Founding executive editor of Wired and author of What Technology Wants and The Inevitable. Writes at kk.org and runs its long-running recommendation projects, True Films and Cool Tools.

• Lovedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  All In This Tea

  Their words

  That's the recipe for a delicious documentary, and this one delivers. A fanatical tea drinker in California becomes a connoisseur of fine teas, and then goes on to restore now forgotten traditions of organic artisan tea growing in China.

  kk.org

Founding executive editor of Wired and author of What Technology Wants and The Inevitable. Writes at kk.org and runs its long-running recommendation projects, True Films and Cool Tools.

• Likedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  Being Elmo

  Their words

  The insight offered in the film that even puppets have to be ABOUT something, was worth the ride for me.

  kk.org

Writer and technology executive; blogs at anildash.com, was CEO of Glitch, and helped build Movable Type and ThinkUp.

From one piece The Web We Lost 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Platforms wrongly believe that giving users flexibility and control makes a product too complex to grow, and that belief is the root of most of their mistakes.

  Their words

  The primary fallacy that underpins many of their mistakes is that user flexibility and control necessarily lead to a user experience complexity that hurts growth.

  The Web We Lostanildash.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Attaching advertising revenue to links changed the web for the worse, because a link stopped being an act of expression and became a transaction.

  Google

  Their words

  The web was an interesting and different place before links got monetized, but by 2007 it was clear that Google had changed the web forever, and for the worse, by corrupting links.

  The Web We Lostanildash.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  People need an online identity that outlives the platforms hosting it, which is why it should live on a domain they control rather than as a handle on somebody else's site.

  Their words

  This was a sensible reaction to the realization that big sites rise and fall in popularity, but that regular people need an identity that persists longer than those sites do.

  The Web We Lostanildash.com

Founding executive editor of Wired and author of What Technology Wants and The Inevitable. Writes at kk.org and runs its long-running recommendation projects, True Films and Cool Tools.

• Lovedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  Jiro Dreams of Sushi

  Their words

  This is a deliciously perfect film about a perfect craftsman.

  kk.org

Founding executive editor of Wired and author of What Technology Wants and The Inevitable. Writes at kk.org and runs its long-running recommendation projects, True Films and Cool Tools.

• Lovedaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  Cave of Forgotten Dreams

  Their words

  This film will move you back in time while he connects you with the neolithic painters who worked their art.

  kk.org

Statistician and software engineer who writes R packages for reproducible research and publishing, including knitr, bookdown and blogdown.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  MathJax

  Their words

  The other amazing JS application that I use is MathJax, which allows me to write LaTeX math in web pages.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  pandoc

  Their words

  I'm visually tired of beamer slides (mainly because too many people use the same style), and I use pandoc to create HTML5 slides.

  usesthis.com

• Usestheir ownrcmnd.app

  knitr

  Their words

  I use my knitr package to generate reports directly from code (literate programming); the "reports" may include homework, blog posts, websites, papers and books.

  usesthis.com

Founding executive editor of Wired and author of What Technology Wants and The Inevitable. Writes at kk.org and runs its long-running recommendation projects, True Films and Cool Tools.

• Recommendsaffiliate linkrcmnd.app

  Project Nim

  Their words

  A hundred questions are raised by the experiment and many are answered by this superbly crafted film. I recommend it highly.

  kk.org

British-Ghanaian philosopher, Professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University; author of Cosmopolitanism, The Honor Code and The Lies That Bind.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  In the Name of Honor

  Their words

  She is one of my heroes and this is a book about how someone who grasps dignity, which is a form of honour based in our humanity, can resist the world of the negative side of honour, where women are punished because they are pawns in a game of honour between men.

  fivebooks.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Honor

  Their words

  I disagree with a lot of what he says – in particular that he wants to give up on honour because it has such negative connotations: I think it needs reform as a concept – but I think it's a very lovely piece of scholarly analysis.

  fivebooks.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Moral Capital

  Their words

  This is another beautiful piece of scholarship by an eminent historian, but you don't have to be an academic to read it. It's about a really interesting subject that I think would interest anybody.

  fivebooks.com

Linux kernel maintainer; runs the stable kernel releases and maintains the USB and driver core subsystems.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  i3

  Their words

  I'm finding that i3 is really good for my use cases (lots of terminal windows open, virtual screens, and fast keyboard navigation of everything.)

