Software development

Pattern recognition

When I was a young whippersnapper in the days before MMOs, I roleplayed on MUSHes, text-based multiplayer systems. They came with their own programming language and none of the fancy IDE support that beginning developers today take for granted. Here’s a small sample: [pemit(#20, %2)][ifelse(gte(setr(9, mul(6, u(#513/data-autotf_per[ifelse(gte(%2, 30), cent, old)]_[first(%0, |)]))), 1), [round(%q9, 0)] hours, …

Side effects

Today would have been my brother-in-law’s birthday. Over dinner a couple of days ago, my wife told me about an automated message she had received. “It’s almost Lothar’s birthday! Do you want help planning a party?” She had tears in her eyes. Think about all the people who had a hand in creating this feature. …