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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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(Wednesday, August 30)
Why Hasn't Amazon Bought Last.FM?
There are a couple of web 2.0 companies that I feel REALLY do make me more efficient day to day, these are the crem de la crem of web 2.0 sites. Sites that actually have a use for me and are really are not just mashups of a couple of service APIs in a new way (just becuase something CAN be done doesn't mean it SHOULD be done). I mean it is cool that I can geotrace my flickr pics on Google Maps and document them with some 3rd party css overlay browser or ajax script, but honeslty at the end of the day am I any better for it? Here are 2 web 2.0 companies that actually DO make me more productive at work during the day: #1 is my online newsreader that I talk about too much about already, Netvibes is so slick, well coded (sometimes a little slow while updating, but it is getting fast) and isa breeze to get to be a power user of (one of the things that I think all web 2.0 companies need to audit their product with, barring it is needed). Netvibes is a French compcnay and I believe was just backed by a few American VCs. The other service that I use everyday that I have gotten to where I can't live without is Last.FM. I talk about it all the time, so I won't get into why I enjoy their service so much, but I love the fact that I can log into the service and see exactly what my friends from college are all listening too, I can see what the "wisdom of the masses" is listening too, or other people like Fred Wilson (Positively 10th St) or Raj Bala (Loudspeakers at the Internment Camp) who are people who I only know from their blogs/podcasts but that I know listen to music that interests me. This service is the definitive way that I choose new music to listen too. The data that they have on me and my personal listening habits is invaluable to me and I am not even trying to sell myself anything. I do not understand why I have not heard of Amazon or other large tangible music retailer not trying to purchase them.
Amazon always surprises me with how well they can suggest stuff that I might like. Generally in relation to music they are sometimes dead-on, and most of the time in the correct general area. The only problem is that when they are dead on it is usually an album I already own. Here is where Last.FM is invaluable, they know WHAT I listen to exactly, and also have a better idea (Note: not a complete picture) of what I actually probably already have in my library. Also Amazon could harness my past data for future trending purposes "Does Eric usually purchase CDs of certain people on the week they have a new album out?","When listening to older albums from established bands does he usually listen to greatest hits compilations or just earlier albums?", etc.
I would consider myself pretty stubborn when it comes to privacy issues, so it should really say something that I enjoy giving my listening habits (of course by my own decision) to last.fm's database. The service they give back to me is invaluable, but the data they have on me (and many many others) is extremely valuable.
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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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