The Bug by Ellen Ullman

Never Rock Fila writes "On the front page of tomorrow's New York Times Book Review, a slightly breathless but overdue enthusiastic review of Ellen Ullman's new novel, The Bug. The review acknowledges that 'Ullman has already established herself as an indispensable voice out of the world of technology' -- if you haven't read her first book, a memoir, Close to the Machine, read that too -- and it's nice to see a mainstream publication like the Times, the gold standard of book reviews as I understand it, giving such prominent and positive attention to a novel by a former 'software engineer' that's all about getting inside the mind of a programmer, even concluding 'If more contemporary novels delivered news this relevant and wise they'd have to stop declaring the death of the novel.' The reviewer, one Benjamin Anastas, has the chops to develop a sustained comparison to Mary Shelley, to legitimately place the 1984 computer programmers at the center of the novel among 'all the best characters in fiction,' and to declare the book 'thrilling and intellectually fearless.'"

Comments

Wow.

[mrseigen]

First Cryptonomicon hits the best-seller lists, now a paper does a favorable review of a novel about a geek.

Either us geeks are buying more books, or the mainstream population is getting brighter. Somehow, I think it's the former. American Idol is still on television.

Re:Wow.

[Zebbers]

geekier != brighter

cryptonomicon wasn't any more 'intelligent' than other books, it just had its basis in a geekfriendly subject

the majority of novelists do a substanial amount of research about the state of their subject in real life. Writer's spend a decent amount of time in libraries.

I dont find Farscape to be all that more entertaining than American Idol. Its called personal preference, taste.

The Slashdot crowd really reminds me of the punkish segment of population. Rebel and Yell. The system sucks, damn the system, damn the man, damn the sheep. Lets all dye our hair green. In the end, you aren't much different. You only seem different if you focus soley on those areas where you do differ so much.

Maybe the technocratic elitist themes in Cryptonomicon are true....

Re:I loved her show on FOX

[moehoward]

No. He's talking about Ellen DeGeneres on "When Liberals Attack".

Ullman's Programming the Post-Human

[Drakonian]

If you get a chance, read Ellen Ulman's article Programming the Post-Human - Computer Science redefines life. It was an excellent and realistic look at the current state of AI development. It was found in the October 2002 issue of Harper's Magazine. (I couldn't find an online copy) I'll have to think about picking up this book now, I thought her writing was superb.

Re:Ullman's Programming the Post-Human

[sl70]

What!? I don't believe it. I went out with her in college and, while I can't guarantee she didn't do porn (I wasn't with her all the time), I seriously doubt it. She always was a serious woman. Sure you're not mixing her up with Tracey Ullman?

Re:Ullman's Programming the Post-Human

[ullman]

That's funny but unfortunately not true. You must be confusing me with Ellen Degeneres or Tracy Ullman (or someone; there's nothing on E! online for me). I did many things in college, but softcore porn just wasn't among them. In any case, I'll stick to writing.

Ellen Ullman Stuff

[the end of britain]

Salon.com loves Ellen Ullman almost as much as I do. Read excerpts from The Bug here: http://archive.salon.com/books/int/2003/05/16/ullm an/index_np.html You can read articles by Ullman here: http://archive.salon.com/directory/topics/ellen_ul lman/ Salon is free as long as you watch a little commercial (C'mon--its 10 secondds, and then you get to read Ulllman--for free!!!)

Re:Ellen Ullman Stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

It's funny. I just heard of Ellen Ullman last night when reading a random blog that linked to "The Dumbing-Down of Programming"

I loved the way she described it all... I was reliving my days back in the dorm, installing slackware for the first time. Highly recommended.

Solution to the NYT registration thing...

[Anonymous Coward]

How come everybody always posts these broken links that require registration? Why can't they link to, say, the Google partner URL or some such? Is this some kind of unwritten rule? Or do the Slashdot editors make sure to find the registration-required URLs? I always see replies with "no reg link", etc. Why don't the original authors use these?

Re:Solution to the NYT registration thing...

[ceejayoz]

They're not "broken links", you're just too lazy to give the NYT some fake info one time - that, or you prefer to whine about it each time a NYT link comes up here.

If Slashdot starts using the Google partner tag, then NYT and Google will evntually shut it off - checking referers, etc.

