DevTopics » People

Desktop Computer Inventor Charles Thacker Wins Turing Award

timm — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:05:18 +0000

When you clicked an icon to launch your web browser to read this article, you can thank Charles Thacker (among others).

In 1973, Thacker and a group of scientists at the famed Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) built the Alto, the world’s first desktop computer. The Alto featured many innovations that we take for granted today in our personal computers: a television-like screen, graphical user interface, windows, icons, and a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) text editor.

The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) has awarded Charles Thacker with the Turing Award, which is considered to be the “Nobel Prize in Computing.” The award includes a $250,000 check, with financial support by Intel and Google. Since 1966 the Turing Award has honored computer scientists and engineers who “created the systems and underlying theoretical foundations that have propelled the information technology industry.”

The award was named for British mathematician Alan M. Turing, who described the mathematical foundation and limits of computing. A programming language is considered to be “Turing Complete” when the “rules followed in sequence on arbitrary data can produce the result of any calculation.” A device is considered to be a computer if it’s Turing Complete.

The Alto was never released as a commercial product, though Xerox built several thousand units. The first prototype cost $12,000, which was surprisingly inexpensive compared to the mini and mainframe computers of the era. Like many incredible PARC inventions, Xerox was slow to realize the commercial potential of the Alto. It took Apple and the Macintosh to bring desktop computing to the masses a decade later.

Thacker was also the co-inventor of the Ethernet LAN, which is the ubiquitous computer network in homes and businesses today. In 1983 Thacker co-founded the Systems Research Center (SRC) at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), where he designed the Firefly multiprocessor workstation. This was yet another invention ahead of its time but pretty much standard today, even in general purpose PCs. Thacker joined Microsoft Research in 1997 to help establish its Microsoft Research Cambridge laboratory, where he designed the hardware for the first Tablet PCs. Over the years Thacker contributed to many other important projects including the first laser printer. Thacker holds 29 patents in computer systems and networking.

Past winners of the Turing Award include Alan Kay in 2003 for pioneering object-oriented development and inventing the Smalltalk programming language, Douglas Engelbart in 1997 for his many important inventions including the computer mouse, and Ken Thompson and Dennis M. Ritchie in 1983 for their role in developing UNIX.

Top 10 Software Innovators of All Time
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Do Your Facebook Friends Really Care That You’re Heading to Bed?

timm — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:08:20 +0000

I have a friend who announces when she’s going to bed every night on Facebook. It’s the 21st century equivalent of “Good night, John Boy.” But does anyone really care?

Facebook, MySpace and especially Twitter provide a global platform to the narcissist in each of us. We tweet the minutia of detail in our normally normal lives, hoping that somebody in cyberspace actually cares.

I’m not throwing stones in a glass house; I’m actually throwing them at the mirror. I, too, am guilty of sharing my life ad nauseum on Facebook. Even this blog is an electronic indictment of my narcissism, as if anyone truly cares about my rants.

But like many things in life, you may occasionally find a diamond in the rough, or a pony in this seemingly endless pile of poo.

Facebook et al. allow you to peek into the lives of your friends and family. You see all the little mundane details that you would never hear or otherwise care about in your occasional encounters with these people in real life. And every so often, something pops up in their account of their lives that interests and captivates you, bringing you closer to them in the process.

For example, I have an old friend from high school as a Facebook friend. Last week was her 10th wedding anniversary, and she discovered her engagement and wedding rings were missing after her morning workout. She was crushed and frantic, and suddenly her story was very interesting to me and her many other friends. We watched all day on Facebook as she hunted for her rings and fretted on what her husband would say about her missing rings at their planned romantic dinner that night. Not only was there sentimental value to the rings, of course, and the irony of losing them on that special day, but there was also serious money involved.

This unfolding story had all the aspects that make a movie great: drama, intrigue and romance for a character we care about. And of course, suspense, because none of us knew how this tale would end. We gave her encouragement and some offered suggestions in Facebook on where to look, and she would frequently update us on her search.

As luck would have it, she found her rings just before dinner in the trunk of her car. They had somehow worked their way out of the special pouch in her gym bag and fortunately fell harmlessly into the bottom of her trunk. It was one of life’s little adventures that I would never hear about otherwise in the short span of a class reunion, but Facebook allowed us to peer into her life and share this experience with her.

So in spite of downsides to social networking — which include a loss of privacy and an increasingly self-centered world — Facebook and Twitter have brought me closer to many friends and relatives in my life, both past and present. Social networks allow me to stay close and experience the lives of loved ones in way that would never be possible in today’s busy and dispersed modern world.

Reprinted with permission from Now I Don’t Want to Get Off on a Rant Here

How to Pronounce “Bjarne Stroustrup”

timm — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:40:59 +0000

Bjarne Stroustrup is a Danish-born computer scientist and the College of Engineering Chair Professor of Computer Science at Texas A&M University. He is most notable for developing the C++ programming language. But many English speakers fumble at pronouncing his name.

