I must say I had been flirting with postmodern philosophy in recent years –with the idea that objective truth is unattainable, that generalizations are impossible, and that all I have is my own perception of reality, which need not, and cannot, match yours. But although it’s a compelling stance in theory (and a cool one, [...]
Catenary- Carbon clock June 21, 2009Via George Monbiot, here is a counter that estimates the accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere. Monbiot writes (emphasis mine): The carbon clock suggests that the cumulative total of long-lived greenhouse gases in the atmosphere so far is 3.64tn metric tonnes, carbon dioxide equivalent. It is rising by 2bn tonnes a month. To have a good [...]Jorge
- Rational Management June 19, 2009“To administer a social organization according to purely technical criteria of rationality is irrational, because it ignores the nonrational aspects of social conduct.” Peter BlauJorge
- Spanish books in Toronto! June 15, 2009For years I’d been searching for a copy of Janusz Glowacki’s Antigone in New York, a play I performed back in Mexico. I couldn’t find it anywhere: big bookstores, small bookstores, online, in Canada, in the United States –nowhere. Until a friend of mine told me about Theatre Books, a little store specializing in screenplays [...]Jorge
- We do not study software engineering June 6, 2009The term “Software Engineering” is flawed, according to Neil Ernst, and I agree completely: it is a metaphor that conveys all sorts of incorrect connotations about the diverse and complex nature of software development. I don’t use it anymore if I can avoid it, and neither should you.Jorge
- Andy Ko and the semblance of objectivity in numbers May 31, 2009Andy Ko blogged yesterday about having a paper rejected at FSE, the Foundations of Software Engineering Conference, because it used qualitative research methods. His post includes depressing snippets from his reviews, and his replies are fitting and well worth reading: Transforming empirical observations into numbers does NOT make them objective, nor does it […]Jorge
- Online climate simulator May 30, 2009C-Learn is a simplified online climate simulator you can use to play with possible CO2 emission scenarios. It may take you a few minutes to figure out how to change the input variables, and what do they mean exactly, but once you get the hang of it its a very sobering exercise. I just spent some [...]Jorge
- ICSE 2009 highlights May 24, 2009Here’s the list of my highlights from ICSE 2009. It is, of course, a very partial list, focused on the “human” or “soft” or “cooperative” or “whatever-its-name-is” side of software development that interests me. The CHASE workshop The Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering workshop is the o […]Jorge
- Bibliometrics May 23, 2009Hmmm… Should we heed David Parnas’ call for dismissing bibliometrics information? After all, how can he be right? It’s only been cited twice so far…Jorge
- The Secret Life of Bugs: a brief summary May 23, 2009Well, my ICSE talk has come and gone, and I’m very happy with it and with the feedback I got. Now, with the talk behind, I feel it’s a good idea to give a brief summary of what the paper Gina and I wrote is all about. I should say though, if you’re interested in [...]Jorge
- Presenting at ICSE 2009 May 21, 2009If you’re attending ICSE 2009, do come to the talk on The Secret Life of Bugs tomorrow (Thursday) at the Maintenance session, 11am! If you’re curious about the paper, and don’t have access to the proceedings, you can find it on this link. I’ll write some more about the study after I’m done with the presentation. Wish [...]Jorge
- Carbon clock June 21, 2009
