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The Magpie Developer
Jeff Atwood is one of the best programmer/writers around. I love reading his stuff, some I agree wholeheartedly with, other stuff we disagree, but this post is about a dead-on as they come. This idea has been floating in my head for a long time, but it is hard for me to conceptualize it in words, Atwood does a brilliant job at it. Must read for any developer. |
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Andy Olmsted's Last Blog Entry.
(Warning: Pretty rough) No matter how you feel politically about the war, this reminds you that each number people throw around as statistics is a human life. This is extremely well written, and pretty rough on your soul towards the end, but something everyone should read. Its a shitty situation all around, but there is always a human face behind the statistics and I want to make sure I never forget that. |
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Drinking stories that put yours to shame
Via Keith
To preserve his body during the voyage home, the second-in-command stored Nelson's body in the ship's vat of rum and halted all liquor rations to the crew. Not a bad idea, but when the ship reached port, officials went to retrieve Nelson's body and found the vat dry.
Disregarding good taste (in every sense), the crew had been secretly drinking from it the entire way home. After that, naval rum was referred to as Nelson's Blood. |
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making vodka pills in 24 hours
Recently, Chef Fabian was experimenting further with the Adria/Torreblanca technique of making 'vodka pills.' I use this word to describe the process of making liquid-filled candies by pouring flavored alcohol syrups into cornstarch and letting it set until a hard outer shell forms. |
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Strategy Letter VI - joelonsoftware.com
As a programmer, thanks to plummeting memory prices, and CPU speeds doubling every year, you had a choice. You could spend six months rewriting your inner loops in Assembler, or take six months off to play drums in a rock and roll band, and in either case, your program would run faster. Assembler programmers don’t have groupies.
Entire Article is Dead On. A must read for anyone in the software biz. |
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(Tuesday, December 7)
2005 Grammy Nominations List
I am not a big fan of award shows. All the pomp, glitter, dresses seems to overshadow the one thing that everyone is there for. But I will says that out of all the commercial/radio station/record company (PEOPLE WHO WANT RECORDSALES) sponsered or organized award shows, the Grammys has always stuck out at me for nominating more artistic music than any other. Everynow and then you can comb the nominations list and find somthing you have never heard go grab it and find a gem. "Eric's Official Top 10 CDs You Must Find From 2004" List will be blogged in the next few days, but until then here is actually a pretty good list of people who came up with something new/creative in 2004.
My Thoughts on the list (Short Version)
1. Gretchen Wilson Sucks. I am not a fan of Kid Rock. But, Kid Rock was original. Kid Rock is Kid Rock, you can tell a Kid Rock song in the first 30 seconds. Gretchen Wilson is country music's commercial answer to Kid Rock. They just creatd her image in Kid Rock's mold.
2. Note the presence of the Killers in Rock Record of the Year, but the absense of Keane and Muse. Go Figure.
3. I bet all the Commercial (Rascal Flats) Country Listeners are scratching thier heads saying 'Who is Loretta Lynn'? When they should be scratching thire heads together saying 'Why did Loretta Lynn pair up with Jack White and create an amazing CD, and how did it get even in the same category as Gretchen Wilson'?'
4. Tim McGraw wins/gets nominated for a lot of awards for his music, but unlike John Mayer I don't think he has ever written a song has he? (I admit I don't listen to him much, so maybe he did in his earlier CDs)
5. Does Los Lonely Boys = Los Lobos? I know it = Good Guitar.
6. Joss Stone... mmmm... Joss Stone.
7. How come the BEP's "Let's Get it Started" is nominated when its more politically correct predicessor "Let's Get Retarded" is sent to the short bus? (For those that do not own the excellent Black Eyed Peas CD, the song is orginially sang as "Let's Get Retarded".
