Applications

Here’s a few tips for making your application viral by Daniel Tenner.

Programming – Updated May 22, 2009.

I was linked to a very good article on metaclasses by Gustavo N. on the TurboGears mailing list. This is definitely worth a read for Python programmers.

Science and Technology

On Saturday, Slashdot had a link to an image of the shuttle and Hubble in transition across the solar disk. What a sight!

Here’s another shot of the image taken by Thierry Legault. It’s posted on the Bad Astronomy blog by Phil Plait.

Stupid Things are Stupid

I honestly couldn’t believe it but sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. This adage is no less applicable than the case of a certain Mike Batt who was sued for producing a track of complete silence on an album of his. I’d like to see the prior art on this one.

I have some mostly techy links today.

Technology and Programming

There’s a fascinating discussion regarding different types of malloc()s–and how they all effectively promise the same thing!

Also in this same thread is Google’s very own TCMalloc.

Hacker News has a discussion on the “most easy to learn framework”. Be warned: Although there is some discussion about Python and Ruby frameworks, most of this is PHP-oriented. My memory compels me to recall a rather tongue-in-cheek post related to stupid PHP design practices, decisions, and general mediocrity in the language. There’s a reason I’ve started shifting away from PHP toward Python-based web application frameworks!

Microsoft has a new language in the works for parallel computing. It’s called Axum.

Simon Segal has issued a plea to all developers: Pleae don’t write unnecessarily long methods or functions. I know how he feels! I’m guilty of writing code like this, of course, but I find that my brain explodes if I have to content with stuff that is FAR TOO LONG to be useful. Please take his advice. If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, click the link and read. Then weep.

Iqbal M. Khan has an interesting piece on why you should use an ORM.

Somewhat-but-not-completely-tech-oriented

The 75% answer: For when you just don’t know enough to know what to ask. This article makes for a humorous read and raises several good points, too!

Sociology
If you feel tempted to take what you can now don’t. Or why delaying gratification may be good for you.

I’ve got a few things from government, health, history, and technology for you this week. Enjoy. Read more…