A good read for you "old" techno-geeks...
Category Book Reviews
I just finished the novel The Bug, by Ellen Ullman. It takes place in the mid-80's when graphical user interfaces didn't exist and they all had to be built from scratch. A bug in a new product being built by a database company takes on a life of its own, and seems to appear at the worst possible times (like during critical demos to investors). The programmer responsible for the interface is unable to track it down, and you see the decline in his personal and mental state as it becomes an all-consuming passion. Some of you young pups won't related too well to the environment described in the book, but for those of us who programmed back in the 80's, it's very familiar. There are also a lot of interesting observations at the end on how we tend to project human attitudes and characteristics onto technology, but in reality it's all just digital instructions that don't equate to real life.
I just finished the novel The Bug, by Ellen Ullman. It takes place in the mid-80's when graphical user interfaces didn't exist and they all had to be built from scratch. A bug in a new product being built by a database company takes on a life of its own, and seems to appear at the worst possible times (like during critical demos to investors). The programmer responsible for the interface is unable to track it down, and you see the decline in his personal and mental state as it becomes an all-consuming passion. Some of you young pups won't related too well to the environment described in the book, but for those of us who programmed back in the 80's, it's very familiar. There are also a lot of interesting observations at the end on how we tend to project human attitudes and characteristics onto technology, but in reality it's all just digital instructions that don't equate to real life.
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