robin2

7 ms·

1.
by robin2 12y ago
"Influential" can be tricky to pin down, but a couple of books that made a big impact on me at a certain age were "Prometheus Rising" by Robert Anton Wilson and "The Muse in the Machine: computers and creative thoug
2.
by robin2 12y ago
My guess is that this might be cycling related; that an area where there's likely to be public-spirited cyclists with GPS devices is well placed to get good OSM coverage. In support of my theory, I point to Cambridge being a little bit
3.
by robin2 12y ago
Are you implying that if your only proverb is the one about hammers and nails then everything looks like a problem of misapplied technology?
4.
by robin2 12y ago
I can't quite make up my mind whether its irony, or the other half of the same phenomenon, that humanities are feeling pressure to become more business-like whilst businesses are being drawn towards methods from the humanities. An exam
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by robin2 12y ago
> What makes you say that this was the "original intent" of patents? The original meaning of the word "patent" might be a bit of a clue here. The problem that patents tried to solve was of people keeping their innovat
6.
by robin2 12y ago
Slightly off topic, but Peter Seibel's take on the idea of code reading groups, and the idea of code as literature, is interesting: http://www.gigamonkeys.com/code-reading/ "Code is not literature and we are
7.
by robin2 12y ago
TL;DR? See http://www.slideshare.net/vgururao/usc-annenberg (slide 7 in particular) On a related point, am I the only one who notices the language coming out of the Silicon Valley ecosystem (the war for talent, the nee
8.
by robin2 13y ago
"Pragmatic Thinking and Learning" was Andy Hunt, but as he and Dave Thomas are kind of a double act I can see why you'd get mixed up. As to your point about whether they wrote any books on 'agile' I think it could b
9.
by robin2 13y ago
There was a time when LinkedIn would often require you to re-enter you login details, seemingly at random. Login details consist, of course, of your email address plus a password, and so if you used the site much you kind of got used to ent
10.
by robin2 13y ago
An odd thing about Alexander's work on pattern languages is that, despite people's enthusiasm, Alexander himself considered it to be a failure. There's a chapter in Richard Gabriel's "Patterns of Software" ( ht
11.
by robin2 13y ago
It's possibly worth mentioning that the original moon shots were - in a sense - exercises in publicity. OK, that's putting it a bit crudely, but if you read Kennedy's speech announcing the goal of putting a man on the moon (
12.
by robin2 13y ago
[Lightweight comment] The main thing that puts me off from learning Clojure is the name. I mean, why not go the whole hog and call it funargs4j?
13.
by robin2 13y ago
For a different take, read Steve Albini's "The Problem with Music" ( http://www.negativland.com/news/?page_id=17 ) in which he does a financial breakdown of what he considered a representative scenario (ba
14.
by robin2 13y ago
I'd have thought http://zedshaw.com/essays/c2i2_hypothesis.html would be more relevant here.
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by robin2 13y ago
Projects can be canned for all sorts of reasons, but from what I recall the people involved in C3 blamed the Chrysler management. Perhaps the latter were more interested in having a working payroll system than inventing the future of softwa
16.
by robin2 13y ago
OK. Here goes nothing. I had a conversation with someone I know about what I wrote, and why I wrote it. Their comment was that without giving any explanation as to why I wrote what I did, the whole thing just comes across as arrogant and me
17.
by robin2 13y ago
[Part II] In another comment, Mr Martin suggests that something like a guild system might be an appropriate for software development, and I'm assuming that 8th Light's interest in apprenticeship reflects this line of thinking. Thi
18.
by robin2 13y ago
OK, challenge accepted. I've only just noticed that this thread continued, and to be honest I doubt anyone will read this - but seeing as Mr Martin's responses aren't unreasonable I think they deserve an answer. I'll hav
19.
by robin2 13y ago
That's why they don't need to slander you - writing a lukewarm reference does the same job.
20.
by robin2 13y ago
Well, ObjectMentor got paid, someone at the company got to tick a box to say that developers had been given appropriate training, and we got a break from real work. Corporate training is an odd business, it has to be said.
21.
by robin2 13y ago
In this case, I don't think the company can be blamed. As I recall, it hadn't asked for TDD training, it had asked for C++ training. So if anyone should be blamed it would be ObjectMentor for (a) hearing this as "introduction
22.
by robin2 13y ago
To expand on that a bit, I should mention that this question came up at a software craftsmanship meetup, after Martin had given a talk in Cambridge. (Incidentally, people who had seen him speak had been very disappointed.) The only answers
23.
by robin2 13y ago
If I wanted to be pedantic I'd say that you'd really want a heart transplant done by a surgeon, not a doctor... That said, I think the real questions is: who is Robert Martin, self-described uber-hacker, that his opinions should b
24.
by robin2 13y ago
The odd thing about "looking busy" in the context of software development is that goofing off by browsing random stuff on the internet looks more work-like than reading a work-related book.
25.
by robin2 13y ago
If you are going to bow out, it would be much better to do it sooner rather than later - so as not to leave the organisers in the lurch. Giving a public speech would be a big deal even if you were fine with other "regular-life" ac
26.
by robin2 13y ago
One thing to try: ensure your LinkedIn settings allow other people to know when you've looked at their profile, then look at the profiles of lots of recruiters.
27.
by robin2 13y ago
I had a ZX81... nearly put me off for life http://rdn32.com/2013/07/28/how-i-got-into-programming/ When I visited the Centre for Computing History ( http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/ ) I
28.
by robin2 13y ago
> Look at the way Lower Saxony hampers Volkswagen's development That's kind of a weird example to pick, given Volkswagen's origins.
29.
by robin2 13y ago
I once had a job at a software company where an HR manager was hired to introduce a new "Performance Management" system, where people were scored on their "behavioural competencies" and "technical competencies"
30.
by robin2 13y ago
It's fairly common. If one says "X and I" one risks coming across as being a bit Brian Sewell.

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