http://log.reflectivesurface.com Still powered by a contradiction in terms Fri, 02 May 2008 15:17:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en During FISL, I had the opportunity to watch [Randal L. Schwartz talk about Seaside][1]. [Schwartz][2] is very well known in many [open source communities][3]--especially in the Perl one--and now is evangelizing Smalltalk and Seaside. I asked him if we could talk a bit about the subject, given my [previous interest ... http://log.reflectivesurface.com/2008/05/02/a-conversation-with-randal-l-schwartz/ [Arc's Out][1]: > Arc is still a work in progress. We've done little more than take a snapshot of the code and put it online. I've working on this for a long, long time and realized I'll never get it done properly so I'll release it anyway. > Why release it now? Because, ... http://log.reflectivesurface.com/2008/03/03/arc/ This is another book about software as a craft but written in a style that's much more interesting and accessible. Dave Thomas and Andy Hunt have a lot of experience in the field and it shows. Most of the advice given is pretty obvious but every programmer should remind himself now ... http://log.reflectivesurface.com/2008/03/02/the-pragmatic-programmer/ To those curious about the way [Seaside][0] applications are structured or just looking for a simple example to see how they differ from the other more usual Web frameworks, I'm making available the code of a simple experiment of mine: [a small system to keep information][1] about the books I'm ... http://log.reflectivesurface.com/2008/02/14/the-seaside-bookshelf/ I'm impressed with [the extent of Obama victories][1] in the past weeks. Not only he is surpassing the margins predicted, but those numbers are predicated on people who analysts were sure would vote for Hillary--like the Latino population in Virginia, for example. I confess I'm still trying to decide whether ... http://log.reflectivesurface.com/2008/02/13/obama-ahead/ Recently, somebody recommended me to take a look at [Software Craftsmanship][1], by Pete McBreen, as a good treatment of software engineering versus software craftsmanship as approaches for software development. The theme is indeed interesting, but I was surprised to see how badly the book is written. McBreen, granted, does a ... http://log.reflectivesurface.com/2008/02/07/software-craftsmanship/ [Via Read/Write Web][1], an interesting site that simulates the US primary: [Online Primary][2]. According to the article, the site is an experiment in online elections--something I believe we are very far from being able to do, not because the technology is not here but because we can't trust the established ... http://log.reflectivesurface.com/2008/01/30/online-primary/ God said, "Cancel Program GENESIS." The universe ceased to exist.— Arthur C. Clarke The Universe as a virtual machine or a simulation is a very old idea. Even outside of science, many culture have thought of the material existence as the dream of a god. Christianity has always dealt introspectively with questions ... http://log.reflectivesurface.com/2008/01/27/living-in-code/ In [Blink][1], Malcolm Gladwell uses musician Kenna as an example of good music that is not marketable because marketing people can't usually recognize it as good but who knowledgeable music lovers will love. According to Gladwell, this is an example where just sampling something will not yield accurate results ... http://log.reflectivesurface.com/2008/01/22/kenna/ In the past few days I have been thinking about the future of development--especially about the growing interest in tests and domain specific languages, and about the new trends in Web development. I was surprise to realize that, despite the fact the much talking has been done about how they ... http://log.reflectivesurface.com/2008/01/18/needed-a-new-paradigm-for-web-development/