Bookkeeping Defines what Cannot Happen

Just like OO programming does.

Quote:
double-entry bookkeeping... defines what can happen and what can't

Quoted by the Meetup founder, from the book Life, Inc. by Douglas Rushkoff.

Coders, BYOD, and Car Mechanics

When you are a car mechanic and you are looking for work, you are expected to have your own tools.  (Take a look at the want ads in the United States of America if you don't believe me.)

Why don't we require that coders have their own hardware/software tools?  That would save a lot of the cost of supporting those technicians.  After all, they are technicians, right?

Scientists / Engineers / Technicians

When scientists mess up, people lose money and humanity slows down.

When engineers mess up, people lose money and people might get hurt.

When technicians mess up, an engineer signed off on something he/she should not have.

Google drive has crashed. Click this balloon to restart the application.

The "cloud" of the future is just as unstable as the junk upon which we built it.  :-/

Where are those computer systems which remain up and available for decades at a time when we need them?

-Todd

(Written on my Macbook Air.)

Sprint PCS v. Metro PCS and the $4,000 MacBook Air

I looked at the total cost of ownership (TCO) for my new Galaxy Note II with a Sprint PCS plan.  It is

$300 + $80/month = $2,220

If I had purchased a new Galaxy S III with a Metro PCS, which is pretty much the same phone, it would have been:

$40 + $50/month = $1,240

From my understanding, they use the same physical network, so they should be exactly the same thing.

Wow, that is an 80% increase!  That would be like this change:

My Apple MacBook Air I bought 6 months ago:  $2,200 TCO (if I ignore the $400 I paid for accessories like a mouse, and extra charger, cables to use an external monitor, etc.).

Today's cost for a new product that basically does the same thing:  $4,000!

Would you pay $4,000 for a MacBook Air?

Yup, smart phones are the future.  :-)

Windows 8 Performance

As long as Microsoft is selling a server version and a "single-user" version of Windows, they will likely have to continue to internally hobble the "single-user" version so people will not use it instead of paying more for the server version.

Until Microsoft figures out a way to officially separate the two--make Windows "single-user" free or almost free--people are going to use other OSes for their personal devices, and developers are going to continue to use Linux/OS-X/Solaris/etc.

Idea of the Day.

A remote-control amplifier which works with any remote!  Just place it on a surface and it amplifies the signals coming from your remote control.  It works like magic!

It can be advertised as "as seen on TV."  :-)