In this post we will be talking about some of my thoughts and feelings around generative AI in 2026 and the ways in which it is affecting my day to day work as a middle of the road programmer and an accomplished sysadmin, platform engineer and SRE.
It was the dawn of a new century in the tech world. We’d just survived the great Y2K scare which, for many of us, turned out to be nothing. I spent a memorably pleasant Y2K eve playing board games and sipping champagne at my company’s East Cambridge office, enjoying the company of my co-workers. I felt like I was on top of the world.
No, I’m not talking about reading, writing, and ‘rithmitic, I’m
talking about the three Rs that are critical in creating and keeping a
software organization strong.
The three Rs in this case are Rigor, Resources, and Raison
d’etre. Let’s take a look at each of these in turn.
Dear Sun;
When you tell me I hava Java (TM) updates available on my work Windows machine, I gleefully say sure why not and click through the installer, because generally Sun provided updates to my installed JDK don’t do anything evil, and with security and all it’s a good idea to stay up to date.