My Philosophy of Life
It's been a while
Latest
2024-01-12 Roundup: Musk Ox
We kick around our opinions of the recent biography "Elon" and why his personality seems to work to make cool organizations when others with the same personality type do not.
A Christmas Story
From the archives, the story they don't tell you.
2023-12-15 Roundup
Stanislaw Lem, Deep Thoughts about how brains work, Top Ten Weird Science stories, CIA UFO/UAP Office, and more.
2023 Advent of Code Prep 1
Reviewing my code from AoC 2022 and planning on next steps to prep for December 1.
F# Pure FP, readability, scripting, and more
2023-11-10 Roundup
Advent of Code is coming! Graph-based type checking. Just what, exactly, IS a design pattern?
2023-11-03 Roundup
SQL, DDD, and the coming code apocalypse, estimates and programming, never save your company money, and Spot the Robotic Tour Guide. It's all here.
2023-10-27 Roundup
Working with hexagonal grids in F#, Next Gen caret navigation, the importance of handwriting, the dark side of curiosity, and more
2023-10-20 Roundup
New elements outside the Periodic Table, watching the Beatles make the album "Get Back" Interview with David West, more
2023-10-13 Roundup
Coding styles, developer productivity, more CRDT fun
Write What You Don't Know
Two tweets pissed me off last week and I'm not sure why, so I'm going to write about them.
Large-Language Failures
One is surprised such a thing is possible at all
2023-09-29 Roundup
Strong arrows/gradual typing, your future job as a lumberjack, YouTube Obituary Pirates, Amazon destroying your life, and PC Vikings, this week and more
You Can Be a Lumberjack (and that's okay)
Let's talk about Symbol Behavior Mapping and how you should be using it daily to become a better and happier programmer
2023-09-22 Roundup
DHH Typescript rant, Darknet Diaries, Leave those planets alone, and Variations on scripty oopy functional code
2023-09-08 Roundup
Exception handling, AI-powered backpacks, racist variable names, and more
2023-09-01 Code Roundup
Random question from LinkedIn prompted a bit of a code adventure this morning. See some work in both Ruby and F# to answer it.
2023-08-25 Roundup
Railway Programming, Locality of Behavior, Agile Paradoxon, UAPs, AI Life Advice, Fifth Force of Nature, Throwing out babies
Systematizing Destroys Moral Nuance And Makes Us All Infants
When we create economic systems that make lots of money doing things with ambiguity that needs addressing, the ambiguity always goes away.
2023-08-11 Roundup
LK-99 Nerd Adventure, Predictive Debugging from JetBrains, The Age of Agile Must End, and more
My Six-Stage Fiction-Writing Process
2023-08-03 Roundup
Today's topics include: Tim Ottinger's return type from function twitter comment, Installing new CSS libraries, Team Topologies discussion
2023-07-21 Nerd Roundup
Dumpster fires, checked exceptions, better peer reviews, an the case against reality
Personality Modeling Version 47
2023-07-14 Roundup
Obsidian, AWS, Microservices, Taste Communities, and more
Technology is a Racket
Like a boy raised on a farm visiting a town for the first time, things are not as they appear. But instead of encountering such systems once in a month, technology enables us to encounter a hundred separate systems in the hour before breakfast
2023-06-23 Roundup
News, nerds, and nonsense
Twilight Of The Programmers
Our profession does structured analysis in a way no other profession has ever done. Let's not lose that precious gift.
2023-04-28 Nerd Roundup
Large Language Model Transformers, Consciousness begins with feeling not thinking, robot armies for DoD, The AI Dilemma, Russia kills its tech industry, battery breakthrough and more
2023-04-21 Nerd Roundup
Hyperdimensional computing, this week's UFO hearing, Vulkan files, MRSK, low code deployment, evil runs through the human heart, and the Pentagon leak
The Great AI Debate Has Reached Ludicrous Speed
I have concluded, however, that's important for each of us to establish our own ethics of interaction. These are mine.
2023-03-31 Roundup
Generative voice playground, 50-year recurring crises theory, make up your own fake history, welcome STEVE, double-reverse revenge deepfake porn and more
2023-03-24 Roundup
Coding client-side OpenAI, simple made easy, laying out books with CSS, web fingerprinting, time reflections in EM, you're right not to trust public health...
2023-03-17 Roundup
12 steps to better code, introducing Software Factories, protest porn, AI calling you pretending to be loved ones, what's the best use of your coding skills, Quantum Retrocausation, paper models of your favorite computers...
2023-03-01 Roundup
Clean Code, bad performance, getting rid of POSIX, anti-autonomous weapons systems, breaking ground on physical non-NFT digital collectibles, what to unlearn, and more
2023-02-24 Roundup
Carmack on Functional Programming, OS noise and jitter, completely new kinds of computers and programming on the way, and a possible solution for Dark Energy. Good week on the Roundup!
Forced Boredom
I don't know. I may never know. It may be truly impossible. That's the fun part. Even more fun is the process to solve them.
2023-02-17 Roundup
TLA+, system testing vs. acceptance testing, alien balloon attack, F# spreadsheet products, giant floatplanes, fighter plane history, Chinese attack squirrels arriving in balloons, and more
My Four Kinds Of Writing
I think that personally understanding and using these four writing patterns can help. At least they've helped me.
Technology Has Lost Its Pragmatism
So we have two questions here: One, how do we draw boundaries around our computer programs such that we minimize the risk of any one concept failing? Two, how do we define any one term such that it is impossible for there to be a misunderstanding or for the program to crash?
