Here are a few posts  -- guru and members -- that you won't want to miss. Let's start with...

Simplification versus Innovation

Thoreau saw a lot of value in simplification, and so does Christopher Diggins. His point being that the technologies which have had the greatest impact overall have about making things simpler. Can you add to his list?

If the question is "Is programming an art or science?", then the follow up question is "Are programmers artists or scientists?" 

In this essay from the August 1991 issue of AI Expert, Ralph Barietta, a onetime case-based reasoning expert for Lockheed's Artificial Intelligence Center and director of CBR at Cognitive Systems, explained how choosing a doctor illustrates the role of specific case experience in guiding expert problem solving.

In this podcast we’ll try to describe some of the pitfalls of trying to split a domain model between multiple services, as well as how SOA side-steps the “single version of the truth” issue found in reporting.

Rishi asks:

Hi Udi,
First of all, thanks for all the posts and info you share, it is very insightful compared to loads n’ loads of marketing bull and vendor whitepapers. Ok, I have two

Here's a little computing poetry competition for you. Typing the word "listlessness" in a recent blog entry, I happened to think of "ruthlessness" and then of this poem:

Ruth rode on my cycle car
directly back of me;
I hit a bump at sixty-five
and rode on ruthlessly.

  For more on "Foundations of Mediocrity," see www.mccarthyshow.com

Jim McCarthy:  Welcome!

Michele McCarthy:  Welcome to the McCarthy Show.

Jim:  Glad to see you. Thanks for downloading us, bouncing down that ever so spotty DSL. That's always a problem. I prefer cable these days for the download speed. But I got here, I'm fine, not to worry.

Michele:  Going through the wireless is like the