Great things and people that I discovered, learned, read, met, etc.
in 2018. No particular ordering is implied. Not everything is new.
also: see the lists from 2017,
2016,
2015,
2014,
2013,
2012,
2011
and 2010
Great blog-posts / articles
read
- One
Windows Kernel - While I’m also a sucker for all things
osdev, my practical interests have abated
in recent years. That said, I love a good kernel design article and this
one does not fail to satisfy.
- Notes from the
Intelpocalypse - I hesitate to admit that I wasn’t terribly
impressed enough by the Intel CPU security hole news earlier in the year
to dive deeply into the details. Maybe I’m just jaded. That said this
article does a great job of highlighting why the hole is such a big
deal.
- Jenn
Schiffer’s electronic email - I’m constantly impressed by
Jenn’s sense of humor and cutting satire around the programming and tech
“communities” and their denizens.
- A
Look at the Design of Lua - I’m truly a sucker when it
comes to all things langdev and this article hits all of my favorite
touch points, is well written, and is about a language that I jealously
admire.
- Origins
of the Finger Command - At one time Usenet was the place
where people posted technical articles and there are literally thousands
of posts archived just like this one. Maybe 2019 can be the year where I
take a month and harvest old Usenet posts and reform them in modern
contexts. In any case, while this article is light on the deep tech,
it’s a fun anecdote about a little bit of esoterica.
- Mr. Rogers
Was My Actual Neighbor - I’m of the age that I can vividly
remember watching Mr. Rogers on television. Though I
don’t recall an active interest in learning about the man behind the
character, it was fascinating to learn via this article that the public
and private personas may not have been too far apart.
- The
Secret Call to Andy Grove… - It was a good year for
articles covering my guilty pleasures and this one covering a little
known anecdote around Apple lore was fun to read. I had a difficult time
following the flow of the post, but found the journey satisfying –
especially if you’re into the lore.
- In
Search of the Last Great Video Store - I’m old enough to
have spent hours perusing the shelves of local video stores. As a kid I
would scour the shelves of the horror sections to
find something… anything that I hadn’t already rented and devoured. For
a certain generation of folks this post is a nice bit of
nostalgia.
- What Can Sports Tell
Us About the Quality of Decision Making? - I have played
baseball all of my life and so would consider myself a fan
of the game. Indeed, as a kid growing up in Baltimore I would, more
often than not, agonize over the fate of the home team Orioles. Year
after year I would try to understand the seemingly nonsensical decisions
that the local team made. This perplexity eventually led me to explore
Sabermetrics in an attempt
to find some deeper meaning. While the numbers at times pointed at
hidden player value, in more cases than not they pointed at something
else perhaps… maybe… just maybe… the managerial and personnel decisions
were often made for reasons that had little to do with baseball at
all.
- Anthony
Burgess’s Boundless Curiosity - Burgess is an infinitely
interesting intellect who lived a satisfyingly Renaissance-esque life.
This article is a celebration of lifetime learning framed by Burgess and
his habits.
- A
Brand New Interview with DFW - I’ve read most of what David
Foster Wallace had to say so it was nice to come across a “new”
interview even if much have what was said was said in other interviews
and essays.
- Personal
notes on Corman Lisp 3.1 - The last post that I read in
2018 and a good one to boot. The author nicely highlights the high
points of open source contribution and reminds us that when it works
it’s a joy to participate in.
Most viewed blog posts by me
I’ve been trying something new this year. Mostly I’ve been posting
random thoughts and bits of data coupled with a pointer to an album that I enjoy rather than working on
long-form essays and such. All of that said, there were a few
high-traffic posts on my blog.
- Soup -
This is a sparsely annotated collection of of Alan Kay posts on
Hacker News talking about object oriented programming, messaging, and
general Alan Kay-esque topics.
- Starboy -
Some notes about how I tend to read and study codebases.
Favorite technical
books discovered (and read)
I’ve intentionally reduced the number of technical books that I
consume, but there are a few that I “found” in 2018 that are
stellar.
- The
Rust Programming Language by Steve Klabnik and Carol Nicols -
A very good book by a couple of very good authors about an exciting
programming language that’s relatively new. As an one time deep C
programmer I have come to appreciate the space that Rust may fill for me
in my programming explorations.
- Essential
LISP by John Anderson - At this point in my life it’s
difficult to find a Lisp book that I’ve not only never read but also
find interesting. While not the most comprehensive reference on any
given implementation, the language covered is an in between Lisp that
existed around 1986 or so which is pretty cool from a historical
perspective.
Favorite non-technical books
read
- The
Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy - An oddly compelling
tale about a man who barely made a mark on the world and how his death
was perceived by those near to him.