Frustrated by the lack of well-written essays on software engineering, Joel Spolsky (of www.joelonsoftware.com fame) has put together a collection of his favorite writings on the topic.
With a nod to both the serious and funny sides of technical writing, The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky is an entertaining read and a guide to the technical writing literati.
New York City is a blast.
Just the other day, as I was walking the four blocks from my office to
the subway entrance, interesting things kept happening.
Not really interesting things, just modestly interesting things.
So, for example, some guy was running down the sidewalk frantically,
looking very much like a character in an R. Crumb comic, flapping
his arms broadly and making chicken sounds. Running isn’t the right
word. He was kind of pratfalling repeatedly and then catching himself
right before he hit the ground.
Then a taxi turning the corner nearly knocked over an old man who
was crossing the street a little bit too slowly for the taxi driver’s taste.
A couple of chubby, red-faced out-of-towners asked me if there was
a bar anywhere nearby. (There was. We were in front of it.)
Someone was handing out little advertising cards at the entrance to
the subway. Of course, the inside of the subway station was completely
littered with the cards because everybody who took one immediately
hurled it on the ground as violently as you can hurl a four-by-six postcard.
I almost slipped on one on the steps down.
Modestly interesting stuff, but quite forgettable in New York.
