8 Reasons I love Ruby - Ignu's House of Software.

Nice post that doesn't dwell on the language, but on the ecosystem.

Ruby Best Practices - Sexp for Rubyists.

Interesting:

Let me show you an example. First, gem install ruby_parser. Then:

::: {.dp-highlighter} require 'ruby_parser'
require 'pp'

pp RubyParser.new.parse(\<\<-EOF)
def plus_five(n)
n + 5
end
EOF :::

require 'ruby_parser'
require 'pp'

pp RubyParser.new.parse(<<-EOF)
def plus_five(n)
  n + 5
end …

I like Mind Mapping -- basically visual outlining with as many interconnections as you like. I don't love Mind Mapping, but I like it well enough to try out software.

Here are two tools for collaborative Mind Mapping that I'm considering using in upcoming talks:

XMind - Mind Mapping and Storming.

Mind …

I discuss Microsoft's new LightSwitch development tool in my latest column for SD Times.

LeeCampbell: Intro to Rx.

The Reactive Extensions for .NET are probably still in the realm of "maybe yes, maybe no," in terms of their overall impact (personally, I like the idea quite a bit), but a number of good tutorials are popping up around the Web. I like this series …

Free Tools for the New Scientific Revolution « Shepherd’s Pi.

Some fun tools from Microsoft for playing with Big Data.

Does Your Language Shape How You Think? - NYTimes.com.

Good article on a question that is always of interest in programming language circles. The modern take, apparently, is "“Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey.”

The obvious example would be that in …

I hope this bodes well for a job I'm interviewing for this week...

• Concurrency is hard: Multiday Chinese traffic jam continues http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129395326 #
• There was a blog post not long ago saying like "MS is not a single company, but a marketing company for 100 companies" Anyone have link? #
• The "Netduino" an Arduino-pin-compatible shield programmable …

‘Not feeling it. Lungs not as full as they should be -- already feeling funky. Caught my fins at the surface for a sec. Bail out now and try again.’

These are my thoughts as I approach the first bleach bottle. I am upside down, pulling myself hand-by-hand down a rope …