tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post677410800903475651..comments2023-11-22T01:14:54.298-08:00Comments on amor mundi: And Another ThingDale Carricohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-63802837510739677112009-08-31T18:11:48.540-07:002009-08-31T18:11:48.540-07:00> keep thinking I might be able to distill a c...> keep thinking I might be able to distill a couple of<br />> books out of the ever burgeoning archive of blog posts<br />> I've written. . . What do you think. . .?<br /><br />Hey, I'd buy 'em!<br /><br />In any case, I think these decisions sort of make themselves.<br />One day, you wake up and you just know that's what you're<br />going to do. Or not. ;->jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-68065276473675727392009-08-30T18:19:34.003-07:002009-08-30T18:19:34.003-07:00I keep thinking I might be able to distill a coupl...I keep thinking I might be able to distill a couple of books out of the ever burgeoning archive of blog posts I've written here, many of which I've already collected into themes that seem elaborable (if unadorable) into books. The Academy is still (in my view rather archaically) invested in book-publication as a measure of seriousness, and it seems it would be a good idea in a way. What do you think, Jim? Weirdly, my politics as a copyfighter make me hesitate -- not to mention my reluctance, borne in no small part no doubt of laziness -- to actually try my hand at the editing of such a thing...Dale Carricohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02811055279887722298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5956838.post-24584178541587546292009-08-30T17:50:07.358-07:002009-08-30T17:50:07.358-07:00Dale wrote:
> [I]n [a] prior post I. . . focus...Dale wrote:<br /><br />> [I]n [a] prior post I. . . focus. . . on the more common or<br />> garden variety modes of hyperbole that bedevil democratizing<br />> struggles. . . -- hyperbole playing out in, for example, corporate<br />> advertising or in control-trolling editorials on policy. <br />><br />> One discerns only the precursory trace in this everyday<br />> hyperbole and irrationality of the incandescent pathologies<br />> of superlative futurological discourses to which I have<br />> directed so much of my own critical energies. . .<br /><br />There's a smart guy who runs a software company in New<br />York City named Joel Spolsky, who also writes very<br />entertainingly about the tech scene (and he's gay,<br />too).<br /><br />His blog articles have been collected into two books:<br />_Joel on Software_ and _More Joel on Software_.<br />http://www.amazon.com/Joel-Software-Occasionally-Developers-Designers/dp/1590593898<br />http://www.amazon.com/More-Joel-Software-Occasionally-Developers/dp/1430209879<br /><br />In one of his articles, he waxes eloquent on the subject<br />of hyperbole in the computer biz:<br /><br />http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000018.html<br /><br />"When you go too far up, abstraction-wise, you run out<br />of oxygen. Sometimes smart thinkers just don't know when<br />to stop. . .<br /><br />These are the people I call Architecture Astronauts. . .<br /><br />[A] common thing Architecture Astronauts like to do is<br />invent some new architecture and claim it solves something.<br />Java, XML, Soap, XmlRpc, Hailstorm, .NET, Jini, oh lord I<br />can't keep up. And that's just in the last 12 months!<br /><br />I'm not saying there's anything wrong with these architectures...<br />What bugs me is the stupendous amount of millennial hype that<br />surrounds them. Remember the Microsoft Dot Net white paper? <br /><br />> The next generation of the Windows desktop platform, Windows.NET<br />> supports productivity, creativity, management, entertainment<br />> and much more, and is designed to put users in control of their<br />> digital lives.<br /><br />That was about 9 months ago. Last month, we got Microsoft Hailstorm.<br />That white paper says:<br /><br />> People are not in control of the technology that surrounds them....<br />> HailStorm makes the technology in your life work together on your<br />> behalf and under your control.<br /><br />Oh, good, so now the high tech halogen light in my apartment will<br />stop blinking randomly. . .<br /><br />And don't even remind me of the fertilizer George Gilder spread<br />about Java:<br /><br />> A fundamental break in the history of technology...<br /><br />That's one sure tip-off to the fact that you're being assaulted<br />by an Architecture Astronaut: the incredible amount of bombast;<br />the heroic, utopian grandiloquence; the boastfulness; the complete<br />lack of reality. And people buy it! The business press goes wild!<br /><br />Why the hell are people so impressed by boring architectures that<br />often amount to nothing more than a new format on the wire for RPC,<br />or a new virtual machine? These things might. . . benefit the<br />developers [who] use them, but they are not, I repeat, not, a good<br />substitute for the messiah riding his white ass into Jerusalem,<br />or world peace. No, Microsoft, computers are not suddenly going to<br />start reading our minds and doing what we want automatically just<br />because everyone in the world has to have a Passport account.<br />No, Sun, we're not going to be able to analyze our corporate<br />sales data 'as simply as putting a DVD into your home theatre<br />system.'"<br /><br />why indeed? ;-> "Lookin' for love in all the wrong places. . ."jimfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04975754342950063440noreply@blogger.com