Michael Jackson

http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/jacksonma/

Author of some of the best writing on Software Engineering.

See SoftwareRequirementsAndSpecifications

(28-Dec-00) MichaelJackson has written a new book! Problem Frames: Analyzing and Structuring Software Development Problems ISBN 020159627X

Check the two reviews Amazon gives for that book - the first quotes extensively from the back cover of the book, and the second does that as well! How on earth did MJ wangle that one?

Not the same as Michael Jackson Who Sang Bad. Perhaps he's Michael Jackson Who Sang Badly?

I've heard the Michael referred to above describe himself at the start of a talk as "sadly, not the one with the white glove" and suggest that people should leave if there's been a misunderstanding.

The question is: should we have Michael Jackson Who Sang Bad, to discuss the two men and the very different contributions that they may have to bring to the world of software development? Isn't this a trifle unfair on the second Michael Jackson - or indeed the twenty third?

[Same problem with MartinFowler vs TheOtherMartinFowler.]

Also people named StephenKing.

How about "TheMichaelJacksonWhoIsNowDead?"? (Or is this Michael Jackson dead also?)

Also not the same as Michael Jackson The Beer Hunter. (http://www.beerhunter.com/) There he says

: Hello, my name is Michael Jackson. No, not that Michael Jackson, but I am on a world tour.

I once worked for a man named Paul Newman, and we made a site visit to a company where our POC was Michael Jackson. Pity I'm an unknown.... -- PeteHardie

I always felt sorry for the character in OfficeSpaceMovie named Michael Bolton. Yeeeeech. -- MikeSmith

: Samir: Why don't you just go by Mike, instead of Michael?
: Michael Bolton: No way! Why should I change it? He's the one who sucks.

Or the 80-year old Iowa farmer who had to get an unlisted number in 1989 because his name was Homer Simpson. There was another Homer Simpson who said he had a lot of trouble ordering pizzas.

I only have one book of Michael Jackson called "Software Requirements and Specifications". It's an absolute joy to read for two reasons:

The observations and stories are spot on.
It's arranged as a lexicon of "subjects to think about". The cool part is they're all cross-referenced to each other in BOLD TYPE. It's like paper-based hyper-text except the links aren't URLS, they're entire ideas and concepts.

-- JirehMak? (me@jireh.net)

According to one website, "Michael Jackson wrote his first computer program at school in 1951". Hmm - how many programmable computers existed at that time?

Not many. But Michael Jackson first learned programming from Christopher Strachey. At the time Strachey was programming the Mark I computer at Manchester University, and wrote a famous program that played checkers (Special Issue of Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation, Vol 13, 2000, page 73).

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