Dave's photo Dave Crocker's

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David H. Crocker is a principal with Brandenburg InternetWorking. He has contributed to the development of internetworking capabilities for twenty-five years, first as part of the Arpanet research community and then in the commercial sector. His current efforts focus on the creation of Internet-based businesses built on a solid foundation of customer benefit and revenue potential.

Mr. Crocker's curriculum vitae is also available.

 

 

Writings, musings, & foils
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Personal Efforts

   
 
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Dr. Stephen D. Crocker

Because Cain wasn't entirely correct?
 
Thoughts
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Gender Neutral

Use "they" instead of he/she

Third-person gender neutrality writing is not improved with he/she The Oxford English Dictionary and the American Heritage Dictionary folks see an easy, reasonable and established alternative.

Consider:

  • He/she is linguistically awkward and self-conscious.
  • He/she places 'he' first, thereby continuing a gender bias; alternating the combination merely makes the construct that much more awkward.
  • Alternating use of he and she again sustains a gender bias for each use and again sustains linguistic awkwardness.
 

Costs of Progress

From "Inherit the Wind"

Gentlemen, progress has never been a bargain. You've got to pay for it. Sometimes I think there's a man behind a counter who says 'All right, you can have a telephone; but you'll have to give up privacy and the charm of distance. Madam, you may vote; but at at price; you lose the right to retreat behind a powder puff or a petticoat. Mister, you may conquer the air; but the birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline.' Darwin moved us forward to a hilltop, where we can look back and see the way from the which we came. But for this view, this insight, this knowledge, we must abandon our faith in the pleasant poetry of Genesis.

 

Eight Fallacies of
Distributed Computing

Essentially everyone, when they first build a distributed application, makes the following eight assumptions. All prove to be false in the long run and all cause big trouble and painful learning experiences.

    1. The network is reliable
    2. Latency is zero
    3. Bandwidth is infinite
    4. The network is secure
    5. Topology doesn't change
    6. There is one administrator
    7. Transport cost is zero
    8. The network is homogeneous

The Beginning of the Web

As We May Think, by Vannevar Bush, July 1945

Beloit College Mindset

Mindset for the Class of...

"Identify the experiences that have shaped the lives—and formed the mindset—of students starting their post-secondary education... identify the worldview of 18 year-olds."