tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69501022008-12-16T02:05:13.636-08:00<em>"...this sort of catastrophe is undoubtedly being repeated all about us, as truly significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential."</em><br/><br/>--Vannevar Bush, <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm">As We May Think</a>Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.comBlogger143125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1169569612721826622007-01-23T08:14:00.000-08:002007-01-23T08:26:52.750-08:00

I've generally never made a secret of my support for Mr. Gore. Though I'm a political independehttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifnt and agrhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifee with Frank Zappa's take on Tipper's efforts to clean up rock music, I've got a soft spot for Mr. Gore. I just think we would all be better off if we elected smart guys who focus on long-term issues like global

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1164726743832496422006-12-08T07:01:00.000-08:002006-12-08T08:24:49.876-08:00

Some of the old-timers I know in the programming business complain about Object Orientation (OO). They say it's hard to make heads or tails of OO because terms like "Object" and "Class" are used in circular definitions. The good old-timers dive right in, get a feel for how you do things in OO languages and come out with a good understanding based on experience. The younger programmers I've met

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1165432206182734492006-12-07T19:00:00.000-08:002006-12-07T23:52:11.346-08:00

Okay... a bit of fair disclosure... I used to work for Certicom and I have a little bit of Certicom stock left in my portfolio, so I'll be the first to admit I'm not completely unbiased. However... I think there's widespread agreement in the crypto world that Elliptic Curve Crypto is a pretty valueable addition to your aresenal of information security weapons. In an article recently published by

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1165371048891596802006-12-07T06:00:00.000-08:002006-12-06T15:47:08.633-08:00

Peter Siebel recently gave a TechTalk at the Google-drome about the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis and Programming Languages. It basically describes why programmers have issues understanding the usefulness of language features that aren't found in their language of choice. My language of choice is, of course, Smalltalk. This explains why I don't understand when people go ga-ga over C#. This is a great

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1165430561523410212006-12-06T08:00:00.000-08:002006-12-06T10:42:44.623-08:00

So everyone knows about Phone Scoop and Howard Forums. But there are a couple of other blogs I've been reading lately that are "must-reads" for people building wireless solutions: VisionMobile Forums and Pikesoft's Software Everywhere. VisionMobile Forums is a part of Andreas Constantinou's venue for disseminating his views of the mobile industry. Andreas has, IMHO, a pretty good grip on what's

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1165372307548484132006-12-06T06:00:00.000-08:002006-12-05T18:31:47.580-08:00

Way back in the olden days before microcomputers were programmed in languages like Java, C# and C++, there were a thousand languages, each expressing an aspect of the Tao. But one language, LISP, has a special place in the history and development of software. LISP was a mind-bendingly flexible tool, allowing developers great flexibility in representing problems. Somewhere in the early 1980's

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1164727919300868832006-12-04T08:00:00.000-08:002006-12-05T18:00:34.846-08:00

Here's another hit from the Internet Archive. It's Bill Joy talking about Open Systems and Sun's (then) new SPARC architecture. I'm including it on my list of "must-see geek videos" because when most people these days hear about Bill Joy, about the only thing they hear is "The Future Doesn't Need Us" and "Java." To be sure, Bill has a lot of interesting things to say about both topics, but what

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1164729794361021982006-11-28T07:32:00.000-08:002006-11-28T08:03:16.500-08:00

I like Bill Joy. I mean, I don't know him personally, but when he says things in public they tend to be things I agree with. Way back in the 1980's he was talking about open systems when companies like Harris, DEC and IBM were still pushing proprietary, general-purpose machines. In the 1990's he was intricately involved with Java. Everyone has an opinion about Java; lately many geeks are

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1164214752797952282006-11-22T08:42:00.000-08:002006-11-22T15:48:16.116-08:00

If you happen to have a copy of the December 2006 issue of Wired handy, turn to page 105 for a nice, but brief description of the July 2006 Homebrew Mobile Phone meeting. There's also an online version of Rob Strohmeyer's article at the DIY Cell Phone page on their site. One thing I would like to mention though... The article only mentions me by name which is exciting, but kinda bypasses a lot

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1162061276614725522006-10-28T10:31:00.000-07:002006-10-28T13:08:12.853-07:00

So I just picked up a copy of "iWoz : How I invented the personal computer, co-founded Apple, and had fun doing it" [*] from the local book store, and there were a couple of lines that really "resonated" with me, so I figured I would post them here. The book itself is a non-pretentious romp through Woz' life, talking about events, projects, people, etc. The major thing I noticed, especially after

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1161246544958888212006-10-19T01:17:00.000-07:002006-10-19T01:31:04.256-07:00

So I have about an hour's drive (each way) to work every day, so I'm happy to have my iPod along. I load it up with podcasts and bad music and spend the hour broadcasting a bizarre mix of NPR, ELO and For the Record on 88.3FM. But every other day or so, I'll pull my iPod out on the way home and notice that it's playing a podcast of the Dalai Lama I downloaded from Apple's Stanford University

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1158023916308143012006-09-11T17:18:00.000-07:002006-09-11T18:18:36.846-07:00

So last week while I was in the middle of a symposium, I received a distressing email telling me that information regarding my Second Life account had been leaked. Worse yet, in addition to my password being leaked, but also credit card details were leaked including credit card number and home address. Yikes! Part of the email was posted on the SL website as Second Life Security Bulletin. But I

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1157264146121281922006-09-02T23:11:00.000-07:002006-09-02T23:15:46.136-07:00

So I was playing with the Google Books site; they've recently started archiving complete texts of "the classics" (which basically means texts that have fallen out of copyright.) I ran across a reference to the following report on government secrecy: The funny bit here is the page's content is restricted.

