37 Signals suggests development with No Functional Spec. For user interfaces, I agree that specs may be over-rated, but for protocols and file layouts I think that simple specs are damned useful.

How To Pick A Programming Language. A classic paper about fundimental motivators for programming language selection.

What I Hate About Your Programming Language. A critical look at a popular set of languages.

More classic Joel, The Perils of JavaSchools. A rant about Java’s place in the world of learning programming. A quote:

If I may be so brash, it has been my humble experience that there are two things traditionally taught in universities as a part of a computer science curriculum which many people just never really fully comprehend: pointers and recursion.

Accorting to matz, Why Ruby Sucks. A look at Ruby and the future Ruby2.

Thirty-eight dishonest tricks which are commonly used in argument, with the methods of overcoming them.

Lightbox JS, a very cool Javascript for displaying larger versions of thumbnails without leaving the page (or using standard pop-ups).

Why I hate Microsoft, a personal, lengthy, but highly articulate outburst.

Maintainable Programmers. Planning maintainability and reuse are the most difficult design problems I know of. A juicy quote:

I have seen as many examples of truly terrible designs in Java as I have seen examples of completely unreadable code in Perl.

A large list of free stock photos. Just in case you ever have a stock-photo emergency.