Wow, I'd never heard of Ellen Ullman before, but after reading her interview at Salon, I think I may have to check her books out.

When C.P. Snow first identified the rift between "two cultures" of scientists and literary intellectuals who could neither understand nor communicate with each other, it was 1959, and computing was in its infancy. Today, in many fields, the denizens of Snow's two cultures are reaching across the gap. But computer programming remains a vast unknown country to most outsiders -- even as more and more of our work and our culture stands on its foundation.

Ellen Ullman has lived in that country, and ever since the 1997 publication of her memoir, "Close to the Machine: Technophilia and Its Discontents," she has meticulously and articulately chronicled its customs and dangers. An English major turned programmer turned writer, she has a knack for talking about the experience of writing code -- "thought that works," as one of her characters puts it -- in ways that nonprogrammers can understand. She does so without glorifying the creators of software, as scribes of the Internet boom would; but she doesn't trivialize their work or their lives, either. She does full justice to the highs and lows of the programming life -- as both an unnatural punishment for the human organism and an invigorating challenge to the human brain.

She then goes on to talk about the process of writing her latest book, "The Bug", at a writer's colony. She doesn't feel that it's ok to write about what code would do; she has to write the code itself...

It's not only obligation. When I wrote the code samples that are in "The Bug." I sat and then I thought, well, what would these connect to? And there I was, sitting at the MacDowell Colony, ostensibly writing the novel, and whole days would go by when I was just writing code. I actually had a little compiler on my laptop. Finally I thought, this is really a bad idea -- code really eats up your time. I thought, I'll never write a novel if I set something where I actually could write the companion code. So I thought it would be better to set it in a time with an old version of the C language -- a whole technical environment that had come and gone.

These days so much of coding involves using packages or other layers of code that have already been written. At that time, in the mid-'80s, you really did have to write everything yourself. There were some things we slurped in, minimal stuff, the usual packages available on Unix, like termcap or terminfo. But the rest of it, you had to write it all yourself, there wasn't Motif, there wasn't Windows; if you wanted a windowing system, you had to start by figuring out, how do you interact with all these devices? And how do you abstract all the devices? None of that existed at the time, so I thought it would be good to remember that.

<JONESING>
Yep. Gotta make a trip to Barnes and Noble tomorrow.
</JONESING>

Bugged out

] Note: Salam Pax sent me this in a Word attachment
] earlier today. After weeks of silence everything's
] happening at once: yesterday I received an email
] from his cousin with his satellite phone number.
] I called it; Salam’s father decided to play grumpy
] patriarch and told me to call back in “two minutes,"
] which I did. Salam sounds fine. We discussed as many
] things as we could in a short amount of time.
] Without further ado, I present his latest posts.
] Diana Moon PS Please excuse any formatting
] weirdnesses; I've already been warned not to blog at
] work, so can't take the time to clean anything up.

Glad to see this guy is on the radar again. I've been checking "Where is Raed?" at least two or three times a day, but I wound up seeing it mentioned first on The Agonist.. Fitting, eh?

I'm likely to edit this post up after reading it over..

] Today while going thru Karada street I saw a sign
] saying “Send and receive e-mail. Affordable prices”
] I am checking out the place tomorrow. If the price
] really is affordable I might be able to update the
] blog every week or two.

With the attention this blog has gotten, a sat phone and a laptop will find its way to this guy very soon..

Salam Pax is Back!

] Adam Osborne, 64, a technical writer, business executive
] and computer pioneer whose Silicon Valley achievements
] included the introduction of the Osborne 1, the first
] portable personal computer, died March 18 at his home in
] Kodiakanal, India.
]
] He introduced his computer in June 1981 at the West Coast
] Computer Fair. The computer, which retailed at $1,795,
] weighed 24 pounds and was about the size of a sewing
] machine. Dr. Osborne designed the machine to be light
] enough to carry as luggage and compact enough to fit
] under a commercial airline seat.

And an awesome machine it was, for the day. It was quickly called a "Luggable" computer, pre-dating laptop- and notebook-computer designations.

Computer Pioneer Adam Osborne Dies at 64

] In recent weeks, US military forces and special CIA teams
] are believed to have stepped up search operations in
] south-eastern Afghanistan, as more leads come in from
] intercepted radio and satellite telephone communications
] and from material seized with al-Qaeda leaders recently
] arrested in Pakistan.