2023-02-10 Roundup
Haskell, Category Theory, Falling out of love with programming, All Education is Bullshit, Gifted kids are special needs, and more this week.
2023-02-03 Roundup
Erlang theory, Sky Yachting, my essay on how functional programming is a different kettle of fish, lots of AI news, UAPs and endless Seinfeld
No, It's Not All The Same
My friend, your book premise is horribly whack, but good news: the details can stay the same as long as the reader understands that this is only Step One
The Biggest Problem In Real-World Computer Programming
One-hundred years ago a logician pointed out that naming variables is hard. Programmers can (and must) fix this problem
Cloudy Weekend: Migrating My Blog Engine
I crashed my CMS server and had to do an emergency lift-and-shift upgrade over the weekend. Here's how it went
Technologists, We Gotta Talk
"It Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding It"
Poor Programmers Out-Breed Good Ones
Today, aside from AI and a few other areas, most commercial code involves far more people and effort than is actually needed. We desperately need to take stock of where we are.
Roundup: Advent Of Code 2022 Part II The Elves Strike Back
More complaining, code, and commentary on this years Advent of Code. Fun times.
Roundup Advent Of Code 2022
Let's take a look at the code we've coded for Advent of Code 2022
The Overlords Finally Showed Up
After decades of promises, AI has finally leveled up. What does that mean for us?
How Do Software Projects End?
Nobody talks about how to end projects in our business. It's an odd thing.
2022-11-25 Five Dysfunctions and Culture Code
If you're into technology teams and flow, you're in luck. This week we're covering both a classic teams book and probably the best teams book I've read in the last 10 years
2022-11-04 The Goal
The book that changed the management world, including the patron book of DevSecOps
2022-10-28 UML Distilled
The book that helped kick off a revolution in large-system technology design and implementation
2022-10-21 Random Roundup
Michael Feathers joined Jon, Greg, and I for a random-topic roundup. Much fun!
Technology is a Racket
We make a categorical error when talking about how modern technology interacts with society. Until we understand the problem, we'll never make progress towards a solution.
2022-10-07 Clean Code
Even bad code can function. But if code isn’t clean, it can bring a development organization to its knees. Every year, countless hours and significant resources are lost because of poorly written code. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
2022-09-30 How To Force Checkmate
One of the best books on chess I've read, from 1949.
Slack: Getting Past Burnout
Why is it that today’s superefficient organizations are ailing? Tom DeMarco, a leading management consultant to both Fortune 500 and up-and-coming companies, reveals a counterintuitive principle that explains why efficiency efforts can slow a company down.
The Mythical Man-Month
Few books on software project management have been as influential and timeless as The Mythical Man-Month. With a blend of software engineering facts and thought-provoking opinions, Fred Brooks offers insight for anyone managing complex projects.
The Pragmatic Programmer
The Pragmatic Programmer is one of those rare tech books you’ll read, re-read, and read again over the years. Whether you’re new to the field or an experienced practitioner, you’ll come away with fresh insights each and every time.
Principles of Product Development Flow
The uber-grandaddy of all management books. Reinertsen examines today's product development practices and explains why invisible and unmanaged queues are the underlying root cause of poor product development performance
Conway's Life, TDD and F#
Coad-Yourdon's OOA and OOD Books
A life and career-changing set of books in software development and architecture
2022-08-19 Code Complete
Code Complete, the classic software craftsman book
The Rant
Technology development, Agile adoption, organizational change, and why our system of education and inustrialization of programming is rigged against true problem-solving
2022-07-08 Nerd Roundup
The windows malloc trash fire, nerd fight over kubernetes being a red flag, AI writing academic papers about itself, Google's Colossus, and more
2022-07-08 Nerd Roundup!
The windows malloc trash fire, nerd fight over kubernetes being a red flag, AI writing academic papers about itself, Google's Colossus, and more
2022-07-01 Nerd Roundup
Free CRDT desktop tool, using math to spot liars, blood pressure tattoos, Mr. Fusion garage-sized reactors, and more.
2022-07-01 Nerd Roundup!
Free CRDT desktop tool, using math to spot liars, blood pressure tattoos, Mr. Fusion garage-sized reactors, and more
Novum Novum Organum Organum++
Ok kids, we're going to refactor all of the modern education system. Who wants to go first?
Starting New Book: Functional Programming Smells
Starting on a new book project in July: Functional Programming Smells. Join along for the ride!
2022-06-24 Nerd Roundup
Bananas and random numbers, Help Desk to anti-tank missiles, Web5, Silicon Photonics and more!
2022-06-24 Nerd Roundup!
Bananas and random numbers, Help Desk to anti-tank missiles, Web5, Silicon Photonics and more!
2022-06-17 Nerd Roundup
It's Nerd Roundup!
2022-06-17 Nerd Roundup!
It's Nerd Roundup!
2022-06-10 Nerd Roundup
Darklang backend rewrite complete, trilobite cameras, code bloat, and more.
2022-06-10 Nerd Roundup!
Darklang backend rewrite complete, trilobite cameras, code bloat, and more.
2022-06-03 Nerd Roundup!
Wordle, brains, wifi your fat, AI, Settlers of Catan, and quality time versus quantity time. All that plus Terraform and hidden gold this week.
2022-06-03 Nerd Roundup
Wordle, brains, wifi running on your fat, AI, Settlers of Catan, and quality time versus quantity time. All that plus Terraform and hidden gold this week.
