Had a binge of reading up. Three Dutch weekly newspaper wrap-ups (NRC Weekeditie Voor Het Buitenland), three Queues, assorted Communications of the ACM. Still have two issues to go plus the latest issue of Interactions (SIGCHI publication).
Dunno if it was the editing of the interview, but the way Alan Kay talks about JAVA, or actually most of commercial mainstream computing, makes him sound really bitter. The kinda guy that, if you are a software pro like me in an industrial setting actually making money off deliverable products, you dread having to sit next to at a dinner party. Every time you answer some question about your daily work he will just use it as a way to discuss at length how primitive and wrong-headed your tools are, and thus how your cool ideas about how to solve problems are actually a waste of time, subtly trying to imply pity while being oblivious to the condescencion he projects, dismissing the working end results.
I wonder if he has the drony voice that usually makes that scene complete.