A rough English pronunciation would be "B-yar-ne Strov-stroop". Or you can listen here to how Stroustrup himself pronounces his name.

Software Millionaire Missing in Hawaii

timm — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:38:46 +0000

The millionaire founder of an Internet software security company has gone missing in Hawaii following months of bizarre behavior. Steven Thomas, 36, was last seen June 30 at a Waikiki hotel.

Thomas and ex-girlfiend Kirsten Talley founded Webroot Software in Boulder, Colorado in 1997. Thomas wrote Spy Sweeper and Window Washer programs. The pair sold their stake for $108 million to venture capitalists in December 2004. They split the proceeds and parted ways. Thomas then moved to O’ahu, where he bought a beachfront home. His net worth is estimated to be around $50 million.

Steven was recently arrested for running naked into the middle of a 5K race in Kailua. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in April and recently ranted that the government was “trying to gas his house.” Kevin Thomas, Steven’s twin brother, said, “He snapped the other day and said God was sending him messages in his mind that his wife was going to make a satanic ritual killing out of him. He freaked out and split. The last time anyone saw him, he was on a hotel balcony in Waikiki saying it wasn’t high enough to do the job. We’re at the end of our ropes here.”

Recently Steven was concerned about the poor performance of his investment portfolio and had discussed moving back to Colorado, his wife said. Steven has not used his credit cards since he disappeared, and no money is missing from any of the accounts he shares with his wife.

Programmer Productivity: The "Tenfinity Factor"

timm — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:35:44 +0000

It’s widely accepted in the software industry that some programmers are much more productive than others. Many experts cite an order-of-magnitude productivity difference between the “best” and “average” programmers.

This “factor of 10″ difference is so commonly referenced that “10X Software Development” is the name of the blog by development productivity guru Steve McConnell, who says:

Numerous studies have found 10:1 differences in productivity and quality among individuals and even among teams. The original study that found huge variations in individual programming productivity was conducted in the late 1960s by Sackman, Erikson, and Grant. They studied professional programmers with an average of 7 years’ experience and found that the ratio of initial coding time between the best and worst programmers was about 20 to 1; the ratio of debugging times over 25 to 1; of program size 5 to 1; and of program execution speed about 10 to 1. They found no relationship between a programmer’s amount of experience and code quality or productivity.

Some other noteworthy comments on the subject:

“The best programmers are not marginally better than merely good ones. They are an order-of-magnitude better, measured by whatever standard: conceptual creativity, speed, ingenuity of design, or problem-solving ability.” –Randall E. Stross

“A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer.” –Bill Gates

“90% of the code is written by 10% of the programmers.” –Robert C. Martin

But it’s not just that some programmers work faster; some programmers can do things that few other programmers can do. These are your visionaries and trailblazers. I call this sometimes-10X/sometimes-infinite advantage: The “Tenfinity Factor.”

In my 25-year programming career, which includes 6 software companies I started, I’ve had the pleasure to manage and work with many programmers offering a wide range of skills. Specifically in our venture-backed company during the dot-com boom, though I didn’t write much code, I managed a department of 27 technical people that included some of the best programmers available in a Midwest town like Cincinnati. In my experience, the tenfinity factor is definitely real.

This wide productivity gap results in five major classes of computer programmers:

1. Visionary/Artist Programmer

The Visionary Programmer is a rare breed that can capture lightning in a bottle and produce code that 99.9% of others cannot. These inventors create new applications and paradigms that drive innovation in the software industry. Napster, Netscape, and the World Wide Web are all inventions from visionary programmers. For these people, software is more art than science. Speed and quality are not always the best, but great fortunes are made on the backs of these wizards. Most development shops can afford only a single visionary programmer, which is often the company’s technical founder or CTO.

2. Trailblazer Programmer

The Trailblazer Programmer takes a good idea and runs with it. These are the people who most often create the prototypes that ultimately become useful products. Trailblazers can produce in a day what takes most programmers weeks or months. Trailblazers are always experimenting with new tools and technologies, constantly learning and searching for ways to increase productivity, and typically serve as mentors and teachers to other programmers. You will often find a trailblazer coding away late at night when everyone else has left the office. Though these professionals tend to be expensive, every successful development shop needs at least one or two trailblazers.

3. Workhorse Programmer

The Workhorse Programmer is the backbone of any productive development shop. These people are not particularly innovative, but they are highly productive and reliable. Give a workhorse programmer a good set of specs and the right tools, and they will often deliver on time and within budget.

4. Drone Programmer

Filling the fat in a true bell curve, many programmers are “drones” who work 9-5 to collect a paycheck. These people shy away from new technology, avoid learning new things, and likely will not be reading this article. Most large development shops are full of drones because management fails to realize that more expensive programmers are actually cheaper.

5. Idiot Programmer

Every village has its idiot, and software development is no exception. Programming requires abstract and logical thinking, yet some right-brained people are lured to programming in search of a good salary. Idiot Programmers often struggle with the simplest of algorithms, constantly miss deadlines and fail to make much progress. The sad thing is these are often wonderful people, but simply in the wrong job.

