Steve Yegge is one of the bloggers I read almost religiously. His posts are full of insights on the software development topics and in general, and he is always ready with an amusing anecdote from his rich life. His last post Have you ever legalized marijuana? didn’t disappoint either. The author explains “Shit’s Easy Syndrome” (a difficult topic even for seasoned bloggers) in a gay romp that takes a reader from a light-hearted review of a book on “bugs in our mental software” to hapless VPs to many technical difficulties of legalizing a psychoactive drug extracted from the plant Cannabis sativa . But the most entertaining and educating part is the incredible story of the author’s life.

As you may know today Google released Friend Connect . I decided to give it a try. It took about 20 minutes to set up my blog with 4 gadgets: Members, Sign In, Rate/Review, and Wall/Comments. It took about 30 minutes to separate the skin from all these widgets, and set up the Canvas so users can see gadgets in a separate window, if they want to.

Google Friend Connect doesn’t have any server-side components on user’s server — everything is handled by Google. All you have to do is to deploy 2 (two) static HTML files, and add various snippets that can be customized and generated on the Friend Connect’s web site. The resulting snippets are simple, and can be easily understood and restructured.

F/OSS is a phenomenon of the modern life. But what makes it successful? Ben Laurie is convinced that Open Source Is Just Economics . I beg to differ. Yes, it does make sense for several companies to gang together and develop something jointly. And they did it for years without the open source. Not always successfully, but they did it. For example, IBM has cooperated with Microsoft on OS/2 back in the days, and there are more examples. What makes OSS so special? Ben’s post has links to other possible reasons. But I think I know the answer: global meritocracy in informal communities — this is the mythical secret ingredient, which holds the whole system together.

Nowadays this question is asked frequently. A lot of guys in their 30s realize that they are the oldest guys in their groups. 20+ guys don’t see wise sages around. What is going on? It was debated on /. without any productive outcome (as usual).

Let’s take a look at the problem using available statistics. One nice source of data is the National Center for Educational Statistics . I made a chart using Table 280. "Earned degrees in computer and information sciences conferred by degree-granting institutions, by level of degree and sex of student: 1970-71 to 2002-03" (only totals are used):

Many programmers have DIY attitude. It is understandable: they want to do new exciting stuff themselves. In some cases it is perfectly reasonable: exotic functionality, special requirements, performance enhancements, and so on. Sometimes incorporating 3rd-party library makes overall API inconsistent, which is bad especially for programming tools, or big projects.

There is a fine line between DIY and NIH , when DIY part is used without rational explanations. Of course, in some cases NIH is reasonable too, e.g., high price of acquisition of required 3rd-party tools, or intellectual property concerns.

Last time I visited New Orleans on July 23, 2005 on my way to Florida. It was a short visit. I planned to stop again on my way back, but I didn’t have time. "New Orleans is not going anywhere. I can do it some other time." One month later Hurricane Katrina made landfall devastating New Orleans.

I am looking at pictures I took during that brief stay — everything is so peaceful. It was about noon. Streets were practically empty. Tourists were sleeping late after crazy night on Rue Bourbon.

Recently I looked at the stats of my web site. DreamHost provides Analog 6.0 . I supplemented it with awstats . Plus there are some other means to analyze the traffic. Let’s put it this way: I know my average reader. I thought I did. Anyway I found a few surprises.

The country list includes 77 countries. Out of 193. Not bad for a personal blog. Practically all Eurasian countries, and countries of both Americas are in the list. Australia, New Zealand, and many island countries are there as well. Only 2 countries from Africa: South Africa and Senegal. Pity.

Today I learned that this blog is ranked 775,745 by Technorati ! It means that only 775,744 blogs are better than mine. Eat my dust you two nameless losers!

I pledge to continue my standards of excellence and to grow my rank to at least 1,000,000. As a matter of fact I did almost everything I could for that. Now I have to find 224,255 people to join Technorati with their blogs… Damn this Technorati pyramid scheme!

Hurricane Rita was donwgraded to Category 3 storm (125mph/200kph winds). Here in Dallas we expect heavy rains for 2+ days.

Sunset was very colorful today. I tried to capture it in this picture:

You can find bigger picture on Flickr .

Time and again I create 1st post just to tear the system apart and start all over again. Let’s hope that this time is the last one.