Tuesday, June 25, 2002

A Single Text Editor?!? Through the affinity links at Amazon I found this rather intriguing book The Pragmatic Programmer.  One of the sentences in the summary hit me like a ton of bricks:  "They advise readers to learn one text editor, for example, and use it for everything."  I looked at this and decided that I may never truly be a programmer - if you suppose the psychology behind this recommendation is true. In my experience most programmers are people with incredible focus.  Somewhere Eric Raymond described it as the ability to 'snarf up a language in a day.'  I can't find the anecdote about learning TeX in a day with just a manual but here is a link to "How to Become a Hacker."  It seems like this type of focus is the skill that lets someone spend 24-hours trying to debug C kernel code.  And it is the same impulse that make 'holy wars' so common. I, on the other hand, enjoy maximum diversity.  On my current computer I have 4 internet browsers (ie, netscape, mozilla, opera), three email clients (pegasus, eudora, outlook express), and 4 text editors (textpad, editpad, notetab, emacs).  I use each of them at least once per week, sometimes every day.  Over the weekend I was researching information on statistical programs and computer algebra systems, and I wasn't satisfied by looking at just Mathematica or SPSS, I had to browse to Maple and Matlab, S and free software.  I like to collect tools almost as much as I enjoy using them. My profligacy extends to books (I recently reached 60+ checked out from the library), music (300 mp3s downloaded in a week).  I'm using two different blogging tools: Radio and Moveable Type. Finally I'm not sure the psychology of the programmer behind the single text editor is correct.  It may be the norm but I'm actively trying to disprove it. 10:18:54 PM     I was listening to Charlie Rose last night and he had an interesting conversation with Floyd Kvamme,Co-Chair, PCAST, President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.  Among the priorities of the council this year is the adoption of broadband.  Over the past months I've noticed a number of pundits and reporters complaining about the failure of broadband.  The CBTPA,  Consumer Broadband and Television Promotion Act, proposed by Senator Hollings is just an example of the continuous compliants from Washington and the punditry that broadband is a failure.  Of course most of the laws to encourage broadband seem to be worse than the actual problem, curtailing internet freedoms for the benefit of corporations. In contrast to this broadband silliness stands the recent report of the Pew Internet and American Life Project that basically says everything in broadband is moving along at a reasonable rate. Despite concern, particularly in technology and industry circles, that broadband deployment is occurring too slowly, our data suggest that broadband’s roll out is unfolding much like other technologies. High-speed Internet has taken four years to reach the critical mass of 10% adoption, according to the FCC. It took four years for the personal computer to attain 10% adoption, 4 and one-half years for the CD player, and 8 years for cell phones.  This doesn't seem so bad after all.  The report continues by citing two of the main characteristics of broadband users. An open Internet is appealing to broadband users. As habitual posters of content, broadband users seem to desire the widest reach for what they share with the online world. As frequent searchers for information using their always-on connection, broadband users seek out the greatest range of sources to satisfy their thirst for information. Walling off portions of the Internet, which some regulatory proposals may permit, is anathema to how broadband users behave. Broadband users value fast upload speeds as well as fast download speeds. They not only show this by their predilection to create content, but also by their extensive file-sharing habits. This report should be a wake-up call to all the telecom and content companies who keep complaining that their cash cow hasn't come home to roost.  The report also makes some interesting points about the 'broadband elite' or early adopters.  These people are as interested in creating their own content as they are interested in downloading the latest movie trailer.  If current broadband technologies become too restrictive I believe this elite will try to move to freer technologies, such as wireless. 8:37:01 PM

© Copyright 2002 Todd Suomela. Last update: 6/27/2002; 12:36:51 AM.