First It Went Up...

...and now it's going to come down – but nobody really seems to know where...

TIOBE Index Time...

The annual index of programming langauge popularity (measured by lines of code produced) is out.  Java and C both still dominate, but are declining (as percentage share) slowly.  Objective-C (Apple's language of choice) is still climbing fast.  There are the usual surprises down in the mud (Ada, anyone?). 

After last year's index came out, a colleague who was aware of my gray beard and somewhat odd background asked me how many of the languages here I had programmed in.  I never went back and looked it up, but here's the answer for this year's list: I've used 9 of those languages enough to call myself “proficient” in them, and there are 5 more that I've done at least one project in.  There are several languages I've done a lot of programming in that aren't on this list at all: Forth (go ahead, laugh!) and a dozen or so assembly languages (most especially Z80)...

Taliban Body Desecration...

Reader Larry E. writes:

I don't think I've seen you comment on this yet.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/united-states-marine-corps-investigating-online-video-appears-show-marines-urinating-corpses-taliban-fighters-article-1.1004795

I realize the 24 hour news cycle likes to take things to extreme but I have a hard time worrying too much about the actions of these guys. While maybe unprofessional and stupid to video tape, this type of thing is hardly an unusual event. Anyone that has read the accounts of the war in the pacific, like "the old breed' will remember many similar accounts and really, much, much worse. De-humanizing the enemy is part of the process. Absolutely no one in the chain of command or those PR types commenting could possibly be surprised. They are just covering themselves and the foolishness of the situation.

These are not police officers. This is not your favorite city. You don't get a group of people to rush through a hail of bullets and mortar fire to kill a bunch of other people without a change in the normal thought processes. Most of their training is about effectively killing other people. Putting them into an environment where they are under constant threat from everyone around them and giving them a long list of rules before they can engage the enemy is asking for trouble and it is unfair to put our military in those positions. Does anyone seriously think they don't get some satisfaction when they do manage to kill some of the enemy?

CoyoteBlog has a recent post along very similar lines (so short I'm reposting the whole thing, hoping Warren won't mind):

There are a lot of ways to parse this story about the alleged video of soldiers urinating on corpses in Afghanistan. It seems ugly, but desecration of corpses has a long history in Afghan conflicts (often consisting of cutting off male-only body parts). And it’s bizarre to see people more upset about peeing on corpses than with corpsifying them in the first place.

But at the end of the day this is what I think is broken about the Afghan conflict. You don’t send warriors into a brutal guerrilla war with no rules and simultaneously expect them to be goodwill ambassadors as well. Given that these are two activities whose Venn diagrams of skills and mindsets have so little overlap, the military does a pretty good job trying to do what its being asked, but over the long run it’s a losing game (somewhere in here there is an Ender’s Game reference about trying to meld empathy with killer instincts).

By the way, exactly what is our goal in Afghanistan, will someone remind me? We have been successful when __________________ ?

I haven't commented before because I have such mixed and confused feelings about it, and I'm not at all sure we know what actually happened.  Warren nails it when he says there are a lot of ways to parse this story.  Things that occurred to me as I read it:

• Is it even a true story, portraying an actual event?  Or is this an amateur and fictional production?
• Where's the outrage about the enemy's behavior?  Remember Daniel Pearl, anyone?
• So the men we have trained to be the world's most effective killers have, in fact, killed some of the enemy – but then we don't want them to celebrate this?  (very close to one of  Larry's comments)
• I don't like the possible consequences of this video being publicized.  It is exactly the sort of fodder that helps the enemy recruit new suicide bombers and fighters, and incites the locals to resistance against our troops.

In the end, I realized that my only negative reaction to this event (assuming it really did happen) is that I regret the consequences of it being public.  I share Larry's assumption that this sort of thing happens all the time in war; even a brief reading of wartime history (take your pick of wars – it doesn't matter at all which one you look at) will convince you that this is an inevitable consquence of asking one group of people to kill another.

So I'm left unsurprised that this sort of thing happened, convinced that this is far from the only time it has happened in Afghanistan (on both sides), but wishing it hadn't become a public property.  I'm also feeling sad for the American soldiers involved, because it seems likely that their commanders will be required to make an example of them...

Kitchen Music Synthesizer...

Three words I never imagined would fit together:

Albino Hummingbird...

My mom sent me several photos like the one at right, of an albino hummingbird seen near Staunton, Virginia, which is only about 50 miles from her home.

I had no idea that there was such a thing as an albino bird!

Nature's Friend magazine has a great photo collection of this little guy.

As always, click to enlarge...

Coding Motto?

Reader Dave H. gave that label to this poster:

All Records for Bit Storage Size Smashed...