2022-05-27 Nerd Roundup
Constructors, Initializers, Compilers, oh my! Big bag of coding fun this week on Nerd Roundup!
2022-05-27 Nerd Roundup!
Constructors, Initializers, Compilers, oh my! Big bag of coding fun this week on Nerd Roundup!
2022-05-20 Nerd Roundup
It was a hunka hunka burnin nerds this week as we cover the new science of AI diagnostics, lock-free queues, and team topologies
2022-05-20 Nerd Roundup!
It was a hunka hunka burnin nerds this week as we cover the new science of AI diagnostics, lock-free queues, and team topologies
2022-05-13 Nerd Roundup
No podcast this week, but we've got a bunch of cool articles with descriptions and links. Some cool coding stuff!
2022-05-13 Nerd Roundup!
No podcast this week, but we've got a bunch of cool articles with descriptions and links. Some cool coding stuff!
2022-05-06 Nerd Roundup
What is the boundary of your application? Does working remotely happen creativity? Sim City for information warfare and more this week on Nerd Roundup!
2022-05-06 Nerd Roundup!
What is the boundary of your application? Does working remotely happen creativity? Sim City for information warfare and more this week on Nerd Roundup!
2022-04-29 Nerd Roundup
Lunar Lander for the web, the DSM-V, redefining the second, the birth of biocosmology and more this week.
2022-04-29 Nerd Roundup!
Lunar Lander for the web, the DSM-V, redefining the second, the birth of biocosmology and more this week.
Learning To Stop
We have a problem
Idea Assembly Part #473
Chaos, Cynefin, Complexity, Hexagonal Architecture, and Onions
2022-04-22 Nerd Roundup
This week we've got pointer provenance in language design, leasing your dog like you do cellphones, learning message queueing from scratch, DIY Oreo research, abandoning serverless compute, and more!
2022-04-22 Nerd Roundup!
This week we've got pointer provenance in language design, leasing your dog like you do cellphones, learning message queueing from scratch, DIY Oreo research, abandoning serverless compute, and more!
2022-04-15 Nerd Roundup
The Rock Band of Theseus, solar's on-demand problem solved, multicomputation: the fourth paradigm, AI Transformers, color night vision, and more this week on Nerd Roundup!
2022-04-15 Nerd Roundup!
The Rock Band of Theseus, solar's on-demand problem solved, multicomputation: the fourth paradigm, AI Transformers, color night vision, and more this week on Nerd Roundup!
2022-04-08 Nerd Roundup
Buckle up! The nerds are at it again!
2022-04-08 Nerd Roundup!
Buckle up! The nerds are at it again!
Stop Leaning on the Pedal
2022-04-01 Nerd Roundup
Why can't they build cars in sprints? The technical details of abstractions in programming. Volcanoes on Pluto. Time to shout it out: build less software!
2022-04-1 Nerd Roundup!
Why can't they build cars in sprints? The technical details of abstractions in programming. Volcanoes on Pluto. Time to shout it out: build less software!
2022-03 Azure DevOps Podcast
I had a lot of fun talking with Jeffrey today about cloudops, architecture, microservices, programming languages, and more
2022-03 Azure DevOps Podcast!
I had a lot of fun talking with Jeffrey today about cloudops, architecture, microservices, programming languages, and more
2022-03-25 Nerd Roundup
Are we seeing the death of armor in warfare? What's algorithmic destruction and should you be concerned about it? The nightmare of windows source code, and more1
2022-03-25 Nerd Roundup!
Are we seeing the death of armor in warfare? What's algorithmic destruction and should you be concerned about it? The nightmare of windows source code, and more1
2022-03-18 Nerd Roundup
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. I have no idea what that means. Perhaps the Nerds do!
Random Word Generator In Bash
A fun little bash function I wrote over dinner. It randomly chooses n-letter words based on the frequency that words occur in the language.
Cognition Versus Programming: The Big Two
Why Is TDD Necessary ?
2022-03-11 Nerd Roundup
AI allows grandpa to tell you stories from beyond the grave. The computer science of wargaming. Testing asm directives in C++. All this and more this weeek!
2022-03-11 Nerd Roundup!
AI allows grandpa to tell you stories from beyond the grave. The computer science of wargaming. Testing asm directives in C++. All this and more this weeek!
Setting up an AWS RTMP Multipoint Video Streaming Server 3
Web servers, protocols, and streaming. Making it past the server stand-up smoke test
Setting up an AWS RTMP Multipoint Video Streaming Server 2
Worrying about doing the right thing is at least five orders of magnitude more important than worrying about doing things right
Setting up an AWS RTMP Multipoint Video Streaming Server 1
Want to run your own TV station online? How about simply own more of the infrastructure you use in streaming your Donkey Kong games? RTMP's the thing
2022-03-04 Nerd Roundup
Much more serious, this week the roundup addresses tech and war
2022-03-04 Nerd Roundup!
Much more serious, this week the roundup addresses tech and war
2022-02-25 Nerd Roundup
Don't make me take down the internet again! Dad crashes entire town's internet because kids were bad. This and more on this week's Nerd Roundup
2022-02-25 Nerd Roundup!
Don't make me take down the internet again! Dad crashes entire town's internet because kids were bad. This and more on this week's Nerd Roundup
2022-02-18 Nerd Roundup
We busted out in all kinds of nerdness this week, from doodling on expensive paintings to idempotency and event orchestration. Much fun was had.
