About a decade ago, I discovered the concept of Literate Programming. It's seductive. The idea is to write elegant documentation that embeds the actual working code.

For tricky, complex, high-visibility components, a literate programming approach can give people confidence that the software actually works as advertised.

I actually wrote my …

In reflecting on Architecture, I realized that there are some profound differences between "real" architecture and software architecture.

One of the biggest differences is design.

In the earliest days, software was built by very small groups of very bright people. Alan Turing, Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, Steve Bourne, Ken Thompson …

Got a nice email about architecture -- but the wrong kind.

It was about physical structures, not software.

It is a "bucket-list" of buildings one simply must see. 100 Amazing Buildings Every Architecture Buff Should See. A cool list to have handy.

I know bupkes about buildings. I've lived in them …

XKCD - http://xkcd.com/710/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collatz_conjecture#Syracuse_function

I remember learning about this as an undergrad at Syracuse University in the 70's and didn't think much of it. It was just "one of those things" that I heard about, and perhaps wrote a homework assignment in …

Transaction design seems to be really hard for some people. The transactions they build seem to based on some crazy assumptions. The problem is that benchmarking is hard because you have to build enough stuff to get a meaningful benchmark. Everyone thinks your done when really, all you did was …

Common Complaint: "This was the nth time that someone was up in arms that [X] was broken ... PL/SQL that ... has one function that is over 1,500 lines of [code]."

Not a good solution: "Find someway to measure "yucky code"."

Continuing down a path of relatively low value, the …

Check this SD Times article out: Future of data analysis lies in tools for humans, not automatic systems.

"Andreas Weigend... said that “data is only worth as much as the decisions made based on that data."

This is the entire point of IT: IT Systems Support Decision-Making. The job is …

Enterprise Applications really make people sweat. Look at this selection of StackOverflow questions. There are hundreds. People really get worked into a lather over this.

• What makes an application an “enterprise” or “enterprise-level” application?
• Is the LAMP stack appropriate for Enterprise use?
• What is “Enterprise ready”? Can we test for …

In an organization with more than one layer of management, the default answer must be "no". Folks get needlessly frustrated by this. But it's a logical consequence of multiple layers of management.

Consider that direction must come down from above. If you're suggesting something up to your manager (or in …

I finally figured out what is so bad about folks who need to "control the message."

Architecture is as much politics as technology. And some folks think that political spin and message control is required. I think it's a mistake because the urge to control the message points up a …