The Linked Open Data cloud diagram – I disagree with the Linked Data philosophy, I think top-down, formal semantic approaches are a dead end, and believe RDF is the Devil’s Own Format. I can’t deny that the array of sources they’ve linked together is impressive though, and it’s beautifully presented here.
Taco Bell Programming – The hacker mentality can be an incredibly powerful tool for compressing days-long tasks into minutes, if you can just look at them from the right angle. Mmmm, Taco Bell….
The Perils of Kinder Surprise – I’m so glad we’re being protected from the dangers of small chocolate eggs with plastic toys inside. I never really liked them growing up in the UK, but it depresses me that here we’re paying border guards to seize an average of 25,000 of them every year. When Kinder Surprises are outlawed, only outlaws will have Kinder Surprises.
The Myth and Truth of the NYC Engineer Shortage – Hiring ‘A players’ doesn’t mean hiring people with the exact skills you need, or even experienced engineers. Hire for smarts and enthusiasm, give your experienced folks time to help them, and within a few months you’ll have productive employees. Even better, they’ll be cheaper, and more loyal than that hot-shot you keep dreaming of. Hire for the right mentality, and everything else will follow.
Elusive Forger, Giving but Never Stealing – My favorite character reading the Norse myths as a kid was always Loki the Trickster, so I find this story of a non-profit forger slipping his works into museum’s collections delightful.
Pete Warden's blog 