From the monthly archives: June 2007
ISOS looks at the last 25 years of computing and provides an interesting look at what went wrong for some companies: how Wordstar lost the word processor market, the failure of the IBM PC Junior, what happened at Ashton-Tate with dBase, etc.
Positives: The writing is really engaging. Once you start the book, you will not put it down. All the stories are very interesting and well written.
Negatives: There isn’t a lot of analysis of what went wrong. It’s mostly the facts, plus a “they made a positioning mistake” sentence and that’s it. I do not understand how the in fighting between two groups of developers at a company can be considered a marketing mistake. Sometimes the author likes to be clever and his humor might annoy some people.
Conclusion: Well worth your time if you like reading about the history of the computer industry and if you would like to avoid some of these mistakes yourself.
Popularity: 7% [?]
People who know me thinks Amazon.ca survives because of the “few” orders I make from them. Here what’s in my last, in case you’re wondering what I’ll be reading in the next few weeks:
- The Art Of The Start [Hardcover]
By: Guy Kawasaki (Author) - Code Generation in Action [Paperback]
By: Jack Herrington (Author) - Non-Designer’s Design Book, The [Paperback]
By: Robin Williams (Author) - The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich [Hardcover]
By: Timothy Ferriss (Author) - Ruby Way, Second Edition, The: Solutions and Techniques in Ruby Programming [Paperback]
By: Hal Fulton (Author) - Fooled By Randomness: the Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets [Paperback]
By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Author) - Founders at Work: Stories of Startups Early Days [Hardcover]
By: Jessica Livingston (Author) - Dip [Hardcover]
By: Seth Godin (Author)
Popularity: 5% [?]
The number of lines of code in the application is a common measure of the importance of the application, and the number of lines a programmer can produce in a day, week, or month is a useful metric for project planning and resource allocation. Abject-oriented programming is one of the best ways to get the most lines of code in the shortest time.
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Inheritance is a way to retain features of old code in newer code. The programmer derives from an existing function or block of code by making a copy of the code, then making changes to the copy.
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A modular program is one that is divided into separate files that share a common header comment block.
Introduction to Abject-Oriented Programming
Tonight is the night for funny links!
Popularity: 8% [?]
Can you guarantee to us that we’ll get as many lines of code from you as we would if we hired a professional company to build this?
Top 20 Stupid Client Quotes at Clientcopia.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Nebula and Hugo award winner in 1972 and 1973. Humanity finds an unlimited source of energy, but it will destroy the sun. The book is divided in three parts, each presenting a different viewpoint: a young scientist trying to convince of the danger, the aliens responsible for the energy source and a scientist on the moon with the help of a female intuitionist.
If you like Asimov’s style, you will like this book. If you don’t, the book has the same flaws as most of his writings. Character development is limited. Most of the book deals with side stories. The first part ridicules the ego and lust for fame of scientists. Asimov then describes a strange alien society where they live in groups of 3 (a Rational, an Emotional and a Parenting), how they make love and evolve to another form after they have 3 children. The last part is about the difficulties involved living on the moon. The “real” story occupies a tenth of the book and there isn’t much development, other than finding a solution.
I personally love Asimov’s imagination and I couldn’t stop reading once I started, always a sign of a great book. 4.5/5 stars.
Popularity: 10% [?]
