Test-Driven Development describes in detail this technique from Extreme Programming. In addition, the author spends some time teaching the reader a useful set of mental tools for writing better code. TDD is a very fast read, but it is full of useful information. If I wanted my developers to only read one small book about software development, this would be it. Note: The back of the book lists it as “Software Engineering/Testing”.

Brilliant book. “How the Mind Works” is a tour de force over many of the puzzling aspects of the human mind: Why can our eyes be fooled by optical illusions? Why would we evolve emotions? Why would we evolve behaviour that makes us unable to fully control ourselves, like rage? The book puts forth theories for all these questions and more. The best part of the book, however, is the style in which it is written.

A view on the conflict from the standpoint of cognitive science/social science Steven Pinker (“How the mind works”): People may use “doomsday machines” (strategies that are both harmful to themselves and an agressor) to deter agressors. Hernando de Soto (“The Mystery of Capital”) An important reason a society with big differences are more prone to violence is that the underprivileged do not have any bargaining power. Personal opinion: In a conflict with two countries that are dramatically unevenly matched, we should expect the underprivileged to resort to “doomsday machine” strategies.

What does it really mean when they say stuff like “the fighting in order to capture Umm Qasr is heavier than expected”. What does it mean when the fighting is heavier? Do more people die on either side? Do any people die on either side? After almost three days of war, I have still to hear of any casualties in the fighting. Are we supposed to believe there are none?

On the news yesterday, I heard Blair say that the british lawyer-general claims the present war on could be legal. I understand he finds his justifications in the UN resolutions 678, 687, 688, and 1441 (probably among others). These resolutions calls for disarming the Iraqi regime by any means necessary. There are two fundamental problems with this argument: First, the stated goals of the “coalition of the willing” are disarming Iraq and changing it’s regime.

This is exactly the kind of thing I have been looking for in C#. I am still some ways away from having looked at it as thorough as I would like, but it looks very good. Basically: Attributes that are processed compile-time with any code you like. This is the basic building blocks for AOP.

A fairly decent-seeming RSS feed reader. This entry was written with it. Pretty cool Comments: [Aaron Sevivas] - Mar 12, 2003 this seems to be a fairly decent-seeming RSS feed reader. That entry appears to be written with it. Pretty cool [Sarah] - Mar 12, 2003 Is there any way you can get rid of that annoying footer when posting?