TURBU Tech

I’ve always been a big fan of Apple’s.  My first computer was an Apple IIe, and finding a copy of BASIC on there was what first got me into programming.  A good percentage of the modern user interface concepts we take for granted today were invented by Apple back in the 1980s.  (Yes, I know, they got the basic concepts from Xeroc PARC, but a lot of their work was their work, not Xerox’s.)  They’ve always been one of the major drivers of innovation in the computer industry, and they’ve done a lot to hold the line against Microsoft’s campaign for complete domination of the computer industry.  They’re one of a very few companies that have actually had any real success in that area, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude for that, if nothing else.

Apple released the latest iPhone development license yesterday, and I suddenly find myself a lot less grateful.

Continue reading ‘Personal property and computing’ »

A few days ago on StackOverflow, someone posted the question, How can I keep Task Manager from killing my program? The first comment asks a very good question:  “What legitimate reason do you have for doing this?”
It reminded me of the guy who wanted to know how to make a file that can’t be edited or deleted by any means. Both of these guys seemed to have honorable intentions, but just hadn’t thought the ramifications through all that well. Continue reading ‘Programming Ethics 101’ »