Kimberly Blessing: The Seventh Grade: So when I keep hearing about this crucial sixth/seventh grade time period for young girls, I can’t help but think back to my own experience around these grades. I didn’t lose interest in computers (or science or math) in seventh grade, but I was certainly separated from them. As time went on, I had less time to pursue those interests myself, and in some cases I was discouraged from pursuing them.

codeartisan: Websites are also RESTFul Web Services: if you design a RESTful web site it is also a RESTful web API.

code zen: Announcing EspressoReader (alpha): A desktop client for Google Reader: I am excited to finally announce the alpha release of EspressoReader. EspressoReader, in its current incarnation, is a desktop app for Google Reader.

Props to my co-workers in the first three reads (and a download – go forth and try out EspressoReader!), now on with more…

defmacro: The Nature of Lisp (absolutely a must read – this piece has influenced me on a project and will probably have a growing effect on my work down the line).

Code Monkeyism: Scrum is not about engineering practices: Scrum is not about engineering practices, it’s about management.

zack’s home page blog: One month with Emacs and counting – Part 1 – the Debian Vim package maintainer moves to.. Emacs!

The Daily WTF: Programming Sucks! Or At Least, It Ought To:Obviously, a lot of us – me included – enjoy writing code. But should we?

Honda: The Power of Dreams – Failure: The Secret of Success – a terrific must see video.

The Fishbowl: The DOM Stigma: Java is a strongly and statically typed language with a Smalltalk-style object model. Javascript is a loosely and dynamically typed language with a prototype-based object model. Force them to share an apartment and you’ve got an instant sitcom.

pyDanny: Naming conventions thoughts for Pinax and Django (they are using Django at NASA!)

Adam Bien: A Good Architecture Is All About Probability – Or It Is Sufficient To Be Good Enough: Many J2EE architectures were entirely exaggereted. The were intended for all, even very uncertain, cases. The result were many, dead, layers with lot of transformations and indirections. This introduced additional complexity and obfuscated the actual business logic and missed the point. The problem were generic, stereotypical architectures, which were developed once and applied to every possible use case. Even a guestbook was developed with at least 15 layers :-). So keep it small, keep it simple, and focus on the essential cabatilities of your application.

Aaron Swartz: Non-Hierarchical Management: Most guides on management are written for big bosses at big companies, not people starting something new who want their team to be as effective as possible. (Hi, startup founders!) So herewith, a guide to effective non-hierarchical management.

Fast Company: They Write the Right Stuff: And that’s the point: the shuttle process is so extreme, the drive for perfection is so focused, that it reveals what’s required to achieve relentless execution. The most important things the shuttle group does — carefully planning the software in advance, writing no code until the design is complete, making no changes without supporting blueprints, keeping a completely accurate record of the code — are not expensive. The process isn’t even rocket science. Its standard practice in almost every engineering discipline except software engineering. Plastered on a conference room wall, an informal slogan of the on-board shuttle group captures the essence of keeping focused on the process: “The sooner you fall behind, the more time you will have to catch up.”

nextthing.org: Fun With HTTP Headers

Morethanseven: Example of using XMPP on App Engine (via IMified)

digital inspiration: Single Google Query uses 1000 Machines in 0.2 seconds

Tech President: Why the White House’s Embrace of Drupal Matters