No April Fools jokes because I’m a Grinch. Instead you get architecture, research, visualization, and pain:
- Stacks, Readers, Staff–Building the British Library is an overview of what a momentous accomplishment the British Library was. And a reminder that no matter how gorgeous, loved, and inevitable the final product seems, there’s always a pitched battle to get it made. Architect Sir Colin St. John ‘Sandy’ Wilson used to refer to the project that took up the bulk of his professional career as ‘the thirty years war’. There was no overall budget, and so from year to year, the architects never knew how much was going to be available for construction. That meant a constant process of re-design and re-assesment of priorities, as the eventual shape and size of the building always seemed to be in flux.
- Richard Hamming: You and Your Research (Paul Graham) — transcript of a talk Hamming gave at Bell Labs in 1986, talking about how to do great research. Many a second-rate fellow gets caught up in some little twitting of the system, and carries it through to warfare. He expends his energy in a foolish project. Now you are going to tell me that somebody has to change the system. I agree; somebody’s has to. Which do you want to be? The person who changes the system or the person who does first-class science? Which person is it that you want to be?
- CS171 – Harvard course on visualization, with links to video, slides, etc.
- Carpal Tunnel Exercises That Really Work (BoingBoing) — no idea whether they do or not, but I know enough people who are looking for something that does that I’m posting this. If you recommend a book or program that’s worked for your Carpal Tunnel, please post in the comments.