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  git

  Their words

  Combined with git, the best source code control tool I've ever used (and I've used them all), I can set up a bare machine in a matter of minutes and have full access to all of my kernel trees, emails, and development tools.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  CyanogenMod

  Their words

  My Nexus 7 tablet is running the nightly CyanogenMod releases and have had no problems at all with it.

  usesthis.com

Free software developer and longtime Debian developer; author of git-annex, etckeeper, ikiwiki and debhelper. Lives and works off-grid.

• Usestheir ownrcmnd.app

  git-annex

  Their words

  I download my mail with offlineimap, as well as blogs converted to mail with rss2email I use distributed version control extensively, and use my git-annex to maintain large quantities of local data and queue up large files to transfer in the rare times when I'm around fast internet.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Redshift

  Their words

  And the excellent Redshift application, which adjusts the screen color temperature depending on the time of day and preserves my night vision.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Music Player Daemon

  Their words

  Other notable software includes the Music Player Daemon, which runs on my netbook and also my home server.

  usesthis.com

Co-creator of the Go programming language, of UTF-8 and of the Plan 9 operating system; formerly of Bell Labs.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  MacBook Air (11-inch)

  Their words

  my two-year-old 11" MacBook Air is the only piece of computing hardware to make me happy since I can’t remember when. For what it does, as opposed to what my dream setup would be, it’s fast and light and smooth and comfortable.

  usesthis.com

• Usestheir ownrcmnd.app

  Go

  Their words

  However, two things always come along: The Go installation of course, and Plan 9 from User space, also known as plan9port, Russ Cox’s port of the Plan 9 user experience (if not world view) to Unix.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  plan9port

  Their words

  However, two things always come along: The Go installation of course, and Plan 9 from User space, also known as plan9port, Russ Cox’s port of the Plan 9 user experience (if not world view) to Unix.

  usesthis.com

Swedish designer and programmer. Designed early Spotify, worked at Facebook and Figma, and created the Inter typeface.

From one piece Sol — a sunny little virtual machine 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Cooperative multitasking suits coherent, specialized systems better than general-purpose operating systems.

  Their words

  These systems often benefit from cooperative multitasking, in particular coherent, specialized systems (unlike operating systems which are general by nature).

  Sol — a sunny little virtual machinersms.me

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Register-based virtual machines can run faster than stack-based virtual machines despite needing larger instruction encodings.

  Their words

  Register-based virtual machines avoid the push and pop operations usually surrounding other instructions, reducing code size, but in several cases also increases speed of execution (compared to stack-based virtual machines).

  Sol — a sunny little virtual machinersms.me

Indian value investor who taught Behavioural Finance and Business Valuation as an adjunct professor at MDI Gurgaon. He writes the Fundoo Professor blog about investing, moats and mental models.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Judgment in Managerial Decision Making

  Their words

  The Ultimatum example was quoted from Max Bazerman’s excellent book, Judgment in Managerial Decision Making

  fundooprofessor.wordpress.com

Polyglot; founded Fluent in 3 Months and argues for speaking from day one rather than waiting until you are ready.

From one piece Speaking a language badly: how to get over the ego problem 5 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  A teacher who does not insist on the target language is a bad teacher.

  Their words

  In my view, they are simply a BAD TEACHER if they don't encourage exclusive use of the target language.

  fluentin3months.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  There is no threshold of vocabulary to cross before speaking begins; the change is a decision, not a level reached.

  Their words

  It's not like I passed some threshold of having enough words to get started speaking

  fluentin3months.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The hard part of speaking from the start is not the gaps in what you know but making peace with not knowing the simplest words.

  Their words

  But it's HARD to start this. NOT because of all the academic reasons of lack of vocabulary and grammar, but because you need to be cool with the fact that you are not going to know the simplest of words.

  fluentin3months.com

Game designer; chief creative officer at Spry Fox (Triple Town, Realm of the Mad God) and author of the Lost Garden design blog.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Adobe Illustrator

  Their words

  I've been using Adobe Illustrator for interface design. My favorite technique is to set up all the UI elements on separate artboards and then I can quickly export them out with full name to all sorts of different resolutions with a single dialog.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Dropbox

  Their words

  We also use Dropbox for our file storage and everyone has a variety of iOS and Android devices for testing the latest builds and playing Drop7.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Wacom tablet

  Their words

  There's also a Wacom tablet as well for when I do digital paintings but lately my art has been leaning towards a more graphic vector style so it doesn't get quite as much love.

