Here’s an interesting NYT feature on burnout, which suggests that burnout is a problem with self-efficacy, a lack of social support, and an increasingly chaotic environment. One of the most interesting studies found that interruptions are as destructive as drug use to IQ:

The uninterrupted group did better by an average of ten points, which wasn’t much of a surprise. What was a surprise is that the e-mailers also did worse, by an average of six points, than a group in a similar study that had been tested while stoned.

One of the effects of lowered IQ is that we get less done. When we accomplish less, we’re frustrated because we wanted to do more. And that frustration is one of the big factors in our burnout.

An argument against VPS hosting. I’m waffling on moving some of my sites to a shiny, new VPS, but I’m also pretty happy with shared hosting for most things.

Here’s an interesting, detailed history of Pixar, including some of the prehistory. An interesting Saturday read.

Which is better, XML or Python for Python templates? I like the Php approach myself (intermixed language/template), as it matches the natural state of each language. The linked debate is interesting, but what I really like is the side-by-side format¹.

1. The “log in to vote” overlay is a bit confusing/noisy, however ↩

Here’s a short article about a machine learning project written in pygame. It’s an interesting approach with some intriguing possibilities (yes, I’m tempted).

An interesting description of coupling and complexity, with nifty diagrams and clear explanations.

Some analysis of HTTP header oddities out in the wild. A longish list of interesting HTTP header fields and guesses at their purpose. My favorite pseudo-header?

X-Subliminal: You want to buy as many games as you can afford

Which is even based on RFC1097.

An interesting take on the 3 kinds of software developers. If you’re ever asked, “what kind of developer am I?”, be wary if they’re a perpetually intermediate developer (they won’t like the answer). Purgatorio is no fun.

A detailed “autopsy” of 4 webapps, including line counts (server/client/styles), and comparisons of conversion rates and relative support costs. The most interesting tidbit: conversion rates of 1% are common in the sample set.

TrimPath Junction is the Javascript “Rails” clone. Looks … interesting.