Rants
High Schoolers Coding in NYC’s AFSE
Over the course of the past 3 months I’ve had the opportunity to visit NYC’s Academy for Software Engineering a few times. AFSE is a “high school for the design and development of software and applications”. The school’s curriculum is largely comprised of the standard high school courses. But AFSE differs in one major way – […]
Mobile World Congress 2013 – Back from Barcelona, Unchanged
A strange thing didn’t happen in Barcelona this week. I arrived home, unchanged and I suspect 70,000 other folks had the same experience, or lack of it. The event was gigantic. The new exhibition space at Fira Gran Via was 94,000 square meters – that’s in the neighborhood of 10 American football fields. There were […]
LinkedIn and eHarmony Lesson: Salt or Die
Adding random bits to create a unique input to a one way function would have most certainly prevented the LinkedIn and eHarmony password fiasco last week. If this sounds complicated and expensive, it isn’t; I explained it right here on Techblog last year. It’s called “salting,” it’s been around for decades and it’s practically free […]
Women in Technology
Meet Computer Engineer Barbie. Originally a gag gift, she sits on my desk and reminds me that I am a female in technology. I laugh and roll my eyes at her for her sparkly leggings, bluetooth headset, and pink laptop. I embrace her for her attempt to encourage girls to pursue technology-related fields. And I […]
Fail Tales #1 – The Highlander Constraint – Designing for 65% Availability
In this installment of Fail Tales, we’ll take a look at the business, user experience and technology design implications of the Highlander Constraint and a few fundamental mitigation tactics. For those unfamiliar with the Highlander tale of film and television, the worlds fortune rests on one person who, by virtue of competitive mortal combat, wins […]
Virtuous Cycles: Complex Systems Build Themselves
Some of the best views of the New York City skyline are from the BQE near the Kosciuszko bridge. It confounds me how a population of hominids built this wonderfully intricate metropolis. Layers upon layers of tunnels, pipes, electronics, the diverse topography of buildings and bridges. It’s awe-inspiring. Our ingenuity as a species is impressive, […]
Over-engineering is like Snoring
A lot of developer cycles are spent discussing the benefits of YAGNI and KISS. On the surface it would seem that there is an army of righteous developers fighting against the demons of over-engineering and maximum complexity. And despite our valiant battles, despite all the books and blog posts and rallying calls from respected technology […]
