Personal FAQ

What is a Personal FAQ?

Like a FAQ, a PFAQ is a set of answers to frequently asked questions. Unlike a normal FAQ, though, there is no single overarching topic area; rather, the common element is not the set of topics, but instead just me—and my need to answer.

HISTORICAL NOTE: My notion of a PFAQ could be seen as independent invention of the notion of a blog, though of course under a different name. I liked the FAQ format but wanted to make the kind of distinction newspapers sometimes make between “reporting” and “analysis.” What voice I originally poured into this PFAQ eventually went into my blog, and so this PFAQ appears abandoned when really I did my subsequent posts elsewhere.

Partial Index

(I deliberately index only some topics.)

Etiquette

• Why is cross-posting antisocial?
• Why is it bad to ask a newsgroup to do your homework?

Intellectual Property

• Software Patents
• KMP's WIPO feedback comments (6-Jun-2005)
• What does Kent really think about free software?

Professional

• Why I'm not an ACM Member.
• The peer review process
  • Treating papers by program committee members

Politics

• The “Freedom To Hear” (a variant view on “Freedom of Speech”) (PFAQ version)
  • The Freedom to Hear (2009 blog revision)

Technical

• unwind-protect vs. Continuations