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1157160677870501572006-09-01T18:11:00.000-07:002006-09-01T18:31:17.890-07:00

In stark contrast to the media's nearly wholesale abandonment of their responsibility to "ask the tough questions" of the president and his govenment, it seems that administration bashing is en vogue on TV and in print. Helen Thomas, one of the few who did not shrink before the administration's spin-storm in the "mission accomplished" era, recently published this opinion piece which advocates not

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1156976808426589072006-08-30T13:56:00.000-07:002006-08-30T15:26:48.603-07:00

So I just learned that Internet phenom Google will be allowing downloads of some non-copyrighted works via it's Google Book Search service. (Here's a link to the story as reported by the SLO Tribune.) I've been looking for a copy of Johan Huizinga's Homo Ludens for quite some time. I was forced to read it for a philosophy class in college, and really didn't understand it at the time. I'm now

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1155247463707776312006-08-10T15:01:00.000-07:002006-08-10T15:04:23.726-07:00

I normally don't just post bare links pointing to other peoples' sites. But the Story of the Four Benches from Shane Clifford over at Intentional Software is a must-read. I don't want to spoil the ending, and I don't know if I could tell the story any better. So I'll just say, we should start building mobile software the same way the last bench-builder builds benches. Let me know if you disagree.

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1154913719834263852006-08-07T20:00:00.000-07:002006-08-07T14:36:40.833-07:00

From The Long Tail [Blog]... Normally I don't go in for this sort of self-congratulatory "bloggers make better lovers" kinda stuff. There's more to the "Pro-Am Revolution" than Blogging, and if you're viewing the blogosphere as being in competition with mainstream media, you're sort of missing the point. But I saw this on The Long Tail Blog and it made me giggle. Plus, I sorta wanted my blog

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1154898445769987722006-08-06T13:26:00.000-07:002006-08-06T14:10:34.330-07:00

I used to call it "User-Developer" when I was writing spread-sheet software. Some people thought I was talking about "User Centered Design" which is related, but not exactly the same thing. People who understand what I'm talking about "just get it." It's about providing tools to end users to customize their information processing experience. It's an acceptance that no matter how hard I try, I

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1154716644196452622006-08-04T10:36:00.000-07:002006-08-04T11:46:12.590-07:00

So I was recently at a chat about MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) here in downtown Silicon Valley. All the talk was about how MVNOs leverage brands and sales channels atypical of traditional network operators. In the old days we used to call these guys "resellers." But that's old-school thinking, of course. Disney, ESPN, Virgin and AMPD certainly aren't just reselling "the same old thing

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1153348954923959722006-07-19T15:16:00.000-07:002006-07-19T15:42:34.970-07:00

So there was recently a thread on the Silicon Valley Homebrew Mobile Phone Club mailing list in which one of our members noted that we had been yammering on about "Innovation." The person in question I respect greatly as someone who is a "doer" and not a "yammerer on." We had, on the list, started talking about the I-Word, and quite frankly if you're more of a "doer," you might very well

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1151777475390605382006-07-01T10:36:00.000-07:002006-07-01T14:15:35.823-07:00

So I've been following the ups and downs of industry innovator Magnatune for a while (you can read yer parliament is about to be boarded) for thoughts about music, downloading, DRM and innovation. CEO John Buckman gets my vote for innovative executive of the year here... In an era where the big labels are pouring money into tech companies (and congressional campaign funds) in an effort to stop

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1144379729880354332006-06-28T07:00:00.000-07:002006-06-28T06:35:29.983-07:00

Several years back there was an awful movie with Dennis Hopper called Space Truckers. I don't really want to dignify the movie with a detailed description, it was that bad. But when I first heard someone talk about the Interplanetary Transport Network I thought of this movie and almost had an aneurism. Then I started thinking about TCP/IP over the deep space network... but then I realized I was

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1150484672134772392006-06-16T11:52:00.000-07:002006-06-18T13:40:30.263-07:00

I was recently interviewed on "Digital Life TV" about the homebrew mobile phone club and DIY mobile phones. (The impatient might want to go directly to the Episode 70 Download Page.) DLTV is a production of Ziff-Davis. But with all the acquisitions in the tech TV world over the last couple years it's hard to keep track. Anyway... the DLTV guys seemed to be a good group. I enjoyed hanging out

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1148859742367198912006-05-28T16:30:00.000-07:002006-05-28T21:08:09.846-07:00

So the old saying goes, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." So, I guess I should take some of the blame here. After experiencing extremely poor customer support from BroadVoice and posting my experiences with using the BroadVoice service, I let a BroadVoice rep talk me into remaining a BV customer. But now it's six weeks later, and I'm getting the same problems with the

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6950102.post-1148009986034620212006-05-18T17:46:00.000-07:002006-05-18T21:30:41.436-07:00

The origin of the "Chiclet Keyboard" is open for debate. Many believe it to have originated with the work of computer pioneer Charles Babbage. Though Mr. Babbage left few written notes about the subject, Lady Ada Lovelace (for whom the computer language Ada is named) left a series of hints in letters to her former tutor Augustus De Morgan. "Mr. Babbage, though as intelligent a fellow as one is

Matthew S. Hamrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13277563775684321398noreply@blogger.com4