pjmorris

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121.
by pjmorris 2y ago
"A loss of X dollars is always the responsibility of an executive whose financial responsibility exceeds X dollars." - Weinberg’s 'First Principle of Financial Management' and 'Second Rule of Failure Prevention’ - &
122.
by pjmorris 2y ago
At the time, Mickens worked at Microsoft Research, and with the Windows kernel development team. There may only be a few reasons to experiment on your dev machine, but that's one environment where they have those reasons.
123.
by pjmorris 2y ago
Finding 'Software Tools in Pascal' in my local mall bookstore, before I even had access to a computer running Pascal, turned out to be a kind of cheat code for my career. I marveled at the ideas and the writing and it set me up to
124.
by pjmorris 2y ago
It seems like fining or banning problems found problems 'in the wild' would require customer troubleshooting to find the cause, manufacturers would lose the product development cost for banned products, and the regulator(s) would
125.
by pjmorris 2y ago
It'd be nice if people were well-off enough that they didn't have to strip-mine the infrastructure. The economic optimization continues.
126.
by pjmorris 2y ago
'The Dream Machine' languished in my 'To read' pile until I started the audiobook while on a road trip earlier this year. I was drawn in and read it through, switching between audio and ebook. I knew parts of the puzzle
127.
by pjmorris 2y ago
Late 80's: WP's 'Reveal Codes' helped me whip up some code that imported our application's screen definitions so I could use them directly in a specification document, impressing our customer. WP was an elegant weap
128.
by pjmorris 2y ago
I first read 'The Joys of the Craft' section of 'The Mythical Man-Month' at about the five year mark of my programming career, a time when I was feeling a bit blue about the whole enterprise. It inspired me and kept me a
129.
by pjmorris 2y ago
> But it's relatively easy to only have the people that need specific information to have it. Which brings us back to... > "Privacy" until a disgruntled staffer copies or takes a picture or just takes the pieces of pape
130.
by pjmorris 2y ago
> With digital systems, this can be mitigated (rate limiting, encryption and least privilege information sharing, audit logs etc.) to an extent. None of those measures do anything to prevent someone from taking a picture of the screen, w
131.
by pjmorris 2y ago
Arguably, the prevention measures for digital catastrophes are not widely understood by those INside the industry.
132.
by pjmorris 2y ago
For about ten years, I've theorized that we will see the rise of 'boutique' doctor, dentist, and law offices that keep only paper records for the sake of the privacy of their clients. There are a bunch of problems that connec
133.
Where Is the Housing Shortage?(tandfonline.com)
4 points by pjmorris 2y ago|1 comments
134.
by pjmorris 2y ago
Abstract: "This article examines the extent to which the US as a whole and its metropolitan areas face a housing shortage by comparing change in total housing units and total households from 2000 to 2020. Although various studies indic
135.
by pjmorris 2y ago
> Central planning of anything is generally very inefficient and results in the concentration of power. When corporations take over the central planning, what forces should counteract? Before you say 'market forces', you have t
136.
by pjmorris 2y ago
I'd add all software to video games; despite all the optimization and mechanization it remains a creative endeavor.
137.
by pjmorris 2y ago
"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture i
138.
by pjmorris 2y ago
Yes, tools are cheaper, but the big barriers to entry remain the hours invested in learning whatever creative craft is at hand.
139.
by pjmorris 2y ago
He shows up as a key early player in 'The Dream Machine', Michael Waldrop, which follows JCR Licklider's career including the early development of what became the personal computer and the internet.
140.
by pjmorris 2y ago
At the time they bought it, I joked that IBM bought the Weather Channel as part of its Cloud strategy. I stand by that claim.
141.
by pjmorris 2y ago
I'll add Judy Estrin to the list of cool girls from the time, in addition to the non-famous ones I worked with. Her little company stomped our big company at making X terminals back in the 80's. We were probably 70:30 M/F amo
142.
by pjmorris 2y ago
> I'm guessing this works better for consultants than for regular employees, due to employment / tax laws. Yes, if you go as far as treating them with the respect of paying them for their time. However, it can still be done in
143.
by pjmorris 2y ago
Jerry Weinberg used to run a discussion forum for experienced software development consultants, aggregating many years of experience at many companies building significant projects. Their consensus opinion was that a 'work sample test&
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by pjmorris 2y ago
> Considering Medicare/Medicaid are currently approaching $1T annually to serve less than 20% of the population how dues your stroke of the pen plan pay for the increase when everyone is enrolled? Most countries manage on ~12% or le
145.
by pjmorris 2y ago
That's one of the big points made in 'A Peace to End all Peace', I just felt my comment was too long as is. Here's how Fromkin puts it, edited down for length: Some of the disputes, like those elsewhere in the world, are
146.
by pjmorris 2y ago
> "It is essentially lost to history" In practice, this is clearly true. But it is not for lack of trying, at least on some people's parts. I recently read 'A Peace to End All Peace', David Fromkin, which goes in
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by pjmorris 2y ago
I asked my friend to recommend his favorite historical novels, and they were 'The Winds of War' and 'War and Remembrance.' It's amazing how much history is embedded in them, well worth the time to read.
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by pjmorris 2y ago
I've got the same favorite line, it's pretty durable!
149.
by pjmorris 2y ago
So does my wife; she's a high-school guidance counselor.
150.
by pjmorris 2y ago
I've always loved 'The cheapest, fastest and most reliable components of a computer system are those that aren't there.' -- Gordon Bell, as quoted in Jon Bentley's 'Programming Pearls.'

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