Report by Anne Helmond

This series of reports on the Software and Fun (Funware) symposium held on November 27, 2010 at Baltan Laboratories were commissioned by Baltan and MU.

At the beginning of his talk Wilfried Hou Je Bek admits he is struggling with the idea of software and fun. He starts his talk with passages from William Burroughs, who was once in touch with a mysterious computer from Venus named Control:

[...] in Fulham Road Willy Deiches and Brenda Dunks, two would-be one-were computer operators with IBM who now function of their own (,) have perfected a scrapbook system from newspaper cuttings for predictions and assessments along the lines of Wm’s scrapbooks, but with a built-in 24-hour mathematics of their coordinate points for greater accuracy. They also claimed to be in touch with Control in Venus through IBM Seattle. Questions may be put to Control at 12 shillings a time (it used to be free) and the answers are interesting. Wm has sent in a whole lot and we are waiting for these answers … (Anthony Balch to BG, November 4 1968)…

Q: What is word ?

A: Word is ETC.

W: What does ETC mean ?

A: Electrical time control.

Q: What is virus ?

A: Virus is B.

Q: What is the relation between word and virus ?

A: Power…. ((in: Terry Wilson and Brion Gysin, Brion Gysin: Here To Go (Creation Books, 2001). p. 218))

We do not know much about Control but you could send questions to Control in London. The address belonged to two former employees of IBM, who would write neatly written answers for 12 shilling accompanied with an invoice. They were methodical people. Burroughs said Control was not a computer but a news snippet system. Hou Je Bek notes that if the computer is a social construction, why can’t it be from venus? He expands on his notion of the computer as a social construction with a metaphorical inquiry into software and fun.

Photo: Boudewijn Bollmann

(more…)

Report by Anne Helmond

The Software and Fun (Funware) symposium held on November 27, 2010 at Baltan Laboratories is part of a larger series of activities. The symposium was organised to present papers in progress on the topic of software and fun, which will eventually be published in a book on Funware. The papers explore the theme of software and fun through theoretical approaches, while the accompanying exhibition in MU explores the topic of funware through artworks.

Michael Murtaugh – Do (Not) Repeat Yourself

Photo: Boudewijn Bollmann

Murtaugh provides an ethnographical account of the world of programming with witty examples from the Wiki pages hosted by Ward Cunningham. The Informal History Of Programming Ideas wiki page was created in 1996 and provides “an incomplete and casually written history of programming ideas.” The title of Murtaugh’s talk ‘Do (Not) Repeat Yourself’ refers to the idea that almost all programmers hate duplication because it “can lead to maintenance nightmares, poor factoring, and logical contradictions.” Thus, it is strongly advised to avoid duplication and repetition which is echoed in the DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) principle which states that “Every piece of knowledge must have a single, unambiguous, authoritative representation within a system.” Duplication can occur in architecture, requirements, code, or documentation. Duplication or repetition is considered a bad practice that produces bad code. Such code can inflict Code Smell: “a hint that something might be wrong.” (more…)