Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
Aside from Brooks’s Law, Fred Brooks is also famous for another so-called “law” in software engineering: the No Silver Bullet argument.
There is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order of magnitude [tenfold] improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity.
Last night when I was sucked into browsing TV Tropes, I came across one of the classic debates in the Internet: Subbing vs. Dubbing.
I particularly like this debate not only because it’s pretty easy to win at, it’s also a great opportunity to educate people about the so-called “anime subculture”.
My modus operandi was simple: I choose to defend dubbing in the face of hordes of rabid anime fans.
As a follow up to my previous post, here are the extensions installed in my Firefox installation. I’m not really a power user when it comes to browsing so a lot of mainstays (e.g. Greasemonkey) are missing from my browser. Anyway, without further ado, here’s my list (again in decreasing importance):
Having to reinstall windows twice from scratch (first was when I migrated to Windows 7 last week, second was when my RAID setup failed when I transferred to a new motherboard two days ago), I’ve discovered which of my apps are absolutely essential for my computer. Here’s a list in a somewhat descending order of importance:
Excluded, of course, are the hardware drivers like ATI Catalyst and Creative Audio Control Panel, as well as the specific games on my Steam games list.
It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.
– Niccolò Machiavelli, “The Prince”
Anyone who has tried to institute change in an organization would eventually have to deal with the scenario mentioned in the above quote. It does, however, get worse than that.