2022-02-18 Nerd Roundup!
We busted out in all kinds of nerdness this week, from doodling on expensive paintings to idempotency and event orchestration. Much fun was had.
We Are Happy Consumers Of Our Own Inefficiencies
When books collide
2022-02-11 Nerd Roundup
Another great roundup week with Jon Kern
2022-02-11 Nerd Roundup!
Another great roundup week with Jon Kern
2022-02-04 Nerd Roundup
C# Desconstruction, wild astrophotography , our right to transact privately, the potential quantum winter, Decision-Centric Warfare, wrestling satellites and more this week on Nerd Roundup!
2022-02-04 Nerd Roundup!
C# Desconstruction, wild astrophotography , our right to transact privately, the potential quantum winter, Decision-Centric Warfare, wrestling satellites and more this week on Nerd Roundup!
Make Your Own Music Montage in BASH
Use bash to make your own music montage
2022-01-28 Nerd Roundup
Did you know that the dinosaurs died in June? That scientists are working on the first programming language for quantum computers? This, spacetime microscopes, and more on this week's Nerd Roundup!
2022-01-28 Nerd Roundup!
Did you know that the dinosaurs died in June? That scientists are working on the first programming language for quantum computers? This, spacetime microscopes, and more on this week's Nerd Roundup!
2022-01-21 Nerd Roundup
We covered half-a-dozen really cool programming articles this week, along with the usual silliness of selling your farts online and teaching goldfish to swim.
2022-01-21 Nerd Roundup!
We covered half-a-dozen really cool programming articles this week, along with the usual silliness of selling your farts online and teaching goldfish to swim.
2022-01-07 Nerd Roundup
Exchange Server 2019 has an update bug that defies understanding, 777 pilots almost follow flight director into the ground, getting hamsters drunk, and more this week
2022-01-07 Nerd Roundup!
Exchange Server 2019 has an update bug that defies understanding, 777 pilots almost follow flight director into the ground, getting hamsters drunk, and more this week
Masterclass: Cross-checking
A rant on the simple, yet under-appreciated art of cross-checking
2021-12-31 Nerd Roundup!
This should work in iTunes. (This link http://danielbmarkham.com/podcast/rss is a podcast feed) If it doesn't work, here's a direct link to the mp3: 2021-12-31 Nerd Roundup!
Our Audio Podcast RSS
2021-12-31 Nerd Roundup
It's the end-of-year wrap-up, Charlie Brown!
2021-12-24 Nerd Roundup!
Sacred Chickens, Superdeterminism in Physics, Architecture-Oriented Programming, and giving yourself night vision, this and more this week on Nerd Roundup.
2021-12-24 Nerd Roundup
Sacred Chickens, Superdeterminism in Physics, Architecture-Oriented Programming, and giving yourself night vision, this and more this week on Nerd Roundup.
We're Testing Discord
If you use Discord, drop by our server! We're trying to figure out whether Discord will work better than all the other ways we keep chatting and sharing stuff.
2021-12-17 Nerd Roundup
Good friends. Good topics. Horrible internet.
2021-12-17 Nerd Roundup!
Good friends. Good topics. Horrible internet.
F# Good and Bad
Code stupid. Clean smart.
2021-12-10 Nerd Roundup
The biggest jump forward in warfare since the machine gun, accidental warp bubbles and the math that powers them, CSS For-loops, InfoSec leaks, CRDTs for ASTs, and more.
2021-12-10 Nerd Roundup!
The biggest jump forward in warfare since the machine gun, accidental warp bubbles and the math that powers them, CSS For-loops, InfoSec leaks, CRDTs for ASTs, and more.
2021-12-03 Nerd Roundup
The internet overlords were unkind, but the roundup continued on anyway with holographic cameras, web3, UAPs, and more.
2021-12-03 Nerd Roundup!
The internet overlords were unkind, but the roundup continued on anyway with holographic cameras, web3, UAPs, and more.
We've Been Doing This The Wrong Way
We need to move from a descriptive/prescriptive model to a avoidance/proscriptive one
2021-11-26 Nerd Roundup
New propulsion systems that can reach Jupiter in four weeks, NFT pirates, custom split keyboards, Amazon's new JSON format, and holographic cameras, all this week on the roundup.
2021-11-26 Nerd Roundup!
New propulsion systems that can reach Jupiter in four weeks, NFT pirates, custom split keyboards, Amazon's new JSON format, and holographic cameras, all this week on the roundup.
What's the Frequency, Kenneth? (F#)
Online forums, primitive obsession, F# coding, and premature optimization in Functional Programming
2021-11-19 Nerd Roundup
Goodbye Clean Code, Truth Ledgers, new C# features, oceans in Earth's core, and much more this week on the roundup. Cheese shop sketch included.
2021-11-19 Nerd Roundup!
Goodbye Clean Code, Truth Ledgers, new C# features, oceans in Earth's core, and much more this week on the roundup.
Is F# Tough to Learn?
It can be. A lot depends on how it's taught and what programmers think they're going to be learning.
F# Console App and Review of Tasks
Creating the beginnings of a console app from scratch using tasks
2021-11-12 Nerd Roundup
This week our topics include new concept electric vehicles, ways to have AI explain its reasoning, postage stamps from non-existent countries, and more.
2021-11-12 Nerd Roundup!
This week our topics include new concept electric vehicles, ways to have AI explain its reasoning, postage stamps from non-existent countries, and more.
