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The more I work with software, the more I think of it in economic terms.  I recently gave a presentation to my team that included an introduction with a strong economic emphasis.  From the feedback I got, it was thought providing, but not “to the point” enough - too much talk about economics itself.  That isn’t surprising, because I tend to go on about academic things, and because I love the subject.

But I am left with the impression that us software folks, on average, would greatly benefit from more of a grasp of economics than we have.  I think everyone would benefit from a deeper understanding of economics.  Why?  Because it describes how the world actually works.  It doesn’t concern itself with intentions, but with outcomes.  It deals with the realities that we would often rather not think about - but must.  “You can have everything, and certainly not now.”  It is the central tenant in the all-important engineering reality of trade-offs.

While often associated with money, economics is primarily about the use of resources - of any kind.  The fact that you are reading this now is an economic reality.  You could be spending your time doing something else, but you choose to be doing this.  Your time is scare, and it has alternative uses.  The loss of the alterntive use (like reading a better blog) at this moment, is an opporunity cost.

So, can we as software practioners benefit from a better undersanding and practical application of economics?  Absolutely.

More to come.

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/09/07/30/1854243/Emacs-Hits-Version-23

Yea!

For those unfamiliar, Emacs is simply the best text editor on the planet.

I believe the iPhone is the most revolutionary device and software platform brought to market in the past ten years.  It is just so usable.  My 21 month old son Aaron knows how to unlock it, navigate through multiple pages, and start the games he likes.  Rolando is a real hit with both the kids.  Perhaps the most telling impact this kind of early exposure will have on the future of computing is the fact that my notebook screen has been completely covered in smudge marks from the kids trying to use their fingers on the screen.

The iPhone is a major breakthrough toward solving the “blinking twelve problem”.   Neal Stephenson refers to this problem in his book, “In the Beginning was the Command Line”.  In the book he criticises the modern computer GUI as being clumsy and poorly suited for many tasks, a clumsy abstraction bolted onto a computer whose power is often limited by the GUI.  Ask any expert UNIX admin and they will attest to the fact that nothing beats the power of the command line (and Windows command promt doesn’t count).  But that is beside the point.  The iPhone returns the GUI to a state that is more about the user.  It remains the first computer Aaron could operate.

Turns out I share a birthday with the Apple Macintosh.  I was seven when it was introduced.

Happy birthday, Mac!

 http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/24/25-years-ago-apples-macintosh-says-hello/

I have uploaded a a few more photos.

I just finished installing WordPress on my website hosted at TextDrive. I am really impressed with how easy WordPress is to install and use. The installable themes are great.

I now have a blog. I hope it will be of use to some and occasionally interesting. Until it does become interesting, you can read some blogs that already are:

• http://tapestryjava.blogspot.com
• http://www.toolshed.com/blog
• http://www.raibledesigns.com

I find it humorous that Firefox things the word “blog” is misspelled. It suggests I change it to log, bog, slog, clog or flog. Ok, I’m game…. Welcome to by new bog.