about: things
on me and coding and some things

In Erlang, there is no mutable state, -> there is no shared memory, -> and there are no locks. This makes it easy to parallelize our programs.

Page 32, Pragmatic Erlang, Software for a concurrent World

starting to love it.

Technorati Tags: erlang, concurrent, threads, pragmaticprogrammer

Ich mag Zahlen und es freut mich immer auf Leute zu stossen die vernünftig damit um gehen können. In “The Linden dollar Game” weist Randolph Harrison die unseriöse Grundlage der SecondLife Ökonomie nach. Mit der ganzen Kühle des anlytischen Arguments erklärt er warum SecondLife keine Ökonomie sondern ein HYIP Schema ist, in Deutschland besser bekannt unter dem Namen Piloten- oder Pyramidenspiel. Solch provokanten Thesen verhallen natürlich nicht ungehört in der Blogsphere.

Und dann hat er auch noch so schöne Charts. Die mag ich ja fast noch lieber als nackte Zahlen. Entscheidet selbst, schon ohne jedwede weitere Information zu dem Chart auf der linken Seite wird doch sofort ersichtlich, dass dort wohl irgentwas auseinander läuft. Anspruch und Realität, Traum und Wirklichkeit. Die technische Analyse der Börsenkurse erscheint mir im allgemeinen nur wenig vertrauensbildender als das betrachten der Permanenzen beim Roulette. In diesem Fall allerdings machen ein paar technische Betrachtungen durchaus Sinn.

Es gibt viele Dinge die man aktuell zu SL sagen könnte, aber das erscheint mir müssig. Das wird sich schon von alleine klären und mir gefiehlen eben die schönen Infographiken.

Bermerkenswert ist vieleicht noch die Tatsache, dass laut Valleywag erst die “Herrison was apperently forced to abandon his research” Aktvitäten die Grund dafür waren das er motiviert wurde die SL Ökonomie nach allen Regeln der Zunft ausseinanderzunehmen. Ist ja auch eine Menge Arbeit. Deswegen auch hier noch ein paar charts:

Take note of the consistent decline in hours per total unique player, barely breaking even from mid 2005 until only last month (January 2007) in an amazing reversal. Historical trends predict future months will return to hours per unique player declines.

Growth, Growth, Growth
Linden has boasted unbelievable growth numbers, even proudly displaying them on their Second Life home page. In fact, Clay Shirky didn’t believe the numbers, and challenged them in myriad forums (earning him fierce sometimes slanderous attacks from the Second Life faithful).

Don’t mess with the Blogosphere! möchte man da doch raten (learn more).

SecondLife ist also ein Pilotenspiel, ‘so what?’ Mich jedenfalls stört das nicht. Genausewenig wie ich Geld in Pyramidenspiele stecke werde ich meine Geld im SL verlieren. Virtuall Reality gibt es ja nun schon recht lange, aber nie hat es so richtig gezündet. Diesmal bin ich der Meinung, 3D ist gekommen ist um zu bleiben. Der Hype wird verschwinden, vieleicht auch LindenLabs und SL, aber das 3D Bewusstsein scheint mir endgültig angekommen zu sein.

more to come

Technorati Tags: secondlife, marketing, blogosphere, economy

You know,

Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future.
–Nils Bohr, Nobel laureate in Physics

agreed, but one thing is certain: it becomes way more complex than it used to be.

I recently just skimmed this 2007 Web Predictions and by quickly counting every major trend they identified in their post i figured out that I can’t keep up with the progress any more. I can dive into any given topic deep enough to cope with it, but not more all of them at once. Personally I’m unable to  accumulate information that fast anymore, and maybe it  is also impossible for a company. You can always hire people, but besides the difficulty of getting the right ones, you start loosing focus. Beeing “a jack in all trades, master in none” is no viable solution.

I recognize the pattern though. In the beginning, when i got started with the messy world of computers, i could keep up to date with all and every topic. Heck, there was only one (offline) magazine! “Byte”, and much later than came, heise C’t for the german market.

After just  a decade down the road, the web came and and funny enough, the earliest online reference of Bye magazine covers 3D graphics for everyone. That was in ’96 and now 10 years later i come back doing stuff with SecondLife. History is repeating itself? Or is it just me running around in circles?

have fun


Technorati Tags: market, trends, predictions, future, secondlife

Imagine seeing a job posting that read “Designer wanted. Must be proficient with MS Paint.”

C++ prgrogrammers are supposed to be adults and need a minimum of nannyism
Bjarne Stroustrup, Design and Evolution of the C++ Programming language

i stumbled upon an interview with bjarne stroutstrup today, heros of my past. oh well, what can i say, such a long time ago. i started C++ in 1988 by reading the C++ annotated reference manual. We just called it the ARM. For years it was a bible for me. Page 168 a bizarre feature was described: “call by representation”, not by value, not by reference, by representation.  Anyone still knows what that is? Today i’m ruby promoter by all my heart but back then i could hardly imagine ever having a need for somethings else than C++. well, things are changing. Bjarne talks a lot about freedom of choice, maybe that is what got me so hooked on C++ back than. And now for all their difference, i see the similarities of C++ and Ruby. We allways said, you can shoot yourself into the foot with C++ easily, and this actually means freedom for me. Beeing able to do really bad to yourself, beeing in charge and having responsibilty for what you are doing. No nannyism. period. Ruby is the same. You can really mess up things, easily. So, young programmers of the world, go out and have a lock on what the old guys wrote, Design and Evolution of the C++ Programming Language is a great book. Understanding why things are there for a reason makes you a better programmer in any language.

My final tip is that you ask women—and only women. My theory is that deep in the DNA of men is a “killer” gene. This gene expresses itself by making men want to kill people, animals, and plants.

Guy Kawasaki, The Art of the Start

yep, i think he has a point here. I like the guy, and I-D is doing great!

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like,That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Steven Jobs told the Times