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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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(Monday, February 14)
Grammy Thoughts.
As I said in my previous post from early December about the Grammy Nominations I have always felt like out of all the craptacular award shows that the RIAA and it's included Record Companies puts on I actually think they do a pretty decent job at the Grammy's. I think as a whole it isn't the most spectacular award show but I think the greater mass of America gets introduced to at least 2 or 3 artists they might enjoy by watching the award show. Here are my thoughts on tonight's show which I watched in entirety:
1. Over all great show considering the live performances. Hands down best Grammy show I personally have ever seen, all because of the live performances.
2. With the exception of Keith Urban and Elvin Bishop (Wis +2) the southern rock tribute sounded like shit. Didn't they kick Dicky Betts outta the Allman Bros for smacking up his wife? I guess he owned the rights to Ramblin' Man. I will say Keith Urban's guitar playing was impressive and with the exception of Urban/Bishop combo song, the best part of that part of the show was Matthew McConnnahay introducing them with a toothpic in his mouth. That's the kinda guy I would like to drink with. Just don't let him ask me to play bongos.
3. Gretchen Wilson Sucks.
4. Kanye West part of the show was amazing. John Legend is my new hero.
5. Joss Stone is very tall.
6. Alicia Keys is amazingly hot.
7. Lance Armstrong has got Sheryl Crow on his workout's it looks like. Talking about how you made your dress outta lance's jerseys, next time he is in the Tour De Ga I am gonna ask him to ride shirtless from here on out.
8. I actually enjoyed the Beatles cover for the Tsunami Benefit. I think Stevie did it for me. I really wonder what it would be like for Stevie Wonder as a master muscian who can't see. They should make an award called the Stevie Wonder Award that only he presents, because honestly he is only going to be able to hear the music which cuts through a lot of that commercial bullshit.
9. "Daughters" by John Mayer really is not a great song. There are much better songs on that CD. The monogram coat was lame.
10. Best Speech: Hands Down Kanye West.
11. I don't like any of Usher's music personally, but the man CAN sing and CAN dance.
12. Tim McGraw sounded like he molested "Ramblin Man" with a pseudo country twang.
13. WTF is that on the back of Jamie Fox's head?
14. Personally I think Green Day or Kayne West should have took home Best Album. But if you are going to lose, losing to someone like Ray Charles for Album of the Year is still a mighty impressive feat. I would consider it lucky to even have people think I had a chance.
15. The Manager that accepted Ray Charles sounded like a very sincere man. Much more sincere that 90% of the other managers and producers that accepted awards.
16. Maroon 5 best New artist? I liked "Songs About Jane" it was by no means bad, but man Kayne West changed some things around, that had his name on it.
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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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