  usesthis.com

Indian value investor who taught Behavioural Finance and Business Valuation as an adjunct professor at MDI Gurgaon. He writes the Fundoo Professor blog about investing, moats and mental models.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  The Little Book that Builds Wealth

  Their words

  This from an excellent book called The Little Book that Builds Wealth.

  fundooprofessor.wordpress.com

Computer scientist and director of the MIT Digital Currency Initiative; her research covers distributed systems, databases and digital currency.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  RescueTime

  Their words

  I use RescueTime on all my machines to get a rough idea of how much work I'm getting done each week.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  SizeUp

  Their words

  I use SizeUp to use keyboard shortcuts to move windows between monitors and position them effectively.

  usesthis.com

• Mixed onrcmnd.app

  Pocket

  Their words

  I use Pocket as a read-it-later service, but I've found that I never actually go back to read what I've saved. It seems to be write-only.

  usesthis.com

Software developer who wrote Winamp and Gnutella, and now develops the REAPER digital audio workstation at Cockos.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  PNGCrush

  Their words

  PNGCrush is a good tool, I usually use it to expand PNGs to be uncompressed, using "pngcrush -f 0 -m 1 -l 0 -force".

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  GIMP

  Their words

  I'll use GIMP for many image editing tasks (for me, this usually is just making test images for themes, or making small tweaks to existing images). I prefer Photoshop but find it to be ridiculously overpriced, and I am terrible with either of them anyway and will let the professionals make things.

  usesthis.com

• Usestheir ownrcmnd.app

  REAPER

  Their words

  For recording I use REAPER (naturally).

  usesthis.com

Co-founder of AngelList. Writes and podcasts at nav.al in short, aphoristic pieces on startups, wealth and judgement rather than long essays.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  A Soldier of the Great War

  Their words

  For historical fiction, I like "A Soldier of the Great War"

  x.com

Indian value investor who taught Behavioural Finance and Business Valuation as an adjunct professor at MDI Gurgaon. He writes the Fundoo Professor blog about investing, moats and mental models.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Deep Simplicity

  Their words

  In his excellent book “Deep Simplicity,” John Gribbin describes the Red Queen Effect in terms of an imaginary species of frog that feeds on an imaginary species of fly.

  fundooprofessor.wordpress.com

Swedish open source developer; creator and lead maintainer of curl and libcurl, and a co-founder of the Rockbox project.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  emacs

  Their words

  Apart from the OS, I'm a C coder and an Emacs user, and what more do you need?

  usesthis.com

• Mixed onrcmnd.app

  KDE

  Their words

  I've therefore abandoned gnome for KDE, which isn't a perfect fit for me either but still way better than gnome3.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Synology DS211j

  Their words

  Also located there is the Dlink wifi router, the HP ink printer and my Synology DS211j NAS.

  usesthis.com

Co-founder and CEO of Linear; previously principal designer at Airbnb, where he led the Design Language System, and founding designer at Coinbase.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Founders, designers and developers need to develop their taste the way a sushi chef develops a palate, and appreciating culture is how.

  startups

  Their words

  Like sushi chefs, we as founders, designers or developers, need to develop our tastes, in order to build things people can be impressed about.

  Jiro’s Dreamkarrisaarinen.com

Computer science professor at Georgetown University and author of Deep Work, Digital Minimalism and Slow Productivity; writes about focus, technology and work at calnewport.com and hosts the Deep Questions podcast.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Passion for your work is not something you identify in advance and follow; it is cultivated over time.

  Their words

  But it’s not something that you “follow” (which implies you can identify it in advance). It’s instead something you have to purposefully cultivate over time.

  calnewport.com

Author of the open source projects MessagePack, Fluentd and Embulk, and co-founder and chief architect of Treasure Data.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Ruby

  Their words

  Ruby is my language of choice. I used to use C++, but I was enchanted by the flexibility of Ruby: it lets me focus on creating the proper design and architecture for the system.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  YoruFukurou

  Their words

  I use YoruFukurou on Mac OS X and Echofon on iPhone for clients.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Gyazo

  Their words

  I also like Gyazo, a simple tool to share screenshots quickly. It's like Gist for screenshots.

  usesthis.com

Game developer and moral philosopher; made QWOP, GIRP and Getting Over It, and teaches at the NYU Game Center.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  BetterSnapTool

  Their words

  but I do use Dropbox and BetterSnapTool and iStat Pro to add functions that I really wish were built in to the system.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  iPhone 4S

