no idea how accurate that forecast is. Maybe somebody clever can convert it into a smaller movie format.
I believe that this is the output of the model discussed here, where there are some nice smaller examples of it’s output. The FTP site I found that animated GIF on was amazingly slow and quite obscure. Maybe somebody knows of a more official dependable source.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Rovenge (rO-’venj), n: Politically motivated retribution. The White House sought rovenge against Joseph Wilson.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
We moved around a lot when I was a kid. Which I enjoyed. So I have a portfolio of childhood memories of special places. When I went to college I was particularly looking forward to visiting an soda fountain in an old haunt. From my childhood home, in second grade, we would walk three blocks. Crossing two major streets, pass the fear inducing polio nursing home, down a small side street to the pharmacy and get ice cream sodas at a dark wood counter. I returned my freshman year in college, it wasn’t there.
In a different city in seventh grade a medium length bike ride away was a tiny two lane bowling alley in a residental neighborhood over a bar. If you were rich you could use a phone on the wall to order a hamburger. They would send it up on a dumb waiter. I wonder if it’s still there?
I had a job that involved a trip a week to NYC and it took me a long time to find the hotel that I wanted to return to. The one I finally ended up in was small, run down, with a piano bar that the locals would come into for a drink. When you checked in they would give you a room, but you often needed to go back down and ask for a different room since they were all in very different states of decay. The hotel had once had a dance hall, bar, etc. on the roof and if you rode the elevator to the top you could wander around it’s remains. The city all about you.
I had a job that involved a trip a month to Silicon Valley. The hotel that finally won my loyalty was Dinah’s Garden Inn. Somebody at VON made me sad today, Dinah’s has apparently closed. It’s going to be torn down.
Who ever owned Dinah’s laid in the most amazing gardens. Between the buildings there were ponds, and little waterfalls. The plantings were amazing, complex, mature, and very appropriately fragrant. They had also accumulated a huge amount of garden art from the South Pacific; including a large elephant that they would cover to protect from the rain.
Dinah’s also featured theme rooms; though I’ve never stayed in one. Somebody had a lot of fun. The railroad barron room includes a train set.
The good news is that apparently my informant was mistaken. I suspect that the ratty motel down the block is the one that’s closed. It was nothing but ground cover. Dinah’s on the other hand should be declared a Shinto shrine, or something.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
I spent yesterday on the exhibit floor at VON. The voice over internet conference. Man is this industry messy! Fun.
What makes for a vibrant and profitable conference is an industry with well recognized problems and a lack of consensus about how and/or who is going to resolve those problems.
These guys don’t know what the natural size of a phone service provider is. They don’t know how call clearing works. They don’t know how 911 service functions. They haven’t agreed on how to encode sound. Their hardware platforms lack developer networks. It just goes on and on. They all know these problems exist so there is a conflict at varying degrees of heat going around each one of them. And then the entire tangle is embedded in the mess that is this generation of evolution of the Internet and is new robber barons. What a zoo!
I didn’t plan to go back, but it’s too much fun at the fair.
Pulver should be able to make money on this franchise for at least a few more years.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Anything that happened in the first 60% of your life happened when you were young. Your youth expands as you age.
Society labels you, young or old depending, on those around you. If you live with lots of elderly people, say in Florida, you can remain young longer. If you work in the schools you become old faster. More generally the baby boom enables an extended youth for the following generation.
If you wish to feel mature hang with the young. If you wish to feel young hang out with the old. A similar trickworks for wealth, and status.
Sunday, September 18, 2005
update: Note this is no longer current, for current info go to the NHC; note you may need to scroll down to find the tropical storm that your interested in since these days there are often plenty.
