Great things and people that I discovered, learned, read, met, etc. in 2013. No particular ordering is implied. Not everything is new. *also: see the lists from [2012](http://blog.fogus.me/2012/12/26/the-best-things-and-stuff-of-2012/), [2011](http://blog.fogus.me/2011/12/31/the-best-things-and-stuff-of-2011/) and [2010](http://blog.fogus.me/2010/12/30/the-best-things-in-2010/)* Join in on the [Hacker News discussion](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6971351). Great blog posts read --------------------- * [My favorite Erlang program](http://joearms.github.io/2013/11/21/My-favorite-erlang-program.html) -- *When Joe Armstrong blogs about his favorite Erlang program, you read it. There is no debate here.* * [Operating System Development Series](http://www.brokenthorn.com/Resources/OSDevIndex.html) -- *I am an absolute sucker when it comes to OSDev articles.* * [Internal Reprogrammability](http://martinfowler.com/bliki/InternalReprogrammability.html) -- *Fowler does it again. And again. And again.* * [Exponential Decay of History, Improved](http://awelonblue.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/exponential-decay-of-history-improved/) -- *David Barbour improves on an idea that was already a very good idea to start. The [original](http://awelonblue.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/exponential-decay-of-history/) are solid reads.* [^sim] * [Wodehouse Saved My Life](http://www.pgwodehousebooks.com/lauriesaved.htm) -- *Hugh Laurie discusses Wodehouse.* * [On Software Architecture](http://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/on-software-architecture) -- *Software architecture (and architects) are at times much maligned. The view of the architect is becoming less vitriolic as the Internet forces a focus on architecture, but many poseurs have worked to taint the view of, in my opinion, a crucial role in modern software shops. Roy Fielding posted a while back about architecture in a way that really crystalized my understanding of the value.* [^arch] * [Carver Mead: The Spectator Interview](http://freespace.virgin.net/ch.thompson1/People/CarverMead.htm) -- *This is an article that takes a few re-reads to really hit home.* * [Dear Leader Dreams of Sushi](http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201306/kim-jong-il-sushi-chef-kenji-fujimoto-adam-johnson-2013?printable=true) -- *an astonishing article about Kim Jong-il's obsessiong with sushi and the man who helped sate it* * [JavaScript Isn't Scheme](http://journal.stuffwithstuff.com/2013/07/18/javascript-isnt-scheme/) -- *I'd read Nystrom blog on just about any topic, but this one is his best of 2013 IMO* * [The Genre Artist](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/magazine/19Vance-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=5&) -- *an article about Jack Vance, a great, but under-appreciated scifi writer.* * [Ruins of Forgotten Empires](http://scottlocklin.wordpress.com/2013/07/28/ruins-of-forgotten-empires-apl-languages/) -- *an article about the APL family of programming languages* * [Simon Stalenhag's art](http://www.simonstalenhag.se/index.html) -- *beautiful retro-futuristic paintings* * [Design Challenges: Haggis](http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/34429/item/734152) -- *Game designer Sean Ross details his design thinking behind his wonderful card game Haggis.* * [Dig Deep: Beyond Lean-in](http://thefeministwire.com/2013/10/17973/) -- *Bell Hooks on modern feminism and the Lean-in principle* * [Andrew Looney's Eleven Principles of Game Design](http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Andy/Games/DesignPrinciples.html) -- *Quite possibly the game designer that I admire the most, on game design* * [Rediscovering Checkers](http://www.bobnewell.net/checkers/rediscover2.html) -- *a gentleman describes "scientific checkers"* * [Chuck Moore's Creations](http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ashleyf/archive/2013/09/21/chuck-moores-creations.aspx) -- One of my favorite talks at [Strange Loop 2013 conference](https://thestrangeloop.com/sessions) was Moore's talk entitled *[Programming a 144-computer Chip to Minimize Power](http://www.infoq.com/presentations/power-144-chip). In that talk he describes the gritty details of effectively bootstrapping a [GreenArray parallel processing board](http://www.greenarraychips.com/) using a version of colorForth. The language and the board shown by Moore were a revelation to me. I started my career working in the guts of machines using an oscilloscope as my debugging environment and Moore's creations made me yearn for that experience once again.