Insects and Entropy
How complexity killed the best bug ever created in the whole world.
Getters/Setters/Fuxors
Python’s attributes are not Java’s getters/setters and why that’s a good thing.
Disproving Backward Time Travel (kind of)
If it is ever discovered, we would have known about it a long time ago.
Two logical fallacies that we must avoid
“… the implications of many of the scientific ideas and theories, whether mine or otherwise, are indeed immoral, ugly, contrary to our ideals, or offensive either to men or women (or some other groups of people). I simply do not care. If what I say is wrong (because it is illogical or lacks credible scientific evidence), then it is my problem. If what I say offends you, it is your problem.”
The Rise of Contextual User Interfaces
Interesting look at evolution of UI and the semi-recent trend of adopting the web’s content oriented interface. Definitely overlaps with the fundamentals of “admin debris” and related ideas.
An Under-Appreciated Fact: We Don't Know How We Program
“… in every one of these processes and diagrams there is a box which basically says ‘write the code’, and ought to be subtitled ‘(and here a miracle occurs)’.”
Burning the midnight oil
Ethan Vizitei on the difference in productivity found in the middle of the night vs. any other time of day. Nails it, IMO.
My rules of thumb for developers: less code
Rafe kicks off a series detailing various aspects of his coding philosophy. The first is near and dear to my heart: less code
Git for Computer Scientists
Okay, I've read about five of these articles purporting to explain Git’s internal conceptual framework. This was the first that really made things click in any significant way.
Programs on the scale of a million lines of code are getting more common. But how big is that?
“A million lines of code is not ten times more than 100,000. It’s well-known that schedules grow faster than the code … so the schedule for developing a million lines of code is 22 times bigger than for 100,000 LOC.”
The Algorithm: Idiom of Modern Science
“The Algorithm’s coming-of-age as the new language of science promises to be the most disruptive scientific development since quantum mechanics.”
In software, some developers take up residence on planet architecture, an otherworldly place where software is eternally planned and discussed but never actually constructed.
Atwood’s had a great year.
Depressurize the priorities
“Most of the time you should be working on The Next Most Important Thing. But there are times when it’s okay to depart. Times when you need to depressurize after completing a dive in the stressful, complex pool of Big Problems.”
What if powerful languages and idioms only work for small teams?
“What if closures and meta-programming and expressive type systems and annotations and all of the other tools that give us the power to build powerful abstractions actually don’t scale to larger teams?”
Technical Debt
“… coined by Ward Cunningham to describe the obligation that a software organization incurs when it chooses a design or construction approach that’s expedient in the short term but that increases complexity and is more costly in the long term.”
Software Is Hard
“Talking about a software development schedule more than a year out is like talking about where we go after we die. Everyone has some idea where we'll end up, but those ideas differ wildly, and there’s a lack of solid evidence to support any of them.”
The Rule of Least Power - W3C TAG Finding 23 February 2006
“There is an important tradeoff between the computational power of a language and the ability to determine what a program in that language is doing.”
The Mythical Business Layer
“It was as if its architects were given a perfectly good hammer and gleefully replied, ‘neat! With this hammer, we can build a tool that can pound in nails.’” — that is THE SINGLE FUNNIEST SENTENCE ever assembled in the history of english language!
Hiring Programmers and The High Cost of Low Quality
“There’s no one programmer who does the work of ten other programmers. One uber-programmer does just as much work as one ordinary programmer. It’s just that the results solve ten times as many problems.”
YAGNI Considered Depressing
“I actually think YAGNI and Othello’s waiting moves embody the same concept. Both are brilliant, winning strategies. Yet, there’s a certain emotional side to YAGNI and software development. We tend to get attached to our good ideas.”
Lecture 7b: Metacircular Evaluator, Part 2 - Google Video
“I consider being able to return a procedural value, and to have first class procedures in general, as being essential to doing very good modular programming.” — Gerald Sussman (PS: how come nobody told me you can link to specific time offsets in google
Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?
It’s impossible for diffuse flames (jet fuel, paper, office stuff) to reach temperatures needed to melt steel. This guy thinks there were thermite charges in the buildings.
Everything Your Professor Failed to Tell You About Functional Programming
“This leads to my point: In computer science, nothing [still] makes sense [even] if you violate the identity principle.” :)
Einstein's Big Idea - E = mc2 Explained
Audio excerpts from recent PBS/NOVA program celebrating “E = mc2”
Generics Considered Harmful
Ouch! It would have been so much cooler if Java would have just dropped static typing completely.. :)
Who knows? Maybe nonstandard arithmetic is just unavoidable
Some interesting thoughts on Gödel’s Proof and its implications on nonstandard numbers.
Ontology is Overrated -- Categories, Links, and Tags
“People have been freaking out about the virtuality of data for decades, and you'd think we'd have internalized the obvious truth: there is no shelf.”
Two Is An Impossible Number
Wow, this may be the most serendipitous page I've come across on the c2 wiki. It starts with strategies for when generalization is okay, leads into caveman number systems, how many objects the brain can recognize without counting, God as Lisp programmer,
Tim Bandits - What were Einstein and Gödel talking about?
Yea, this is the coolest thing I've read in a long time. Tim: let me borrow that “Gödel, Escher, Bach” book – I'll tear that shit up in a night, I swear…
The Selfish Class
How programs adhere to the basic laws of Darwinian evolution.. Seems to gel with everything I've learned.
Abstractions vs Patterns
Sam Ruby trying to put a definition to the word “simple”. Seriously, it’s not as easy to define as you think.
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Video Lectures
When did I die and how the hell did I end up in heaven? Crazy!
Politics-Oriented Software Development
“Someone who points out a problem early is a troublemaker; someone who fixes a problem at the last minute is a hero.”
Why Craigslist Works, by Craig
The whole PDF requirement at ChangeThis sucks but this looks like a good read anyway..
Neal Stephenson?'s Past, Present, and Future
The author of the widely praised Baroque Cycle on science, markets, and post-9/11 America
Iocaine Powder Explained (How to win Paper, Rock, Scissors)
Doesn’t this qualify as a genetic algorithm?
Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One
Finally hits 1.0. If you read one big nasty spec this year, this should be it. It’s actually full of stories and other weird stuff that make portions kind of fun.
Don Knuth: Musings and More
A bunch of Knuth talks and experiments. Some video, audio, book excerpts, etc.
Tags elsewhere
On del.icio.us style tags and how they differ from existing keyword and category styles of classification.
The Rise of "Worse is Better" - Richard Gabriel
Old and still very valid. What’s the best mix of Simplicity, Correctness, Consistency, and Completeness in software design? Describes MIT and “NewJersey” approaches.