New Years Eve Eve

So, it's the 30th of december, tomorrow morning I'm going to whangamata for new years. w00t. Reading the interweb tonight, Some interesting things so I don't forget them: http://www.alfiekohn.org/articles.htm I've not heard of Alfie Kohn, but this stuff makes a lot of sense. I particularly like the 'Five reasons to stop saying 'Good Job' essay. Must read more later http://zoomin.co.nz The only map site I knew about which worked in NZ was wises nz maps. However, their interface sucks (ie: it's not google maps). Problem is now solved.

Programming Concepts

The other day I was having a conversation with dave (my flatmate) about school and university. Anyway, he made the point that he could never just remember stuff by reading it. He said he had to understand the subject, and once he did, would then remember it naturally. I agreed with him, and so did my girlfriend. In fact, I've had the same conversation with at least half a dozen people in the past six months or so. Seeing as I'd also been reading lots of programming related stuff about which programming language is the best, the benefits of typing systems and all kinds of other geekery, this got me thinking about when I was learning to program, and how (with the benefit of hindsight) to apply that. I currently know how to program, because I understand it. But how? They say that the best way to really learn something is to teach it, so why not, I hrmmmed to myself, write a bunch of joelonsoftware/paulgraham style essays explaining how I understand programming and programming languages?

I don't want to beat around the bush

So, a blog. Why? Everyone else is doing it! To be honest though, I've been reading lots of joelonsoftware.com and paulgraham.com and all the 8 trillion other blogs which link off of those ones or are otherwise similar. Especially the ones on reddit, as reddit has basically become my replacement for slashdot/other tech ranting. I'll add my 5c to the mix and if nobody ever sees it well at least I can look back tenderly upon my ignorance in 10 years and cringe :-)