Programming is Hard, Let's Go Scripting... (13 tags)
Larry Wall's annual State of the Onion describes the state of Perl, the language and the community. In his 11th address, he discussed the past, present, and future of scripting languages, including the several dimensions of design decisions important to the development of Perl 6.
What Is Web 2.0 (11 tags)
Defining just what Web 2.0 means (the term was first coined at a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International, which also spawned the Web 2.0 Conference), still engenders much disagreement. Some decry it as a meaningless marketing buzzword, while others have accepted it as the new conventional wisdom. Tim O'Reilly attempts to clarify just what we meant by Web 2.0, digging into what it means to view the Web as a platform and which applications fall squarely under its purview, and which do not.
Piracy is Progressive Taxation, and Other Thoughts on the Evolution of Online Distribution (3 tags)
As he follows the business world of movies and music, Tim O'Reilly draws upon his own publishing experience and comments on the current controversy over digital file sharing.
Perl's Special Variables (2 tags)
Dave Cross goes back to basics to show how using Perl's special variables can tidy up file-handling code.
Why Learning Assembly Language Is Still a Good Idea (2 tags)
Randall Hyde makes his case for why learning assembly language is still relevant today. The key, says Randall, is to learn how to efficiently implement an application, and the best implementations are written by those who've mastered assembly language. Randall is the author of Write Great Code (from No Starch Press).