  Their words

  I love my iPhone 4S even more than I love my Mac, and as a frequent traveler it has completely changed my life.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Nikon D90

  Their words

  I have a Nikon D90 camera which I love, but I feel less compelled to lug it around since I got the new iPhone with its competent camera.

  usesthis.com

Photographer and writer based in Malaysia who publishes long-form camera, lens and photography-book reviews, essays and photoessays at blog.mingthein.com.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Sony RX100

  Their words

  But on the whole, the RX100 gets it right – it is undoubtedly the best compact camera available today, especially from the point of view of image quality.

  blog.mingthein.com

Industrial designer; head of design at Braun from 1961 to 1995; designer of Vitsœ's 606 shelving system; author of the ten principles for good design.

From one piece Dieter Rams: ten principles for good design 5 beliefs · vitsoe.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Good design makes a product understandable: at best it is self-explanatory.

  Their words

  It clarifies the product’s structure. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory.

  Dieter Rams: ten principles for good designvitsoe.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Good design is long-lasting: it avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated.

  Their words

  It avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated. Unlike fashionable design, it lasts many years – even in today’s throwaway society.

  Dieter Rams: ten principles for good designvitsoe.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Good design is honest: it does not make a product seem more innovative, powerful or valuable than it is, and does not manipulate with promises that cannot be kept.

  Their words

  It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

  Dieter Rams: ten principles for good designvitsoe.com

Indian value investor who taught Behavioural Finance and Business Valuation as an adjunct professor at MDI Gurgaon. He writes the Fundoo Professor blog about investing, moats and mental models.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Damn Right!

  Their words

  In her excellent book, “Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger,” the author, Janet Lowe, relates the 1967 story:

  fundooprofessor.wordpress.com

Guardian columnist and environmental campaigner; wrote Feral and Regenesis, and argues for rewilding and against the food system as it is.

• Our reading nowkorrents.com

  World oil supply is close to its peak and will decline while demand keeps rising.

  Their words, before

  The supply of oil will decline, but global demand will not.

  Their words now

  Peak oil hasn't happened, and it's unlikely to happen for a very long time.

Programmer, photographer and musician, best known for the Python Requests HTTP library and other Python tooling.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Mondaine Swiss Railway watch

  Their words

  I tell the time with a Mondaine Swiss Railway watch.

  usesthis.com

• Usestheir ownrcmnd.app

  Heroku

  Their words

  My websites, services, and apps are hosted on Heroku.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  OneNote

  Their words

  OneNote is an incredible note-taking platform, and I'd love to see it really shine in a dedicated device.

  usesthis.com

Founder of OpenStreetMap, the collaborative map of the world; later worked on mapping at Microsoft and Telenav.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Backblaze

  Their words

  I back up everything in 3 places automatically, partially with BackBlaze.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Instapaper

  Their words

  I have a script which mails to Instapaper the Hacker News front page twice a day. From there I can just tap on things and read them later, at any time, with Instapaper on my iPad or Windows Phone.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  VirtualBox

  Their words

  I use VirtualBox to carry Ubuntu around with me.

  usesthis.com

Standards editor known as Hixie; edited the HTML and WHATWG living standards for many years and worked on Flutter at Google.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Pine

  Their words

  I use Pine rather than other mail clients primarily because of important features that few other mail clients have: it lets me reply to multiple e-mails all at once, combining the e-mails I'm relying to into one and merging the recipient lists

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Irssi

  Their words

  Irssi I use because it's the only IRC client I've come across that supports many networks and channels well while being a text mode client that I can use over SSH.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  screen

  Their words

  Using screen I can arbitrarily reconnect to the remote sessions at my whim.

  usesthis.com

Philosophy professor at UC Berkeley and creator of pandoc, the universal document converter, and of the CommonMark markdown specification.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  ThinkPad USB keyboard with TrackPoint

  Their words

  I don't like mice, so I use an external ThinkPad USB keyboard with TrackPoint.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Ikea Utby bar table

  Their words

  I have a standing desk, an Ikea Utby bar table.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Linode

  Their words

  I also have a Linode VPS that I use for my website and a few web applications.

  usesthis.com

Designer and developer; created the Solarized colour scheme and the Kinkless task system that became OmniFocus.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Epson 7800

  Their words

  Large format prints roll off of my reliable Epson 7800 with the phatte black ink system and a custom RIP.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Manfrotto 035 Superclamps

  Their words

  I use a lot of Manfrotto 035 Superclamps and articulated arms like the 244N Magic Arm to mount gear to either the Grip Desk or to a standard table surface (as microphone boom, document holder, etc.).

