The Insomniac Coder

So I just finished a Kindle book, and this is what I saw as the last page: They allow you to rate the book, which also includes the ability to send your rating as a Tweet or Facebook wall post, to which Amazon of course adds a link so others can find the book. On top of that they show you five other books that may interest you, based on the title, and a few more, based on the author. The only mistake in this page is that I own one of these books offered to me. I am sure that it won't take long before Amazon corrects this very small mistake and make this page 100% customized to each and every reader/customer.

From Truck Bearing Kibble : I found this amazing comic by accident on reddit, without credits or any kind of attribution . Why the hell people do this? The OP wasn't trying to take credit for the cartoon, he simply posted it without any way of knowing who originally published it. Somebody else in the thread bothered to post a link to the original (this) cartoon, with the attribution intact, so at least people can discover the authors' other works. Sadder still, was that somebody actually had to explain the joke in the headline.

Finally got to see one of these out in the open. It is really short, it looks about the size of a classic Mini, a little longer than a Smart microcar . The interior follows the same styling of the BMW Mini (that is, it is fugly). Stylish in a way, but ugly. The back seat is microscopic. That said, it used up about half as much space as a mid-size SUV . In terms of styling, in real life it looks much more like the classic 500, there are some subtle lines that are very hard to appreciate just by looking at photos. For example, from the front it is almost a dead ringer for the original. Related articles Chrysler wants to sell 40,000 cars in China (inautonews.com) Chrysler, the "Imported from Detroit" brand is now officially owned by the Italians, as U.S. Treasury sells its stake to of Fiat (daveibsen.typepad.com) Fiat to buy remaining US stake in Chrysler (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Some micros of the mask that PJ gave me a few weeks ago: 10x 10x 150x These were taken with a Celestron USB handheld microscope .

I don't understand why the fuck I have to wait til 7:25 PM to get an UPS box when I live about 6 miles from Dulles International Airport . My driver doesn't look like he is either lazy or stupid (he's actually a really cool guy), so who do I blame? Is UPS cutting corners and overworking their drivers? Is the Dulles Corridor THAT terrible to navigate? The box was in the fucking truck at 6:58 AM. How is it even possible for it to take so long to make it to my doorstep?

A Flowchart For Fixers :

From Angels and Complexity : What that nerd calls " binary search " is what was taught to me many years ago as the "bisection theorem." If you are a programmer and desperately troubleshooting LONG code that isn't yours, this is the cheapest way to narrow down the offending section.

Yup, it's #earworm time again :-(

From xkcd: Magic School Bus : There goes another bit of your childhood. Not mine, we had crummy old science textbooks with schematics of weird-looking batteries from the 1940s.

The Blendtec blender meets the world's toughest phone: the Sonim XP3300 Force:

The dark secret of software development in the DC metro area is that it is harder to recruit for good programmers than what it takes to write the actual code. I really feel the pain for anyone struggling with recruiting for programmers in this town. My employer, who runs the most kickass, greatest little web shop in the DC Metro area, is now looking for one or more programmers to add to our band of misfits. This is a permanent, full-time (not contract) position. The company is based in the DC metro area with locations in Old Town Alexandria , Fairfax, Reston, Baltimore and the Maryland backwoods where the Blair Witch is rumored to still be roaming about. This is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national orgin, marital status, age, disability, disabled veteran, Vietnam era or other eligible veteran status. What we want: “ Programmers ” that grok programming, not somebody that is proficient in one language and c...

A friend just showed me this: From Least I Could Do: I LOVE THIS SHOW. There is obviously something therapeutic about watching people make stupid mistakes on TV. And yes, the cartoon is 100% accurate.

This is Ivette's very first attempt at frying rice: The only thing it is missing is chicken, but it is DELICIOUS!

This is a mini-HDMI cable, which is how you connect newer Sony cameras like my DSC-HX9v to HDTVs. Sony wants $44.95 for the 9' version of this cable, and Amazon was too happy to sell it to me for $6.85. And the damn thing worked perfectly. Sure, it is only 6.5' instead of 9', but for that price drop, who cares? The cable is extremely solid, it looks like a really expensive cable with Amazon labels glued to it.