Binary Code

“If climbers used the word ‘beta’ the way most software houses do, we’d all be dead.”
- Unknown

The programmer, who needs clarity, who must talk all day to a machine that demands declarations, hunkers down into a low-grade annoyance. It is here that the stereotype of the programmer, sitting in a dim room, growling from behind Coke cans, has its origins. The disorder of the desk, the floor; the yellow Post-It notes everywhere; the whiteboards covered with scrawl: all this is the outward manifestation of the messiness of human thought. The messiness cannot go into the program; it piles up around the programmer.

- Ellen Ullman

Ted Dziuba may be crass and crude but at the end of the day he’s also the one making the most sense of Chrome and the rise of “desktop-killer web apps”:

Users have pretty basic needs when it comes to computers. They want word processing, spreadsheets, communications, and games. These needs have not changed much since the advent of the personal computer. So, when your Aunt asks why her 1.2GHz computer isn’t fast enough to run an online word processor that has the same fucking features as the 1987 version of Corel WordPerfect, you don’t have an answer for her. There is no justification.

If you’re reading this you, like me, are probably one of the people who should be paying close attention to that message because the other 90% of the world isn’t, and doesn’t have to, and they’re just fine with that.

Update: Dziuba follows up over at The Reg in Chrome-fed Googasm bares tech pundit futility.

The blogosphere sprayed its shorts and Google is sitting there, holding its whistle, trying to figure out what the fuck is going on.