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  x-rite

  Their words

  Color calibration hardware is critical for my work and I use one of the x-rite display calibration units. It works on Arch and OS X.

  usesthis.com

Programmer and author of Modern C++ Design and The D Programming Language; a lead contributor to the D language.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  zsh

  Their words

  Inside the screen sessions, I run zsh. (The day I figured how cool zsh is, a hawk came and rid me of the white dove.)

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  iTerm2

  Their words

  For shell sessions I don't go through X; instead, I run iTerm2 and then connect to remote screen sessions via ssh.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  LaTeX

  Their words

  I use Google Docs for light documents and LaTeX for all heavy editing, including books and slides.

  usesthis.com

Wall Street Journal bestselling author on marketing and writing, partner at MarketingProfs, and writer of the fortnightly Total Annarchy newsletter.

• Recommendstheir ownrcmnd.app

  Content Rules

  Their words

  If you don’t know the book, Content Rules is the how-to field guide to creating the kind of blogs, videos, FAQs, product pages (or any kind of content!) that will help your organization grow.

  annhandley.com

Economist; Ronald A. Kurtz Professor of Entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, and co-author of 13 Bankers and Power and Progress.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  A History of Interest Rates

  Their words

  This is one of my favourite type of books, which are just about data.

  fivebooks.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

  Their words

  This is one of the great political biographies. Teddy Roosevelt was like a character out of a novel, so it's not surprising that his biography reads like one.

  fivebooks.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Why Nations Fail

  Their words

  Why Nations Fail is by two of my favourite economists, two very close friends and co-authors of mine, Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. They're tackling a subject that I've worked on with them, and they do a great job of bringing it to life and making it vivid.

  fivebooks.com

Photographer and writer based in Malaysia who publishes long-form camera, lens and photography-book reviews, essays and photoessays at blog.mingthein.com.

• Mixed onrcmnd.app

  Nikon AF-S 85/1.4 G

  Their words

  Can I recommend the lens? For D800 users, honestly, no. You're better served by the 85/1.8G; use the balance of funds for other glass, or buy one of my prints with some of the money you've saved (shameless plug). It simply lacks the crispness I've seen with other bodies.

  blog.mingthein.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Nikon 85/1.8G

  Their words

  You're better served by the 85/1.8G; use the balance of funds for other glass, or buy one of my prints with some of the money you've saved (shameless plug).

  blog.mingthein.com

Photographer and writer based in Malaysia who publishes long-form camera, lens and photography-book reviews, essays and photoessays at blog.mingthein.com.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Nikon D800

  Their words

  But what I can say is that the sensor is absolutely stunning, and remains one of the best, if not the best I've ever used – at least in 35mm format

  blog.mingthein.com

Independent game developer, creator of the colony simulation RimWorld and author of Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences. Previously worked on BioShock Infinite.

From one piece The Edge of Story 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  There is no sharp line between a game’s story and its mechanics.

  Their words

  There is no sharp line between fiction, story, narrative, and mechanics.

  The Edge of Storytynansylvester.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Narrative is not a real category; it is a cultural label for a cluster of emotional triggers games happen to share with older media.

  Their words

  The concept of narrative is not absolute. It is merely a label for a cluster of emotional triggers which games happen to share with certain traditional media.

  The Edge of Storytynansylvester.com

Independent game developer, creator of the colony simulation RimWorld and author of Designing Games: A Guide to Engineering Experiences. Previously worked on BioShock Infinite.

• Our readingkorrents.com

  The audience responds well to well-designed systems; it is the industry’s paymasters who undervalue them in favour of authored stories.

  Their words

  It’s true that systemic design is often underemphasized by the paymasters of the game industry.

