In email, Charles Gallo makes a point regarding "No Silver Programmers":

I think the HUGE difference between the mean programmer, and the silver bullet programmer is NOT how fast they can code "x" function points. The HUGE difference is when they sit down to solve a problem, and they can …

I'm now reading Dan Simmons' The Terror on my Kindle. He's a very competent writer, and perhaps it's his very slow, very claustrophobic build-up (which he'd d*** well better pay off) that makes it so noticeable, but I have to say that I'm very aware of a certain "running on …

Andrew Dalke reminded me of an essay by Stephen J. Gould (discussed at:

http://www.michaelshermer.com/1996/10/bicycles-baseball-bacteria-and-bach/ and http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/1997/01/outspoken.html) about the decreasing deviation in performance as a field matures. Relating it to the old studies on programming productivity …

Haskell is a language that is pretty hard to "just pick up" (especially if you are mostly familiar with mainstream, C-derived languages). Perhaps "Real World Haskell" by Bryan O'Sullivan, Don Stewart, and John Goerzen will help the language (much beloved in academia) increase in popularity.

In reaction to No Silver Programmers, several people have spoken to the compounding benefits of good programmers (or the compounding pain of bad programmers). This is an excellent point. I think it's best put in \<a href="http://www.valuedlessons.com/2008/01/garlic-programmers-for-silver-code.html"" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer …

She's got to get a CT to confirm, but basically the Doctor told her "no problem." So ends probably the least-productive week of the past several years...

My sincere thanks to everyone who got in touch and kept us in your thoughts. It really helped.

Sometimes I move a penny around on a poster, but this tutorial of creating a Popfly mashup takes things up a notch.

asdfasdasdf

My initial reaction to this is fear that Sun will try to force things a little too hard. When I think of MySQL, I think of ease-of-use and reliability. When I think of SQL Server and Oracle, I think of the ancillary tools and the fierceness with which DBAs cling …

Actually, just a brief post. LINQ has injected into the mainstream a whole range of functional programming topics previously seen as esoteric. Putting aside the merits of each of them, the interesting dynamic to watch will be if these approaches generate a new sub-niche of programming. For instance, C++ templates …