ChatGPT and the problem of authority

I’ve been reluctant to comment on the latest fad in our industry, generative AI, simply because everybody has weighed in on it.  I do also try to avoid commenting on subjects outside of my scope of authority.  Increasingly, though, people are coming to me at work and asking how we can incorporate this technology into our […]

Stay away from OOP

I’ve been revising my Cisco Live session on IOS XE programmability, and it’s made me think about programming in general, and a particular idea I’ve been embarrassed to admit I loathe: Object Oriented Programming. Some context:  I started programming on the Apple II+ in BASIC, which shows my age.  Back then programs were input with […]

Before the Internet: The Bulletin Board System II

In my last post, I discussed the BBS and how it worked.  (It would be helpful to review, to understand the terminology.)  In this post, I have resurrected, in part, the BBS I used to run from 1988-1990.  It was called “The Tower”, for no particularly good reason except that it sounded cool to my […]

Before the Internet: The Bulletin Board System

It’s inevitable as we get older that we look back on the past with a certain nostalgia.  Nostalgia or not, I do think that computing in the 1980’s was more fun and interesting than it is now.  Personal computers were starting to become common, but were not omnipresent as they are now.  They were quite […]