IronPython 2.0 & Microsoft Research Infer.NET 2.2

 import sys import clr sys.path.append("c:\\program files\\Microsoft Research\\Infer.NET 2.2\\bin\\debug") clr.AddReferenceToFile("Infer.Compiler.dll") clr.AddReferenceToFile("Infer.Runtime.dll") from MicrosoftResearch.Infer import * from MicrosoftResearch.Infer.Models import * from MicrosoftResearch.Infer.Distributions import *  firstCoin = Variable[bool].Bernoulli(0.5) secondCoin = Variable …
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Cascaval et al.'s skepticism on transaction memory

Alexa Weber-Morales of Parallelaware asked me my views on "Software Transactional Memory: Why Is It Only A Research Toy?" given my recent column predicting that the stars are aligning for STM as the model of choice for the manycore era. (Incidentally, if they ever bring back Schoolhouse Rock, my suggested …

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This Glamorous Life of Ours

The glamorous life of a software engineering consultant, Pt. 1

Larry O'Brien says: (7:46:07 AM)

I see you're pushing testing and *scribble* out of 1.3.

Client says: (7:46:23 AM)

we need to move forward

Larry O'Brien says: (7:46:26 AM)

Well.... Not really....

Client …

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Risk factors rewritten as standard practices: twice the fun

Sez Who? has taken the offshore risk profile and rewritten them as recommendations. Sadly, his piece is apparently in use at more companies than mine. >

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Risk Factors for Offshore-Outsourced Development Projects

The June 2008 CACM contains the article "A Risk Profile of Offshore-Outsourced Development Projects"

Since this is a common profile, I thought I'd reproduce the Top 10 Risks. Some of these are universal across all project profiles ("Lack of top management commitment"), but others are definitely more problematic for offshored …

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Throwing over Flash for Silverlight...Wise?

I have a client who needs a Web-page component that does some photo compositing. Nothing super-fancy, but it needs to be professional, obey some business rules, and do some things dynamically based on static data.

The prototype is in Flash, but is filled with hideous programming -- magic numbers, a big …

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RSS/ATOM Feeds -> Kindle

Daniel Choi has created a Ruby gem that consolidates feeds into a Kindle-readable format! Say aloha to paying \$2 to subscribe to a single blog! link

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Some Aspects of the Midori Story from SD Times

The Midori coverage from SD Times has gone mainstream, even making the front page of BBC World News this morning. Since I reviewed the technical portions of the documents for the story, I thought I might clarify some things. First, though:

  • I have no idea who wrote the document
  • I …
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Crossword App for iPhone Making $2K / day

Via Mike Gunderloy comes this link to the claim that a crossword puzzle app for the iPhone is bringing in the developer \$2K per day.

A forthcoming column of mine observes that while Microsoft is still the absolute king of corporate development, Apple has become increasingly appealing for development of …

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Cobbler's Children

I am aware of the irony that I talk a lot about software quality and the infrastructure of this blog is... well, I think it's up more often than Twitter! ...

But, yes, I'm aware. The cobbler's children go barefoot, and all that...

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