'oh, aha!' 'oh, aha!' and you know something is really, really bad, if you count in server lifes.

oah, uff are the sounds of release.

brian foote rethinks oopsla2004 keynotes beginning with "microsoft's homegrown research czar, rick rashid." first time the story didn't begin and stop at the point where the product presentation came. anyhow, i can't resist to say, i would love to imagine/read the talk, rashid's dog has swallowed and brian has managed to let im cough up ...

None the less, I felt like we were served left-overs, carrion, and I craved something more meaty, and more fresh. I wanted to run out to try to find Rick Rashid’s dog, to see if I could cajole him into coughing up the talk I wanted to hear instead...

Which is harder to change: a program with 1000 lines of code or a 1000 square foot slab of concrete?

Believe me, it's easier to break concrete than to change code. It's like that 70's riddle: How many Californians does it take to change a lightbulb? Just one, but the bulb has to want to change! We are dealing with more than just the physical world here. We have to deal with the programmer's mind-a much more resistant material than mere steel-reinforced concrete.(alan cooper, the perils of prototyping, 1994)

nice 'historical' text (talking about visual basic and hypercard) about prototyping, programmers and code.