Python is addictive

Been a while since I’ve felt this way, but Python brought it back out. Python programming is pretty addictive. I find myself pondering the next little Python ditty to whip up, and going through  withdrawal without it. Gotta get my Python fix! If you’re a developer who can taste a good design, a good implementation,… Continue reading Python is addictive

Downsides of SaaS

Software-as-a-Service has its downsides, as one commenter notes: We’re beginning to see the pitfalls of software-as-a-service in general: loss of control for for the user, increased security risks, and being entirely at the mercy of the providers’ future business strategies. The context is Google discontinuing its RSS Reader. A small outfit has motivation that a… Continue reading Downsides of SaaS

Downsides of Collaboration

Here’s an outstanding video on how collaboration can not only kill creativity, but dupe our very perceptions. Steve Wozniak: Most inventors and engineers I have met are like me: they’re shy and they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone… Continue reading Downsides of Collaboration

Software Runs the World: How Scared Should We Be That So Much of It Is So Bad?

From The Atlantic: The underlying problem here is that most software is not very good. Writing good software is hard. There are thousands of opportunities to make mistakes. More importantly, it’s difficult if not impossible to anticipate all the situations that a software program will be faced with, especially when–as was the case for both… Continue reading Software Runs the World: How Scared Should We Be That So Much of It Is So Bad?

Berserk Algo: $440M

Knight Capital: Final Berserk Algo Bill To Knight – $440 Million; Stock Implodes Ten million dollars a minute. And it’s almost certainly the case that the software passed all its tests in the lab.

cppreference.com

A cool new (for me) site, cppreference.com. A super-navigable, super-clean C++ reference, including C++11. The only thing missing is a search box, but the search engines give you that.

Fantasecond response time

Here’s a fascinating in-depth study of one second of market data for a single stock: HFT [High Frequency Trading] Breaks Speed-of-Light Barrier, Sets Trading Speed World Record. Adds a new unit of time measurement to the lexicon: fantasecond. On September 15, 2011, beginning at 12:48:54.600, there was a time warp in the trading of Yahoo!… Continue reading Fantasecond response time

The next make?

Many build systems exist to help people build their projects in a cogent manner and avoid the stupefying (albeit powerful) makefile: CMake, scons, boost.build, bjam, ant, etc. Each has its following, often based on the propensity of the audience (C/C++, python, Java). Here’s another to add to the mix: Cake. And this brief intro on… Continue reading The next make?

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