32 Years of PC ConfigurationsI’ve been keeping track of the various characteristics of personal computers I’ve owned during the past 32 years, and here’s a table comparing those data points.
Swiss SaaS You Probably Never Heard AboutI’ve recently talked about Proton and about how happy I am with their services, but it turns out that Switzerland has to offer much more in the realm of privacy-conscious SaaS.
The Proton SuiteFirst, a mandatory disclaimer: this is not a sponsored post (there are none in this blog, btw), just me telling the story of how I became a happy Proton user during the past 5 years; I’m not affiliated with them in any way.
Fading Into IrrelevanceAs technology waves come and go, the names of iconic companies follow the movements, first reaching the pinnacle of their glories, and later fading into irrelevance.
30 Years of Product Naming TrendsHere is an extension of a popular tweet I once wrote, extending it both backward and forward in time, with some actualizations.
20 Years of Harman Kardon SoundSticksTwenty years ago, months before the scorching (and deadly) summer of 2003, I bought the transparent Harman Kardon SoundSticks that I still have above (and below) my desk today.
FOSS in Developing CountriesThe other day, I had friends in Bolivia asking me if they could install Windows on a laptop they got through an NGO that initially came bundled with Linux.
Stockholm Syndrome in SoftwareDevelopers working for a particular vendor tend to develop a bizarre version of Stockholm syndrome. It’s something I’ve witnessed at least twice in my career.
Killer AppsThe D programming language lacked a “killer app” to break through. Another brilliant language suffered from this situation, objectively deserving a much better fate than the one it had; Smalltalk.
The Languages That Bend Your MindMany programming languages have been sold to unsuspecting software developers with enticing descriptions, promising “transformative experiences” that “irrevocably alter their way of thinking” and other ethereal descriptions, seemingly belonging to other categories of products, such as yoga classes, religions, drugs, progressive rock albums, or role playing games.
My First PCI got my first personal computer 30 years ago this month. It was during the summer of 1992; I had just finished my first year of studies at the Collège Sismondi, and it was the first summer after we arrived from Argentina that looked like a real holiday.
Technology StacksFor the past 20 years there’s been this trend to give names to a particular set of operating system, programming language, database tech, and something else.
Technology WarsThere’s been plenty of technology wars in the software industry. Here’s a list of those that I got to witness in the past 25 years.
Things That Define Big Software CompaniesLooking at the software industry, it appears that most big companies usually share more traits than they would like to admit.
Sustainable Ebook StrategyI love reading, and I love books; and in the 21st century, reading books means, to a large degree, electronic books.
Computers Bundled With LinuxFor those interested in buying a computer with Linux built-in, here’s a list of options.
JoplinNote taking is very important to me. I keep everything in my notes, from ideas for blog posts like this one, to code snippets, to web pages, to plans of never started businesses, and so much more.
No Cookie PopupAfter eight months of playing with this pure HTML website, the only thing I can say is: why didn’t I do this sooner?
Manifestos and ChecklistsThe Agile Manifesto was probably the first, but certainly not the last attempt at creating a web page that provides a whole platform to a certain ideology.
Somebody Call an AsciidoctorMarkdown is a great thing; but nothing beats Asciidoc for complex documentation projects.
The Next Big ThingLooking backwards, the migration from Objective-C to Swift as main programming language for the Apple galaxy was quite an event.
Migrating from macOS to LinuxThis is the story of how, after being a loyal macOS user for 15 years, I decided to start using Linux full-time.
A Quest For A Better WorldThis is the presentation I gave at the third App Builders Conference in Lugano, Switzerland, April 17th, 2018.
Eight Steps To Build A Better Swiss Software IndustryThe Swiss are the best at many, many different domains. Which is a rather surprising and seriously fantastic feat for such a small country with merely eight million people, divided in four quite distinct linguistic groups.
iBeaconsPresentation about iBeacons, given on May 26th, 2014 in Zürich (CH), August 13th in Leeds (UK) and August 14th in London (UK), and in October 2014 in Durban (ZA).
Preferred iPad AppsFlipBoard, Reeder, iA Writer, 1Password, Echofon, iWork (Pages, Numbers, Keynote), The Economist, OmniGraffle, InkPad, Adobe Ideas, iBooks, Kindle, Instagram, Instapaper, swissinfo, digital 2.
Why the iPad Is Better Than an Inflight Entertainment SystemAfter all my trouble with air travel, I thought I should add some positive views here.
Dangers of PrototypingFrederick P. Brooks Jr. has written about prototypes, saying that they are not only useful but strictly fundamental pieces of the overall software process, as in many other engineering activities.
Adding ManpowerPublished in 1975, “The Mythical Man-Month” is considered an all-time classic in the software engineering field.
