Google launches a web reference/encyclopedia called Doctype, under an open license, with collaborative editing. The site includes, for example, compatibility charts for popular browsers for every point of reference, and a good selection of HOWTO articles.

Douglas Crockford has a great set of Javascript resources on his site. Some good background reading for anyone learning Javascript.

Launchpad is a fun machine-building science Flash game, sponsored by the UK Science Museum. It has a clever UI, and includes a level editor.

Also see my flash games for kids page.

Some tips on cracking binary file formats, old-school style.

Some advice from an older photographer to the young’uns. The advice is oddly applicable to software developers. Mostly, learn at every possible opportunity.

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).

How learning another language can help you think in your native language, and the post that spawned the meme.

How difficult is it to write a compiler? I wish developers would learn about compiler design and construction before inflicting new file formats on the world.

A peek at 37Signal’s bleeding-edge use of rails/prototype/etc., a good incentive to learn the tools. Their software is excellent.

Miscellaneous Thoughts for Programmers talks about avoiding the hard stuff. It quotes the classic Ruby versus Java myths page:

In what serious discipline is “It’s too hard” a legitimate excuse? I have never seen a bank that eschews multiplication: “We use repeated addition here–multiplication was too hard for our junior staffers.” And I would be uncomfortable if my surgeon said, “I refuse to perform procedures developed in the last 10 years–it is just too hard for me to learn new techniques.”