Grid of Civilization
How would you describe the universe to a friend?
2021-11-05 Nerd Roundup
Virtual Particles From The 5th Dimension! Wonderful pictures of Jupiter. Nuclear rockets, and do-nothing scripting.
2021-11-05 Nerd Roundup!
Virtual Particles From The 5th Dimension! Wonderful pictures of Jupiter. Nuclear rockets, and do-nothing scripting.
2021-10-29 Nerd Roundup
Fast-booting your Raspberry Pi, OWASP Top Ten security threats, city planning, a new floating point standard, and glass that makes you glow in the dark, all this week on the roundup!
2021-10-29 Nerd Roundup!
Fast-booting your Raspberry Pi, OWASP Top Ten security threats, city planning, a new floating point standard, and glass that makes you glow in the dark, all this week on the roundup!
The Iron Diamond
Technology projects are much, much more Product Development than Project Management. Today we've got more technology product development goodness, with plenty more to follow.
2021-10-22 Nerd Roundup
Meta C++ compile-time programming, playin' video games for money, jamming up people who want to record you, Uncle Bob, and getting pigs to give up their organs to you, all here this week on Nerd Roundup
2021-10-22 Nerd Roundup!
Meta C++ compile-time programming, playin' video games for money, jamming up people who want to record you, Uncle Bob, and getting pigs to give up their organs to you, all here this week on Nerd Roundup
Notional Neuron goes to the Learning Zoo
There's a ton of bullshit here for sure, but there's also enough truth to make exploring extremely worthwhile
2021-10-15 Nerd Roundup
This week it's the Nobel Prize and how several prizes were about chaos and complexity, Microsoft Research's Orleans, Mamas don't teach your babies to grow up to be programmers, things you can't say on Facebook
2021-10-15 Nerd Roundup!
This week it's the Nobel Prize and how several prized were about chaos and complexity, Microsoft Research's Orleans, Mamas don't teach your babies to grow up to be programmers, and things you can't say on Facebook
Feedback Loops Are Bullshit
The phrase "feedback loop" is total bullshit. We're all going to have to keep using it anyway. Here's why.
2021-10-08 Nerd Roundup
We've had more deep-dive technical nerdy weeks, but I don't think we've had as many programming links to share across a broad range of industries. Also, The Great Pumpkin wants your refrigerator.
2021-10-08 Nerd Roundup!
We've had more deep-dive technical nerdy weeks, but I don't think we've had as many programming links to share across a broad range of industries. Also, The Great Pumpkin wants your refrigerator.
2021-10-01 Nerd Roundup
Good gracious almighty, this week it's Category Theory, obscure rules of chess, secrets of Autonoetic Consciousness, transparent aluminium, and lots more!
2021-10-01 Nerd Roundup!
Good gracious almighty, this week it's Category Theory, obscure rules of chess, secrets of Autonoetic Consciousness, transparent aluminium, and lots more!
Boyd's Management Model
No matter what kind of organization you have or want, management doesn't go away. It's something to do and it's a skill and talent that some folks have to develop so that everybody overall can do better. How do you classify those skills?
Code Smell: Primitive Obsession
We coders can't even keep track of a few primitives. Can we just accept that and adjust our style or do we want to continue obsessing over primitive obsession?
2021-09-24 Nerd Roundup
Tech topics this week included property-based testing, 747s stuffed full of cruise missiles, polygenic testing, fluid solvers, nuclear thermal rockets, and much more.
2021-09-24 Nerd Roundup!
Tech topics this week included property-based testing, 747s stuffed full of cruise missiles, polygenic testing, fluid solvers, nuclear thermal rockets, and much more.
Code Budgets: They Ain't Just For Code
We've discovered principles to help us code, but we'd be missing out on all of the big benefits if we stopped there. What are standups, anyway?
2021-09-17 Nerd Roundup
What a great Nerd Roundup today! We did some Erlang, Docker, language design, type classes, railguns, and much more. There was also an extra amount of silliness in the news in the past week for some reason
2021-09-17 Nerd Roundup!
What a great Nerd Roundup today! We did some Erlang, Docker, language design, type classes, railguns, and much more. There was also an extra amount of silliness in the news in the past week for some reason
Breaking Up Is Hard To Do: Scaling Out Technology Teams
2021-09-10 Nerd Roundup
Are we going to build actual skunks at the new skunk works? Building satellites out of wood, git with cats, top programming languages in 2021, ducks who swear and more on this week's roundup!
2021-09-10 Nerd Roundup!
Are we going to build actual skunks at the new skunk works? Building satellites out of wood, git with cats, top programming languages in 2021, ducks who swear and more on this week's roundup!
Your service isn't my product
2021-09-03 Nerd Roundup
Will TDD work with all kinds of embedded code? Why would anybody need 64GB on a laptop? Can CSS eventually drive my truck to town? All this and more this week on Nerd Roundup!
2021-09-03 Nerd Roundup!
Will TDD work with all kinds of embedded code? Why would anybody need 64GB on a laptop? Can CSS eventually drive my truck to town? All this and more this week on Nerd Roundup!
Your product isn't my service (and vice-versa)
2021-08-27 Nerd Roundup
Wow, what a bunch of topics! Hash functions, Pi calculus, publishing, odd Imperial measurements, resilient coding, microcode errors, road warrior stories, and more!
2021-08-27 Nerd Roundup!
