Delicious Links – 20 links – tools, gamers, workhacks, code, links

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.
Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.
- [BITTORRENT] Dutch University Uses BitTorrent to Update Workstations, torrentfreak.com, via:l33t.reddit.com
- Pretty cool. Then when from 20 servers and 4 days to update clients to 2 servers and 4 hours to update clients.
- [BLOGGING] 17 Tips For Getting Bloggers To Write About You, informationweek.com, via:doshdosh.com
- This should be titled “WELCOME TO THE INTERNETS”. Mandatory reading for understanding linking. It gets bonus points because the article doesn’t follow its own rules.
- [CODE] insomnia and productivity, sob.apotheon.org
- hack mode
- [FRIENDFEED] Elite Bloggers Joining FriendFeed In Droves, louisgray.com
- List of tech bloggers who are on friendfeed
- [GAMERS] Animal Crossing Is Tragic, animalcrossingtragedy.ytmnd.com
- Sad little tale of a gamer who shared Animal Crossing with his/her dying mother.
- [GAMERS] The Co-op Gaming Bill of Rights, ozymandias.com
- Co-op gaming can be a ghetto on a lot of platforms. I’d love for more games to adopt these.
- [GAMERS] Warlords Online, warlords-online.com, via:lazycoder.com
- Online MPORG based on Puzzle Quest
- [LINKS] Ten Sites for Finding Wonderful Things, readwriteweb.com, via:twitter.com
- Some suggestions for ‘best of the weird web’
- [OPENID] Zero Sign On – 1 better or Infinitely better than Single Sign On?, drnicwilliams.com
- How to use OpenID certificates so that you NEVER have to log in to any site that supports OpenID.
- [TECH] The real reason I left my career in tech, backinskinnyjeans.com
- What women have to deal with being in the hightech workplace
- [TWITTER] 17 Ways to Visualize the Twitter Universe, flowingdata.com
- Some cool examples of visualizing data
- [TWITTER] Need help managing your Twitter Karma?, dossy.org, via:experiencecurve.com
- Something I’ve been complaining about. A better Twitter followers manager. Needs more info about the followees though.
- [WEBDESIGN] 20 Websites That Made Me A Better Web Developer, sixrevisions.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
- List of webdesign related websites. Most are familiar.
- [WEBDESIGN] Administrative Debris, tomayko.com
- Content is everything… then why do we display so much stuff that isn’t content?
- [WEBDESIGN] IE App Compat VHD, microsoft.com
- Virtual machine images of different versions of Internet Explorer so that you can test a website on multiple versions of the same web browser.
- [WEBHACKS] Down for everyone or just me?, downforeveryoneorjustme.com
- Find out if a website is unreachable for the entire net or just your machine
- [WEBSAVVY] the Awesome Highlighter – be nice, highlight, awesomehighlighter.com
- note to my parents: please use this all the time so I have some clue why you sent me that web page in an email.
- [WORKHACKS] 10 Ways to Improve Your Programming Productivity, matthewpaulmoore.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
- Good advice, even if none of is groundbreaking.
- [WORKHACKS] 9 Simple Strategies to Getting Things Done At Work, lyved.com
- Tricks for being more productive in the office
- Powered by Delicious Links Pro
This Week at Internet Duct Tape
Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.
This Week at Internet Duct Tape
Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.
- [DELICIOUS/STUMBLEUPON] Delicious Stumbles v2.0
StumbleUpon upgraded their interface last nice so that means you get a new version of Delicious Stumbles.
This Week at Internet Duct Tape
Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.
- Installing ruby-prof as a plugin on Rails 1.2
- rails/mysql: Load your production database on to your development server
- How not to replace WEBrick with Thin
Tags: blogging, code, design, gamers, links, programming, tools, twitter, workhacks
Delicious Links – 20 links – geek, twitter, sleephacks, design, programming

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.
Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.
- [CODE] The Years of Experience Myth, codinghorror.com
- It’s more important to hire smart people who get things done than masters of the domain
- [COMMUNITY] 4 Reasons You Should Encourage, Foster and Harness Dissent on Your Blog, problogger.net
- Reasons against censoring dissenters
- [COPYRIGHT] The Pirates Can’t Be Stopped, portfolio.com, via:techcrunch.com
- An interview with the kid who hacked Media Defender copyright police.
- [GEEK] 10 Breeds of PC User Identified and Explained, anywired.com
- This was great. I’m a bit of 5, 7, and 9 with maybe a dash of 10.
- [GEEK] George Lucas Will Sell Your Dreams For Candy, io9.com
- Star Wars merchandising that never was. High quality artwork.
