Rick Dickinson was an industrial designer at Sinclair Research and was involved with some of Sinclair's most popular early home computers including the ZX Spctrum. He has posted a wonderful collection of Sinclair Spectrum Development Photos over at Flickr. Heres a glimpse...
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Monday, 16 November 2009
The History & Future of Computing
This is an excellent video about the history & future of computing and the information explosion...
Friday, 13 June 2008
Everything is going to be OK. I'm an MBA
No its not.
I've thought about this long and hard. And I'm finally going to say this, even at the risk of displeasing some friends and colleagues. I've never read any references that directly led me to this fact, nor seen any research findings whatsoever that establish a corelation, and nor do I attribute this to a pre-conceived notion arising out of professional jealousy. Yet it is more than a gut feeling, verified consistently throughout a period of the last 18 years. I'm going to say it, for the simple reason that it should be heard, discussed, criticized, thought about, and above all, ... out in the open.
Here it goes...
"An MBA graduate is undeniably an idiot"
That's it. There, I said it first. Doesn't matter where you got you're degree from. Doesn't matter if its a one or two year course, part-time or full-time. Doesn't matter if you're employed with a top firm and minting money as a result. Doesn't matter what you specialized in. Doesn't matter if you traveled abroad to do it. Doesn't matter if you consider you're lifestyle a notch above the rest and a flying success. Now before you get really cross with what I've just said, I'd like to point out that there are exceptions to every rule and fact - in this case however, the exceptions are far and few. Therefore, if you have an MBA credential, and think you are one of the exceptions, then you're probably wrong.
Then how do you determine whether you are not an idiot even though you have an MBA degree? If you were performing a role at your workplace, and realized that there were certain skills that you needed in order to effectively complete your assignment and those skills were something that was taught in B-schools, and this prompted you to upgrade your skills and seek new methodologies, then you are possibly an exception. If you did your MBA before it was fashionable to do so (I'm talking pre-90's here) then you're quite possibly an exception too. If you decided on an MBA credential for any other reason and in the past decade, then I'm afraid you're not.
I'm not going to try and provide all the reasons in a single post. Neither am I going to be unfair and mention that because President George W. Bush also has an MBA from Harvard, my statement is a simple corollary. Its suffice to say that the separation of personal ethics from professional ethics is what lies at the crux of the matter. If a B-School curriculum justifies that separation whether by imbibing or implying it, then there are definitely going to be more Enrons and Exxons for the world to expose.
If you disagree with this fact, its okay to let me know. If you agree with this I would really like you to drop me a comment - it would be relieving for me to know that there is hope.
As an end-note, lets play spot the MBA...
Person 1 says: The glass is half full
Person 2 says: The glass is half empty
Person 3 says: The glass is twice as large as it should be
Update: It has been widely rumored that the title of this blog post were the exact words uttered by Satyam's ex-chairmain minutes before he walked into his prison cell. Ramalinga Raju has an MBA from Ohio University, and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.
Another update: Found an interesting paper the other day - The End of Business Schools - Less Success Than Meets the Eye by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Christina T. Fong. Worth a read.
Monday, 3 September 2007
Software errors: A crash course
Just how much damage can a small software error do?
The costliest software error till date was the explosion of the unmanned Ariane 5 rocket about 37 seconds after lift-off on the morning of June 4, 1996.
This was its maiden flight, and the rocket was carrying 4 uninsured payloads worth about US$370 million. The mission critical Ariane 5 project itself took 10 years to develop at the cost of a whopping US$7 billion.
Apparently, it was blind software reuse that caused the problem, and sticking to the old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" syndrome. An excerpt from a study on evolutionary design by the US Department of Homeland Security explains it well.
"The Ariane 5’s flight control software reused design specifications and code from its highly successful predecessor, the Ariane 4 launch vehicle. In particular, one of the on-board modules, the Inertial Reference System, performed a data conversion of a 64-bit floating point value related to the horizontal velocity of the rocket and attempted to place the result into a 16-bit signed integer variable. This computation had never caused a problem with the Ariane 4, but the more aggressive flight path and much faster acceleration of the Ariane 5 produced a higher horizontal velocity and a corresponding data value that was too large for the 16-bit signed integer variable, causing an arithmetic overflow. A redundant backup process used the same software and failed in the same manner. The Inertial Reference System then generated some diagnostic output that was incorrectly interpreted as flight control data by other portions of the flight control system. Based on this faulty interpretation, the flight control system took actions that led to the self-destruction of the rocket."