Wow, what a bunch of topics! Hash functions, Pi calculus, publishing, odd Imperial measurements, resilient coding, microcode errors, road warrior stories, and more!
We don't 'do' Learning. It does us.
2021-08-20 Nerd Roundup!
Audio nerds unite, subnetting your NAT, directories with more than 8 million files, social networking rules for religions having religious purity wars, autonomous driving levels, and programming language fragility. It's all here this week.
2021-08-20 Nerd Roundup
Audio nerds unite, subnetting your NAT, directories with more than 8 million files, social networking rules for religions having religious purity wars, autonomous driving levels, and programming language fragility. It's all here this week.
2021-08-13 Nerd Roundup
A bash script walkthru, why are people so stupid, how Daniel fell off the roof, the next Mars helicopter, and DRY's no fun. All this week on Nerd Roundup
2021-08-13 Nerd Roundup!
A bash script walkthru, why are people so stupid, how Daniel fell off the roof, the next Mars helicopter, and DRY's no fun. All this week on Nerd Roundup
What Hath Man Wrought?
Communication technology in the early 21st century
2021-08-06 Nerd Roundup
Sweating your fat away through science, the mystery of Hess, ZKPs, Alien Dreams, Vue, HSVSTOLs, Time Crystals, and being frozen alive. It's all here this week.
2021-08-06 Nerd Roundup!
Sweating your fat away through science, the mystery of Hess, ZKPs, Alien Dreams, Vue, HSVSTOLs, Time Crystals, and being frozen alive. It's all here this week.
2021-07-30 Nerd Roundup!
Force fields, better ways to search for aliens, Winning Ticket Hypothesis, guitar hero kills thousands, and water can actually be a metal, a golden metal. All this week on Nerd Roundup!
2021-07-30 Nerd Roundup
Force fields, better ways to search for aliens, Winning Ticket Hypothesis, guitar hero kills thousands, and water can actually be a metal, a golden metal. All this week on Nerd Roundup!
The Argument Game I
2021-07-23 Nerd Roundup
What more could one ask from a Nerd Roundup? New footage from the moon, optical recalibration, spintronicvs, protein folding advancements, Star Trek, and Pegasus.
2021-07-23 Nerd Roundup!
What more could one ask from a Nerd Roundup? New footage from the moon, spintronicvs, protein folding advancements, Star Trek, and Pegasus.
2021-07-16 Nerd Roundup
In which Daniel learns that everything he knew about biology is wrong, the Post Office is spying on social media, and bullshit in an organization can be measured
2021-07-16 Nerd Roundup!
In which Daniel learns that everything he knew about biology is wrong, the Post Office is spying on social media, and there's a measurement for bullshit in any organization
AIQ, Round 3
F# Is The Best Coding Language Today
If you want to personally pick up a programming language in order to become a better coder in whatever other languages you use, F# is the best overall teaching/coding language you can find.
2021-07-09 Nerd Roundup!
Shrimp on cocaine, trout on meth, software development on formal methods, riding the hype cycle, and the internet is all one big hallucination, this week on Nerd Roundup!
2021-07-09 Nerd Roundup
Shrimp on cocaine, trout on meth, software development on formal methods, riding the hype cycle, and the internet is all one big hallucination, this week on Nerd Roundup!
2021-07-01 Nerd Roundup
We may have only talked about one or two links in our list this week, but we had a great time talking about tech, orgs, process, and what makes an ethical and effective consultant.
2021-07-01 Nerd Roundup!
We may have only talked about one or two links in our list this week, but we had a great time talking about tech, orgs, process, and what makes an ethical and effective consultant.
Life is Standing in Line
We lie in wait for the future. Are we preparing for a better one for ourselves and others, or are we just taking up space, flailing along, trying to reach various end-states without paying attention to the little bits of actual minutiae that we own?
2021-06-25 Nerd Roundup
Factorio, NATO, John Mcfee, git, dwarfs, and hacking. All here on this week's Nerd Roundup!
2021-06-25 Nerd Roundup!
Factorio, NATO, John Mcfee, git, dwarfs, and hacking. All here on this week's Nerd Roundup!
Math Dad Jokes
Two plus two is five for large values of two.
Saint Thomas Aquinas 4 of 4
Aquinas took the theological principles of faith and combined them with the philosophical principles of reason from Aristotle. He is ranked among the most influential thinkers of medieval Scholasticism.
The Canyon
Ditch-digging, the universe, and crossing the chasm of human experience; balancing invention and practicality
2021-06-18 Nerd Roundup
How to become a failed internet billionaire, measuring the mass of a minus sign, free classic art, how to properly use SO, and the coming invasion of brown dwarfs in exobiology, all on this week's Nerd Roundup.
2021-06-18 Nerd Roundup!
How to become a failed internet billionaire, measuring the mass of a minus sign, free classic art, how to properly use SO, and the coming invasion of brown dwarfs in exobiology, all on this week's Nerd Roundup.
Saint Thomas Aquinas 3 of 4
Aquinas took the theological principles of faith and combined them with the philosophical principles of reason from Aristotle. He is ranked among the most influential thinkers of medieval Scholasticism.
Negatives Stack; Positives Don't: The Number Line Model Of Communication
An extended metaphor shining light on the problem of having to use humans in groups to agree on things that eventually need to be coded into a formal system.
2021-06-11 Nerd Roundup
Donkey hookups, the Game of Science, taming zebras, and deconstructing quantum jumps, all on today's Nerd Roundup!
2021-06-11 Nerd Roundup!
