Monthly Archives: September 2010

September 11: Beyond Mourning

Posted on Sat, 11 Sep, 2010 by pmjones

For all its horror, 9/11 was not a declaration of war by radical Islam. Rather, it was a dramatic escalation of a war that had begun decades earlier — in Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, in the bombing of the US Marine … Continue reading →

Posted in World War IV | Leave a comment

World Trade Center: Built Like Mecca?

Posted on Sat, 11 Sep, 2010 by pmjones

Maybe everybody else in the world knew this already, but I didn’t. The architect of the WTC towers designed them specifically as references to Mecca: Yamasaki received the World Trade Center commission the year after the Dhahran Airport was completed. … Continue reading →

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The Miserable Mathematics of the Man-Month

Posted on Mon, 06 Sep, 2010 by pmjones

In which I present some analysis of what Brooks’ Law implies for scheduling on late projects. Read on for an overview of Brooks’ Law, its components, how to model its effects on your schedule, and some caveats and conclusions to the analysis. Continue reading →

Posted in Management, Programming | 5 Comments

The Central Tension Of Programming

Posted on Sat, 04 Sep, 2010 by pmjones

The central tension in the software process comes from the fact that we must go from an informally identified need that exists in-the-world to a formal model that operates in-the-computer. From “Beyond Programming” by Bruce Blum, as quoted in “The … Continue reading →

Posted in Programming | 2 Comments

The Worth of Khan

Posted on Fri, 03 Sep, 2010 by pmjones

It is time to question the meaning of the words “education reform” and the investment in reforming the current system. Once the automobile was invented, there was no need for “buggy whip reform” or “horse turnaround plans.” Mr. Khan, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Education | Leave a comment

Gun-wielding ecoterrorist calls for reduction in human population, gets wish

Posted on Thu, 02 Sep, 2010 by pmjones

This afternoon James Jay Lee, a crazy person with a gun, a bomb, and an anti-human manifesto inspired by Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, took hostages at the offices of the Discovery Channel in Silver Spring. He was shot and … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Cuba Is A Plantation?

Posted on Thu, 02 Sep, 2010 by pmjones

… [I]f you look at a Marxist Utopia — say, Cuba — what you’ll see is basically a plantation. At the top, you’ve got the Massa and his family — Fidel, Raul, et al. — followed by various layers of … Continue reading →

Posted in Civil Rights, Government, Liberty, Serfdom | Leave a comment

Ideological War Spells Doom for America’s Schoolkids

Posted on Wed, 01 Sep, 2010 by pmjones

In one camp are conservative Christians and their champion, the Texas State Board of Education; in the other are politically radical multiculturalists and their de facto champion, President Barack Obama. The two competing visions couldn’t be more different. And the … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Government, Politics, Religion, Science | 2 Comments

What’s the Matter with Texas?

Posted on Wed, 01 Sep, 2010 by pmjones

While for the most part the Texas State Board of Education is in fact admirably defending patriotism, they unfortunately drag some ideological baggage into the meeting room as well, and do here and there attempt to push conservative and/or Christian … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Politics, Religion, Science | Leave a comment