January 2011
40 posts
Pinball and Social Games →
Interesting analogy. (Via @raphkoster.)
“I have the opposite problem with Chua. I believe she’s coddling her children....”
– Amy Chua Is a Wimp - NYTimes.com (Via @mfeathers.)
Mom and Pop, At Web Scale - Anil Dash →
There are some really important web infrastructure technology changes going on right now. (Admittedly, that’s been the case ever since the web appeared…) (Via @timbray.)
Battling the Lizard Brain (saying "I don't know")... →
Interesting reaction to this one in my Twitter feed. Lots of people focused on “always prepared to fire someone who doesn’t fit”, and with good reason; that aside, though, I do have a lizard brain waiting to trip me up as described here.
Gaming as a Spiritual Practice | Buddhist Geeks →
An interview with Jane McGonigal, very interesting stuff on games and preventing suffering. (Via @brainygamer.)
“As I see it, I committed several mistakes I’ve made in the past. First, trying...”
– New century, old mistakes
On competence, confidence, pernicious... →
Here is a game: Deadly Premonition →
Maybe I really will have to give Deadly Premonition a try?
“Basically, the way the games are designed is they’re designed for you to...”
– A Nintendo Argument Against Achievements
The vindication of Dick Cheney - Glenn Greenwald -... →
Not a good thing if Dick Cheney is on your side.
How to write a touchscreen adventure game - The... →
Interesting article by Andrew Plotkin on how a touchscreen affects discoverability in a graphical adventure game.
The road to faster tests - (37signals) →
Yay for unit test optimization; useful tips here. And boo for “unit tests” that are really integration tests, as is the case for Rails out of the box…
Simpson's Paradox - Less Wrong →
Nice statistics example - so easy to get this stuff wrong.
Laws of Productivity - Lost Garden →
Certainly aligns with how I prefer to work and live.
Taiwan | Game Trekking →
The first game that’s come out of Jordan Magnuson’s Game Trekking project.
J. This is HARD. However … | xProgramming.com →
I hadn’t heard much chatter about J, interesting to read these reports about it.
DROAM - Dreaming about Cheap Data Roaming - All... →
Not sure when I’ll next travel internationally (heck, I’m not sure when I’ll next travel within the US!), but this seems worth keeping in mind when I do.
The Impact of (not) Grading - techna virumque cano →
I never felt comfortable with grades when I was in academia, but it takes a lot of courage to handle that the way Kevin has.
Marco.org - Too much hardware choice →
Interesting thoughts on the tradeoffs of choice.
Shepard tone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia →
As Simon Parkin says: “Listen to the .mp3: it’s the sound of creeping insanity.”
Experiment comparing Upgrade and CONNECT... →
It seems that the Web Sockets protocol has a rather serious security flaw. (Via dive into mark.)
Who killed the Intel microprocessor? | asymco →
Really interesting case here that Intel’s problem is in the lack of licensing in its business model more than anything about, say, power usage.
DOJ subpoenas Twitter records of several WikiLeaks... →
Justice, eh?
Methodology Work Is Ontology Work - Brian Marick →
Fact and folklore in software engineering →
On the (genesis / propagation of the) claim that some programmers are 10x / 200x / whatever more productive than others.
Type System vs Test Driven Development -... →
Lots to think about here if I get back to learning Haskell.
“The web is not, despite the desires of so many, a publishing medium. The web is...”
– The Web Is a Customer Service Medium (Via the entirety of my twitter feed, it would seem.)
The world, virtual | Raph’s Website →
Real world predictions (or speculations, or jokes, or something) based on virtual world experiences.
Minecraft Manual Gallery →
A lovely Minecraft manual. (Via @JAlbor.)
Gentle Discipline: Making Agile Happen in the New... →
Good thoughts on what it means for something to be a discipline.
Leading conservatives openly support a Terrorist... →
Salon’s been doing a lot of impressive political reporting this year. (And other reporting, I’ve been a fan of Andrew Leonard for a long time.)
Transformation Priority and Sorting →
More by Uncle Bob on transformations, in comic form! Very interesting concrete example.
Canvas Tutorial →
A nice simple HTML5 canvas tutorial.
A Year in Review - What Happens Before Game... →
I hope Nick writes more about the Monster Hunter games.
Extra Credits : Choice and Conflict →
Interesting stuff this week, I liked the concept of calculations masquerading as incommensurables.
“For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives,...”
– The War Prayer, by Mark Twain