The Measure of All Things.....Good book
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Hi All, Just wanted to say thanks to the person who recomended the Measure of All Things by Ken Alder, it was mentioned in a back and forth to do with EU and the French, (Darlek Dave mentioned French Hair Dressers...) so bought it on Amazon to read on the Train while commuting, lent it to a friend who was also impressed. Napoleon wanted measurments converted to what he knew from metric as he couldn't think metric. Amazing really, thanks for the recomendation any other good books.... Glenn
Agreed - an excellent read. My son's teacher in 8th grade was fascinated by this book when I gave her a copy. Gads, that was 7 years ago! Marc
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Umm, I am a UK CPian, just have to deal with our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic daily! I thought re was American I do spell Colour properly, drink white coffee & travel on the underground! (not tube) Glenn
glennPattonWork wrote:
Umm, I am a UK CPian, just have to deal with our cousins on the other side of the Atlantic daily! I thought re was American I do spell Colour properly, drink white coffee & travel on the underground! (not tube)
Well at least you know I'm not stalking you or your profile, just assumed you were a Yank cause of the spelling. We spell most of our measurements with re and words like centre and cilibre the right way. It seems to be too much for the Yanks (probably the French influence, you know Arkanses and all that wrong pronunciation) who want to say Sentray and Caleebray when they see them spelt the correct way.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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With the French? Good lord, where's the fun in that? Just when the argument gets going, they give up!
Will Rogers never met me.
Well you obviously don't know some of us :mad: PS: I get the so-called 'jokes' about surrender monkeys, just not worth fighting about.
'As programmers go, I'm fairly social. Which still means I'm a borderline sociopath by normal standards.' Jeff Atwood 'I'm French! Why do you think I've got this outrrrrageous accent?' Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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Hi All, Just wanted to say thanks to the person who recomended the Measure of All Things by Ken Alder, it was mentioned in a back and forth to do with EU and the French, (Darlek Dave mentioned French Hair Dressers...) so bought it on Amazon to read on the Train while commuting, lent it to a friend who was also impressed. Napoleon wanted measurments converted to what he knew from metric as he couldn't think metric. Amazing really, thanks for the recomendation any other good books.... Glenn
The subject of my current read may not be along your alley, it is certainly a different topic from The Measure of All Things, but I'll recommend it anyway, as it is a quietly brilliant book that I think the whole world--or at least the West--would benefit from reading: An Altar in the World - Barbara Brown Taylor
If you think 'goto' is evil, try writing an Assembly program without JMP.
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Read iWoz quite good, I don't tend to go for Business people Bio's, Jobbs always struck me more as a suit!
The main difference between Gates and Jobs is that Jobs can't program and Gates (for the most part) doesn't care what other people think. The Jobs biography is a good read, I got it for Christmas from my mom-in-law. HTH, -Chris C.
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Hi All, Just wanted to say thanks to the person who recomended the Measure of All Things by Ken Alder, it was mentioned in a back and forth to do with EU and the French, (Darlek Dave mentioned French Hair Dressers...) so bought it on Amazon to read on the Train while commuting, lent it to a friend who was also impressed. Napoleon wanted measurments converted to what he knew from metric as he couldn't think metric. Amazing really, thanks for the recomendation any other good books.... Glenn
When I read this book a few years ago, I also read three other this-is-how-it-came-to-be books around the same time. They were... - Longitude, by Dava Sobel - The story of the invention of accurate timepieces to solve the problem of finding longitude at sea. - A Thread Across the Ocean, by John Steele Gordon - The story of the laying of the first transatlantic undersea telegraph cables. - The Difference Engine, by Doron Suade - The story of the invention of the first real modern computing device. When reading these three along with The Measure of All Things, one gets a good demonstration of what is done well by government and what is done only poorly. Where there was immediate market application, as with the undersea cable, great quantities of money were readily available and massive ships and manpower could be obtained. Where this was lacking, as with Babbage's machine, relatively tiny sums for the next iteration of progress and innovation could not be had. The government is best at such things as setting standards for commerce as with the metric system and accurate navigation as with the longitude problem. The government should leave actual commerce to the merchants themselves. Computers might have gotten an early start had Babbage tried to find a compelling commercial use for his invention instead of putting copyists out of work producing mathematical tables. Cheers, Russ
