Edward G Nilges's blog

Mike Griffiths is discussing structured programming at http://mikeoncode.blogspot.com/2007/06/post-on-its-own-edward-g.html.

Jules Winnfield: Ezekiel 25:17. 'The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyrannies of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness. For he is truly his brothers' keeper and finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.' Now I've been saying that s*** for years, and if you've ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never gave much thought to what it meant, I just thought it was a cold blooded thing to say to a mother f***er before I popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some s*** this morning that made me think twice. Now I'm thinking it could mean you're the evil man, and I'm the righteous man. And Mr. 9mm here is the shepherd, protecting my righteous ass. Or maybe it means that you're the righteous man, and I'm the shepherd, and it's the world that's evil and selfish. Now I'd like that, but you see that s*** ain't the truth. The truth is, YOU'RE the weak, and I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm trying, Ringo. I'm trying real hard to be the shepherd.

(from Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction)

A surprising and little known consequence of laissez-faire economics and Say's Law:, or, why we get those low down depressin' working at the car wash blues:

Well, I had just got out from the county prison
Doin ninety days for non-support
Tried to find me an executive position
But no matter how smooth I talked
They wouldnt listen to the fact that I was a genius
The man say, we got all that we can use.
Now igot them steadily depressin, low down mind messin
Working at the car wash blues

Thirteen thoughts on the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech.

"Ms. Dean's article does women a disservice because it buys into this classist image of "programming" and will track them, as it has in the past, into applications in which they are neither able to manage the complexity of programming, nor able to grasp the application in full."

Barbara is as we used to say in the Sixties, right on, when she points out that the job seeker has to internalize society and its grim demands. She mentions Fromm, who in Escape from Freedom points out how the modern urban dweller confuses his own needs with those of society and cannot "relax": even his leisure is structured and compulsive.

[This scene, and perhaps the entire movie, takes place in complete blackness: the audience sees nothing. Some audience members walk out in puzzled disgust. The remaining members watch (nothing), listen, and are entranced, because The Soul selects her own Society.]

May you Go To a better place if such a place is

An article in which I describe the corruption of Amazon authors INCLUDING MYSELF by the ease of spamming your own book with positive reviews, and in which I take steps to clean up my act in this regard!

When we were at University, we thought only Truth mattered. Now we are in the real world, we know that only Secrets matter. - paraphrase of a quote by Edsger Dijkstra in the persona of the CEO of "Mathematics Inc.", in the Hosannah building.

However, Taylorism has never disappeared from the management playbook as a sort of ideal, and it appears in data processing in Death March projects wherein any effort by programmers to create "tools" is regarded as high-class loafing even if it can be shown that the tool saves time.

Edward Yourdon has asked us to comment on Death March projects today. Here is my (somewhat revised) reply sent to him by email because the commenting feature on his blog is not working.

The fallacy of which I am thinking is the attack on knowledge claims by a "skepticism" wielded ignorantly as a rhetorical club. It is characteristically used in business environment by managers on workers.

We've been there. We've silently approved "plans" which we know will destroy our families with unpaid overtime and create at best systems that will make the rich richer and the poor, poorer...