From the National Academies: The Future of Computing Performance: Game Over or Next Level?. A nice, thorough explanation of the current challenges in computing performance, ranging from transistor-level power vs. speed problems, up to how to program the circuits we’re likely to end up with. Also includes a bonus reprint of two classic papers, Gordon [...]

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An interesting post about how to evaluate a research idea. Basically, try to think about the bounds: what’s the maximum impact? Includes some good rules of thumb, like pay attention to physical constraints like the speed of light :) Embedded in Academia : Squeezing a CS Research Idea.

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I read John Siracusa’s “Copland 2010″ article back in ’05, and listened to his recent update of it on his podcast. I wasn’t very convinced, but I couldn’t figure out quite how to say why. Today I think Guy nailed it: Siracusa argues that abstraction is the all consuming beast of computer science, I think [...]

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From The Axis of Eval: “Truth IS stranger than fiction”: Chuck McManis explains the cancellation and subsequent fame of Java. It’s fascinating to me how often you hear about these overnight successes that took years to develop and were canceled, given up for dead, etc. many times. I remember hearing similar stories about Self and [...]

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From the always-interesting Canonical Design blog: Introducing Overlay Scrollbars in Unity. (Who wouldn’t love to see an Apple Design blog? It’s fun to follow along as some serious, talented people rethink stuff we use everyday…) Take a look at the video – and stick with it all the way through. At first I didn’t like [...]

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I’ve recently seen the concept of delight in software brought up in a couple different places, and I just wanted to cheer it on. Jesper at waffle is starting an open-source web browser project to revive the spirit of OmniWeb, called rouse. He coins the phrase “delight innovation”. I love that phrase. He’s talking about [...]

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Marco Arment wrote yesterday about mobile computing being more exciting than what he called “Desk” computing. I’m a fan of Marco’s writing, and I usually agree with him, but that post got me thinking. I can’t argue that mobile isn’t exciting, but I disagree with his assertion that desktop computing is a solved problem. He’s [...]

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I chime in on the reactions to the iPad as a new wave of pleasantly functional but closed computing.

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I really liked a recent post by Alex Payne titled Switching Season. He says he gets an itch every year or so to go try something different, and I can sympathize. What he says at the end really resonates: It’s about computer usage as a creative act, something that becomes harder and harder to experience [...]

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I talk about a script I’ve been using to tweak my attention scheduling.

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