The idea that Germany is playing catch-up with Europe’s most promising strategy for renewable energy is jarring. This is Germany, after all, the country that 11 years ago put the Green Party in government, decided to phase out nuclear power,
chrome OS
SAN FRANCISCO — In a direct challenge to Microsoft, Google announced late Tuesday that it is developing an operating system for PCs based on its Chrome Web browser. The move sharpens the already intense competition between Google and Microsoft, whose
The source of error (updated)
Here’s Edsger Dijkstra discussing the birth of the use of axiomatics in computer science – the start of “formal methods” research. What’s striking is the assumed choice between “axiomatic” and “mechanistic” as if there was no other way. In a
OS design
Working on a “process algebra” post, I had to look up previous posts on microkernels where I wrote this: Information hiding is only good design when the hidden information is not needed by the software it is hidden from! If
Robin Milner and Automata theory
I always had the impression that the entire group of “process algebra” people didn’t know much about automata, but this is surprising. But meanwhile I got somehow interested, and I don’t know how, in concurrency. I remember that, without linking
Recursion and state
Despite some deep results, algebraic automata theory has fallen out of favor in theoretical computer science. Reasons include the disciplines failings such as a love of over-generality, weak mathematical background of people working on “formal methods”, and gap between theoreticians
State machine functions and recursive composition
My graduate school research was motivated by a difficulty we have doing real creative engineering in operating systems that may seem ridiculous to people who don’t work in the field. The problem is that we can’t describe the problem. What
Wind River sold to Intel: more reaction
And like Intel, I would argue that mobile software companies are instrumental in making silicon solutions pervasive, because they tick two major check boxes: reference design and support. The hidden asset of mobile software companies Mobile embedded software companies (e.g.
unnovation
This is a brilliant idea. Most innovation, well, isn’t: it is “unnovation,” or innovation that fails to create authentic, meaningful value. The biggest stumbling block to innovation is unnovation: most companies are too busy unnovating to ever learn how to
Wind River purchased by Intel
If anything, Wind River’s inability to breakout, despite a once Microsoft-like position of dominance, is a by-product of their failure to meaningfully go “up the stack” and away from their historical focus on the silicon layer as a primary differentiation