Re:Solution to the NYT registration thing...

[Anonymous Coward]

Right. I want to read about successful porn stars. With pictures, if possible.

Golden standard?

[Anonymous Coward]

"...and it's nice to see a mainstream publication like the Times, the gold standard of book reviews as I understand it..."

I thought Oprah's book club was?

read it, liked it

[sith]

Finished this a few weeks ago after reading the sample of it Salon had posted. A very solid book, and the technical stuff was pretty solid as far as compiler interaction and such. It doesn't paint a rosey picture of life as a programmer though, and made me glad I got out of CSCI when I did...

CSCI?

[GoofyBoy]

Computer Science Crime Investigations?

The Bug Available on e-Book

[Opinari]

FYI, Palm Digital Media has Ms. Ullman's tome available for the Palm Reader.

Strange review

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

it's nice to see a mainstream publication like the Times, the gold standard of book reviews as I understand it, giving such prominent and positive attention to a novel by a former 'software engineer'

I've read the review, it suck. Here it is :

Welcome to The New York Times on the Web!

For full access to our site, please complete this simple registration form.
As a member, you'll enjoy:

In-depth coverage and analysis of news events from The New York Times FREE

Up-to-the-minute breaking news and developing stories FREE

Exclusive Web-only features, classifieds, tools, multimedia and much, much more FREE

Signing up is as easy as 1-2-3

Thanks for review NYTimes. Here's one book I won't buy : it's all about internet junk !

B & N instead

[truthsearch]

A little offtopic, but I'd like to see book links point to somewhere else, like Barnes & Noble. After all the coverage on /. of the amazon.com patents I thought this would have been obvious. Let's not support software patents and shop somewhere else instead. Here are the B&N links:

The Bug
Close to the Machine

Re:B & N instead

[fm6]

Except BN.com has inventory problems and incompetant customer service. And besides, if you're going to boycott anybody who holds software patents, you'll never be able to buy software again -- every major firm hold them or relies on them. If you want to make a difference, write your congressperson, be politically active, join a movement, all the Citizen of a Democracy stuff. It's time consuming and hard work, but a lot more effective than this kneejerk boycott crap.

Re:B & N instead

[truthsearch]

if you're going to boycott anybody who holds software patents, you'll never be able to buy software again

I don't.

If you want to make a difference, write your congressperson

I do. Hillary Clinton doesn't write back to any of her constituents who I've spoken to.

be politically active

I am.

join a movement

I have.

a lot more effective than this kneejerk boycott crap

It's hardly kneejerk and every little bit helps.

Benjamin Anastas

[Anonymous Coward]

wrote a very funny novella called "An Underachiever's Diary". Highly recommended if you want to read something different from your staple sci-fi/fantasy/computer-book diet.

Next... the Programmer TV Series...

[ivi]

Folks, -any- profession (&/or the workplaces
around it) that has influenced -lots- of
peoples' lives has had TV series about itself.

We've had lots of medicos... from "Ben Casey"
& maybe some before him...

We've had lawyers... from "Perry Mason" &

We've had police from The "Untouchables"...

We've even had teachers & schools (recently
"Boston Public" - which got -cut- in Australia,
soon after a sequence on the use of "Nigger"
(we're not racist down here, we just don't
want to give our people anything too controvertial
to think about...)

Someday (if/when programmers become influential
again (remember when we were -mostly- physicists,
mayhematicians or electronics engineers?),
we might see some TV series on programmers.

Would anybody like to brainstorm up some story-
lines for "The Programmers" that might fit into
a 30-minute slot, each week?

Re:Next... the Programmer TV Series...

[Bodrius]

False.

All the professions that have spawned TV-series of their own are essentially social professions: police, doctors, investigators, lawyers, artists, teachers, reporters, etc. The core of the working-time (as seen in TV) in these cases has to do with interacting with people.

Even the exceptions that have more "technical meat" (CSI and the like) tend to be off-shoots of the typical case. Like a secondary character in a novel that becomes a favorite, but would normally not stand by itself.

This is not about who "influences society". It's about emotions. Emotions move plots more quickly and easily than ideas, and don't have to be explained too much. TV is about simple, approachable, uncomplicated emotions driving simple plots around emotions. The facts are not important unless emotionally charged, or sprinkled at least a little bit.