  Response to Danc’s Loops and Arcstynansylvester.com

Novelist and writer, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough; previously worked at Twitter and Current TV.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Notational Velocity

  Their words

  I am a strong proponent of wanton notetaking - words, names, scraps, passages, whole articles, just dump it all in there - and I’d recommend this setup to anyone.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Filson Pullman

  Their words

  When I was looking for a travel bag, I got a tip to buy a Filson Pullman and man it is super great. Tough, capacious and unassuming.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Kindle Keyboard 3G

  Their words

  I’ve been places in Turkey and Greece where my shiny iPhone showed no bars but the quiet resourceful Kindle could reach Gmail without a hitch. Strange and miraculous.

  usesthis.com

Canadian cartoonist and writer: Dinosaur Comics, Marvel's The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, and the choose-your-own-path books To Be or Not To Be and Romeo and/or Juliet.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Winamp

  Their words

  Winamp - I've tried a bunch of other music players but always come back to Winamp because it's small and has global hotkeys.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  AutoHotKey

  Their words

  AutoHotkey - I used to use a program called Winkey, but that got discontinued, so now I use this. It's free software that lets you map all sorts of actions to the keyboard.

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Kindle

  Their words

  I guess I should mention I also got a 3G Kindle which I love and a Withings scale that posts my weight to Twitter, which is lots of fun, but also kinda cheesy because every post has their URL slapped on the end of it.

  usesthis.com

Software design writer and chief scientist at Thoughtworks; wrote Refactoring and Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture.

From one piece TestCoverage 3 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Total test coverage is a warning sign rather than an achievement: it smells of tests written for the number.

  Their words

  I would be suspicious of anything like 100% - it would smell of someone writing tests to make the coverage numbers happy, but not thinking about what they are doing.

  TestCoveragemartinfowler.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Making test coverage a target destroys it, because high coverage numbers are easy to reach with worthless tests.

  Their words

  If you make a certain level of coverage a target, people will try to attain it. The trouble is that high coverage numbers are too easy to reach with low quality testing.

  TestCoveragemartinfowler.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Test coverage is a tool for finding untested code and says nothing about how good the tests are.

  Their words

  Test coverage is of little use as a numeric statement of how good your tests are.

  TestCoveragemartinfowler.com

Photographer and writer based in Malaysia who publishes long-form camera, lens and photography-book reviews, essays and photoessays at blog.mingthein.com.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Magnum Contact Sheets

  Their words

  However, the real kicker here is that the images presented aren't just the single 'selected' iconic ones, but also the ones before and after – i.e. a contact sheet of that entire roll of film.

  blog.mingthein.com

Software developer and writer; co-founder of Fog Creek Software and Stack Overflow, and author of the Joel on Software blog since 2000.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  The Founder's Dilemmas

  Their words

  Wasserman has finally put it all together in a great book called The Founder's Dilemmas, which I highly recommend if you're starting a company.

  joelonsoftware.com

Software engineer and PostgreSQL contributor who ran the Postgres Open conference; later a senior engineering leader at Mozilla and CTO of the Wikimedia Foundation.

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  Skitch

  Their words

  Apple's Keynote is the best for presentations, and nothing beats Skitch for quickly sharing screenshots, photos and sarcasm.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Arq

  Their words

  I use Arq for backups, LastPass for passwords, Chrome for my browser and have four users set up inside Chrome to handle business and personal account separation.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  LastPass

  Their words

  I use Arq for backups, LastPass for passwords, Chrome for my browser and have four users set up inside Chrome to handle business and personal account separation.

  usesthis.com

Writer, editor and executive coach; co-founder and editor of A Book Apart and a former contributing editor at A List Apart.

• Dislikedrcmnd.app

  Word

  Their words

  Editing for the books usually happens in either Word or Pages; I have no love for either, but Word plays nicely with InDesign, so we're a little but stuck with it for now.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Moop messenger bag

  Their words

  I carry everything around in a Moop messenger bag; there's enough room for the Macbook, a Moleskin, and a print book.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Propane

  Their words

  I use Propane to connect to Typekit's Campfire account; we're virtual, with folks spread out between San Francisco and Berlin, so this is where much of our work happens.

  usesthis.com

Software engineer and interface designer; one of the main developers of the original Apple Macintosh, later at Radius, General Magic, Eazel and Google, and author of Revolution in the Valley.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  BBEdit

  Their words

  For text editing, I mainly use BBEdit or TextEdit.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Plex

  Their words

  For music and video, I use iTunes a lot, but I also use Plex, VLC and Handbrake.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Galaxy Nexus

  Their words

  I'm very impressed with the new Galaxy Nexus phone that I just got for Christmas, but I think I will stick with the iPhone as my main phone.

  usesthis.com

Medicinal chemist; has written In the Pipeline, the drug-discovery blog, since 2002, and the “Things I Won’t Work With” posts about chemicals that try to kill you.

