Month: October 2009
The Case of the Handsome Couple
Yesterday’s New York Times carries an article by John Tierney about the 95th anniversary of the king of mathematical puzzles, Martin Gardner. The article is so well done that I will not even try a summary, referring you instead directly to it [1]. Just one detail worthy of note: when he undertook to write a … Read more
Knuth & company
Remember Stacey’s in Palo Alto and San Francisco? Only a decade ago these and other technical bookstores were the mecca of the tech industry, where developers would swarm at any time of day to catch up on the latest releases. One well-known Valley entrepreneur even told me she did her hiring there, spotting customers who … Read more
The CPU Clock principle of software releases
On how to build software, there is still much we do not know for sure; but we have also learned a few principles that can be considered firm. By definition these are not new ideas; today’s principle, for example, is related to what agile developers know as “timeboxing”. But even if they have been published … Read more