Mimicry is when software X reimplements at a higher level a core feature of software Y. The produced facsimile has some, but not all, of the same properties, enough to “look like” it’s the same thing but missing many of … Read more
I love fast software. That is, software speedy both in function and interface. Software with minimal to no lag between wanting to activate or manipulate something and the thing happening. Lightness. Software that’s speedy usually means it’s focused. Like a … Read more
The universe and software might be more similar than you imagine. The universe is 27 percent dark matter, invisible matter that we can’t detect with telescopes and radios. Much like regular dark matter, software dark matter comprises packages that exist … Read more
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As a software developer understanding how too long to stay at one job can make a major difference in your earning. Those who stay at one company for longer than two years end up earning 50% less over the span … Read more
Switching “careers” to software engineering literally changed my life. I say “careers” because it’s changed a lot more than my day job. I don’t want to sound overly dramatic, but it’s true. Here’s how it’s affected at least four areas … Read more
2021-11-25 A few of the things that come to mind, this thanksgiving. open/read/write/close Most Unix-ish APIs, from files to sockets are a bit of a mess today. Endless poorly documented sockopts, unexpected changes in write semantics across FSs and OSes, … Read more
Workers from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta are paying $75,000 to be taller, a surgeon told GQ. The Las Vegas surgeon can lengthen patients’ legs via a painful months-long process. He breaks the thigh bones and inserts nails that are … Read more
Descriptive names considered harmful. Accurate labels are hard. I often see this call to action: “Please, engineers, name your services/repos/libraries more descriptively! I know it’s fun to name your web crawler after the giant spider from Lord of the Rings, … Read more
The joint ACM/IEEE-CS Software Engineering Code was published as: Don Gotterbarn, Keith Miller, and Simon Rogerson. 1997. Software engineering code of ethics. Commun. ACM 40, 11 (November 1997), 110-118. DOI: 10.1145/265684.265699 Note that this code is for anyone that is a member of the … Read more