XO: One laptop per child gets pwnd

"Feature: Hacking the XO laptop" has some cool examples on hacking XO. Also points to XO Wiki.

I'm looking forward to seeing it become easy to program, as well.

Copyright 2008, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.

World Wide Computer

"Q&A: Nicholas Carr on the big switch to utility computing" has some interesting concepts:

1. WWC: using the web as a programmable computing resource. Unfortunately, there is no universal language to program all those servers.
2. Computing resources can be treated as electricity: a pool of resource used on demand and pay per usage.

The problem with all this is that you can't guarantee security since the processing is done outside of your control. And this programming is dependent on the service provider.

I believe that the trend should be user centered (User Centered Web or UCW) rather than service provider centered: privacy, liberty and ownership. Property rights in the digital world isn't as clear as I'd like to see but I believe it is possible to gain back the rights of individuals. More on this as I put together my thoughts in a coherent structure....

Copyright 2008, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.

Java: not the best language to teach at schools?

"Computer Science Education: Where Are the Software Engineers of Tomorrow?" dogs Java as the one and only programming language to teach but does include it as one of 5 languages recommended languages to learn (C, C++, LISP and Ada are the other 4).

Personally, I'd wish they work on a better programming language(s) to teach the right concepts rather than trying to create a better hi-tech vocational courses based on the most desired languages by employers. It's unfortunate that people get hired based on their specific language skills rather than understanding concepts and ability solve problems. Sigh...

Copyright 2007, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.

Smartphones war and power to the users

"The Coming Apple-RIM Battle: Some analysts predict a brawl between iPhones and BlackBerrys; others say the real fight pits the smartphones against open-source handsets"

I'm not sure if open source handsets will have such a big upsurge, yet. The beauty of open source is for others to change the code to fit custom needs which is why we have zillion flavors of Linux distributions. We don't have zillion flavors of Firefox but I hope that will change soon. Nonetheless, to have open source phone (a real one), there needs to be openness to what can go on the phones by the users of the phone (not just programmers). Which means that infrastructures needs to be in place for the phone (OS) to handle change by the users (even if it is simply as changing the widgets like you can on google home page). However, as people get comfortable with changing things, I expect people to start programming, just like how a whole industry of Excel macros have taken off.

How about: Programming by Dummies? PBU (programming by Users)? User programmed? Dummies are in power (DAIP)? I AM IN CONTROL (IAIC)?

Copyright 2008, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.

Life of a Programmer

Zed Shaw's "Rails is a Ghetto" puts together his rants toward Ruby on Rails and his frustration with other programmers -- which is similar to what I've experienced in my career: too many managers and programmers who have little or no clue of what they are working on.

Unfortunately, most companies do get by with such poor understanding of their own product(s). Sad but true: there are many project failures documented at places like the Risks digest while many others that should have failed but have been released as products. I won't name names like Zed but I've seen my share, too.

How can this be improved? Good question and I certainly don't have any good answers today. Sigh.

Copyright 2008, DannyHSDad, All Rights Reserved.