"When viewed in development mode, the person div would be overlaid with a translucent gray box with the words “Milestone 6” in it, as shown below."

"We’ve been writing a “feature” for every new client request on that project – for each user-created ticket we handle, we create a .feature file (and include the ticket number in the feature title), and write steps for that request. This means that we have acceptance tests for all new client requests on that project. This approach may seem a little strange, but it’s been helpful, and we’re very happy with it so far. We’ll likely take a different approach if we use Cucumber on a project from scratch.

Now you have no excuse if your projects aren’t doing any kind of top-down testing, so get out there and write some acceptance tests!"

"The Shoulda gem makes it easy to write elegant, understandable, and maintainable Ruby tests. Shoulda consists of test macros, assertions, and helpers added on to the Test::Unit framework. It’s fully compatible with your existing tests, and requires no retooling to use."

"The second thing you need to do is push your uncertainty threshold.
We all have a certain limit, or threshold, for the amount of uncertainty we can handle. For some of us, we have such a low limit, we’re afraid of even simple things, like talking to a stranger. We can’t predict what the person we’ll say, so we can’t tolerate the uncertainty. This is on the lower end of the spectrum. The higher end of the scale might be not being able to quit your job and follow your passion. There’s no way you can foresee what will happen, so you let uncertainty keep you from taking action."

"Unions paved the way to the middle class for millions of American workers and pioneered benefits such as paid health care and pensions along the way. Even today, union workers earn significantly more on average than their non-union counterparts, and union employers are more likely to provide benefits. And non-union workers—particularly in highly unionized industries—receive financial benefits from employers who increase wages to match what unions would win in order to avoid unionization."

"This experience has also altered my view of blogging and research. On one hand, I’m very enthusiastic about research in general, and my research in particular, where we are regularly cracking conventionally impossible problems. On the other hand, it seems that some small number of people viewing a discussion silently decide they don’t like it, and veto it given the opportunity. It only takes one to turn strong paper into a years-long odyssey, so public discussion of research directions and topics in a vetocracy is akin to voluntarily wearing a “kick me” sign. While this a problem for me, I expect it to be even worse for the members of a vetocracy in the long term."

"Grad school was even worse. At that level, a self-selected bunch of failure avoiders competed for faculty approval in a pretty airless environment for years. By the end, it took an act of will just to put together a declarative sentence. The most damning insult in grad school was “naive,” which was typically applied to anyone who actually made some sort of positive claim. (“Naive realism” was the worst, since it implied the unforgivable sin of claiming to actually know something about something.) Self-doubt can be taught.

In grad school, too, I recall the faculty being perplexed as to why so many doctoral students seemed oddly hesitant and overly deferential during oral exams. At one panel of grad student papers, I recall noticing that every single grad student started her presentation with “this is a work in progress.” Translated, that means “please don't attack me.” These habits are learned…."

"… The notanemployee example helps these people to know that some people are declaring that the types of relationships in business are no longer restricted to being hierarchical, and that we can make a choice. And, that independents can work together to help the people who hire them understand that they can get a competitive edge by not trying to control those people who choose to work with them. This makes for better relationships, more adaptability and flexibilty, a higher chance of success. This is a realistic pathway for people to begin to have the freedom to start building systems that are commons and peer-based. 20 years ago, it was unheard of for independent business people to work together closely on creating an ecolgy of trust, mutual respect, and learning/participation commons."

"The Xquartz project is an open-source effort to develop a version of the X.org X Window System that runs on Mac OS X. Together with supporting libraries and applications, it forms the X11.app that Apple has shipped with OS X since version 10.5."

"Here’s what duplication removal does, structurally. It allows you to pull out redundant bits of pulp from big sections, yielding smaller sections, but the side effect is that you end up with more fascia. Duplication removal increases the ratio of fascia to pulp. If the amount of pulp you are able to remove exceeds the size of the fascia you introduce, the net amount of code decreases, otherwise it might increase.

In general, I think that a high fascia to pulp ratio is better for maintenance. It gives us is a higher surface area to volume ratio for our code. This can enhance testability and make it easier to compose new software – we already have smaller more understandable pieces."

"This may all sound sinister and manipulative, but the impulse behind it is getting people past the blinders that inhibit them from helping to shape the solution. The point is to enable a constructive kind of academic citizenship, rather than the usual dichotomy of either apathy or total war. Once they grasp the contours of what we're up against, they're in a position to craft actual solutions, and to defend their own interests more effectively. I want that to happen, since I can't help but think that we're smarter together than separately."

"…But for banking we do need an Atabeg. He (the kind of person we're looking for will probably be male) should work out of a complex of silk tents in Wyoming, which shivering suppliants must reach on foot. The bankers and, why not, derivatives traders should plead for mercy under the horsetail banners streaming in the steppe wind, close to the white pyramid of bleached skulls."

"I recently got back reviews of a paper in which I used automatic differentiation. Therein, a reviewer clearly thought I was using finite difference, or “numerical” differentiation. This has led me to wondering: Why don’t machine learning people use automatic differentiation more? Why don’t they use it…constantly? Before recklessly speculating on the answer, let me briefly review what automatic differentiation (henceforth “autodiff”) is. Specifically, I will be talking about reverse-mode autodiff."

"Call to Action: We therefore urge every U.S. law school to commit to ending print publication of its journals and to making definitive versions of journals and other scholarship produced at the school immediately available upon publication in stable, open, digital formats, rather than in print."

""We've decided to close your office. We think we might be able to find you another job. Hmmmm….maybe. Not sure about your staff and patients, but maybe. We'll see. Gotta go HIRE SOME CARDIOLOGISTS!" (I'm soooooooooooo not kidding.) "Thanks for taking it on the chin and not crying like a girl! I'll be in touch soon, I promise. Bye. Can't keep the heart guys waiting.""

"I wish you had omitted . . . all those Expressions of Resentment against your Adversaries. . . . In such Cases, the noblest Victory is obtained by Neglect, and by Shining On."

"Now, I’m in no position to refute those figures, but I don’t think it takes an economics expert to look at them and realise why the publishers are struggling at the moment; if their analysis people can only shave off $2 per unit by removing the printing, shipping, warehousing and remaindering from the equation, then there’s a business model that was on shaky ground before the ebook entered the picture. I suspect the bits I’ve bolded are where the haemorrhaging could be stemmed most effectively."

"A buccaneer-scholar is anyone whose love of learning is not muzzled, yoked or shackled by any institution or authority; whose mind is driven to wander and find its own voice and place in the world."

[indirect but key]
"Practice, practice, practice!
Don't confuse experience with expertise.
Don't trust folklore — but learn it anyway.
Take nothing on faith. Own your methodology.
Drive your own education — no one else will.
Reputation = Money. Build and protect your reputation.
Relentlessly gather resources, materials, and tools.
Establish your standards and ethics.
Avoid certifications that trivialize the craft.
Associate with demanding colleagues.
Write, speak, and always tell the truth as you see it."

"She said that Mexico and Canada will merge with us and that a new, open source dollar called the Amero is going to replace the dollar. But the most scary thing is what she told me she’s been doing for the past couple of years. She’s been overseeing the construction of Learning Object Repositories being built all throughout America."

"Combining these techniques can net us some very sophisticated data manipulations. Below is a form that will update a Creator, his address, updates three existing widgets adds one widget, and deletes two widgets."

"The Depressive Pessimist will complain that the task that they're doing isn't enjoyable, and make statements doubting the group's ability to succeed.

The Jerk will say that other people's ideas are not adequate, but will offer no alternatives himself. He'll say "you guys need to listen to the expert: me."

The Slacker will say "whatever", and "I really don't care."