Why be interested in bioinformatics as a career path?

You wouldn't write a method without a test, why would you design a user interface without a test? I believe usability is a critical component in agile software development. Had I made usability part of my software development, I know that dating program would have changed my life.

Will programming languages ever reach the expressive power and human readability of natural languages?

You can run Java on everything from large servers to cell phones, but is your code flexible enough to use databases ranging from Oracle to Nokia?

You may have already known that A is for Apple. But did you know that O is for O'Reilly? Check out what Google reports for single character queries.

There is more to management than handing out assignments and taking notes in the weekly status meeting. That "more" is the part that remains when you adopt an agile method.

...Wherein we explore the radical notion that programmers are people, and then look at what this might mean for deep tools, such as APIs, protocols, and programming languages.

Python's BDFL returns from the Python community conference in Washington, DC with a head full of ideas and plans, though not necessarily time to work on them yet.

The JMX API was long in coming, and to date, it is still a long way from 'here'...

Back on Aug 8th, 1988, I started my first day at the AT&T Bell labs facilities in Naperville IL. When you first walk into a really large facility like that, you are overwhelmed by the size. There were so many people there, and so many things going on, like...

When I first saw UNIX, it was V7 UNIX on a Perkin Elmer 3230 at Oklahoma State University. I had been reprimanded for using the class account for research, and was given an account on the department research machine so that I wouldn't cause the account to run dry again.

Everything we do is an investment in time, money, brain space and the like. When we choose a particular API or platform to write software in/on, we are investing time, brain space and most likely money to learn or fight with the issues of that platform.

If processors and networks are getting faster, why do distributed computing at all? If we just wait, servers will be fast enough to do it all. I don't think so, and give some reasons why...

Software, like any piece of literature, invites those who experience it into a Secondary world. Unlike most literature, however, software must satisfy the needs of at least three very exacting audiences.

For social programming to work, specifications must in theory be strictly adhered to by both providers and consumers. But some systems seem to work in practice with loose adherence to specifications, systems in which sloppy providers and forgiving consumers are the norm. How important is strict adherence to contracts?