- [GOOGLE] How 404 pages work in Google Toolbar Beta 5, mattcutts.com
- The new Google Toolbar won’t display your custom 404 page if it’s less than 512 bytes long.
- [HIRING] The Naive Approach to Hiring People, weblog.raganwald.com
- Really excellent read by raganwald on why interviewing candidates is a Bayesian filtering problem instead of a if-then problem.
- [JAVASCRIPT] XPath Overnight, ejohn.org, via:lazycoder.com
- XPath is taking over DOM traversal in javascript libraries.
- [LIFEHACKS] I Was Programmed by Tetris to be a Better Person, io9.com
- The 7 habits of highly effective form tetris players
- [MOVIES] Netflix on the PS3 or Xbox 360 Could Be a Killer App, parislemon.com
- Much agreement that this is too good to be true. If this happened it would kill the movie industry overnight.
- [PIPES] Our one year anniversary, blog.pipes.yahoo.com
- Yahoo Pipes is one year old. They have a list of tutorials
- [PIRACY] Internet users could be banned over illegal downloads, technology.timesonline.co.uk, via:l33t.reddit.com
- The UK is setting up a “three strikes” rule where pirates could be banned from having internet access.
- [SLEEPHACKS] Ask YC : How many hours do you sleep in average ?, news.ycombinator.com
- Good discussion about sleeping
- [SLEEPHACKS] Relax Like A Pro: 5 Steps to Hacking Your Sleep, fourhourworkweek.com
- Some things I haven’t heard before
- [SOCIALSOFTWARE] The Complexity of the Web 2.0 World, hq.andrewshuttleworth.com, via:l33t.reddit.com
- A crazy look at what ubiquitous computing really means.
- [TWITTER] Dear LazyWeb, dearlazy.com, via:blog.twitter.com
- A questions and answers interface using Twitter as the backbone
- [TWITTER] Twitter-proxy: Any Interest?, assetbar.wordpress.com, via:l33t.reddit.com
- A look at why Twitter has such scaling issues.
- [URLS] I CAN HAZ dot COM, icanhaz.com, via:lifehacker.com
- new url shortner
- [WEBDESIGN] 10 Principles Of Effective Web Design, smashingmagazine.com
- Well researched look at what makes for effective web design
- [WEBDESIGN] Interface Screencast #1: The WordPress Dashboard, binarybonsai.com, via:wank.wordpress.com
- Screencast of the (old) WordPress dashboard, and why it sucks. A little on the long side at 30min
- Powered by Delicious Links Pro
This Week at Internet Duct Tape
Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.
- Digest for December 2007 and January 2008
- Book Review: Halting State by Charles Stross
- If you’re a programmer/gamer geek and looking for a gripping book that you won’t be able to put down then look no further than Halting State.
- The Canary in the Coal Mine of Open Source Code Re-use
- Don’t reinvent the wheel. It’s one of those things that’s much easier to say then it is to do, particularly when it comes to programming. Programmers suffer from a horrible mental disease called Not Invented Here Syndrome (it’s in the DSM — check if you don’t believe me). We…
- Book Review: Everyware by Adam Greenfield
- Adam Greenfield is a designer and one of the guys behind Boxes and Arrows. He’s also the guy who coined the term “moblogging” for blogging from your cellphone. He’s got a knack for inventing terms because “everyware” is such a simpler name than unicomp or “ubiquitous…
- Delicious Links – 20 links – programming, community, development, twitter, lisp
- programming, community, development, twitter, lisp
This Week at IDT Labs
IDT Labs is where I announce new software I’m working on.
- [GREASEMONKEY] The Pirate Bay + Rotten Tomatoes = Crazy Delicious
This script will create links to Rotten Tomatoes while browsing the Pirate Bay.
Tags: career, design, filesharing, geek, lifehacks, piracy, programming, sleephacks, twitter, web2.0
Best of Feeds – 19 links – blogging, inspiration, writing, design, apple
RSS feeds are like cookies (that are good enough for me). Best of Feeds is a weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet this week. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together on Saturdays. I don’t blog on the weekend so read these links instead.
Subscribe to //engtech to see this every week (or get it by email).
- [LIFEHACKS] Year in Review: The 70 Best Lifehacks of 2007 – Lifehack.org
- (lifehack.org 832 50 20)
- [DESIGN] The Great Website Design Gallery Roundup by CSS-Tricks
- Created a blog theme? here’s some places to submit it
- (css-tricks.com 623 38 11)
- [LIFEHACKS] RulesofThumb.org – Homepage
- Wisdom voting site
- (rulesofthumb.org 517 100 5)
- [BLOGGING] So I Quit My Day Job – Holy Cow! I Took the Plunge
- Becoming an independent self-publisher
- (zenhabits.net 184 42 1005)
- [GAMERS] Top 7 Geek Panties (for girls)
- seen a few of these before
- (gamegirl.com 45 56 2470)
- [WRITING] 11 Essential Tips to Writing the Ultimate Tutorial
- This is an essential skill for anyone. At some point in your career you will have to document how to do something using a computer.
