michaelfeathers

13 ms·

61.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
I'd go further. Use of software to make a plane airworthy when it isn't natively airworthy is a problem. Civilian aircraft should have a different standard than fighter aircraft: one that allows graceful degradation under failure.
62.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
I like 'collection pipeline' code written in this style regardless of language. If we took away the pipe symbols (or the dots) and just used indentation we'd have something that looked like asm but with flow between steps rat
63.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
In ecology, what the author cites as a problem would be seen as a sign of a healthy robust ecosystem.
64.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
Yes, he was wonderful.
65.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
Here's where I think you and others are missing something. Orange juice is in the hypothetical that they are discussing. There's nothing that says you have to make up a request. It can be a legitimate request, it just wasn't
66.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
What lie?
67.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
I'm stunned that no one is mentioning that this story came from Gerald Weinberg ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Weinberg ) - who passed away a few days ago. He was the OS dev manager for Project Mercury. He
68.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
I may get a chance to write up more over the next week. If I do, it will be on the same blog.
69.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
I'm not sure whether it is finalized yet but the conference may go biennial, skipping next year. That's just what I've heard indirectly. If you're interested, definitely watch for it.
70.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
> Those simple systems have (or rather will soon) perish, while the more complex system that emerged from them survives. I've wondered whether that is why we find ourselves surrounded by complex software. Legacy code is code that pr
71.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
> But I strive to make everything as simple as possible, remove unnecessary components, etc. I still cant understand contexts where complex is better than simple If there are some, I'm not really aware of them. Systems we create sho
72.
Does Software Understand Complexity?(michaelfeathers.silvrback.com)
86 points by michaelfeathers 8y ago|25 comments
73.
by michaelfeathers 8y ago
I think it's because we don't understand systems as well as we should. This article ( http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article207841309.ht... ) is a decent intro to what modeling shows about engage
74.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
I think the architecture of social media spaces affects their culture. I wrote up some observations here: 'Twitter, Reddit, and Conway's Law' https://michaelfeathers.silvrback.com/social-media-architect...
75.
Population polarization dynamics and next-generation social media algorithms(arxiv.org)
2 points by michaelfeathers 9y ago|0 comments
76.
When it comes to news, America is in a state of pure polarization physicist says(miamiherald.com)
1 points by michaelfeathers 9y ago|0 comments
77.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
Obligatory. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11189688
78.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
I'd like to hear a criticism of this.
79.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
I haven't read the full article but my immediate criticism is that systems need the spikes and peaks that synchrony provides. If they didn't exist we'd have to simulate them to keep systems from being overly fragile. Yes, the
80.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
My favorite is this twitter account of titles for imaginary articles constructed from titles submitted to Hacker News. https://twitter.com/HNTitles
81.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
Isn't it strange that the concorde moment for aviation was the retirement of the SR-71?
82.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
This was a Concorde moment for software: the move away from 'The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs' at MIT. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14167453
83.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
It would be interesting to have a word for devices that is sort of like 'organic' for food. It would indicate that the device is self-contained and has no connectivity.
84.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
What's interesting is that we've known this in the industry for decades but people seem to forget it at the user interface. https://scholar.harvard.edu/waldo/publications/note-distribu... https:/&#
85.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
At the same time that this is showing on HN there is an article about an ESPN Analyst walking away after being upset at trauma on a football field [1]. The comments are very interesting in that they point out that football helmets may actua
86.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
I think Postel's Law is best understood as a growth strategy. Its tolerance facilitates easy composition but at the expense of some protocol decay. What the author does not acknowledge is that less tolerant designs schemes are often so
87.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
I wonder whether another way of approaching the problem would be to have to two commenting sections for a site. One would be moderated algorithmically and the other wouldn't. People could choose according to their tolerance.
88.
Hexagonal Architecture and Free Monad: Two Related Design Patterns? (2017)(deque.blog)
3 points by michaelfeathers 9y ago|0 comments
89.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
Coverage isn't the goal. The goal is understanding. Write a test if you don't feel confident that a piece of code does what you think it does. If you're not sure what it does now, there's little chance that you or anyone
90.
by michaelfeathers 9y ago
There's a myth around scaling [1]. Actually, it's almost like a cognitive bias. We assume that we can usually use the same structure as we scale. Because of this bias, we haven't thought enough about how to make bigger struct

More ›