So do you believe in the tenfinity factor? What have you seen on the job?

40 Years of Cubicles

timm — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:24:13 +0000

In 1968, inventor Robert Propst revolutionized the American workplace with his “Action Office” design for the Herman Miller furniture company. Propst intended to create a more dynamic and flexible workspace, but the end result was the much-maligned office cubicle.

Forty years ago, most office workers were jammed together in open rooms. Propst’s idea was to increase worker productivity by separating people into their own small “rooms,” which could be easily assembled or re-configured as needed. It’s like offering each worker their own personal bathroom stall, but without the door or any real expectation of privacy.

Corporate bosses, who typically work in offices with walls, cielings and doors, thought cubicles were a terrific idea and have purchased more than $5 billion worth of cubicles from Herman Miller alone. Today, 70% of U.S. office workers sit in cubicles.

But as usual, a good invention was hijacked for evil. “The Action Office wasn’t conceived to cram a lot of people into little space,” says Joe Schwartz, Herman Miller’s former marketing chief who helped launch the system in 1968. “It was driven that way by economics.” In the late 60’s, the number of white-collar office workers exploded along with commercial real estate prices, resulting in a need to maximize office space. Cubicles offered a much cheaper alternative than building fixed offices.

Propst designed cubicles to be flexible, but in practice companies would seldom move or modify their cubicles. Lined up in identical rows, cubicles came to represent the “dystopian world of bright satanic offices” as described in the 1998 book, “Workplaces of the Future.”

There is debate on whether cubicles or offices are better for software developers. The main arguments are:

Cubicles – encourage collaboration and can adapt to an ever-changing workforce
Offices – provide privacy and silence for developers to get into the “zone”

The “zone” sounds silly but is real. It’s widely accepted that software developers can take from 5-15 minutes to regain focus and concentration after an interruption. So if a developer is interrupted every 10 minutes while working in a cubicle, he may not get much work done.

I have spent my entire career in either an office or cubicle, and I prefer an office with a door. But cubicles can be OK if co-workers stay quiet and limit interruptions, and if there is plenty of ambient noise from air conditioning or white-noise generator.

So what does the future hold for the office cubicle? Scott Adams, who created the Dilbert cartoon that lampoons cubicles and “pointy-haired bosses,” approached furniture maker IDEO to create Dilbert’s Ultimate Cubicle. This is an attempt to “address the myriad issues connected with partition-based offices. The result is a modular cubicle that allows each worker to select the components and create a space based on his or her tastes and lifestyle.”

Along with practical solutions for common work necessities like storage and counter space, Dilbert’s Ultimate Cubicle also includes amenities such as a hammock, aquarium, floor cooler, fold-down visitor’s chair, boss monitor, locker and motorized shoe polisher.

So which type of work area do you prefer: office, cubicle or open space? Please comment below.

Interesting Cubicle Links

Famous Programmer on Trial for Murder

timm — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:56:53 +0000

Hans Reiser, a programmer famous for creating the ReiserFS computer file system for Linux, is charged with killing his wife, whose body has never been found.

Reiser, 44, testified in his murder trial that he tried to figure out what happened to his wife after she disappeared in September 2006. His defense attorney suggested Nina Reiser may have moved back to her native Russia.

But prosecutors say Nina was not the type of person who would abandon her two children. Authorities found blood splatters in Reiser’s car and house, but DNA tests could not determine if the blood was Nina’s. The passenger seat of Reiser’s car was also missing, and the floorboard was soaked with water. Reiser testified he removed the seat to make it more comfortable to sleep in the car. Police also found two homicide-related books in his car, but Reiser claims he purchased the books because he was under suspicion for murder and wanted to read up on the subject.

When Reiser was arrested in October 2007, he was carrying his passport and nearly $9,000 cash in a fanny pack. Reiser and his wife were in the midst of a bitter divorce when she disappeared. Reiser admitted he “put a lot of pressure” on Nina, including accusing her of embezzlement and perjury. Reiser remains jailed without bail while his trial continues.

One interesting angle the defense is playing in the murder trial is to highlight Reiser’s open source generosity. Here’s the logic: Hans Reiser could have made millions on his file system but instead chose to donate it to open source. Therefore, a man this generous surely could not kill his wife. Unfortunately for Reiser, the judge dismissed this line of reasoning as irrelevant.

ReiserFS is a general-purpose, computer file system designed by Hans Reiser and implemented by his company Namesys. ReiserFS was the first journaled file system included in the standard Linux kernel. Journaled means the file system “logs changes to a journal (usually a circular log in a dedicated area) before committing them to the main file system. Such file systems are less likely to become corrupted in the event of power failure or system crash.” (wiki) ReiserFS was the default file system in Novell’s SUSE Enterprise Linux until Novell decided to move to another file system in 2006, “coincidentally” just two days after Reiser was charged with his wife’s murder.