Donkey hookups, the Game of Science, taming zebras, and deconstructing quantum jumps, all on today's Nerd Roundup!
Saint Thomas Aquinas 2 of 4
Aquinas took the theological principles of faith and combined them with the philosophical principles of reason from Aristotle. He is ranked among the most influential thinkers of medieval Scholasticism.
2021-06-04 Nerd Roundup!
Today's guests are James Grenning, Jon Kern, and Robert Martin.
2021-06-04 Nerd Roundup
Today's guests are James Grenning, Jon Kern, and Robert Martin.
MLS Theory and Language
Saint Thomas Aquinas 1 of 4
Aquinas took the theological principles of faith and combined them with the philosophical principles of reason from Aristotle. He is ranked among the most influential thinkers of medieval Scholasticism.
2021-05-28 Nerd Roundup!
Everybody's going Rust, Physics Policemen, problems in Type Theory, the hole at the bottom of math, and how your love of cheese can get you arrested.
2021-05-28 Nerd Roundup
Everybody's going Rust, Physics Policemen, problems in Type Theory, the hole at the bottom of math, and how your love of cheese can get you arrested.
Saint Augustine 4 of 4
Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquity and certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lasting influence.
2021-05-21 Nerd Roundup (Special Edition)!
Daughter Katrina Amenkowincz joins me for a special family edition Nerd Roundup.
2021-05-21 Nerd Roundup (Special Edition)
Daughter Katrina joins us. She knows the man.
Saint Augustine 3 of 4
Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquity and certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lasting influence.
2021-05-14 Nerd Roundup
Your jetpack has finally arrived! Mach 17 airplanes, the importance of humility in programming, regex for computational biology, and yes, cool jetpacks. Lotsa fun this week on Nerd Roundup!
2021-05-14 Nerd Roundup!
Mach 17 airplanes, jetpacks, Retron Regexes, elephant noses and more. Just another day on Nerd Roundup.
How To Win At Tech Publishing
Does writing books suck? Writing overall? I've been itching to vent on this for some time. Many hard-earned life lessons ahead.
Saint Augustine 2 of 4
Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquity and certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lasting influence.
2021-05-07 Nerd Roundup!
Uncle Bob, James Grenning, and Daniel Markham, having fun with ray guns, C++ constructors, and lots more nerdiness.
2011-05-07 Nerd Roundup
James, Bob, and the dude ... back together again. Ray guns, new flying technology, bulldozer wars, and a linux poster full of Easter eggs.
Saint Augustine 1 of 4
Augustine was perhaps the greatest Christian philosopher of Antiquity and certainly the one who exerted the deepest and most lasting influence.
2021-04-30 Nerd Roundup!
Your gods will not save you now. It's nerds having fun, talking about the latest technical news, but is it really?
2021-04-30 Nerd Roundup
It's nerds having fun, talking about the latest technical news, but is it really?
MAG-Lite
Epistemology Wars
Seven books I've read in the last two months and the common, culturally-relevant thesis that joins all of them together.
Aristotle 4 of 4
Aristotle was the father of, well, most everything. Let's take a look at what we know about his life
Aristotle 3 of 4
Aristotle was the father of, well, most everything. Let's take a look at what we know about his life
The Hottest Nacho Chip Ever
What can I say? I lived. It only took about four hours for the feeling of my head being on fire to go away.
2021-04-23 Nerd Roundup
Butt-trumpets, AWS Lambda, quantum telescopes and talking cows. It's all part of a normal nerd roundup of tech news this week.
Aristotle 2 of 4
Aristotle was the father of, well, most everything. Let's take a look at what we know about his life
Aristotle 1 of 4
Aristotle was the father of, well, most everything. Let's take a look at what we know about his life
2021-04-16 Nerd Roundup
Pain, kittens, nose-hairs, nuclear rockets, drone warfare, and supercompilers
Personality Models, Management-By Statistic, And Better AI
Astronomy Pictures
Here's a quick video tour of 30-40 astronomy pictures I've saved recently. Some of these are incredibly beautiful.
Life Of Plato 4 of 4
Conclusion of our series on the man who invented the famous modeling dough we all love! (grin)
Life Of Plato 3 of 4
Plato continues, moving from Socrates to the man himself
2021-04-08 Nerd Roundup
Flight simulators, tax guidance for drug dealers, the Language Server Protocol, and COBOL. Also ranting.
Is Programming Hard? How Long Is A Piece Of String?
Before you tell me whether you think programming is hard or not, do you even know what you're talking about?
Life Of Plato 2 of 4
Why not learn from the smartest people in history thinking about the most important questions sharing their thoughts in an hour or so? Plato's story continues
2021-04-01 Nerd Roundup
Rockets, supercompilers, cold fusion, SOLID-bashing, and more
Info-Ops 3: Introduction
We suck at learning. It's slowly killing our society.
2021-03 Tech Toons
Here are some tech toon funnies I've saved and shared over the last month.
Outlines Of A Supercompiler In F#
Today I'll show you the outlines of the code needed to make a supercompiler work. Here's our set of microservices: (supercompilers were introduced in my last essay)
Note that we don't care about Enterprise Data. Maybe we get stuff from a message queue. Maybe we have web servers. Maybe there's
Honest Microservices
My dudes. We gotta break out of this infinite loop. Future generations will thank us.
Life of Plato 1 of 4
Why not learn from the smartest people in history thinking about the most important questions sharing their thoughts in an hour or so? It's a crime not to do so.
