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It's funny, but I remember reading about CSS when I was about 30, and HTML before that, and I looked at what was going on in the nascent web world and thought how horrid all that markup looked -- arbitrary, confusing, contradictory, and most importantly, always always always lacking completeness, requiring the most arcane workarounds.
I made a the semi-conscious decision to not get anywhere near that cesspool, and I've managed to too pretty damn well, finally plunging into Ruby on Rails (to which I now respond with a whole-hearted  ) three years ago. It's been insightful, if only that the only insight of significance is that, after 20 years, what goes on in the web world is even more arbitrary, confusing, contradictory, and lacking completeness.
I sometimes regret that semi-conscious decision, because I am now by now means an expert in all this cruff[^], but in other ways I am delighted to have only taken a glancing blow with regards to web "technologies" (and I use the term loosely.)
Marc
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I agree whole-heartedly. It seems many people celebrate the state-of-the-art today only because they don't realise how much we've lost.
This interview with Alan Kay brings a lot of this stuff into focus, including such gems as:
"They have no idea where [their culture came from] — and the Internet was done so well that most people think of it as a natural resource like the Pacific Ocean, rather than something that was man-made. When was the last time a technology with a scale like that was so error-free? The Web, in comparison, is a joke. The Web was done by amateurs."
Binstock: Still, you can't argue with the Web's success.
Kay: I think you can.
Binstock: Well, look at Wikipedia — it's a tremendous collaboration.
Kay: It is, but go to the article on Logo, can you write and execute Logo programs? Are there examples? No. The Wikipedia people didn't even imagine that, in spite of the fact that they're on a computer. That's why I never use PowerPoint. PowerPoint is just simulated acetate overhead slides, and to me, that is a kind of a moral crime. That's why I always do, not just dynamic stuff when I give a talk, but I do stuff that I'm interacting with on-the-fly. Because that is what the computer is for. People who don't do that either don't understand that or don't respect it.
There's lots more there, but I recommend more people read it to get some true perspective. And when he mentions Englebart, for example, look up what he did.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Rob Grainger wrote: This interview with Alan Kay brings a lot of this stuff into focus, including such gems as:
Great interview. Thanks for posting that!
Rob Grainger wrote: And when he mentions Englebart
Engelbart, BTW 
While I knew about his classic demonstration of a mouse and graphical user interface, I do not know much about the rest of his life, so I still looked him up.
Marc
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Thanks for the correction, noted.
I'm glad you enjoyed the interview - I seem to post it fairly regularly in various places, it seems to cover a lot of ground.
Another one worth checking is the Stroustrup, Ungar and Hewitt interview I posted in the news feed a while ago: Linkety. Really makes you think about concurrency properly. One of the reasons I've been learning functional programming properly recently is to prepare myself for the upcoming many-core world.
Incidentally, which language (if any) do you concentrate on in the book you link to?
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Rob Grainger wrote: Incidentally, which language (if any) do you concentrate on in the book you link to?
Since SyncFusion is a Windows 3rd party control provider, the book focuses on F# but to make the transition less painful (and to illustrate F#'ish things) there's a lot of C# in the beginning as well.
I actually spend very little time on how stateless languages make threading rather painless -- I probably should have mentioned that more.
It's a free download, check it out - I'd appreciate your feedback.
And it's on my list to read the other interview!
Marc
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Marc Clifton wrote: It's a free download,
I hadn't spotted that - my bad. Will do so and let you know how I get on.
"If you don't fail at least 90 percent of the time, you're not aiming high enough."
Alan Kay.
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Got this in my email a day or two ago, I'm posting it all because the faq linked in the email is much less useful than the mail itself:
Quote: webOS Cloud Services to end January 15, 2015
Cloud services support for webOS devices will be ending on January 15, 2015. We appreciate our customer's loyalty the webOS platform. But now, more than three (3) years after the last device was sold, only a small fraction of the devices are still connecting. Therefore, the time has come to shut down the services.
All devices running webOS devices will continue to run after the cloud services are terminated. However, they will no longer be able to:
Download new apps or updates. The HP App Catalog will be unavailable after the shutdown
Backup or restore devices from the cloud
Setup new devices
Recover lost passwords
What this means to you:
The HP App Catalog will stop supporting new app purchases on November 1, 2014
Updates may be posted by developers until November 10, 2014 and users can download any available updates until the services shut down
You should make arrangements to backup or transfer your contacts, etc.prior to the service shutdown on January 15, 2015
You will no longer be able to backup, restore, reset or initialize a webOS device as of January 15, 2015
There will be additional reminders as the final shutdown approaches. An FAQ can be found at
http://news.hpwebosnewsletters.com/cgi-bin13/DM/t/hBlrh0c6naP0PwQ04W5N0EX
Timeline
10/15/14 Announcement to users and developers
11/1/14 New app purchases end
11/10/14 App update submissions end
1/15/15 Public shutdown of services
https://developer.palm.com/content/resources/develop/faq.html[^]
All 3 remaining WebOS users are up in arms!