Down to a mere 12 atoms.  That does actually seem like we're approach a limit of sorts – it's hard to imagine that we can figure out how to write data on the side of an electron.  But perhaps I shouldn't be so pessimistic...

The Wrong Diner...

Incomprehensible!

That's my reaction to the news that Haley Barbour pardoned 208 people, many of them the worst kinds of criminals.  I know enough about Barbour to know that he's no softie on crime, nor is he known to be anything other than an honest man.  I simply cannot comprehend what the hell he was thinking when he decided to pardon these people.  I'm thinking that something like a brain tumor is not completely out of line as an explanation.  I don't know if we'll ever actually get an explanation, but I'd sure like to know how a guy who seemed like such a rock-solid conservative went off the rails like that...

The courts have stopped the pardons, for now at least...

Man, Is Hardware Getting Cheap!

Tiny, powerful, but with low power requirements, we're starting to see some amazing hobbyist hardware appear.  These little computers are powerful enough to let you write applications in a high-level language, and most use Linux as their operating system (meaning you don't have to learn an entirely new environment because you move to new hardware).  For little one-off, just-for-fun kinds of projects a hobbyist might be interested in, these are practically perfect little vehicles.  You might well pay more for the power supply and the enclosure than you do for the computer!

Groundhog Day...

Via my mom:

In the coming New Year, 2012, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address will occur on the same day.

This is an ironic juxtaposition of events.

One involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to an insignificant creature of little intelligence for prognostication.

The other involves a groundhog.

Top 10...

Oh, this will make you feel all warm and fuzzy about the billions of dollars spent on the TSA, and (if you're a traveller) the inconvenience and indignity you put up with from them.  The TSA has compiled their “Top 10 Good Catches from 2011”.  Guess how many terrorists are on their list?  Zero.  Zip.  Nada.  The list includes gems like this:

Snakes, turtles, and birds were found at Miami (MIA) and Los Angeles (LAX). I’m just happy there weren’t any lions, tigers, and bears…

That's just great.  All those billions and all that irritation, and that's on their top 10 list?  Sheesh...

Tip of the hat to Bruce Schneier, who posted this on his excellent blog...

Cold War Relic...

An old missile silo in the Adirondack mountains, remodeled as a home with extra bedrooms and living space.  For sale, a mere $750k...

Morning Walk...

It's so nice to be back home after a business trip...

This morning the four dogs and I went for our morning walk at 3 am.  The perfect full moon was high in the cloudless southwestern sky.  The moonlight was more than bright enough for us to walk by; I could see color around our yard and a bit across the valley as well.  Race was, for the umpteenth time, utterly beside himself with joy – he found a tasty pine cone to play with.  The three field spaniels were nose-down as usual, checking on who's been in the yard since their last walk. 

A gentle breeze wafted the scent of hundreds of paper-whites, narcissus, and daffodils toward us.  Our yard is bursting at the seams with these blooms; more by far than we've ever seen before. We have bouquets all around our house, and the smell is just wonderful.

Finally it was time to go back inside.  None of us really wanted to go in.  I'd have been content to walk around for another hour or so.  But duty calls...

Silk Worms Spinning Spider's Webs...

Well, not quite.  But genetically engineered silk worms are now producing silk with the (vastly superior) strength of spider's silk.  This is the combination the researchers were looking for: a way to produce spider's silk as easily as we can produce silkworm silk...

Google's Unemployment Index...

...just took a big spike up.  As always, I'm not sure what that really means (other than that Google is seeing more searches related to unemployment)...

On the First Day...

My mom sent this to me, saying that I'd laugh at it.  I did!

On the first day, God created the dog and said, "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years."

The dog said, "That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?"

And God saw it was good.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said, "Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span."

The monkey said, "Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?"

And God, again saw it was good.

On the third day, God created the cow and said, "You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years."

The cow said, "That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?"

And God agreed it was good.

On the fourth day, God created humans and said, "Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years."

But the human said, "Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?"

"Okay," said God, "You asked for it."

So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.

Life has now been explained to you.

There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I'm doing it as a public service. If you are looking for me I will be on the front porch.

She's Never Seen a Republican Before...

I sure miss this guy...  Passed along by Dave H.:

Kopimism...

A new religious movement has been formally recognized by the government of Sweden.  It's just a bit different than most religions you've run into.  For example, one of their central tenets is that all information sharing is “holy”.  Their sacred symbols include things like ^C (the keyboard shortcut for copying to the clipboard).

On one level, this is just an amusing story.  On another level, though, it's a great example of something that free societies embracing religious freedom find quite challenging: exactly what constitutes a “religion” (thereby becoming worthy of protection by the state)?  That turns out to be an astonishingly difficult – perhaps even impossible – question to answer objectively.

Thanks to Simon M. for passing this along...

A Talent I'd Love to Have...

...but which I most certainly don't have.  Just watch: