Technology Interests
Alan is interested in projects in the areas of
- Distributed Database and Graph Systems
- Big Data
- Multiprocess and Concurrency-oriented Programming
- Software Craftsmanship
Software Development Resources
- Code Complete by Steve McConnell
- Beautiful Code by Andy Oram & Greg Wilson
- Coders at Work by Peter Seibel
- Making Software: What Really Works, and Why We Believe It edited by Andy Oram & Greg Wilson
- Software Engineering Radio
- The Mythical Man-Month by Fred Brooks
Technology Entrepreneurship
- Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston
- This Week In Startups
- Paul Graham's Essays
- On Startups blog
Computing History
- Computer History Museum
- Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
- Show Stopper: The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT by G. Pascal Zachary
- Breaking Windows by David Bank
- Accidental Empires by Robert X. Cringley
- Triumph of the Nerds - Early history of the computer industry
- Racing the Beam - all about the Atari 2600
Tech News and Opinion
Media
Cool Quotes and Random Wisdom
There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies,
and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.
C.A.R. Hoare, Computer Scientist
From his 1980 Turing Award Lecture
From his 1980 Turing Award Lecture
Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognized. In the first, it is ridiculed,
in the second it is opposed, in the third it is regarded as self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher
Worry is a dividend paid to disaster before it is due.
Ian Fleming, author
Spare the integrity, spoil the data.
Mike Britten, software developer
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own
happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest
activity, and reason as his only absolute.
Ayn Rand, philosopher
Those who are enamored of practice without science are like a pilot who goes into a
ship without rudder or compass and never has any certainty where he is going. Practice
should always be based upon a sound knowledge of theory.
Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance Man
The most successful software applications are never completed, they evolve with the enterprises they serve.
Daniel D. Corkill, software executive
Happiness is... The exercise of vital powers along lines of excellence in a life affording them scope.
Aristotle, philosopher
Be attentive. Be intelligent. Be reasonable. Be responsible.
Bernard Lonergan, philosopher
The universe runs on the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest.
G'Kar on Babylon-5, written by J. Michael Straczynski, writer
Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better
idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far,
the universe is winning.
Rick Cook, NASA mission manager (Mars Pathfinder project)
True artists are never jealous
Mel Brooks, comedian and writer
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
George Bernard Shaw, writer
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Robert J. Hanlon. Known as “Hanlon's Razor”.
You know you have reached perfection in design, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to be taken away.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, writer