An unbalanced, but not entirely pointless rant against OOP. Like many things, Object design is one tool for expressing things in code. The whole all-or-nothing attitude is lame.

I like to spend my winter holiday thinking about the year, and what I didn’t do enough of. Next year, I hope to:

1. Write more. Not just web fluff and links (which is fun), but more real fiction and non-fiction. I love to write, but life and complexity just keep on getting in the way.
2. Do more creative stuff. I have an artistic side, but the geek in me naturally suppresses it. I need to learn better balance.
3. Learn more healthy habits. I love good food, I grok nutrition, and I enjoy exercise. I need a bit more of each (and less of the crap).
4. Learn Ruby/Rails well. Last year I polished my C#, Javascript, and Php skills (as well as time spent with SQL, CSS/XHTML, etc.). This year I need to at least know why Rails isn’t for me. So far I’ve only spent a dozen hours with it, which isn’t nearly enough.
5. Focus. Life is noisy. Work is noisy. Learn to deal with both: I will overcome the chaos.

One thing I like to keep in mind with resolutions is that sometimes a year isn’t enough. Life is a garden, and sometimes crops fail. The key is to keep doing healthy things, and remember that growth takes time, practice, and effort.

Bjarne Stroustrup’s C++ Style and Technique FAQ, recently updated, and sane/balanced.

Joel on context switching. He’s right too, there are a balance of principles at work: developers need to stay focused to be productive, but businesses are smart to take care of their customers.

If you haven’t read Getting Real from 37Signals, you should. It’s the hacker way of thinking about business and software, with a sense of balance that’s downright respectable.

Pen is a simple load balancer for protocols like HTTP and SMTP.

Another hip, web2.0 photo site. Tabblo allows you to create annotated, attractive, photo pages and journals. These guys seem to get that a tool is defined by it’s balance of features and style. Consider Tabblo an incremental, but usefull step beyond flickr.

A very sensible set of recommendations on being productive. I’m not usually one to obsess over productivity, but this guide is especially balanced.

Agile people still don’t get it, a rant against the sensibility in agility (read the comments for an especially animated debate). I’ve seen parts of the agile approach work well, but there are ways in which it can be applied where it results in a lack of balance.

Web 2.0 noise. Balance and frugality are not easy.