Tools

Today, in my computer bag I found my leatherman wave which had been missing for about 6 months. This is an amazing tool that I've had since 2001. I was highly distraught when it went missing. I ended up buying a leatherman fuse at the mall to compensate but I haven't been as happy with it. The fuse has minor rust after 6 months which the wave doesn't.

Now that I've been reunited with one of my missing items, and another is getting closer and closer, I feel much more whole. Its amazing how a day filled with noise can become suddenly peaceful and happy with the discovery of something you had given up hope for.

No expectations. It'll be gone again tomorrow.

Languages

1. Scheme/Lisp. If you come from a ?curly braces? background you should learn a functional language.
   As Eric Raymond says about the very similar Lisp:
   LISP is worth learning for a different reason ? the profound enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it. That experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your days, even if you never actually use LISP itself a lot.
   I prefer Scheme because it is purer (no need for funcall).

2. Erlang. Another functional language. Concurrency done right. In the multiprocessor future this could be very important indeed.

3. Ruby. A conscious attempt to make a programming language that is a joy to use. String handling from Perl, OO from Smalltalk, closures from Lisp/Scheme.

4. Javascript. The only way to create a rich UI in current web browsers.

5. C. For when things must be fast. Use with Ruby, Python and many other languages when you need to optimize a section of your code for performance.

Today's Notes

Avoid the crowd. Do your own thinking independently. Be the chess player, not the chess piece.

Goldcorp.

Lockheed won a NASA contract to build the next space shuttle.

5" of rain expected today.

22 Bombs in Thailand's banking sectors.