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When I read this book a few years ago, I also read three other this-is-how-it-came-to-be books around the same time. They were... - Longitude, by Dava Sobel - The story of the invention of accurate timepieces to solve the problem of finding longitude at sea. - A Thread Across the Ocean, by John Steele Gordon - The story of the laying of the first transatlantic undersea telegraph cables. - The Difference Engine, by Doron Suade - The story of the invention of the first real modern computing device. When reading these three along with The Measure of All Things, one gets a good demonstration of what is done well by government and what is done only poorly. Where there was immediate market application, as with the undersea cable, great quantities of money were readily available and massive ships and manpower could be obtained. Where this was lacking, as with Babbage's machine, relatively tiny sums for the next iteration of progress and innovation could not be had. The government is best at such things as setting standards for commerce as with the metric system and accurate navigation as with the longitude problem. The government should leave actual commerce to the merchants themselves. Computers might have gotten an early start had Babbage tried to find a compelling commercial use for his invention instead of putting copyists out of work producing mathematical tables. Cheers, Russ
It always comes down to Money, "Wow that's clever, I wonder how I can make money off it" (mutter, mutter)
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It always comes down to Money, "Wow that's clever, I wonder how I can make money off it" (mutter, mutter)
There is nothing particularly evil about money or the earning of it. How many here volunteer their time and talents to their companies merely for a sense of benevolent altruism. No! We all want monetary compensation for our labor. Companies are made up of lots of people who want the same thing as we do. But, when companies avail themselves of earnings from ideas or inventions, they are also creating earnings for a great many people besides. Many people think of businesses as profit making enterprises, but this is not a complete view. They are profit and loss enterprises. In the story about the laying of the first transatlantic cable, an enormous sum of money was lost in the first attempt, and that was a dead loss for the man whose dream it was. He eventually repaid all of his investors. The final success of his idea was not just a pecuniary one but a very important engineering triumph that opened a new era in telecommunications that benefitted all of humanity far beyond the immediate financial benefactors of that success. Cheers, Russ
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There is nothing particularly evil about money or the earning of it. How many here volunteer their time and talents to their companies merely for a sense of benevolent altruism. No! We all want monetary compensation for our labor. Companies are made up of lots of people who want the same thing as we do. But, when companies avail themselves of earnings from ideas or inventions, they are also creating earnings for a great many people besides. Many people think of businesses as profit making enterprises, but this is not a complete view. They are profit and loss enterprises. In the story about the laying of the first transatlantic cable, an enormous sum of money was lost in the first attempt, and that was a dead loss for the man whose dream it was. He eventually repaid all of his investors. The final success of his idea was not just a pecuniary one but a very important engineering triumph that opened a new era in telecommunications that benefitted all of humanity far beyond the immediate financial benefactors of that success. Cheers, Russ
'ello, I fully understand Profit & Loss and the rest. A few of my projects in the past have been met with, 'it works, ship it, we can't have afford to have you sitting around' when I know there is a bug waiting to bite, hence the downer I put on 'Business People'. On a side note I have a copy of 'Thread Across The Atlantic' for the trip home!
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'ello, I fully understand Profit & Loss and the rest. A few of my projects in the past have been met with, 'it works, ship it, we can't have afford to have you sitting around' when I know there is a bug waiting to bite, hence the downer I put on 'Business People'. On a side note I have a copy of 'Thread Across The Atlantic' for the trip home!
I work on a large government project that has as its goal to release no software that has any bugs. It is, of course, an impossible goal because it is not possible to release any non-trivial application that does NOT have bugs. Naturally, the demanding release schedule the government requires makes this goal even more impossible. Software has bugs. It is the nature of the beast. Frequently, those bugs are due to the impossibility of knowing in advance all of the kooky ways in which our software is used. Users should know, after all, that they are not supposed to do that. So...are they stupid users or are we stupid developers? Cheers, Russ
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I work on a large government project that has as its goal to release no software that has any bugs. It is, of course, an impossible goal because it is not possible to release any non-trivial application that does NOT have bugs. Naturally, the demanding release schedule the government requires makes this goal even more impossible. Software has bugs. It is the nature of the beast. Frequently, those bugs are due to the impossibility of knowing in advance all of the kooky ways in which our software is used. Users should know, after all, that they are not supposed to do that. So...are they stupid users or are we stupid developers? Cheers, Russ
Some times I think I should have said no when asked the question "Would you like to learn some VB6 for doing front ends to our stuff" many years ago and then thinking I would not be stuck in front of a PC ever since. On user stupidity try a three hour meeting where all you is your name and "no, that's not what you asked for", combined with arguments over what the colour of the box should be! Waste of Time! Glenn