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 ↩

I was thinking the other day that web stats tools have gotten stuck in a corner. Most of the tools follow trends in a fairly sterile manner, making it difficult to really understand what you care about. They offer tables and time-ordered graphs, but they fail to answer a web-meister’s basic questions. Where’s the money? What are people interested in? The current tools seem to splat it all at the same amplitude, missing out on the really interesting trends. And where are the blinking red lights? – me, May ‘07

In the theme of groking your gut: The Hacker’s Diet, a free, classic text online … engineering for your self.

A Perl6 parser written in Perl6 (coded by Mr. Larry Wall himself).

Wikipedia’s article on capitalization. I prefer the British form myself.

Not your usual fluff on the topic, this set of tips on how to be interesting is itself interesting (and has the potential to inspire).

Joel Spolesky measures technology like the rest of us, but is honest enough to talk about it. I think it’s sensible to be wary of tools that offer amazing returns, waiting other people to prove them out (or measuring them yourself without betting the farm).

Paul Graham and 37Signals weigh in on the Kiko closure, the web2.0 calendar guys who gave up because they feared competing with Google. Whiners.

I cleaned up my art cupboards this morning, something that’s always a reflective time. I found several lino plates and a whack of sketches that I forgot about, and I uncovered a mountain of unused lino.

A decade ago I bought a roll of flooring linoleum at a work auction. Flooring lino is a lot like art lino, except that the surface has a bit more texture, it’s a bit thinner, and it’s not mounted. But being the cheap bastard that I am, I saw the roll as a great opportunity, as practicing on the $20-a-sheet art-grade stuff is daunting. And in the end the floor-grade lino stands up better and produces similar results.

I left the roll sitting in various closets over the years, mostly unused. Art is one of those things that only works in the right state of mind, approached with a healthy amount of obsession. Getting motivated to work on art projects requires more habit than inspiration; I need everything ready before my muse is ready go, or my muse gets bored and buggers off. Leaving my linoleum in a roll in the back of a closet kept me at arm’s length from one of my passions for many years.

Just before I got married a good friend gave me a set of art-grade linoleum plates. It took me years before I was ready to use these supplies, mosly because I didn’t want to mess up the expensive material. These supplies became my motivation to use the cheap-bastard lino, though, as it was a way to prepare for the real thing. Over the years my wife added to my inventory of art stuff until I was eventually fully stocked. Even after having all of the right equipment it still took me years before I was carving regularly.

There are many reasons that I wandered away from inspiration and expression, but more interesing is that the journey back was mostly a matter of intent. Over the last few years I’ve started to make room for my art stuff, in places where I’ll actually use it. I make time for it now and consider it a way to recover from life and work. I also spend a lot of time looking for inspiration, reflecting, and relaxing. I have to do these things–all of them–or I find reasons not to bother expressing myself.

A few years ago before we moved from the island I took my roll of lino and split it all into smaller, more managable pieces. The roll, after having been stuffed in a closet for most of a decade, had warped badly and I assumed that most of it was ruined. I cut it and left the pieces in a pile in a cupboard for a few years, and their collective weight returned the lino to a usable state. Today I found that pile, and a few piles of never-warped pre-sized plates.

There are hundreds of plates worth of the stuff waiting to be carved up, and even a large piece of the art-grade stuff waiting for a special inspiration. Knowing that I won’t run out for a while is motivating, as it defeats the cheap-bastard-reasons for not starting another art project. It’s also cool to see that something I bought on a whim 10 years ago for a few bucks has been so much fun.

Shaking up tech publishing, a smart rant about how self-publishing makes sense for the tech book author.