Thinking In .NET

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Thinking In .NET

A place to learn about C# and the .NET platform, by Larry O'Brien. But mostly the obligatory braindump cross-linking that characterizes the blogsphere.

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Tuesday, December 17, 2002

This comment on this post asked if my argument meant that AI is impossible:

I don't think that follows from my argument. The greatest challenge with AI is that we have no good theories on the non-material representations comprising consciousness. Brain mechanics we're beginning to get a handle on, and you'll find a lot of people who agree that consciousness is an emergent property of a number of largely independent sub-systems, but there is no compelling theory that says "To get to AI, we need to start here, and then go here, and then go here..." There are appeals to emotion -- Doug Lenat's Cycorp says "It's just common sense..." that a massive database of facts is necessary while MIT's Rodney Brooks say that Kismet-style "emotional robots" are the best route -- but I could just as easily argue that the problems of internal representation, or language are the first step.

As a matter of fact, I do believe that language is the key -- once we have a system that can reliably interpret Web pages (say), I think that it will be a small step to a system that can generate them and, in my opinion, that will bring us into the gray area of "maybe we have AI and maybe we don't." For instance, the algorithms that produce Google News have a surprising penchant for cricket -- neither the world's most popular sport nor the world's most written-about sport. It's quirky -- and that's a very interesting thing to say about a program.


4:50:58 PM    comment []

I hope Microsoft doesn't buy Borland. Apparently, in light of IBM's acquisition of Rational, there's been talk that Microsoft may acquire Borland, which bought TogetherSoft earlier this year. I hope not. Microsoft does not need Together/J, a Java-based UML tool -- they have Visio if they want a diagramming tool. Better, the entire field of CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering) is desperately in need of being revitalized by a new generation of tools: Microsoft should go back to the drawing board and create a diagramming tool that serves the needs of code-centric programmers: diagrams primarily as communication tools, diagrams that can be unlinked from the code representation (half the point of diagramming is eliding details; the other half is saying "What if...?". The CASE industry's decade-long obsession with creating "tightly integrated" diagrams has severely diminished the utility of CASE tools.) but on the other hand can be integrated into coherent, multi-representational models of a functioning system.

A Microsoft-owned Borland would certainly spin off or cancel the best commercial product for Linux development and Borland's JBuilder is one of the best commercial products for Java development and one would assume that it, too, would have to be jettisoned. Both of those event would be a loss to the general programming community. 

Perhaps most importantly, Borland has, for 20 years (?), been a well-spring of innovative, high-quality, software development tools. Borland has stumbled several times over the years, and it may be in the interest of their shareholders to consider offers, but the spirit and independence of Scotts Valley has contributed a great deal to the software community over the years and it would be a great shame to lose it.


4:24:43 PM    comment []

X#, A Native XML-Processing Language, On Tap From Microsoft? There are already several "native XML" programming languages (I like the looks of this one) and certainly it makes sense for there to be XML language(s!) for .NET.
3:58:41 PM    comment []

"Floooooodddddd!!!!!"

Not the thing you want to be woken at 3 am. For the first time since 1982, our property flooded Sunday night; six inches of water streaming down the driveway and smacking the door of Tina's studio. Around back, Corte Madera Creek jumped the retaining wall for the first time in the 8 years we've lived here. The lowest point on our neighbor's driveway undermined our fence and ate away the backyard until it joined the creek. The water stopped about an inch below finding the vents to the crawlspace beneath our house. Some of our neighbors weren't so lucky, with feet of standing water in their houses.

Tina and I are both Capricorns and Tina's dad called us on Sunday to let us know that our horoscope was "Sell your house and move someplace more tranquil." It's been a rotten couple of months... So if you've sent me an email lately, I apologize for the delay in getting back to you.


1:26:02 PM    comment []

The contents of these pages represent the opinions of one person.
All contents © 2003 Larry O'Brien. All Rights Reserved.

 

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