CertificationWhile several other professions have a long, established and standard procedure of certification, the title “software engineer” is applied to both self-made developers, turned into experts of some technique, or to people with PhD degrees, and a long history of both academic and professional achievements.
A Watch - from an OOP PerspectiveA watch might be one of the most common types of objects, but it remains also one of the earliest pieces of human craftmanship to show an extreme level of complexity, all contained in a small amount of space.
Pastrami SandwichI find many similarities between an event like WWDC and a similar one I’ve attended at Redmond long ago; both are big (huge!
Waiting for the KeynoteTwitter’s down, but not my blog! I’m in the main Moscone conference room waiting for the start fo the keynote; there are thousands of people here!
Sistema PropanoBack in 2004 I drafted a content management system based on PHP and AJAX, featuring ideas borrowed from everywhere and that, all in all, formed a rather coherent set.
The Explosion of the Columbia Space ShuttleThe explosion of the Columbia Space Shuttle uncovered several internal problems in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
POSIX Device FilesModern operating systems provide a clear separation of the kernel processes from those running in user space, which prompts the question of how to access I/O devices from user processes, without breaking the above mentioned architectural separation, which guarantees stability, security and performance.
AJAX PresentationToday I have done a tongue-in-cheek presentation of AJAX to my colleagues, including the historic background, the technology and the buzzwords.
Happy Birthday Scripting News!Scripting.com is today 10 years old. It is the oldest running weblog on the web, an incredible source of information through the years.
Peer to Peer: An Overview“P2P” or “peer-to-peer networking” is maybe one of the most controversial and interesting trends in the dawn of the new century; its complete decentralization challenges all definitions of private intellectual property and creates new technological, commercial and juridic challenges.
AOP and the DataServices ProjectFive years ago I worked as a Software Engineer for a startup, based in Geneva, Switzerland, which had the goal of creating a web-based systems management console, to control and monitor the status of large computer installations, much like Microsoft SMS (Systems Management Server) does.
Google EverywhereIt all started with the search engine. I think it was sometime back in 2000, while I was working in Argentina.
TCP FriendlinessTCP congestion control tries to bring solutions to the problem of packet loss, which happens in networks for several reasons:
Reducing Code EntropyThis is a rant: I am tired of seeing virtual methods implemented in child classes that, at some point or another, call the method of the same name in the base class.
Scrum Software Development ProcessIn this article I give an overview of the Scrum Software Development Process.
Acrobat Reader–Wow!I’ve just downloaded and installed Adobe Acrobat Reader for the Mac, both in PowerPC and Intel versions, and there’s just one thing to say: Impressive!
Posting Remotely... From Google Docs and Spreadsheets!Posting from Google Docs & Spreadsheets … This is a test posting from what used to be Writely, the online word processing tool; it turns out that you can use it to publish in your blog, just using the API that is exposed by Wordpress!
Google Code Search vs. Koders.comLast year I’ve written about Koders.com, a search engine that crawled open source code repositories and allowed developers to search for code; an extremely interesting and valuable tool indeed.
Intelligent Software Agents - a .NET ExampleSoftware Example In the February 2006 issue of MSDN Magazine (http://msdn.
About OOP and Other Programming ParadigmsDoes OOP reflect a “natural” way of thinking? Is it a better choice than the procedural programming paradigm?
You've Got Mail!Cuando AOL (America On Line) alla a fines de los 80, le puso a su sistema de correo electronico una voz de chabon que decia “You’ve got Mail!
Hardware PolymorphismSince data and instructions are stored in RAM in pretty much the same way, a priori the CPU cannot distinguish each other, but by the cycle in which the binary chunk is fetched from memory.
What Will the Software Architecture Discipline Look Like in 10 Years' TimeThis is a tricky question; after all, Bill Gates himself published a book in 1995, “The Road Ahead”, where he only slightly talks about the World Wide Web:
Thats What Namespaces Are ForToday I was looking at the list of speakers in the Enterprise Architect Summit 2005 to be held in November in Barcelona… and found out that David Chappell was one of them.
SLOCs and Other StatisticsThe Reuters’ project I’ve previously written about is finally coming to an end, at least version 1.
State of the ArtThis article is a copy of a research work I did today, to draw a map of today’s development technologies.
The Exception to the RuleThe rainy, later snowy, Swiss weather of this weekend has made me just stay at home, and take the chance to try out a few things: that’s how I made my first steps in Ruby and WebObjects.
About Software Architectures and the IEEE 1471 StandardLooking for information on the topic of Software Architecture, I came accross the IEEE 1471 Standard, the “IEEE Recommended Practice for Architectural Description of a Software-Intensive System”.