Face it, computer programming is not the most socially interesting profession. Certainly not the most emotionally charged for an outsider. It's logically, intellectually challenging, which means boring for someone looking for a sit-com instead of a documentary.

People connect to the pathologist's "determination", as he "earnestly" looks for evidence to "catch the evil bastard". They don't connect to a professional obsession for doing the job well. They might as well watch a mechanic work.

Of course, a TV series could be made around a computer programmer, as long as its thematic is about social interaction and not programming. It wouldn't be a show about programmers, though, just like "thirty something" was not a show about architects, and "Drew Carey" is not a show about HR coordinators. The profession will be an uninteresting prop, assumed to happen off the set.

Another choice would be to focus on the weirdness of the social interactions themselves are, as compared with the rest. But people don't want to watch that either, they want to connect to social interactions they're already familiar with, that they can empathize with. The excellent "Freaks and Geeks" was almost exclusively popular with... you guessed it, freaks and geeks. We all know where that one ended.

Re:Next... the Programmer TV Series...

[stanwirth]

Yah! And I can see Scott Adams doing the writing for it.

There was a British series called "Attachments" that actually had some decent programmer content/activity, though it was dominated by dotcom management pratfalls and consequences that we've all seen in real life by now, so why make yourself sick watching it on TV.

What's more interesting is the "junkyard wars" format, with Robot Wars and Robotica. And yet you don't get very good representation of the interesting part -- they're presented like Pro Wrestling.

How do you illustrate the process of problem solving in a visually compelling way? Better yet, how do you engage the viewer intellectually in the process? There's the dramatic twist, the quirky character, the suspense -- but the most engaging it gets, really, is in the whodunit or the spy "thriller". And these are so formulaic, predictable and worn-out by now, that there's just no fun in them.

Science and Techno documentaries are by far the worst-- their Breathless Admiration of The Great Man Of Science and His Great Discovery, or This Wonderful New Technology And How It Will Change Our Lives. How utterly boring.

Too bad it's in the NYT

[rossz]

Couldn't they have put the review in a more reliable newspaper such as the Weekly World News, National Enquirer, or The Sun?

Great Book

[Bugmaster]

I just finished the book - at the urging of the Salon review. One way I can describe it is "Pi in book form". You can literally feel the insanity creeping into one of the main character's minds... It gets even scarier when you see the characters go through the same emotional upheavals that you yourself do when coding. Really scary stuff... The book is very, very realistic. You can see that the author actually understands the programmers and the QA testers she writes about -- as opposed to, say, the mainstream media which still seems to be fixated on the 13-year old scr33pt k1ddi3 image.

Let me put it this way: this book literally made me fear for my own sanity. Now, if that's not a good endorsement, I don't know what is.

a few abstract concepts: how about FACTS

[stanwirth]

You said: lemme introduce you to a few abstract concepts like fiction or artistic license.I don't believe the narrator of "Close to the Machine" is Ms. Ullman herself.
in response to my comment that in "Closer to the Machine" she gets intimate with clients and co-workers during the project even

Mr. Jpeg: did you read it? Closer to the Machine is a MEMOIR.

From the spamazon Editorial Review of Closer to the Machine by Cliff Barney:

Author Ellen Ullman, an independent computer programmer, holds little back in recounting her experiences. She discusses her business career, her approach to software and her sexual adventures, all with the same frank detachment.

Read it and weep. What I find so disturbing is the non-technical community's (read: Salon, Book Editors) lack of censure for her non-professional approach.

And, The Bug--oh!! A bug that only happens sometimes at different places in the code? Christ on a bicycle, hasn't she ever fixed a freakin' memory leak before? Corruption she's clearly familiar with, but this kind has a blindingly obvious Simple solution. Instrument the code with Purify or Insure++, or Electric Fence or at least check where and how memory is being allocated and deallocated. This isn't rocket science, you know. Oh well, guess that's the difference between her "20 years of programming" and my 25.

Sure The Bug is fiction, but it's fiction based on a truly lame approach to debugging.

I wonder if I could get it read by non-programmers

[glaude]

I wonder if I could get it read by non-programmers in my company.
Just in order to make them feel the psycological consequences of them changing their specs two weeks before commercial release...