RedCrystal

6.001 Bookmark

I'm using my blog to keep track of where I am while working this OCW course.

Reading Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs: Foreword

Change of field

I'm giving serious thought to changing my field of study.

Up until now, it has been in enterprise information systems. Corporate systems, including web sites, and business processing.

The problem with that is that a) it's not really inspiring to me and b) the higher up I get, the less it is about really creating new solutions to problems, and more about simply assembling large-scale systems together with the least cost (only, not really, because I'm AMAZED at what corporations pay for crappy systems because they came from a well-known company).

So another area that I've always been interested in is artificial intelligence. Specifically, I like to study the area known as natural language processing (although I would of course be interested in other areas as well).

I'm going to start by examining the MIT Open Course Ware (OCW) classes, to see whether I'm going to be just totally out of my league, or whether I might stand a chance of learning enough to start making useful contributions.

First up: 6.001 Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. Let's see how fast I can get through this.

No more anonymous comments

I'm overwhelmed with spam comments. I'm not sure why -- Community Server supposedly has a spam filter for comments, but maybe I don't have it configured right? Anyway, from now on, if you want to leave a comment, you'll have to register as a user at TwilightSoul.com. You can make up whatever name you want, leave a fake address, I don't care. As a bonus, your comments should show up right away, without waiting for me to approve them.

Kirk Meets Kirk

I was hoping for something a little more, you know, like "The Enemy Within." But then again, I have always been a little too much of a Trekker than is good for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO_Qovoysu8&feature=channel_page

My new software development blog

I decided to move all the technical crap out of my RedCrystal blog and create a new blog just for software development interests. Hopefully I'll have something more interesting to tell the world than "OMG! ROLFMAO! You have to see this! http://linktosomethingonyoutubewhichyoualreadysawlastmonth/ "

So, the new blog will be called Code Charm, at http://twilightsoul.com/blogs/codecharm

For RSS-ready readers, here's the skinny:

• RedCrystal (this blog, the personal one) is syndicated at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/twilightsoul/LAmY (RSS)
• CodeCharm (the software development one) is syndicated at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/CodeCharm (RSS)
• The combination of both blogs (why would you want to do that? I don't know) is syndicated at http://twilightsoul.com/blogs/MainFeed.aspx (RSS)

I have an i-name

This is probably temporary. If I understand it more and like it, I will get a new i-name even friendlier, soon.

=web*alan.mcbee

This is provided by @freeXRI <www.freexri.com>. It looks to be a very cool way to keep a reference to identity on the internet.

Getting from 32 to 64 bits

I’ve often wondered whether setting the obscure /3GB switch in the 32-bit Windows boot.ini would really help increase available memory.

Here’s the definitive article: http://blogs.technet.com/askperf/archive/2007/03/23/memory-management-demystifying-3gb.aspx

And the short version:

Most applications don’t directly benefit from the extra 1GB in the overall 4GB addressable RAM. It has some times/places where it does help.

My main question is not so much on whether one single application will benefit, but whether multiple applications (e.g. web apps or web services) will benefit because the pages wouldn’t have to be swapped out so often.

Testing matters

I have the hardest time getting executive buy-in on the idea of enforcing unit testing in the development process.

But John Robbins (I’m reading older blog entries) puts it very nicely:

Like anything else in software, without a measurement, you're not developing software you're "guessing" software.

Here’s the full article.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

I’m always amazed at the imagination and skill of the photographers who wind up getting their pictures featured at this site run by NASA.

Last Friday (May 1) was no exception: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090501.html

Database backup plans

Only it’s not a backup plan. It’s a restore plan. At least, that’s the takeaway I have from this blog post:

Importance of having the right backups

And the Cliffs Notes (emphasis added):

The vast majority of respondents use the FULL recovery model taking full and log backups (45% - which is what I expected) and about 25% are also taking differentials too. This is a more advanced strategy and can seriously REDUCE your downtime in the event of a disaster. A differential backup basically short-circuits the need to restore all the log backups that were taken in the time between the last full backup and that differential backup. You'll find out more on this in the article. For the ultimate in flexibility and fast recovery, this is the way to go - but at the cost of a little more complicated backup strategy, and extra storage space for the differential backups.

Notes from Sacramento .NET User Group

Tool for getting good code analysis to support massive refactoring (not free): NDepend (www.ndepend.com)

.NET training and expertise from PluralSight (www.pluralsight.com)

Dublin is the code name for the Windows Application Server. www.microsoft.com/net/Dublin.aspx Why is this interesting? Because they’ve taken the goodness of IIS application management – app pools, automatic recycling, web gardens, etc, and made it available for more than just web applications and web services.

Oslo is the new modeling platform coming from Microsoft. This might be interesting. Perhaps this is a good tool for building upon using domain-specific languages, or the other way around. I don’t completely understand this yet, but I’ll be taking a good look at it.

My sources say that it would be better (career-wise) for me to learn more advanced SharePoint than it would to learn BizTalk.

John Robbins from Wintellect (his blog is at http://www.wintellect.com/cs/blogs/jrobbins/default.aspx) wrote a recommended book: Debugging Microsoft .NET 2.0 Applications.

Joe Duffy wrote a recommended book:

I do think concurrent programming is going to be huge. I don’t really think they can keep making CPUs a lot faster; parallel programming is the only way to dramatically increase processing throughput, but it’s so difficult for programmers to control well. Maybe this book will help understand the problem and the possible solutions.

Messing around where I probably shouldn't. Pouring fuel on fires

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/04/23/jon-stewart-socialism-is-awesome/comment-page-1/#comment-29111

and a follow up comment, somewhere in moderation. Will update when it's approved.

Debug Diagnostic Tool v1.1

Here’s a nifty tool that every enterprise ASP.NET programmer and ops person should know about:

Download details: Debug Diagnostic Tool v1.1

In fact, I think we might actually have a very small ongoing problem at work that this tool might help me troubleshoot.

Also, Tess Ferrandez has some suggestions on how to use it.

10 skills developers will need in the next five years | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

10 skills developers will need in the next five years | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Here’s the abridged version (but read the article to see why they are important):

1. One of the “Big Three” (.NET, Java, PHP)
2. Rich Internet Applications (RIAs)
3. Web development
4. Web services
5. Soft skills
6. One dynamic and/or functional programming language
7. Agile methodologies
8. Domain knowledge
9. Development “hygiene”
10. Mobile development

I think this applies mostly to corporate enterprise information system developers. Niche developers can keep on truckin’.

There are more things that I think are pretty important. Functional programming looks like part of a likely solution to massively parallel programming. And Domain Specific Languages (along with Model Driven Architecture and Software Factories) are extremely interesting, though I doubt every programmer needs to know about them.

Good to know: Nine tips for a healthy "in production" ASP.NET application

http://blogs.msdn.com/dougste/archive/2006/04/05/568671.aspx

I will have a bunch of my own tips to add soon.