Is Los Angeles car crazy?

(1044 words)

There was a headline on the BBC website that said Could bike lanes reshape car-crazy Los Angeles?. I’d like to try to answer the first question, is Los Angeles car-crazy? I’d also like to discuss a few issues with the article that shows a slight rewriting of history.

Yes, if you really want to move around Los Angeles you need a car? Well, perhaps. I’ve been to events in Los Angeles are just used the bus and trains to get around. I’ve even got the bus from LAX down to Redondo Beach and then cycled up to Santa Monica for lunch. Yes, that is some distance, but most of it is off-road away from those ‘crazy’ Angelenos. I saw lots of other people cycling, running, roller blading, walking, or just sitting along the path. It was buzy. Busy enough that you could walk that some people in Los Angeles like to move around using modes of transport other than their own private motor vehicle.

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Write it three times

(1370 words)

I have a theory that when writing software, you will do the best work only after you have written it for the third time. My hypothesis is that the first time you write it, you don’t really know what the problem is and therefore are just stumbling in the dark trying to find your way. The second time you now understand the problem domain but you haven’t worked out the best way to implement it yet. And then the third time you not only know the problem domain but understand the implementation constraints and therefore can create some of your best work.

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Supaplex

(675 words)

My first real paying job was at a small little company in Camberley, England called Digital Integration. The two-line advert in a national paper said “Assembly language programmers wanted for real time software”. The number included was in Reading, England. I called the number and the next week was on a train to Reading to go to an initial screening interview.

I don’t remember much about that interview. It was in a boring office building walking distance from the station. I had just finished university and had no luck getting a job, along with about two thirds of my course. This was 1991 and a recession was hitting hard. Nobody was hiring. I still remember the careers advice given to us in the last year of university:

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