Author: Justin Sherrill

I was low on time but I still brought the links!

• This is why software sucks.  Many people get tech news by skimming headlines, and don’t read details – so prominently writing an opinionated title is more effective sometimes than, say, reasoned argument.
• “selective disclosure” is a better term.  (same author)
• The EFF’s Open Wireless Router project.  Can they get a 48-port one built?
• UNIX: knowing your memory commands.
• The Open Source Identity Crisis.  I agree with the article – some people still think open source developers are the coders, and then there’s everyone else… which is emphatically not the case any more.  (via)
• Used/refurbished server sellers.  This is going to be useful to someone.
• Programming with Punched Cards.  (PDF, via)
• Escher: Choiceless programming.  Weird.  (via)
• Apparently I’ll link to anything about Dwarf Fortress; it’s a culturally distinct thing – so much so that it’s being used as an art exhibit.  (via)

Your unrelated link of the week: Summer cakes.  The second recipe is from Nicola Humble.  I just read her surprisingly interesting history of the cookbook in the UK, hence the link.  Plus, I’m hungry.

It’s a manageable list this week.

• Markov Chains Explained.  It’s useful to at least know what Markov chains are, because there are some silly text tricks that can be done, and it’s a good term to use so that you sound smart.  (via)
• Rob Pike’s 5 rules of programming.  (via)
• Similar: Epigrams in programming.  (via)
• snowdrift.coop, a new funding service for open source projects.  It’s not launched yet, but it appears to be using a ‘shares’ approach which could be interesting.  (via IRC)
• Unix: never go topless.
• On the cruelty of really teaching computing science.  Good quote where I found it, too.
• Don’t tell people to use VIM (because) You’re Using It Wrong.  Notes how trendy “use Vim!” articles have become. (via)
• The levels of Emacs proficiency.  (via)
• The genre-defining video games we forgot. A surprisingly in-depth documentary.
• Eulerian Video Magnification.  Heartbeat reading with common cameras.  (via a newsletter)
• Sometimes you think of something that should exist, and then you immediately find out it does exist – foot switches for emacs.
• Explaining X11 for the rest of us.  (via)
• Awesome-awesomeness.  Curated lists of resources for various languages.  Two things struck me: one is that Github is being used more like a document repository than a code repository, sometimes, and the other is that this is such a huge list, it almost overwhelms the original purpose of showing what to use next.  (via)

Your unrelated comics link of the week: Formicapunk.  Boulet’s version of analog technology.