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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There appears to be a bit of buzz starting to appear out of the latest Apple offerings regarding AppleSIM.
You just have to search the #AppleSIM on twitter and you will see what I mean.
From the "About time Apple" to the "Writing is on the wall for Telco's" to the rest of the usual Fanboy hype.
Anyway, thinking back, I remembered something from a few years ago, so did a search and found this: GSMA Explores Software Based Replacement for Mobile SIM Cards[^]
Doesn't sound very innovative now does it.... 
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The Linux creator on the open-source environment. This guy? "People who disagree with me are by definition crazy." Naaaaaaah
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Still more proof that most of the open source community is run by Asperger's[^]-feigning children who need few excuses to behave badly.
No one in the business world would accept or condone behavior like Torvalds' from the manager of an engineering project. He would be terminated (with extreme prejudice).
Software Zen: delete this;
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Gary R. Wheeler wrote: No one in the business world would accept or condone behavior like Torvalds' from the manager of an engineering project. He would be terminated (with extreme prejudice).
I must humbly disagree. I have seen engineers throwing themselves across conference room tables to scream "YOU ARE AN IDIOT" to other people, I have seen managers screaming and using the F-word at employees, I have seen business owners doing that to everyone on the food chain.
And nothing was done.
Marc
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Perhaps I should have said "No one in the business world, at a company worth working for, would..."
A certain amount of conflict, disagreement, and temper are to be expected anywhere. Torvalds has a reputation for personal slurs that would be intolerable in most workplaces. I've seen people fired for far less.
Software Zen: delete this;
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The genius of open source is community, not technology
This is universally true, not just with technology. And sadly it is one of those truths that we easily forget or ignore.
Marc
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Frankly I disagree with his decision to use metric. If you are going to measure s---loads of mistakes then gallons or hundredweights are a better unit.
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I think he was meaning "metric tonne" s---loads of mistakes. At least, that's the way I read it. And with that I think it matches with your measurement moniker.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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Today, the Visual Studio team announced the release of Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 RC. Our team added a few useful features and did some bug fixing in this update to improve the web development experience. With so many features stuffed into this RC of a CTP, you'll say, "OMG"
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Researchers have developed Morse code for transmitting data via pulses of light sent to an operating scanner. If all-in-one printers are outlawed, only outlaws will own all-in-one printers
But really, this seems so contrived, it would only be done for the demo (or a bad spy movie).
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Kent Sharkey wrote: But really, this seems so contrived, it would only be done for the demo (or a bad spy movie).
This isn't specifically why all the airgapped systems where I work are kept behind locked doors in windowless rooms; but yeah it's not something I think we need to worry about.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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The Big G's executive chairman has responded to recent controversy over privacy and taxation. Not the 'correct' side, but the right side. He hates the left hand pages.
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Didn’t catch the entire keynote Apple just gave at its October 2014 event? Not to worry: here’s a quick recap of everything you may have missed. Shiny-shiny. Thin. And pixels. Lots of pixels.
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Any time I ask software developers what they do to become better at their craft, I get a mix of responses — from taking on side projects to scanning Hacker News, to following podcasts, to taking online courses and tutorials. And often it’s a mix of those things, all of which mostly happens off the clock. Something to slide under the door of the executive reading room
Yes, it's another self-serving editorial.
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Indeed, there's no doubt the man is flogging his own brand here.
Overall, I question what I consider the meta-assumption underlying the whole schmear: that employers are interested in, have a stake in, their programmers staying up-to-date, or being early adopters. Au contraire, I think employers most often have a conservative view of early adoption of the latest technologies based on the usual chaos-and-mess in the first stages of the new technologies/frameworks/stacks evolution.
There are also some glib assertions/assumptions I question, like:
"Most company-driven education solutions are easy to implement and affordable. And if they do come at a cost, they should certainly be compensated through increased productivity or employee happiness."
Hoo-rah for naked idealism.
« There is only one difference between a madman and me. The madman thinks he is sane. I know I am mad. » Salvador Dali
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While what you say is true with regard to cutting edge technologies, companies do adopt "new" technologies two or three years after it's been introduced and often want employees to just do it without any training having been supplied. With the right developers, that's not a problem. However, much pain and frustration can be avoided and a better result obtained with the employer supplying the requisite (third-party) training and helping developers to keep up-to-date. But, very often it's up to employees to push for such training.
If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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“Our UserVoice site (both vote counts and comments) will be an important source of input into our feature prioritization going forward and will be regularly monitored,” said Jonathan Sampson, Program Manager of the Internet Explorer team. Oh, this could be good. Who's bringing the popcorn?
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