Wired has a list of 'History's worst software bugs' here.
The costliest software error till date was the explosion of the unmanned Ariane 5 rocket about 37 seconds after lift-off on the morning of June 4, 1996.
This was its maiden flight, and the rocket was carrying 4 uninsured payloads worth about US$370 million. The mission critical Ariane 5 project itself took 10 years to develop at the cost of a whopping US$7 billion.
Apparently, it was blind software reuse that caused the problem, and sticking to the old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" syndrome. An excerpt from a study on evolutionary design by the US Department of Homeland Security explains it well.
"The Ariane 5’s flight control software reused design specifications and code from its highly successful predecessor, the Ariane 4 launch vehicle. In particular, one of the on-board modules, the Inertial Reference System, performed a data conversion of a 64-bit floating point value related to the horizontal velocity of the rocket and attempted to place the result into a 16-bit signed integer variable. This computation had never caused a problem with the Ariane 4, but the more aggressive flight path and much faster acceleration of the Ariane 5 produced a higher horizontal velocity and a corresponding data value that was too large for the 16-bit signed integer variable, causing an arithmetic overflow. A redundant backup process used the same software and failed in the same manner. The Inertial Reference System then generated some diagnostic output that was incorrectly interpreted as flight control data by other portions of the flight control system. Based on this faulty interpretation, the flight control system took actions that led to the self-destruction of the rocket."
Wired has a list of 'History's worst software bugs' here.
Tuesday, 14 August 2007
Report of the investigation into the UK visa breach
The results of the two-month independent investigation into security breaches of the UK visa application process from India, Nigeria and Russia were published towards the end of July.
The full report is available here (currently archived, see Update below). There were also articles by The Register and The Observer in the UK media that covered the publication of this report. In India, there was no media coverage that I am aware of.
The excellent and very comprehensive report speaks for itself, and I would recommend it as good holiday reading if you're a fan of non-fictional tragic comedies spanning multiple continents. Thats probably exactly what the UK Members of Parliament did, taking a copy of the report with them as they broke off for a 11 week summer recess shortly after it was presented in Parliament.
In the limited time provided, I thought that the appointed Independent Investigator prepared quite a detailed and thorough report. The only striking omission I noticed was any plausible explanation as to why this breach wasn't reported by more applicants considering that this website had such fundamental flaws and left vulnerable for such a long duration of time. A little research into the Indian psyche, perhaps by way of interviews with applicants would have shown that no right thinking, progressive, frequent-flying, peace-loving Indian would ever want to bite the hand that stamps their visa.
I even know individuals in India who would consider themselves famous if their personal details were exposed online! Such is the scale of ignorance towards identity abuse here.
Update: The link for the full report isn't available on the FCO website any longer and claims to be moved to the 'National Archive' if you click it. I've still retained the above link though, to show that the National Archive seems to have misplaced its copy of the report too. Hmmm. However, it can still be found here.
The full report is available here (currently archived, see Update below). There were also articles by The Register and The Observer in the UK media that covered the publication of this report. In India, there was no media coverage that I am aware of.
The excellent and very comprehensive report speaks for itself, and I would recommend it as good holiday reading if you're a fan of non-fictional tragic comedies spanning multiple continents. Thats probably exactly what the UK Members of Parliament did, taking a copy of the report with them as they broke off for a 11 week summer recess shortly after it was presented in Parliament.
In the limited time provided, I thought that the appointed Independent Investigator prepared quite a detailed and thorough report. The only striking omission I noticed was any plausible explanation as to why this breach wasn't reported by more applicants considering that this website had such fundamental flaws and left vulnerable for such a long duration of time. A little research into the Indian psyche, perhaps by way of interviews with applicants would have shown that no right thinking, progressive, frequent-flying, peace-loving Indian would ever want to bite the hand that stamps their visa.
I even know individuals in India who would consider themselves famous if their personal details were exposed online! Such is the scale of ignorance towards identity abuse here.
Update: The link for the full report isn't available on the FCO website any longer and claims to be moved to the 'National Archive' if you click it. I've still retained the above link though, to show that the National Archive seems to have misplaced its copy of the report too. Hmmm. However, it can still be found here.
Monday, 13 August 2007
Play abandoned
Scene I: A Willow tree on the top of an oval hillock. The world of vertebrate life continued quadrupedal, the seeming deviations therefrom being rather apparent than real. Suddenly a true biped appeared, a highly intellectual animal, an extraordinary deviation from the established course of organic development, instantly freeing up the anterior limbs for tasks other than locomotion.