From one piece Eroom's Law 2 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Every new drug has to beat the cheap generics that came before it, and that competition with our own back catalogue is why drug discovery gets harder over time.

  Their words

  I think that this is insufficiently appreciated outside of the drug business. Nothing goes away unless it's well and truly superseded.

  Eroom's Lawweb.archive.org

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Drug research is heading, at speed, for a world in which fewer and fewer useful medicines are discovered while more and more people want them.

  Their words

  We are heading, at speed, for a world in which fewer and fewer useful medicines are discovered, while more and more people want them.

  Eroom's Lawweb.archive.org

American-Polish journalist and historian, staff writer at The Atlantic; author of Gulag, Iron Curtain, Twilight of Democracy and Autocracy, Inc.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  The Captive Mind

  Their words

  He is important to read because he's simultaneously critical of his characters and sympathetic to them. It's very difficult, now, to think back into that time, when people had very limited choices. If you chose to oppose the regime, that might mean you couldn't get medicine for your sick mother, your children couldn't go to school and you might get kicked out of your apartment. We don't have to face those choices. Miłosz is very good at explaining them.

  fivebooks.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  A World Apart

  Their words

  He wasn't in the Gulag for long – only a couple of years, until 1941 – but what I like about his book is that, unlike many memoirs, it's not just about his story or what happened to him. It's more like a series of short stories, of the kind written by [Varlam] Shalamov or one of the Gulag novelists. Each chapter is a story about a different person or situation, together with an accompanying set of thoughts or meditations.

  fivebooks.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Memoir of Hungary

  Their words

  Sándor Márai is one of the great Hungarian novelists. He was in Hungary during the war, and left in 1948. This book is about a neutral intellectual's encounter with communism, and it records what he saw as it happened.

  fivebooks.com

Irish independent game developer, maker of VVVVVV, Super Hexagon and Dicey Dungeons.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Google Sketchup

  Their words

  For At a Distance, I made the environments in Google Sketchup, which is a super pleasant tool to use for simple models.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  FlashDevelop

  Their words

  For coding: I mostly use FlashDevelop, with the Adobe Flex compiler.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  FL Studio

  Their words

  For music, I use FL Studio, and in the past I've also used ModPlug tracker.

  usesthis.com

Co-founder of Y Combinator and Viaweb; essayist at paulgraham.com.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  The Harmless People

  Their words

  If you want to learn more about hunter gatherers I strongly recommend Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's The Harmless People and The Old Way

  paulgraham.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  The Old Way

  Their words

  If you want to learn more about hunter gatherers I strongly recommend Elizabeth Marshall Thomas's The Harmless People and The Old Way

  paulgraham.com

Mac and iOS developer; created NetNewsWire and MarsEdit, co-created the JSON Feed format, and blogs at inessential.com.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Bitbucket

  Their words

  I use Bitbucket for repository hosting.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Consolas

  Their words

  Somehow, just in the past few days, I've finally moved from Monaco to Consolas. I never thought I'd switch from Monaco. (I would have gone with Menlo, but it's a bit too blurry for me.)

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  xScope

  Their words

  I regularly use Safari, NetNewsWire, MarsEdit, Colloquy, iChat, Twitter for OS X, Instruments, iCal, xScope, LaunchBar, Keynote, Growl, FileMerge, Versions, iTunes, FastScripts, Transmit, OmniFocus, OmniOutliner, and LiveView Screencaster.

  usesthis.com

Technologist and entrepreneur; former CTO of Threadless and chief technology officer of the 2012 Obama re-election campaign.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Homebrew

  Their words

  To make my shell experience on OS X bearable, I use homebrew (I shudder to think how things used to be on OSX).

  usesthis.com

• Lovedrcmnd.app

  partychat

  Their words

  One of my favorite killer apps is partychat. It is an open source Jabber-based persistent chat room. It works with Google Talk and is VERY simple.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Simplenote

  Their words

  I use Simplenote to keep track of random thoughts on my phone.

  usesthis.com

Writer of kottke.org, one of the oldest blogs on the web, published since 1998 and supported by its members. He writes about art, technology, science, design and visual culture.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Magic Mouse

  Their words

  I REALLY should go and get that new mouse. [Twenty minutes pass.] I now have a Magic Mouse.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Safari

  Their words

  Three browsers running all the time on OS X. Safari is my blogging browser, Firefox is my development browser, and Chrome is my fun browser.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  TextMate

