Linus got a Nexus One
I broke down and bought a Nexus One last week. I got the original G1 phone from google when it came out, and I hardly ever used it. Why? I g...
"Don't just read it; fight it"
You can sort of let a novel run through you: the language is loose enough that you don't need to chew on sentences—you can swallow them whole, steadily one by one, and still have a perfectly clear picture of who everyone is and what's going on.
Tips for Tech Leads
One of the unending sources of frustrations of being an experienced engineer in a company full of fresh graduates is having to deal with new...
Rands in Repose: How to Run a Meeting
I bag on meetings. I bag on meetings because like any nerd I expect the universe to be efficient and orderly and there is no more vile a violation of this sens
Lisp compiler in 89 lines of Python
Tim Lopez published an elegant and tiny LISP interpreter for Python on his blog. Inspired by Norvig’s Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming. I developed an interpreter as well as a…
Programming will never be "easy".
There seems to be this idea going around the internet that the reason someone isn’t able to program, is because languages aren’t good enough yet. A couple of people I have seen with hav…
Maybe Jason Calacanis isn't being totally honest about Mahalo?
Last Thursday, in response to Matt Cutts stating that he needed more than “arbitrary inurl searches” to sway him (which was in turn in response to a Hacker News submission about Mahalo and the plethora of keyword rich domains they were apparently building out) I wrote a post explaining in some detail how the latest…
Red Hat, 16%. Canonical, 1% contribution to GNOME
(Warning: ill-advised rant ahead. Read the apology here.) In case you missed it: $SUBJECT is the percentage of contribution to the GNOME codebase. Thanks, Dave Neary. An upside of not working for…
IronRuby Manager Leaves Microsoft
Though Frank Sinatra says it best , “I’m leaving today” isn’t exactly accurate; my last day as a Microsoft employee was July 23rd, 2010. This post is almost two weeks delayed as Felicia and I have been on the road since the 26th, driving cross-country to the east coast; we also decided to leave Seattle in favor of New…
How a startup should leverage a personal assistant
People are shocked when they hear I've been able to pull off the use of virtual assistants in startups, and excited at the thought that they might be able to do the same. The conversation almost always turns to questions about where to find virtual assistants and how a startup can use one.
Paul Buchheit: Tablet thoughts
I don't know anything about Apple's tablet, and I generally don't pay much attention to the speculation about their unannounced products. Ho...
Insanely deep fractal zoom
I was really into fractals in college (I know…) when I was making rave flyers (I know!) for a friend’s parties in Iowa (I know! I know! Shut up already!). Anywa
Restaurant Menu Pricing
Restaurants are great test labs for testing neuromarketing techniques. It's easy to change offerings, menus, and pricing, and one gets immediate feedback on what's working and what's not. Today, many eateries are employing sophisticated menu psychology to maximize sales and profits.