From the category archives:

Life

XKCD’s Tech Support Flowchart

August 24, 2009
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Give this to your non-techie friends and relatives who keep hitting you up for tech support:

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Friday Fun: Ben Stiller Explains Twitter to Mickey Rooney

August 21, 2009

Chances are, as a reader of this blog, people ask you to explain Twitter to them. If that’s the case you might find this video in which Ben Stiller explains Twitter to Mickey Rooney amusing:

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

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The Passionate Programmer

August 17, 2009
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“This book is about finding fulfillment and happiness in your career” is the first line of the introduction to The Passionate Programmer, Chad Fowler’s book for software developers. If that goal wasn’t bold enough, the first line of the following paragraph is “The book is also about cultivating the desire to live a remarkable [...]

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Developer Dim Sum Lunch at Sky Dragon!

July 10, 2009

Whether you’re part of the local tech community or a visitor from out of town who’s come in for the FutureRuby conference, you’re invited to the Developer Lunch taking place today at noon at Sky Dragon restaurant in Dragon City Mall.
This is going to be the 14th developer lunch organized by local developer and video-chronicler [...]

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Iran is Taking Marc Stiegler’s Final Exam

June 25, 2009

Marc Stiegler
I met science fiction author, software developer and computer security guy Marc Stiegler at the first incarnation of O’Reilly’s Emerging Technology Conference in 2002, but I’d been acquainted with his work prior to that. I’d heard of his programming language called E and had read his science fiction novel Earthweb, whose plot could [...]

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The “employment.nil?” Ruby Job Fair

June 9, 2009

One of the pillars of the Toronto developer scene is the Ruby/Rails community. They’re an active, engaged, hard-working bunch who work without the direct benefit of a large organization like The Empire or its resources (they do, through people like Yours Truly and Nik Garkusha, Microsoft Canada’s open source go-to guy, get some indirect support). [...]

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If Everything was Made by Microsoft

April 30, 2009

Cracked asked its readers to show them what the world would look like if everything in it was made by The Empire. Of the images they submitted. the one below is my favourite – I’ve joked in front of audiences that we make too many versions of Windows and am anxiously awaiting the release of [...]

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“betbot” Makes the Dick Tweet of the Mesh Conference

April 8, 2009

It looks as thought the Twitter user going by the handle of betbot is going to spend the next little while absorbing a very important lesson about managing one’s online persona after making this tweet at the Mesh Conference:

betbot’s profile vaingloriously proclaims that he has three Master’s degrees:
Self-proclaimed marketing guru trying to put my [...]

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At Last, a Truly Impressive “I’m a PC” Ad

March 27, 2009

First, there were the bewildering Gates/Seinfeld TV spots, “Shoes and Churros” and the extended-length “Living with an Ordinary Family”. Then came the “I’m a PC” spots, which were half-decent, but still not a good enough foil to Apple’s very effective ads. But in classic Microsoft style, the Empire’s ad agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, seems [...]

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Ignite Your Career #3: “How to Establish and Maintain a Healthy Work/Life Balance”

March 15, 2009

This article originally appeared in Canadian Developer Connection.

This Week’s Topic
This week’s topic for Ignite Your Career – our webcast series featuring experts from the Canadian tech industry and aimed at supporting your career development – is one that’s on a lot of people’s minds: How to Establish and Maintain a Healthy Work/Life Balance. Here’s the [...]

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“Ensign Crusher, Report to My Ready Room. Oh Yes, and Wear the Sweater.”

March 2, 2009

For no other reason than the geeky amusement it will provide, here’s Wil Wheaton in a clown sweater:

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Health (and Sex!) Tips for Programmers

February 25, 2009

My friend Andrew Burke has written a blog post on staying healthy as a programmer. It’s not easy given the sedentary nature of the job. Check out his advice, which is pretty sound – but make sure you actually do something about it!
The title of Andrew’s post, Health Tips for Programmers, is somewhat reminiscent [...]

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“Everything is Amazing Right Now, and Nobody’s Happy”

February 25, 2009

Over at Kevin Kelly’s blog, The Technium, there’s a video of an amusing interview on Conan O’Brien where comedian Louis CK talks about how we take today’s technology and the way it improves our lives for granted. Kelly describes it as "a cartoon version of a more serious argument that we become blind to progress".

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5 Things You Should Know About Teens and Tech

February 13, 2009

The O’Reilly TOC (Tools of Change for Publishing) Conference took place in New York earlier this week. The conference was aimed at publishers of both the dead-tree and electronic variety and its purpose was to examine how new technologies are changing publishing. You can find out more about TOC on their “About” page as [...]

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One Reason to be Thankful You’re a Geek and Not in Finance

January 28, 2009

That reason? The two pictured above, and their blog, Dating a Banker Anonymous. For more, see this entry in The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century.

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