Calculating Actual Build Dependencies

During development, when you make a change your build system should build every output that would be affected by your change and no more. Incorrect dependencies can lead to building too much (wasting time) or worse, building too little (wasting way more time). Unfortunately keeping your dependencies specified in your build configuration is time consuming …

Partisan Divide

There’s an American election on Tuesday. Whatever the outcome of the races, the partisan polarization is disturbing. Roughly 40% of the electorate considers each presidential candidate to be unqualified to even run. I don’t have the right to vote but my perspective is just as absolute. I’m right, but I’d say that wouldn’t I. Each …

Tyranny is mostly pleasant

In my life I’ve been lucky enough to visit some brutal military dictatorships. From Suharto’s Indonesia as a child to Mubarak’s Egypt more recently, they’ve been really pleasant to visit. My impression is that most citizens of these countries were fairly unencumbered by the political system they lived under. Some people had terrible time – …

Decentralized Web: My Thought Experiment

I’m at the Decentralized Web Summit today and it’s all very interesting. There are some big picture ideas of how the future should be. There are all sorts of interesting disparate technologies filling all kinds of holes. But I have a thought experiment that I’ve used to understand where we need to go and what we need …