8. Gretchen Wilson Sucks.
2005 Grammy nominations:
Record of the year
�Let�s Get It Started,� The Black Eyed Peas; �Here We Go Again,� Ray Charles and Norah Jones; �American Idiot,� Green Day; �Heaven,� Los Lonely Boys; �Yeah!� Usher featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris
Album of the year
�Genius Loves Company,� Ray Charles and Various Artists; �American Idiot,� Green Day; �The Diary of Alicia Keys,� Alicia Keys; �Confessions,� Usher; �The College Dropout,� Kanye West
Song of the year
�Daughters,� John Mayer (John Mayer); �If I Ain�t Got You,� Alicia Keys (Alicia Keys); �Jesus Walks,� C. Smith and Kanye West (Kanye West); �Live Like You Were Dying,� Tim Nichols and Craig Wiseman (Tim McGraw); �The Reason,� Daniel Estrin and Douglas Robb (Hoobastank)
New artist
Los Lonely Boys; Maroon 5; Joss Stone; Kanye West; Gretchen Wilson
Pop vocal album
�Genius Loves Company,� Ray Charles and Various Artists; �Feels Like Home,� Norah Jones; �Afterglow,� Sarah McLachlan; �Mind, Body and Soul,� Joss Stone; �Brian Wilson Presents Smile,� Brian Wilson
Rock album
�The Delivery Man,� Elvis Costello and the Imposters; �American Idiot,� Green Day; �The Reason,� Hoobastank; �Hot Fuss,� the Killers; �Contraband,� Velvet Revolver
R&B album
�My Everything,� Anita Baker; �I Can�t Stop,� Al Green; �The Diary of Alicia Keys,� Alicia Keys; �Musicology,� Prince; �Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2,� Jill Scott
Rap album
�To the 5 Boroughs,� Beastie Boys; �The Black Album,� Jay-Z; �The DEFinition,� LL Cool J; �Suit,� Nelly; �The College Dropout,� Kanye West
Country album
�Van Lear Rose,� Loretta Lynn; �Live Like You Were Dying,� Tim McGraw; �Tambourine,� Tift Merritt; �Be Here,� Keith Urban; �Here for the Party,� Gretchen Wilson
Latin pop album
�Amar Sin Mentiras,� Marc Anthony; �SinVerguenza,� Bacilos; �Pau-latina,� Paulina Rubio; �Diego Torres: MTV Unplugged,� Diego Torres; �El Rock De Mi Pueblo,� Carlos Vives
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Travis - The Boy With No Name
Travis is back. I wouldn't say I hated 12 memories, it was meant to be very political, I just thought it went a little overboard and was somewhat preachy. Then when the greatest hits CD came out to be honest I was really hoping it didn't mean the end to one of my favorite brit bands. Boy With No Name is everything they were capable of. Supurb CD all the way through. Every song is brilliant. Big Chair is probably my favorite song and the opening to the CD on 3 Times is as good as it gets in music imho. |
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Pop! Why Bubbles are Great For The Economys (Gross)
One of the better economic books I have read in while, where the author gets their premise across in a well written, clear and concise manner. Basically Gross believes that the infrastructure left over after economic bubbles, provides companies with the ability to move forward (maybe more than the original bubble did). Not a hard read, I would definitely suggest it for a day and the beach/lake. |
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Feist - The Reminder
I CANNOT GET "I feel it all" OUT OF MY HEAD. Period. Great album, angelic voice. |
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Catan - Xbox Live Arcade
I am hopelessly addicted to this board-turned-video game on the xbox360. I had never played the board game but had seen it being played in some comic shops growing up. Click the Pick and play the demo, it isn't the 360 interface, but same game. |
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Arctic Monkeys - Favorite Worse Nightmare
No Sophomore slump here. Just as good (if not better) than Whatever they Say. |
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Beautiful Evidence (Tufte)
Tufte reads like a text book, most people would say bleh, but the information about "information" that he can deliver is top notch. My first Tufte book was "A Visual Display To Quantitative Information" and it was extremely well done, albeit confusing at time. I think beautiful Evidence is a little easier of a read (I am still only half way through it) and a little easier for myself to understand the ideas he is presenting.. |
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Fountains of Wayne - Traffic and Weather
Fountains of Wayne are the Gods of pop music. If Welcome Interstate Managers was a collection of short stories in song form, then Traffic and Weather is an even better collection with more humor. I already feel like CNN has the hottest female anchors, imagining them throwing their lust around like the Title track to the CD makes it even better. |
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Game of Thrones (Martin)
I started this book assuming it was going to be a high fantasy novel. Elfs, Dragons, Magic and the like. It isn't. It IS fantasy but more surrounding the politics and cunning of a few high ranking families. Incest, Murder, Intrigue, unscrupulous midgets. It has it all and more. |
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.
© Copyright 2003-2007, Eric Thompson |
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