Ape-man: This piece of wood seems to be shaped in a funny way, the top end thicker than the bottom. Ha Ha. Maybe I can round off the bottom of it a bit so its easier to grip with my non-walking limb.
[starts to violently rub the bottom end of a piece of large fallen branch against a rough stone surface, while a tiny cricket like insect darts away from the remaining foliage. This singular act is known to have sparked off the invention of both the hand held club or baton, and the abrasive filing tool at the same time. By the time he finishes, a glint of moonlight shines upon his bipedal outline and his new carved club]
Other-Ape-man: What good will that dead branch do?
[Ape-man demonstrates]
Other-Ape-man: Ouch, that ****ing hurt!
[Falls to ground clutching lower abdomen, as the stimuli of pain gradually arrives at the brain through newly evolved circuits. Eventually recovers, and gets up]
Cool. Lets go bash someone else!
[Before going off to bash others, Ape-man and Other-Ape-man practice the fine skill of swinging-the-club by devising a highly methodical and coherent set of basic rules:
1. Other-Ape-man hurls fist-size stone at Ape-man from a short distance away.
2. If the Ape-man is able to strike the stone with the wooden club, he is rewarded by gaining the permission to run over to Other-Ape-man and pound the club full-swing into the Other-Ape-man's lower abdomen, and then run back to his original position.
3. If the Ape-man misses hitting the stone, the Other-Ape-man now runs over to the Ape-man with the club, snatches his club, grunts in disgust, and wallops him on the lower abdomen. A role reversal occurs at this point, and Other-Ape-man then awaits Ape-man to recover to the point of being able to hurl stones.
4. If the Ape-man misses hitting the stone and the stone hits him instead, the Other-Ape-man again runs over to the Ape-man with the club, snatches his club, grunts in disgust, and wallops him on the lower abdomen. A role reversal occurs.
5. Since counting to six hadn't been invented, they continue adhering to the above rules until one learns the subtle art of club-swinging and/or the other dies trying.
6. Later on, spectator ape-men were allowed to fetch the stone and return it to the stone thrower, and often rewarded when they could catch it before the stone bounched.
Note: The art of stone throwing or fetching wasn't considered an art form until much later
[These early creatures gradually migrated to other grasslands as the dense forestation receded, and by the sheer might of their swinging-club, conquered other ape-men and instilled in them the love of club-swinging. Those who didn't succumb, eventually died out of a strange fracture to their pelvic bones, which fossil records from that period strangely don't show]
Scene II: The Oval, on a small wet island. Enter Stone-Thrower, Club-Swinger, Fetchers, Empire, crowds and commentators.
The former colonies that successfully aped the game of ODI Cricket (Oh Dear Its Cricket) have been the masters of the game for some time now, particularly the formal penal colony of Australia. In the middle of the Oval grounds, a rectangular dirt patch has been marked out for performers. The final over is on, and 2 rounded, hard red objects left to throw. The designated Club-Swinger and his team needs seven runnaways to score a victory.
Stone-Thrower: Uhh! [Hurtling red object, after an amusing little run till the Empire dressed in white]
Club-Swinger: Ahh! [Hitting red object high and towards the crowds lining the field boundary, and preparing to stand in a smart posture leaning on his Willow branch before the red object lands]
[Red object lands amongst crowd]
Fetchers: [In unison] ****.
[Swarming crowds cheer, Empire throws up arms, Stone-Thrower grunts in disgust, uncontrollable pride gushes through Club-Swinger and hence raises his Willow branch in acknowledgment, commentators discuss trajectory of red object using sophisticated computing equipment, and feet pre-positioning tactics of Club-Swinger. The media will wallop the Stone-Thrower a little later. Everyone awaits the next and final rounded red object to be thrown. The media will also wallop the Club-Swinger if he misses to hit this]
Scene III : [Deleted due to utter waste of space]
Ape-man: This piece of wood seems to be shaped in a funny way, the top end thicker than the bottom. Ha Ha. Maybe I can round off the bottom of it a bit so its easier to grip with my non-walking limb.
[starts to violently rub the bottom end of a piece of large fallen branch against a rough stone surface, while a tiny cricket like insect darts away from the remaining foliage. This singular act is known to have sparked off the invention of both the hand held club or baton, and the abrasive filing tool at the same time. By the time he finishes, a glint of moonlight shines upon his bipedal outline and his new carved club]
Other-Ape-man: What good will that dead branch do?
