Three very different links -- one philosophy and two programming

[jducoeur]

I happened upon del.icio.us today more or less by accident, because they've come out with a Firefox plugin to use it. It turns out to be a system for "social bookmarks" -- basically sharing and categorizing bookmarks in the large scale. I'm not sure that I'm completely convinced of the value of the idea, but a random wander through the "active" list turned up an interesting trio, very different from each other but each intriguing to me in its way.

How we confuse symbols and things is a fairly long essay on exactly what it sounds like. The high concept is that mankind tends to develop symbols to represent ideas, then invests those symbols with far more constancy and importance than they deserve. While I don't agree with everything the author has to say, I think it's a very cogent analysis, and worthwhile reading simply to help perceive the unwarranted assumptions that underlie modern life.

CobolScript is, frighteningly, not a joke as far as I can tell. "Anyone who already knows COBOL can easily use CobolScript to build server-side scripts with virtually no learning curve." You know that you're a veteran of the computer industry if you find this whole concept truly disturbing. I get a frission of fear just looking at the code samples.

Wotsit -- The Programmer's File Format Collection is one of those sites that is stunningly obvious and necessary once you find it. It's exactly what the title implies: simply an entire site of file (and protocol) formats, of everything they can get their hands on. (It appears to have about 900 documents so far.) I can't count the number of hours this site probably would have saved me over the years. This goes into my key technical-reference bookmarks...

Comments

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

how we confuse symbols and things

Somehow this reminds me of the mapper/packer distinction from The Programmers' Stone. Packers, then, would be the ones who can't "get" ideas and so collect facts.

If I hear it a third way I might end up believing it... :)

"I am the very model..."

[siderea]

I wouldn't jump to that conclusion (I wrote a critique of the tPS, btw.) Both as I understand what tPS to be saying, and the phenomenon which they were observing (i.e. the elephant which they were groping), confusing the sign for the signified is a classic sin of what they refer to as "Mappers".

After all, there is a reason militar men originated the expression "The Map is not the Terrain".

Re: "I am the very model..."

[jducoeur]

Yeah -- one of the things I find interesting about the symbols/things article is that the symbols it is questioning are ones that almost everyone, mappers included, tend to take for granted. Mappers seem more likely to question the *implementation* of these symbols, but most still accept them as being in some fashion real.

I think the article is somewhat overstated, but it's a very nice brain-stretching exercise, asking the reader to step back and question those assumptions. That's generally worthwhile even if you don't agree with where he goes with the argument...

[cheshyre]

How we confuse symbols and things
Did you ever read Scott McCloud's Adventures of Abraham Lincoln? I thought it was a very well-done comic on just that aspect -- the habit and danger of favoring the symbols (flag, etc) over the truths and ideals they were supposed to represent

[jducoeur]

Oh, yeah -- I've read practically everything that Scott has written. That book is especially strange, but fascinating in its strangeness, and it does have a lot to say. Of course, he's spent much of his career examining symbolism and thinking about it pretty deeply, so it's not surprising that he has useful insights into it...

[antoniseb.livejournal.com]

I read the symbols ad things stuff, and it seemed like a rehash of old ideas for me and Graziano. Nice expression though.

CobolScript I didn't want to read. [see indexed fingers crossed befopre my face].

File Format Collection!!! I have just bookmarked. Thanks! This has made today's look at LJ extremely valuable.

[siderea]

1) Finally read "How we confuse symbols and things". I'm mostly unimpressed with the whole thing; it's a perfect salamagundi of Bland Starchy Things Which Are Rehashed Old News mixed in with Zesty Errors of Fact. I think the author himself has badly confused some symbols and things -- anyone who can whine "we are teaching people what to think instead of how to think" has so badly missed the semiotic boat I can only giggle.

2) I refuse to look at CobolScript. Back! Back, you minion of Asherah! I will not gaze into your tainted bitmap!

3) Wotsit completely rocks! Thanks for the heads-up.