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I am the author of 13 published computer books and a consultant specializing in Java, C++, and Smalltalk development. Please check out my two Free Web Books at my main site www.markwatson.com

 



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  Thursday, July 10, 2003


"Cornucopia Complex": too much good stuff

You know all about the "cornucopia complex": the fear of having too much good stuff :-)

Actually, I coined the phrase "cornucopia complex" years ago, but unless you are a friend, you probably have not heard it before.

My latest fear of having too much good stuff comes from the tools for my working environment (I am a software architect/programmer, and author).

The first problem comes with operating systems: Apple Mac OS X is just too good. However, SuSE Linux is just about perfect also for programming and getting work done. And, I must admit, that starting with Windows 2000, Microsoft provides a low friction work platform.

The "cornucopia complex" gets worse with programming languages. Starting with Java (the "good enough" language and platform): for all its deficiencies, Java is a great language to get stuff done and working - and Java scales well for very large projects. For fast scripting jobs, it is hard to beat Python - then, add compelling Python software stacks like Zope/CMF/Plone and the Python platform is compelling for small and medium scale web projects. Then, we get to my favorite languages like the dynamically typed Common Lisp (I wrote 2 Lisp books for Springer-Verlag) and Smalltalk. For a narrower range of applications, it is difficult to beat Prolog (everyone who wants to round out their computer science experience should work through the book "The Art of Prolog" for a mind opening experience).

Anyway, it is better to have too many great tools for work than not enough :-)
9:19:24 AM    


It is time to forget about politics and do the right thing

Everyday when I read news stories about our policing efforts in Iraq, one thought comes to mind over and over:

Do we have enough troups in Iraq to maintain the safety of the troups themselves?

I don't think that the logic holds up that the fewer troups we have in Iraq, the smaller will be our casualties. I know that it would be unpopular politically to increase our troup strength, but I believe that the saftey of our troups demands it. One thing really bothers me: people who strongly supported the war for various reasons who now either don't want to have sufficient troups on site, or possibly worse: do not want to live up to our responsibilities in Iraq (conditions are really bad in Iraq right now for civilians and this places our troups in more danger - restoring electricity and increasing the supply of safe drinking water in Iraq is in our own best interests).
8:56:43 AM    



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