Reading

It's not just computers that are rapidly becoming obsolete. Quite a few books are following this route. Three books I've bought recently have come out with new editions:

• Freakonomics
• The World is Flat
• Wikinomics

http://osteele.com/archives/2008/01/programmers-pyramid

Interesting, and very true. A lot of thought goes into each line of code I write. If not, something is wrong.

The Death of the Written Language

Can I aks a question?

What do you want for Xmas?

What's become of the written language these days? Am I one of the last to care that if I type like a moron, people will believe I'm a moron? How hard is it to use capitals and punctuation,

I remember reading somewhere that 'in order to appeal to the widest audience possible', your blog should be at the Junior High level or below.

Well, guess what...

Several Linux-centric print magazines have their back issues available on the web. In most cases, the freely-available ones are several months old, but if you can deal with that it's a cheap way to get the content.

So far, there are two that I'm aware of:

• Linux Magazine: Back issues are approximately six months old, maybe a bit later.Signup and Login is required.
• Linux Journal: Articles are free to access, and there's about 13 years of magazine issues here, including (from issue #1) an old interview with Linus Torvalds

Plus one that *used* to have back issues online, but still offers a digital subscription service: Linux Pro Magazine (aka 'Linux Magazine' in Europe)

For those interested, Linux Journal also is currently offering a free issue download.

There are a number of online-only 'magazines' that have sprung up in the past year. The trend seems to be towards a format reminiscent of a blog, but with content published in large chunks. Of these, my favorite is Free Software Magazine which is up to issue 20 now.

Edit: fixed typo

Cats and books usually don't get along. While cats love paper (and shredding it), they generally leave books alone unless they're really malicious. But sometimes, they can be so annoying:

Me: (creates a stack of books on the floor)
Cat: (rub,rub)
Stack of Books: (collapse)
Me: Grrrrh..

Your tax dollars pay for it, so are you using it?

In the modern age, a public library offers:

• Free reading material: books, magazines, newspapers
• Internet access (often requires a library card)
• A quiet place to study and relax
• Reference materials -- from maps to professional directories, and older historical materials. A place to get answers of all stripes
• A local resource to have questions answered

I saw this today:

My reaction was sudden, but not unexpected:

Ha!

It even has a website

There's an interesting article at ITMJ about self-learning ability and hiring -- it mades some interesting points.

I was struck with the inspiration for this article while reading an article about Sony's launch of a new ebook reader device. I'm afraid the reason that ebooks haven't hit the big time is quite a sad commentary on society's value system.