Politics, Philosophy, Property: Part 4
Part 4 of our (test) podcast series on the origins of great ideas, completing the discussion of private property
Politics, Philosophy, Property: Part 3
Part 3 of our (test) podcast series on the origins of great ideas
Incremental Strong Typing
You're not coupling things up where they don't need to be coupled, are you?
Coding Constructs I Now Avoid
Perhaps if we all open-mindedly identify and talk about things we don't need we'll end up doing more of the things we do.
Nerd Roundup 06 March 2021
We corral the nerd so you don't have to
Clean Coders: CCL
Much fun was had today chatting with Chuck from CleanCoders. We talk code, coding, the Three Amigos, backlogs, Ruby, idiomatic coding, and Code Cognitive Load
Politics, Philosophy, Property: Part 2
Part 2 of our (test) podcast series on the origins of great ideas
It's Time To Intellectually Grow Up
Sixteen unusual and unexpected lessons I learned from loving history
Chain, chain, chain .... Chain of Tools
Politics, Philosophy, Property: Part 1
These are great to send to somebody who wants to learn more but doesn't have a lot of time and doesn't know where to start
For The Love Of All That's Holy, Use CCL To Control Complexity In Your Systems
Online Distributed Team Fun
Huge honking list of fun things to do online as a team (Confession: I love the donkey)
Here's Info-Ops
Here are the Info-Ops books in three quick videos
Covid-19 Update
The last six weeks has seen a huge amount of good news when it comes to Covid-19
Fun with an Interview Question
I thought this question was a hoot because it appeared so simple and yet had some inner complexity that most coders wouldn't grasp.
New Book Theses
Based on a recent Twitter conversation, been thinking lately on how to quickly pitch/explain each of my three Info-Ops books
Nerd Roundup: Nerds Lose
Meh
Today's Fun: Watching the Starship SN9 Test Flight
I love seeing something valuable starting off as a failing test
A really cool coding library I somehow overlooked - FSharpPlus
Every dev environment has things that drive you nuts. Usually it's little things, like having to look up something in the middle of doing something else. FSharpPlus helps fix that
Ghost, Commento, GoAccess, and AWS: Tragedy and Recovery
Debugging is the only crime where you're the victim, detective, fixer, judge, jury, and culprit
2021 January Snowstorm
Early morning snowscape
![Self-Hosting Again, with AWS, Ghost, Commento, and GoAccess [video]](https://cdn.danielbmarkham.com/2021/01/2021-01-27_8-06-43-story-of-setting-up-self-hosting-commento-ghost-aws.jpg)
Self-Hosting Again, with AWS, Ghost, Commento, and GoAccess [video]
I went back to self-hosting my content over the past couple of weeks, and here's my journey. Hit me up if you're using any of this tech and think I can help
Crisis In Science: 1
Just like the Covid-19 story quickly became a story more about how groups of people act than science, science itself is experiencing a crisis of content due to it's social structure and the natural behavior of humans.
Programming In Five Easy Pieces
1. A group of people have a goal. They use dialectic and language games to come to a tentative alignment on terms
2. For purposes of this specific goal of these specific people, these terms only have meaning inside a formal system they create together (a programming type system)
3.
Board Game Mods: Better Family Game Nights
Getting tired of the usual board games? Here are some easy mods to try out next time it's game night
It's Time We Programmers Talked About Ethics
Some things gotta be completely eliminated from the planet. Nuke 'em from orbit
![Blog Update [video]](https://cdn.danielbmarkham.com/2021/01/Screenshot-from-2021-01-20-05-43-56.png)
Blog Update [video]
been working on a couple of really cool things and being frustrated by a couple others. I'm excited about this new essay, though...
Wrong About Wrong: Errors Made While Identifying Errors
Ducken Cover: Section 230
Section 230 tries to join multiple distinct things together and claim that any distinctions between them don't exist. It tries (and fails) to create reality by legislation
Kindly Inquisitors: I can't Believe it's 27
Code Budgets
How much does a line of code cost?
The naive answer is that it costs nothing. Bytes are free -- or as close to free as we can come. But it has to cost something. After all, it took time to type in, right? So that takes us to our
Good Enough Programming (2018)
What is the appropriate driver that causes you to open up code for the sole purpose of making it better? My answer: it's always a failure, but failures happen. You should prioritize not opening the code up for maintenance as much as you prioritize delivering value
I bought a new
Why are Reusable Components so Difficult? (2016)
A couple of weeks ago, Uwe Friedrichsen asked a pretty good question on his blog:
"...Re-use is the holy grail of IT: whenever a new architectural paradigm comes to IT town, 're-use' is one of the core arguments why to go for that paradigm. The business sales pitch typically goes
Now I am not so sure about welcoming our new AI Overlords
At one point, though, it seemed like a pretty cool idea.
Nerd Roundup 2021-01
It's the new year, and the guys review all of the nerdy things that happened in 2020
The Platform Is The Enemy
The premise of the movie "Idiocracy" is simple: in the future mankind has de-evolved into morons. Technology does so much for everybody that nobody knows how it all works anymore. If we can't fix it, we're all going to die.
One character asks the other what he likes, The answer
Technology Is Heroin (2008)
Ed: From 2008. This is believed to be the first mention of the combination of evolutionary pressures+addictive content as a driving force in technology creation
By Daniel on February 6, 2008 1:19 PM
In 1850 people didn't know how their favorite symphony sounded.
Back then, it was common