Brugge Blog

An interesting metaphor for doing process for process sake, Ned Batchelder writes about a couple of cases of cargo cult software engineering. Instead of using a process as a means to a higher goal, you think that the process is the higher goal. This has been the gripe about Big Methodologies as long as they’ve […]

Continuing to build off the appeal of a “pragmatic” approach to software development that emphasises the craft of software rather than the academic or theoretic approaches, the pragmatic duo have a new collection of books out that they call The Pragmatic Starter Kit. Their ideas are refreshing reminders of why we do this silly thing […]

Besides reading Al Franken’s new book for laughs, getting to some of the deep issues of media ownership from a more staid perspective is usually heavier reading. I don’t know if there’s a way around it, but just having access to arguments is an important part of having a debate. Helping that out, Lawrence Lessig […]

So what if Microsoft has 98% of the desktop OS market, and they aren’t slowing down? Robert Cringely ponders where their .NET juggernaut will end, and as a side note has a link to a ZDNet artice on the convergence of Java and .NET.

Is the single language (C#), single vendor (MS), single platform (.NET) world […]

Part of me knows that I always have to use critical filters when reading news stories to look for exaggerations, falsehoods or conjectures. I sometimes forget to be on the lookout for omissions, partly because, by their nature, they’re hard to spot - how do you know something is missing if you don’t know much […]

I enjoy the times when insights found in a book show examples of themselves in the world of the moment. I’m reading Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time, where Alan Grant, a Scotland Yard detective finds himself using his convalescence time in a hospital to uncover the truer story of Richard III - he […]

“Bill Moyers for president!” This became one of the cheers at the National Conference on Media Reform last weekend here in Madison. As Studs Terkel, the surprise guest said by way of introducting Moyers, if someone asked me who the ideal president would be, the choice of someone with integrity, honesty, passion and compassion is […]