RSS is Rotting My Brain

I've been thinking lately about the detrimental effects that I'm suffering as a result of information overload. Over the last few months, the number of blog feeds I follow in Google Reader has been steadily creeping up, not to mention people I follow on Twitter and FriendFeed. Most notable has been the effect on my concentration span - I now seem completely incapable of focussing on anything for more than a few minutes before I suddenly find myself back on the Google Reader tab looking at what's new. It's an obsession - constantly ...

And now, for some off-topic:

"If programming languages were religions"
(Inspired by "If programming languages were cars")

C would be Judaism - it's old and restrictive, but most of the world is familiar with its laws and respects them. The catch is, you can't convert into it - you're either into it from the start, or you will think that it's insanity. Also, when things go wrong, many people are willing to blame the problems of the world on it.

I got off the plane from Boston to find my inbox filled with anger about an article in the Wall Street Journal. To those who were angry, I hope you will direct any anger at the Wall Street Journal after you read what follows.

The article is an indirect effort to gin up a drama about a drama about an alleged shift in Obama's policies about network neutrality. What's the evidence for the shift? That Google allegedly is negotiating for faster service on some network pipes. And that "prominent Internet scholars, some of whom have advised President-elect Barack ...

Take a look at the November 2008 TIOBE index top ten:

  Position   Position   Programming     Ratings   Delta Nov
  Nov 2008   Nov 2007   Language        Nov 2008  2007
  1          1          Java            20.299%   -0.24%
  2          2          C               15.276%   +1.31%
  3          4          C++             10.357%   +1.61%
  4          3          (Visual) Basic   9.270%   -0.96%
  5          5          PHP              8.940%   +0.25%
  6          7          Python           5.140%   +0.91%
  7          8          C#               4.026%   +0.11%
  8          11         Delphi           4.006%   +1.55%
  9          6          Perl             3.876%   -0.86%
  10         10         JavaScript       2.925%    0.00%

Yes, I know TIOBE ...