I was thinking about non-technical interview questions for software developers this morning, and came up with the above. I'll freely admit that, in and of itself, it's a useless question. So someone says, "I'm a tinker!" - great. Why would you say that you're a tinker, a tailor, a soldier, or a spy? How would you map these arbitrary labels onto software development? What does your choice say about your thought processes, development persona and perceptions?

After adding yet another bookmark to my "Once a Day" reading list, I realized that my daily online reading list was getting long. Adding it up, there are 82 sites a day that I hit regularly to check out for news on various topics.

Eighty-two sites.

The very first patch I ever submitted to an open source project was in August of 1998. It was a patch to Apache to allow execution of extensionless CGI executables under Windows. It was initially accepted, but then backed out rather quickly because it was horribly broken... but it was accepted, if ever so briefly. It was a really kind of cool.

The Laws of Slashdot #20 - first sighting of fm6's Law Of Information Costs:

One of the primary advantages of computer technology is that it reduces the cost to access information. Originally stated as, "technology delivers information cheaper."

The Laws of Slashdot #19 - first sighting of ZoneGray's Proposed Corrolary to Godwin's Law:

If somebody writes an "Open Letter," it constitutes proof that nobody wants to listen to them.

The Laws of Slashdot #18 - first sighting of Johnson's Postulate on Documentation:

Read the source code.

I was just reading through this story, and while I'm normally not a grammar Nazi, I felt the overwhelming need to explain the following over and over again as I read the comments about the article. Rather than make two dozen individual posts, I decided to vent my annoyance here...

I'm departing from my usual criteria for recording a /. "rule" here. While reading an article talking about Key Advantages of Open Source Software, I came across this thread. There was discussion within that thread of a concept which was interesting enough that, even though there was no explict mention of

I've been reading SF for as long as I can remember. Since early childhood, certainly. My dad is a big SF fan, and I grew up reading Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Simak, collections of Nebula Award winners and other short stories anthologies. I've always enjoyed good SF, whatever the genre. The only thing I've steered clear of was... well, you know... those titles. The "property" books. The ones based on some TV show, or some movie, or meant to tie into the Amazing Launch (TM) of some

The Laws of Slashdot #16 - first sighting of Cytlid's Law of the Internet:

For every Good Thing, there are at least 100 different ways to abuse it.

Two entries in one day. Wow. I'm almost blogging.

Words have different meanings to different types of people. Mention "dossier" to a 60's-era activist, and they probably have images of a dusty manila folder being studied by The Man. Mention "dossier" to me, on the other hand, and I immediately think of baby girls.

Just got off the phone with the customer support at Speakeasy. I didn't call them about a technical problem - I've only had two trouble tickets with them in almost three years of service. No, I just called to check on their current options and see if they had anything a little more cost-effective than my current plan.

You would not believe how polite and helpful these folks were. Five minutes time, and they knocked $30/month off my bill.