Friday, July 18, 2003

The Power and Philosophy of Ruby. Yukihiro Matsumoto gave a presentation at OSCON in which he discusses the influence of languages on thought, productivity and stress: Principle of Human Interface Languages can be viewed as interface. The important guidelines for good interface are: Consistency Flexibility Succinctness Stumbled across this one while reading the Slashdot comments on Larry Wall's latest State of the Onion screed. (Can't say that I ever get much out of the Onion addresses but some people seem to believe they are fecund). [Lambda the Ultimate] VERY good presentation. Makes me want to run out and look at Ruby again. Matsumoto sounds like a very sharp man. I wish I could have heard the presentation live. 8:15:24 AM    comment []

BoingBoing: Firewalls are Broken, links to this.  Just as in the Infoworld article a few days ago, people are discovering why compartmentalized security such as that implemented by Groove is so important moving forward.  The alternative is more than a bit frightening: Recognizing their valid concerns, would you allow your employer to "lock down" and remotely manage your home computer? [Ray Ozzie's Weblog] I agree with the assertion that firewalls are not the answer if you allow users to compromise their security. However, I am not sure that the burden is at the individual application level (like Groove). I think it's wonderful that Groove has taken security so seriously. However, I think that education about security, computer and physical, is the key to securing your environment. Jeff gave me Kevin Mitnick's The Art of Deception earlier this year and it changed the way I think about security. Your weakest link is always the least educated and cautious member. 7:55:54 AM    comment []

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