  Their words

  I also use Terminal, Mail.app (though I mostly check email on my phone these days), TextMate, iTunes (cannot get into Spotify or Rdio for whatever reason), Photoshop (grudgingly), Sequel Pro, and very little else.

  usesthis.com

Programmer known online as technomancy; author of Leiningen, the Clojure build tool, and a maintainer of the Fennel programming language.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  mpd

  Their words

  Outside the dynamic interactive one-big-process environments I'm a big fan of simple orthogonal tools that work well together, so I use xbindkeys for all my launchers and mpd for my tunes.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Debian Squeeze

  Their words

  Debian's installer is less polished, but I appreciate their conservative get-it-right-at-all-costs approach a lot more these days than when I was in college and had a lot of time to mess around with goofed-up packages.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  pair.io

  Their words

  I don't pair as much as I used to, but I've started using pair.io, a service for spinning up ephemeral collaborative programming nodes.

  usesthis.com

American historian of Central and Eastern Europe and the Holocaust; author of Bloodlands, On Tyranny and On Freedom, and writer of the newsletter 'Thinking about...'.

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  Homage to Catalonia

  Their words

  The reason why I am so fond of Homage to Catalonia, and see it as an even more relevant precursor to dissent, is that in it you can see a man of the Left learning to make the distinction that breaks down the Left with a big L into lots of little lefts.

  fivebooks.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  The Church and the Left

  Their words

  In The Church and the Left Michnik argues for an untraditional alliance. He says that the left has to talk to the Polish Catholic Church, especially after the Vatican's internal reform [in 1965].

  fivebooks.com

• Recommendsrcmnd.app

  The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

  Their words

  Milan Kundera was of course not really a dissident, but this book gets across the heartfelt reality of Stalinist faith.

  fivebooks.com

Writer on the intersection of technology and finance. Author of the Bits about Money newsletter and host of the Complex Systems podcast; previously at Stripe.

From one piece Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued 4 beliefs, in the piece's order there

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Negotiating hard costs a candidate nothing, because the person on the other side is spending a budget rather than their own money and will not hold it against them.

  Their words

  It is Bob’s job to get you signed with the company as cheaply as possible, but Bob is not super motivated to do so, because Bob is not spending Bob’s money to hire you.  Bob is spending Bob’s budget.

  kalzumeus.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  Asking a candidate for their salary history is a way to justify paying them below market, so a candidate should never name a number first.

  Their words

  They are all using your previous anomalously low salary — a salary which did not reflect your true market worth, because you were young or inexperienced or unskilled at negotiation or working at a different firm or in another line of work entirely — to justify paying you an anomalously low salary in the future.

  kalzumeus.com

• Our readingkorrents.com

  A company is not sensitive to the few thousand dollars a candidate is afraid to ask for, because the fully-loaded cost of employing them dwarfs it.

  Their words

  This is a roundabout way of telling you that companies are not sensitive to small differences in employee wages because employees are so darned expensive anyhow.

  kalzumeus.com

Web developer and musician; co-creator of the Django web framework, founder of EveryBlock and of the music-notation site Soundslice.

• Likedrcmnd.app

  youtube-dl

  Their words

  Some little-known gems I use a lot: youtube-dl for downloading YouTube videos.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Fission

  Their words

  Fission for lossless sound editing (trimming live concerts into separate songs, etc.). Max for converting between audio-file formats. Caffeine for easy control over when my laptop can and can't go to sleep.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  1Password

  Their words

  Other software I use almost daily: Dropbox for commonly accessed files. Git for my work and personal projects. Audacity for quick clean up of audio files. 1password for password management.

  usesthis.com

Computer scientist and professor; author of The Illustrated Guide to a Ph.D. and of a long-running blog on programming languages, research and academia.

• Usesrcmnd.app

  OmniFocus

  Their words

  For task management, I use OmniFocus on my MacBook Air, my iPhone and my iPad. The shared database lives on my linode and syncs over WebDAV.

  usesthis.com

• Usesrcmnd.app

  Evernote

  Their words

  My hand-rolled personal note-taking wiki on my linode has been replaced by Evernote on my MacBook Air, iPhone and iPad.

  usesthis.com

• Likedrcmnd.app

  Marcy Recumbent Mag Cycle

  Their words

  I can't afford time off work to exercise, so I attached a Table Mate II couch desk to a Marcy Recumbent Mag Cycle, and moved it next to the desk in my home office. Honestly, I'm more productive on the bike than off.

  usesthis.com