- (dailyblogtips.com 36 11 2)
- [BLOGGING] 31 Days to Becoming a Better Blogger
- 31 small tips that can lead to great improvments
- (northxeast.com 32 11 86)
- [DESIGN] How I Redesigned My Blog [by Ben Yoskovitz]
- the decisions you’ll face when overhauling your blog theme
- (problogger.net 25 6 3)
- [HUMOR] BREAKINGOMFG: Apple Introduces Manila Case–The World’s Thinnest Notebook Case
- notebook cases are always overpriced.
- (gizmodo.com 24 49 )
- [BLOGGING] Fighting Scrapers With Your Left Jab
- Tips for dealing with people stealing your content.
- (problogger.net 23 11 7)
- [BLOGGING] A Guide to Breaking Into the Technorati Top 100
- (skelliewag.org 19 7 10)
- [BLOGGING] 52 Post Ideas to Help You Stay Inspired Throughout The Year
- natch
- (northxeast.com 19 6 34)
- [BLOGGING] How to Get 1,100 Subscribers in Five Days
- impressive
- (skelliewag.org 11 9 9)
- [CREATIVITY] The Content Crossroads: Supernatural Success at the Intersection of Ideas
- Seeing the intersections between different subjects can lead to creativity
- (copyblogger.com 10 8)
- [GEEK] MacBook Air? Think Different – Buy a Bigger Envelope
- surprise surprise, life is just fine without the latest tech
- (putthingsoff.com 3 1)
- [HD] Blu-ray Pretty Much Wins Format War
- All the major movie studios are on blu-ray now.
- (paulstamatiou.com 3 5)
- [MUSIC] Don’t miss lessons Radiohead, Reznor offer
- Trent Reznor notes that without the music labels you have to run every aspect of the business… and that sucks.
- (crave.cnet.com 2 2)
- [BLOGGING] Blog Struggles: Recovering From a Traffic Spike
- It’s so true. It’s hard to be motivated once you’ve hit a high that you’ll never hit again.
- (lorelle.wordpress.com 5 1)
- [GAMERS]The “Sex-Box” Race for President::By Kevin McCullough
- This is a must read if you ever played Mass Effect. He gets it soooo wrong.
- (townhall.com 62)
Legend
- saves – number of people who bookmarked on http://del.icio.us
- inbound links – number of blogs who linked to it (max 100)
- diggs – number of people who dugg on http://digg.com
This Week at Internet Duct Tape
- Rules of Thumb for Writing
- Rules of thumb when writing
- Shameless Self-promotion
- The Canadian Blog Awards are on again. You can also vote for Internet Duct Tape in the Sci/Tech category. Thanks to WinExtra for letting me know about the competition.
Best of Feeds – 26 links – programming, webdesign, javascript, design, tips
RSS feeds are like cookies (that are good enough for me). Best of Feeds is a weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet this week. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together on Saturdays. I don’t blog on the weekend so read these links instead.Subscribe to //engtech to see this every week (or get it by email).
- [JAVASCRIPT] Ext JS – JavaScript Library for Web Windows
- Interesting javascript library for doing web windows. Has a nice spreadsheet display.
- (extjs.com 3318 100 6)
- [JAVASCRIPT] Welcome to Tablecloth
- Javascript code for doing quick table highlighting
- (cssglobe.com 1767 100 1247)
- [WEBDESIGN] 30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of
- common tips, good for beginners
- (smashingmagazine.com 1705 100 781)
- [SQL] A Visual Explanation of SQL Joins
- Jeff, where were you in 1997 when I needed this!?
- (codinghorror.com 1069 67 9)
- [DESIGN] 10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of
- (smashingmagazine.com 874 100 253)
- [DESIGN] So you want to create WordPress themes huh?
- 16 how-tos on building a wordpress theme
- (wpdesigner.com 585 100 21)
- [SLEEPHACKS] Top 10 Ways to Sleep Smarter and Better
- LifeHacker has the goods on beating insomnia
- (lifehacker.com 546 68 1489)
- [JAVASCRIPT] Help! I Don’t Know JavaScript!
- Collection of intros to javascript
- (blog.mootools.net 470 10 27)
- [GAMES] Science Museum – Launchpad Online – Launchball
- Very cool little physics simulator game.
