C9 Conversations: Brian Beckman on Complexity

Posted By: Charles | Nov 27th, 2009 @ 10:24 AM | 43,818 Views | 23 Comments
In this second installment of C9 Conversations, a format where we sit down with various big thinkers to discuss a wide range of big topics related to computing; all in high quality video and audio, the topic is Complexity (ambient complexity, to be precise - it's hard to program systems that are radically composable. Why?).

Dr. Brian Beckman is an astrophysicist and software architect with a long history of dealing with various levels of complexity. In some sense, most of what we do as programmers and engineers is control complexity to solve problems of various difficulty. In our world of software engineering, we strive to carve simplicity out of the complexity of computing. Dr. Beckman provides his insights into why it so hard to achieve radical composability in the software systems we design and build and what it will take to realize ambient simplicity as we march into the increasingly complex world of general purpose computing.

We think you'll really enjoy this conversation with one of Microsoft's best thinkers.
Rating:
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#Nov 27th, 2009 @ 11:11 AM
ACG
ACG

Hey Charles,

 

Great vid! LAtely when I want to view vids in full screen mode, I click on the expand icon on bottm left of video frame and the thing stops and goes black. I'm using a Dell Dimension laptop. XP latest SP, with latest Silverlight.

 

If I don't want full screen, all is fine.

 

Thanks!

#Nov 27th, 2009 @ 11:22 AM
Charles
Charles
Welcome Change

Hi,

 

This is a known bug that we will fix!

C

#Nov 27th, 2009 @ 3:04 PM
Chadk
Chadk
excuse me - do you has a flavor?

This was excellent!


Good job Brian and Charles Smiley

#Nov 27th, 2009 @ 3:13 PM
Charles
Charles
Welcome Change

Thank you. It's always a treat to get to converse and listen to Brian. He's a true genius and humbe to boot.

C

#Nov 27th, 2009 @ 3:18 PM
mntb
mntb

I can't download this AVI (using IE). The downloading stops after a few minutes. Same if I use the Silverlight player. I live in Australia and have no problems downloading AVI's from other sites (.NET Rocks, IT Conversations etc.)

#Nov 27th, 2009 @ 3:19 PM
Charles
Charles
Welcome Change

Not sure what is goin on. So, you are attempting to download a file under Media Downloads dropdown? Also, where are you located?
C

#Nov 27th, 2009 @ 4:19 PM
exoteric
exoteric
embarassingly sequential

I've printed the material to the co-/contra-variance lecture and will study in detail. Brian is a very interesting person to listen to. Some of the "derivative work" reminds me of Conal Elliots ICFP presentation. Need to look closer...

#Nov 27th, 2009 @ 6:29 PM
Richard.Hein
Richard.Hein
... my guitar gently weeps ...

Great interview.  Charles, I just watched the Monty Python documentary recently, it was very interesting!  Brian, I love mathematics, physics, and music, and programming languages, so I really enjoy watching your interviews ... over and over again ... because I don't understand a lot of it.  Since the blues is all about bending the rules but having this structure at the same time ... well it sounds like you could relate it monads somehow.  Wink

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