[Ape-man demonstrates]
Other-Ape-man: Ouch, that ****ing hurt!
[Falls to ground clutching lower abdomen, as the stimuli of pain gradually arrives at the brain through newly evolved circuits. Eventually recovers, and gets up]
Cool. Lets go bash someone else!
[Before going off to bash others, Ape-man and Other-Ape-man practice the fine skill of swinging-the-club by devising a highly methodical and coherent set of basic rules:
1. Other-Ape-man hurls fist-size stone at Ape-man from a short distance away.
2. If the Ape-man is able to strike the stone with the wooden club, he is rewarded by gaining the permission to run over to Other-Ape-man and pound the club full-swing into the Other-Ape-man's lower abdomen, and then run back to his original position.
3. If the Ape-man misses hitting the stone, the Other-Ape-man now runs over to the Ape-man with the club, snatches his club, grunts in disgust, and wallops him on the lower abdomen. A role reversal occurs at this point, and Other-Ape-man then awaits Ape-man to recover to the point of being able to hurl stones.
4. If the Ape-man misses hitting the stone and the stone hits him instead, the Other-Ape-man again runs over to the Ape-man with the club, snatches his club, grunts in disgust, and wallops him on the lower abdomen. A role reversal occurs.
5. Since counting to six hadn't been invented, they continue adhering to the above rules until one learns the subtle art of club-swinging and/or the other dies trying.
6. Later on, spectator ape-men were allowed to fetch the stone and return it to the stone thrower, and often rewarded when they could catch it before the stone bounched.
Note: The art of stone throwing or fetching wasn't considered an art form until much later
[These early creatures gradually migrated to other grasslands as the dense forestation receded, and by the sheer might of their swinging-club, conquered other ape-men and instilled in them the love of club-swinging. Those who didn't succumb, eventually died out of a strange fracture to their pelvic bones, which fossil records from that period strangely don't show]
Scene II: The Oval, on a small wet island. Enter Stone-Thrower, Club-Swinger, Fetchers, Empire, crowds and commentators.
The former colonies that successfully aped the game of ODI Cricket (Oh Dear Its Cricket) have been the masters of the game for some time now, particularly the formal penal colony of Australia. In the middle of the Oval grounds, a rectangular dirt patch has been marked out for performers. The final over is on, and 2 rounded, hard red objects left to throw. The designated Club-Swinger and his team needs seven runnaways to score a victory.
Stone-Thrower: Uhh! [Hurtling red object, after an amusing little run till the Empire dressed in white]
Club-Swinger: Ahh! [Hitting red object high and towards the crowds lining the field boundary, and preparing to stand in a smart posture leaning on his Willow branch before the red object lands]
[Red object lands amongst crowd]
Fetchers: [In unison] ****.
[Swarming crowds cheer, Empire throws up arms, Stone-Thrower grunts in disgust, uncontrollable pride gushes through Club-Swinger and hence raises his Willow branch in acknowledgment, commentators discuss trajectory of red object using sophisticated computing equipment, and feet pre-positioning tactics of Club-Swinger. The media will wallop the Stone-Thrower a little later. Everyone awaits the next and final rounded red object to be thrown. The media will also wallop the Club-Swinger if he misses to hit this]
Scene III : [Deleted due to utter waste of space]
Scene IV: [Deleted due to utter waste of time]
Addendum: In 1912 a portion of a fossil elephant femur was reportedly discovered at East Sussex, England (Piltdown Man). At a Geological Society of London meeting shortly after, a scientist rose to state that "he could not imagine any use for an implement that looked like part of a cricket bat." He further believed in the possibility "of the bone having been found and whittled in recent times." For over 40 years, scientists preferred to believe that the object was a genuine paleolithic tool, though no one could assign it a plausible function. Today, its known that the Piltdown Man was largely a hoax, one of the grandest in history in fact. More of this here.
Addendum: In 1912 a portion of a fossil elephant femur was reportedly discovered at East Sussex, England (Piltdown Man). At a Geological Society of London meeting shortly after, a scientist rose to state that "he could not imagine any use for an implement that looked like part of a cricket bat." He further believed in the possibility "of the bone having been found and whittled in recent times." For over 40 years, scientists preferred to believe that the object was a genuine paleolithic tool, though no one could assign it a plausible function. Today, its known that the Piltdown Man was largely a hoax, one of the grandest in history in fact. More of this here.
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