One year Santa brough my family the Atari Video Computer System. Santa was cool that way. It must have set him back at least $250 at Sears back when polyester was still considered hip and you could catch the disco version of the Star Wars theme on the...

I feel a little guilty for omitting the following poem from my consideration of Walt Whitman as Patron Poet: I Saw Old General At Bay I saw old General at bay, (Old as he was, his gray eyes yet shone out in battle like stars,) His small...

I confess that my familiarity with Walt Whitman has waned since graduating from college. As so often happens with friends made at school, lives take different paths, links are broken, and memories of foolish exploits fade into clouded recollections made...

One of my next posts will consider Walt Whitman as a potential patron poet of the software development profession. At this point, before reviewing his considerable body of work, I think Walt has a number of things going for him: He was the people...

Remember when computer programs were mostly uniform in appearance and similar in control? ++ I/O CONFIGURATION PROGRAM ++ 1. CONFIGURE EXTERNAL TERMINAL 2. REDEFINE KEYBOARD CHARACTERS 3. LOAD USER I/O DRIVER SOFTWARE 4. READ/WRITE...

When I was a kid waiting for my turn at plate during afternoon recess at Henderson elementary school, conversation always turned to Worldly Things. "Did you see Suzy's hair? Her pony tail holder is pink!" "John got a new SST for his birthday!" ...

Back in the 80's, you couldn't swing a Members Only jacket over your shoulder without hitting a theater that featured midnight movies on Friday and Saturday nights. In our town, the best spot for midnight shows was a two-screen theater tucked in a strip...

Literature students were not supposed to read Cliff's (or Monarch) Notes. It violated the unwritten oath of office, running contrary to the very crux of that office and made a mockery of every single dead poet, novelist, and author of any repute. The...

I spent time some time frequenting two arcades right next to a large university down there in Texas. It was the middle of the 80's and the arcades catered to the college-age crowd which meant they let you game with a Coke and a bag of Cheetos if that...

Could Dylan Thomas be the Patron Poet of developers? Here In This Spring Here in this spring, stars float along the void; Here in this ornamental winter Down pelts the naked weather; This summer buries a spring bird. Symbols are...

The Woz is speaking at Microsoft today. Some people can trace their family history with a certain amount of pride. "My ancestor tuned Mozart's piano" or "my family was one of the original families of the Mayflower". Like one of those stickers you see...

The documentation tells you how to do something but not why you are doing it. Haven't we all felt this way about documentation at one point in our software developer careers? It is a feeling not frequently voiced directly to writers; it lurks below...

What are the necessary conditions for a paradigm shift in programming? Off the top of my head: Dramatic change in how solutions are expressed (syntax shift) Exponential increase in developer productivity Improved application support and maintenance...

Art Garfunkle sings on an episode of Arthur. For those of you with young children, or with no cable and reception good enough only for PBS, you are likely familiar with the episode -- The Ballad of Buster Baxter -- and may have been fortunate enough...