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Early Memory [PhotoTravel]

The RMS Queen Mary has been in Long Beach here in California for 36 years, since 1967. When I had dinner there on Wednesday, as part of the OMA board of directors, I was struck by the fact that this was not in fact my first visit. Lost back in the recesses of my memory was the fact that I had been aboard before - not in the US, but in Southampton when she was still cruising. I'm not sure exactly when it was - I must have been 5 or 6 - but as a small child I was taken on board to visit my uncle (now living near New York) who was manager of the branch of gentlemen's outfitters Simpson of Piccadilly provided for passengers.

I am always fascinated by the experience of early memory. There are for me very few early memories that I can recall, and this visit added two new snapshot impressions to the list, increasing it in length by maybe 25%. I remember the railings near the boarding bridge - slatted iron painted white - and to my surprise I also remember the main hall, although my memory was of a place much larger. That “much larger” also educates me, and helps me recognise the different experience children have of spaces. Maybe that's why they always have untidy bedrooms, at least initially – because to them the space doesn't feel cluttered?

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Monday, February 3

Green Hills and Snowy Peaks [PhotoTravel]

Flying south to attend OMA in Long Beach last night I spent the hour or so on the little jet looking at the beautiful green hills of California's coastal range, the distant Sierras capped with snow, and the rich patterns of fields and orchards in the Central Valley. Between now and late April is my favourite time to be in California - after that all the green has become brown. I'm reminded of a book I purchased at Mono Lake several years ago called 'Farewell Promised Land' [US|UK] which looks like a coffee-table book but turns out to be a searing history of exploitation, politics and oppression in California.

It was in this book that I first discovered that California's state animal, the grizzly bear, was hunted to extinction in the state and the last one is mounted in a case in Sacramento. It was here I first heard about Manzanar (and went on to read 'Farewell to Manzanar' [US|UK]). Today I am in metropolitan Los Angeles, the destination of the streams that used to feed Mono Lake, and as I look through the smog towards the palm trees I am reminded of the cost of what is thought to have been achieved.

posted at 4:12 PM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |

Sunday, February 2

Salon on Java [WebTech]

Salon has an article on the Java vs Microsoft case [via Sys-Con] which seems well thought out (even if the author didn't, it seems, speak to anyone from Sun...) and has useful pointers to other material. Most important for me is the observation
In the end, C# and Java are perhaps best analyzed in that light. They may be similar languages, but there's a philosophical gulf between the two. The people who ultimately choose Java will likely value compatibility over the performance gains you get from building a program specifically for one system. They'd prefer that everything ran everywhere, even if they have to lose their "code investment." The people who choose .Net may also care about going cross-platform, but they'd like some flexibility in the matter. They'd like to be able to build a program that runs only on Windows, so it works with all their other programs that also work only on Windows.
Now, I don't agree with the implication that Java is inflexible - code will need a fundamental re-write to move to either the Java environment or to .Net, regardless of the language. Nor do I agree with the implication that the any-platform promise of .Net will become real or reliable any time soon - it will always depend on third-party effort and the non-Windows versions will always be down-level. And the thinking is a little sloppy, at one point comparing C# and the Java language and going on to compare the Java environment and .Net. But I've consistently said that the factors that make people choose Java or native Windows programming were ultimately not technical but strategic. That's why you'll never see this sort of rationality on SlashDot...

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Losing the Last Hope [SocioPolitico]

I'd seen some comments in e-mail on Friday night about the fact that the space shuttle landing was going to be spectacular, visible across the sky of several states. When I sat for breakfast on Saturday morning I was truly shocked to see the video footage of the shuttle breaking into hundreds of shards and cascading in streaks of brilliant light to land scattered across hundreds of miles of Texas.

It's a tragedy for the families involved, and my heart goes out to them as they come to terms with what they saw as they waited for their loved ones at the landing site and watched powerlessly as the events unfolded. I felt the feeling of loss, yet I can't completely explain it - a loss felt across America yesterday, bringing flags to half mast and replacing all programming on TV.

The loss is of course that of people. But it is also a loss of a symbol, one of the last sources of true national pride at a time when the nation feels under attack from abroad and more importantly has its liberties under attack from within in the best Wag The Dog style. The loss was of seven national treasures riding in a symbol of the pioneering. That's why America is mourning so deeply.

posted at 11:10 AM (UK) | Comment? (0 so far) | links to this post | |