[^film] [^sim]: As someone with a background in simulation I've felt that David's idea has a real place in sim. However, I've not been able to put them to the test yet. [^film]: As a kid I vaguely remember a movie about some kid who had a computer that ran on a 9-volt battery who could write code that generated these materialized force-bubbles. He used these force bubbles for all kinds of fun activities but mostly to fly to space and visit aliens. I believe that computer ran a GreenArray and was programmed via colorForth. Does anyone remember this film? My memory and Google-fu fails me. [^arch]: While Fielding's post helped, working closely with unbelievable architects like Tim Ewald, [Russ Olsen](http://blog.russolsen.com/) and [Michael Nygard](http://michaelnygard.com/) truly imprinted the desire to incorporate architectural thinking into my own software processes. Most viewed blog posts by me (20K+ viewers) ------------------------------------------- 1. [10 Technical Papers Every Programmer Should Read (At Least Twice)](http://blog.fogus.me/2011/09/08/10-technical-papers-every-programmer-should-read-at-least-twice/) -- *My most popular post of 2011 was also my most popular of 2012 and also of 2013 -- go figure.* 2. [FP vs. OO, from the trenches](http://blog.fogus.me/2013/07/22/fp-vs-oo-from-the-trenches/) -- *Really just an anecdote about where I've found functional programming useful over object-orientation and vice versa. For some reason it was popular for a few days -- or at least controversial.* 3. [Fun.js](http://blog.fogus.me/2013/03/20/fun-js/) -- *My announcement of my book "[Functional JavaScript](http://www.functionaljavascript.com)" made the Internet rounds. Plus the whole [Fun.js series](http://blog.fogus.me/tag/fun.js/) as a whole garnered a crap-ton of views and some discussion.* 4. [C.S. on the Cheap](http://blog.fogus.me/2013/07/23/c-s-on-the-cheap/) -- *My idea for a Dover-like publication run of computer science books.* 5. [Scala: Sharp and Gets Things Cut](http://blog.fogus.me/2013/10/07/scala-sharp-and-gets-things-cut/) -- *Kind of a rant about the way that Scala is marketed that came off more critical than I wanted.* 6. [Enfield: a programming language designed for pedagogy](http://blog.fogus.me/2013/01/21/enfield-a-programming-language-designed-for-pedagogy/) -- *A description of a the perfect programming language for exploration.* 7. [Computerists](http://blog.fogus.me/2013/04/10/computerists/) -- *A bit of cynicism on my part about computer "science."* Favorite technical books discovered (and read) ---------------------------------------------- * [10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10](http://www.amazon.com/10-PRINT-CHR-205-5-RND/dp/0262018462/?tag=fogus-20) by Nick Montfort and others -- *A critical, philosophical and artistic view of a simple line of Commodore 64 BASIC code.* * [Computer Lib; Dream Machines](http://www.amazon.com/Computer-Lib-Dream-Machines/dp/0893470031/?tag=fogus-20) by Ted Nelson -- *It took me ~15 years to track down a reasonably priced copy of this book, but the wait was well worth it.* * [The Dream Machine: J.C.R. Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal](http://www.amazon.com/The-Dream-Machine-Licklider-Revolution/dp/0670899763/?tag=fogus-20) by Waldrop -- *Licklider is little known amongst modern computerists, but much of what we know about computation owes much to his mind and guidance.* Favorite non-technical books read --------------------------------- * [Earth Abides](http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Abides-George-R-Stewart/dp/0345487133/?tag=fogus-20) by George Stewart -- *My favorite entry in the family of global-pandemic-centric science fiction novels.*