- (sciencemuseum.org.uk 392 100 947)
- [GIFTS] 30 Frugal Gift Ideas to Show You Appreciate Someone
- Holidays are coming up…
- (zenhabits.net 326 25 669)
- [CODE] 10 Things Every Programmer Should Know For Their First Job
- General, but true.
- (applematters.com 172 19 4)
- [RUBY] Mr. Neighborly’s Humble Little Ruby Book
- Another free Ruby ebook
- (infoq.com 53 33)
- [WEIGHTLOSS] Geek Diet and Exercise Programs
- All familiar links and photos to me, but still a good roundup.
- (codinghorror.com 44 35 46)
- [INTERNET] The Life and Death of Jesse James
- The scariest people in the world are the lonely people, and this true story strikes it home for me with full force. This is essential reading for anyone who spends a lot of time in internet culture.
- (laweekly.com 40 18)
- [RAILS] Two months with Ruby on Rails
- Two months checkin with what he doesn’t like about Rails
- (t-a-w.blogspot.com 39 10)
- [BOOKS] Hard Work, No Pay: What’s the Point?
- Petzold on being an author of programming books. Response to Jeff Atwood post.
- (charlespetzold.com 30 12)
- [TWITTER] Twitter is Paying My Rent
- Why Twitter is a great tool for a first class tech blogger.
- (marshallk.com 25 7 20)
- [BOOKS] Expert Advice: Websites for the Book Lover
- Quite a few sites I hadn’t heard of.
- (makeuseof.com 24 4 20)
- [DELICIOUS] Readeroo
- Simple browser extension for marking items “to be read” later and then marking them as read when you’re done.
- (monsur.com 21 5)
- [WEB2.0] Q&A: Foul-Mouthed Blogger Ted Dziuba Tells Why Most Startups Fail
- Uncov in wired! What.the.fuck!
- (wired.com 19 31 4)
- [WEB2.0] Tim O’Reilly – Graphing Social Patterns
- Liveblogging notes from Tim O’Reilly’s presentation.
- (allfacebook.com 9)
- [BOOKS] When Completing a Book Depends on Someone Else
- Blogging Heroes should be in print soon. I was interviewed for the book, not sure if I made it into the final cut.
- (mikebanks.blogspot.com)
- [COPYRIGHT] Happiness In Slavery No More: Nine Inch Nails Goes Record Label Free
- Fans and artists are learning to bypass the recording industry.
- (parislemon.com)
- [FICTION] The ride home
- From the article: ” People with happy lives don’t go on quests, they lead their happy lives.”
- (beatsentropy.com 3)
- [CODE] Getting rid of the use global contstants file
- Another post from my old friend who used to bring me subway cookies at raves.
- (dlowe-wfh.blogspot.com)
- [MARKETING] The Smart Way to Get Traffic and Links: Creating a Prospect List for Bloggers
- This is the proper way to promote yourself with other bloggers. Get on their radar before you ever approach them about anything.
- (doshdosh.com 3)
Legend
- saves – number of people who bookmarked on http://del.icio.us
- inbound links – number of blogs who linked to it (max 100)
- diggs – number of people who dugg on http://digg.com
This Week at Internet Duct Tape
- What I’m Playing: PC, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360
- I’m on day 10 of “one of those weeks” so I haven’t had time to fully develop the usual cornucopia of rainbow-coloured blog post ideas. All of my time has been spent on work and family with a smidgen of video game playing to decompress my brain. This isn’t one of those…
- The Holiday Spread – Group Weight Loss Game
- This past weekend was Thanksgiving (aka Turkey Day) in Canada, which means seeing your family and eating a lot of food together. One of the favourite pastimes at any holiday is pointing out who’s gained weight and who hasn’t. This got me thinking: one of the principals of successful dieting…
- Best of Feeds – 34 links – programming, google, lifehacks, ruby, funny
- Tags: blogging, estimation, free, funny, google, gtd, javascript, lifehacks, productivity, programming, rails, ruby, rubyonrails, search, seo, tips
This Week at IDT Labs
- [WORDPRESS] Extract Comments or Trackbacks only from the Comments Feed
- I’ve created two Yahoo Pipes for building filters of the comments feed on your WordPress blog so that you can see comments only or trackbacks only. WordPress Comment Extractor WordPress Trackback Extractor
- [RSS] Tagosphere
- Tagosphere is an example I created for Jon Udell that builds an RSS feed around a specific tag using delicious, flickr, technorati, and wordpress.com.
- [GTD] Distraction Free GTD UpdateNow with 36 applications + fixes some problems with apps that don’t support https .
Tags: blogging, design, fun, javascript, lifehacks, programming, rails, tips, usability, web2.0, webdesign, writing

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