Life In Code
A Personal History of Technology
Ellen Ullman 2017 Multco Hollywood 005.1092 U41L 2017
Author of Close to the Machine 2012 and The Bug 2004
- essay collection from years 1994, 1998 ... 2017
- p005 Programmers don't talk because they must not be interrupted ... Interruption means certain bugs.
- p012 The Japanese (sponsors) received what their money was intended to buy ... odd behavior ... real top-rate engineers.
- p015 Underlying every user-friendly interface is a terrific human contempt.
- p017 like push buttons on a toddler's toy
- p027 The internet: Mother's little helper for the male engineer
- p028 I'm an engineer ... love for the intricate lives of things
- p040 Slackware Linux on a PC, 1983/Stallman 1991/Torvalds
- p053 Silicon Valley Linux Users Group Torvalds presentation
p074 Ed Yardini Y2K doom
- p088 ... But people with too many choices are almost as unhappy as those with no choice at all.
- p103 "Now comes the light: 100 Mbits per second" (written 1999, now terabits per fiber pair across oceans )
p104 Toronto Computer, Freedom, and Privacy Conference
- p113 Whitfield Diffie vs. corporate propertarianism
- p126 2002 SOMA goes dark, 50% of optical cable laid during boom never lit.
- 2002 musings on AI, cats
- p171 computer upgrade, memory
- p199 2006 USA Today story, NSA collecting all phone records (except Qwest)
- p214 zero percent bug - change in weekly report column always zero
- p221 underscore rather than dash in a variable name destination
p232 neighbor's dairy, buyer requirement for large milk tank (instead of milk cans) put them out of business
- PITA, but why not combine smaller dairy output into a few cooperative bulk tanks on trucks?
- What collection equipment did the milk purchasing coop use before, could that be purchased?
p233 bought TRS-80 in 1979, start of programming career
p258 Dijkstra's algorithm
p270 Hamburger button
- p273 Grassy South Park sculptured, shaded by tall new building
- p285 highrise startup culture replaces small business 'village'
- p287 virtual reality devices for the blind?
p302 Lavabit shut down after government demanded user identities