I remember way back when I was taught the difference between 'hardware' and 'software':
"If you can kick it, it's hardware, otherwise it's software."
... and that's the problem. Software, unlike some work of art lacks any physical form. You can't scrape off a landscape scene to reveal some hidden masterpiece - once the code is gone, it's gone for good.
Okay - yes - what am I doing, mixing 'art' and 'software' in the same sentence. Most everyone who looks at the majority of software knows it's nothing 'aesthetic' and certainly not 'art'. But that's not always the case. Kind of like those Microsoft ads, us geeks know that at some point in the future, software design will be seen as sexy. There will be a time when the creative process of solving such and such a problem, or designing that process will be viewed as something more refined than mere(!) engineering (or, possibly, considered on a par with traditional engineering). And by then, I wonder what will have been lost? How many designs, systems, applications, architectures, will have been erased, dumped, deleted, lost forever to the code heaven where all lost codes go? Already, how many pre-y2k systems were suitably elegant, and sophisticated to deserve more than the fate they suffered? True. Not all. Maybe not even 'many', but some - yes, certainly some I'd think.
So, should we be preserving these systems, rather than casually erasing them? How many 'legacies' should we be losing, and how many preserving? I don't mean 'maintaining', just moth-balling for future generations. For those yet to come. At least to learn from our mistakes (lest be destined to repeat them). I bet Microsoft still have Windows 3.0 available, but how many lines of business systems built in the 70s are still around somewhere? I know for certain that incredibly sophisticated and complex applications I have worked on are now no more. And literally no more. There presence lost from the software world; no longer in the physical world. No mark left, and no possibility of resurrection. Newer isn't always better; and even if it is better, then what came before isn't automatically irrelevant.
So, a museum of software. More than simply 'oldversion.com'. A celebration of what came before. A collection worth treasuring. Worth keeping. A testament to the endevour that came before. Surely, we should not be casually destroying this art?
Thursday, 21 January 2010
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Micro Men
... or the history of the home micro-computer in the UK.
A fascinating programme on BBC4 about the birth of the home computer, focussing on the battles between Clive Sinclair and ex-employee Chris Curry, who co-founded Acorn Computers.
Very much a walk down memory lane ... the Tandy TRS-80; Commodore Pet; Sharp MZ-80K were all around before the idea of true personal home computers arrived. Heralded by Sinclair's ZX80 (with shrinking screen as you used up the memory), but succeeded ultimately by Acorn's Atom, and then the BBC Micro. Back in the days when a 2.3Hz 6502 with 8k of RAM was seen as ground-breaking. I remember living through this, and the plethora of competing home computers.
Of course, both Sinclair and Acorn eventually fell to the mighty mass-market production of IBM-PCs, and their clones, but out of Acorn came it's ARM chip (a RISC CPU originally called the 'Acorn RISC Machine', then 'Advanced RISC Machine' once separated from its parent) and that low-energy user is now the most used CPU in the world, powering almost all mobile devices.
A warm look at the days of invention and innovation, when England led the way in new technology.
A fascinating programme on BBC4 about the birth of the home computer, focussing on the battles between Clive Sinclair and ex-employee Chris Curry, who co-founded Acorn Computers.
Very much a walk down memory lane ... the Tandy TRS-80; Commodore Pet; Sharp MZ-80K were all around before the idea of true personal home computers arrived. Heralded by Sinclair's ZX80 (with shrinking screen as you used up the memory), but succeeded ultimately by Acorn's Atom, and then the BBC Micro. Back in the days when a 2.3Hz 6502 with 8k of RAM was seen as ground-breaking. I remember living through this, and the plethora of competing home computers.
Of course, both Sinclair and Acorn eventually fell to the mighty mass-market production of IBM-PCs, and their clones, but out of Acorn came it's ARM chip (a RISC CPU originally called the 'Acorn RISC Machine', then 'Advanced RISC Machine' once separated from its parent) and that low-energy user is now the most used CPU in the world, powering almost all mobile devices.
A warm look at the days of invention and innovation, when England led the way in new technology.
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Database Design
...is something often done poorly, but let's not get onto that right now.
Consider throwing out your DBMS and just employ a lot of people to read through card decks. How about that as a solution? Well, after a while I guess each person would learn to deal with the requirements they face - they would probably start ordering their decks in a "most frequently accessed" order. In fact, the order itself would then yield useful information.
Back in our automated world, when you consider what order (primary key?) to assign to a table, rather than 'alphabetical' or 'geographical', why not consider 'access frequency' as part of your key. Something the database knows about, and something that helps you put the most used cards "at the front" (whatever that might mean).
Consider throwing out your DBMS and just employ a lot of people to read through card decks. How about that as a solution? Well, after a while I guess each person would learn to deal with the requirements they face - they would probably start ordering their decks in a "most frequently accessed" order. In fact, the order itself would then yield useful information.
Back in our automated world, when you consider what order (primary key?) to assign to a table, rather than 'alphabetical' or 'geographical', why not consider 'access frequency' as part of your key. Something the database knows about, and something that helps you put the most used cards "at the front" (whatever that might mean).
Monday, 18 February 2008
On new technology
... does technolgy lead the products, or the products lead the technology?
Maybe, as most things in life, the answer isn't simply one or the other, but a combination of both and other factors (yes, there are no simple answers).
How often is a product generated from the desire to see a new technology in action? Where do all the blogs come from - is this led by the ability to host/publish blogs in different ways - built into many technologies; or is the desire to blog pushing the appearance of such technologies?
Well, there's the initial blog appearance - based on non-appealing software, then the idea of a market opporunity seized by the entrepreneur, then the sheep stampede of bloggers which follow, and then the more-blog software avalanche.
It's a symbiosis, not a horse and cart, bud!
Maybe, as most things in life, the answer isn't simply one or the other, but a combination of both and other factors (yes, there are no simple answers).
How often is a product generated from the desire to see a new technology in action? Where do all the blogs come from - is this led by the ability to host/publish blogs in different ways - built into many technologies; or is the desire to blog pushing the appearance of such technologies?
Well, there's the initial blog appearance - based on non-appealing software, then the idea of a market opporunity seized by the entrepreneur, then the sheep stampede of bloggers which follow, and then the more-blog software avalanche.
It's a symbiosis, not a horse and cart, bud!
Thursday, 14 February 2008
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