A taxonomy of programmers describes what various levels of programmers are capable of. The paper was written with procedural programming in mind, but most of it is relevant to newer languages.

Philip K. Dick on writing science fiction in his longish (but interesting) essay titled How to Build a Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later.

Orson Scott Card weighs in on the peak oil debate, reminding people to live in their own neighborhoods. Duh.

A good essay on not putting code in your Win32 exception handling, and more reasonable approaches for dealing with about-to-be-dead processes.

A slightly tin-foil-wrapped essay about high-fructose corn syrup: The Murky World of High-Fructose Corn Syrup. An interesting read, though it lacks documented references.

A good essay on why Encapsulation is a Good Thing.

Beware of mid-priced software, a short essay about why mid-range priced software sucks (mediocre is bad).

Welcome back to frugal computing, an essay about the paradox of abundance.

Stealth Bombers are more difficult to operate than Tricycles BECAUSE THEY CAN FLY!, a funny, intelligent essay about how ease of use and generalized, powerful tools are at odds with each other.

Are your users stuck in “P” mode? This is an essay about how many users never escape the auto mode of their tools. The thing is that I don’t think auto is bad: using a tool is far less about the petty details than it is about just using it. A good “auto” mode beats a highly programmable device any day. Just look at the iPod, it’s all about the music, not the damned settings.