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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, December 5)
Dear Zeppelin, Please don't reunite.
I am a huge Zeppelin fan. I have written about it a couple of times. When got my first CD player almost 20 years ago I joined one of those BMG music club deals, the first couple of CDs I received one was Floyd's DSOTM and the other was Zoso/Runes/IV by Zeppelin. Being the only CDs I had they were pretty much other only thing in rotation besides DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (No lie). I knew they were getting back together for a reunion show for one night in London and I thought, ok maybe this is like Floyd and the Live 8 deal, where they will get back together for a good cause, raise a truck load of money and then go their separate ways again. Now rumors are circulating that it will be a record announcement (please please let it be better than the Plant/Krauss record that just came out) and inevitably a full on tour (still rumor). Then this week I am starting to hear inklings that Zep will be headlining Bonnaroo this year.
As odd as it sounds I personally don't want them to get back together. One of the main parts of the mystique with both Zeppelin and Pink Floyd to me is that I will never get to see them live (or at least not as they were when put out DSOTM, Zoso or Houses of the Holy). They were bands that existed for only a certain period in musical history, made amazing music, then moved on. Some of them still make great music, but on a solo career. A good example of this "mystique" is the way I compare them to another band that I think is Legendary but not as mystical , The Allman Brothers. I have seen The Allman Brothers Band numerous times, with pretty much a completely fresh line up, I still enjoy the music immensily but I know it will never be the same "band" that played the Philmore East in 1971 for both obvious reason and not so obvious reasons, but I am ok with that because the band members now still play with spirit. I love the Allman Brothers, but they are not mystical to me. The only example of an artist that I used to think was "mystical" and is no longer to me would probably be Santana to put that into perspective, I still love his/(the band)'s older work but over the years (and the numerous duet albums) he still is legendary, just not in the same "how on earth could someone create this" sense. It just seems diluted somehow now. I hope Zeppelin doesn't fall out that way. If I ever see a Chad Kroeger/Plant Duet I will burn all my Zeppelin CDs, the whole Page with Puffy was bad enough.
Unfortunately the dollar will rule in the end I am sure.
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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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