Though this article doesn't mention their names, two of those leaders would almost certainly be Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Al Qaeda Operations Director) and Yassir al-Jazeeri, the US-educated "computer whiz" Al Qaeda Communications Director, along with several other key Al Qaeda personnel. Not to mention the multiple laptop computers and other files that we got with them.

I've been scouring the news for information on whether we've cracked the encryption on al-Jazeeri's two laptops, but haven't been able to find anything yet. Since he was reputedly one of the key links in routing communications from bin Laden though, then I'd say that the news that we've sent several hundred troops to a very specific location in Afghanistan is a very promising sign.

It's hard to get Al Qaeda / Afghanistan news at the moment under all the Iraq chatter, but this is a big story. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Helicopters swoop on hide-out in Afghanistan

] "It's a phenomenon that's not on the mainstream radar
] quite yet, but it will be in six months."

Wait a minute.. I know the date up there says 2003, but this feels so 1999. Tech company buyout, The Valley, dude with laptop wearing Dead Kennedys t-shirt, something about advertising, where Lycos and AOL stand, etc.. I bet someone got nostalgic when doing this article. You could almost forget that the tech industry is a disaster and many people trying to innovate can barely afford to keep food in their mouths.

Blogging goes mainstream - Mar. 10, 2003

] Tokyo--Toshiba Corporation today announced the
] world's first prototype of a small form factor
] direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) for portable PCs, a
] clean energy breakthrough with the potential to end
] reliance on rechargeable batteries. The new fuel cell
] currently realizes average output of 12W and maximum
] output of 20W, and can achieve approximately five hours
] of operation with a single cartridge of fuel. It provides
] instant power supply, and achieves significant advances
] in operating times with replaceable methanol cartridges.

This thing is a little large, but its a step in the right direction. Ultimately I see these things enabling more home robotics. Power consumption is one of the most challenging thing about effective household automation.

Toshiba announces laptop fuel cell.

] Attendance is up. Detentions are down. Just six months
] after Maine began a controversial program to provide
] laptop computers to every seventh grader in the state,
] educators are impressed by how quickly students and
] teachers have adapted to laptop technology.

NYTimes article. Registration reqd.

Laptops Win Over the Skeptics, Even in Maine

What a day. I've filed Articles of Incorporation, obtained an EIN and ordered a fancy corporate kit and seal. I tried opening a business banking account and was told I need a business license. A quick call to the local zoning board confirmed, I need a "Home Occupational License". But there is a catch, I was told I am not legally allowed to operate a business in my garage (which is where my desk sits). Now, since my business resides on a single laptop I'm curious what happens when I move from the designated office space (my couch), to say, the bedroom or even the back porch. It's amazing what rules and laws are in place that people don't even know about. So much for my dreams of being the next Apple, or Walmart.

Has your life ever flahed before your eyes? Mine did. Right about 1:30PM EST on 2/25/2003. I had just woken up and had a nice, big, cool glass of water. I approached my beloved laptop when the cup lept out of my hand and landed halfway on the delicate keyboard and the table. Sploosh!! OMG. I quickly jumped into action and soaked up the water. A few pecks on the keyboard revealed a malfunctioning mouse subsystem..then blip! the sucker turned off...and would not turn back on. My life flashed, quickly before my eyes. No more programming..no more resume posting, which would equal no job. No games and definitely no Memes. The happy ending is that I became intimate with the inner workings of a latop, as I gently cleaned the system piece by piece. After a long day of worry and work, the system is now functioning perfectly. So, what exactly would life be like without the PC..not if it never existed..but what would it be like if it ceased to exist? What would you do? How would you cope?

] When he dies, Hughes wants his coffin equipped with a
] laptop computer, wireless Internet access and a solar
] panel that would grab light from above ground. Special
] software in the laptop would study his past writings and
] incorporate new information into what the living Hughes
] knew and thought -- and then take over the task of being
] him. Even after he's gone, computer screens in far-off
] places would blink a message from his silicon
] continuation: "Hi, this is Dave Hughes. Wanna chat?"

An amusing story about Dave Hughes...

CNN.com - At 74, Internet cowboy spreads wireless - Jan. 26, 2003