Ok, you have to check out this video of the Huygens probe descending to Titan:

NASA Titan video page

The totally most information dense video I've ever seen, it just makes me so happy!

Some pictures that I took yesterday:

Although I totally love Firefox, I find that a combination of Firefox for AJAX heavy pages, along with Opera works even better.

I have Firefox and Opera on the same desktop, with Firefox in the 0 0 area and Opera just below it in the 0 1 area, so I can switch between the two with a simple CTRL-UpArrow and CTRL-DownArrow in Enlightenment.

With Opera, I take advantage of it's great handling of multiple tabs. Firefox is great with tabs, but starts taking up a lot of memory when you have 30 or so open tabs, like I do right now in my Opera session. Opera has some really wonderful features and works great completely from the keyboard, with probably better thought out shortcuts than Firefox.

So, I think, use both at the same time, they both have their benefits, and in Linux, they work side-by-side really well.

Here's some Opera links for you:

10 features you'll only find in Opera
Opera Tips and Tricks
Use Opera to do a slideshow

The Future of Programming - An interview with Paul Graham.

Strings from PLEAC Ruby, a great resource.

Ruby Kernel interface.

r = rand(number_of_entries) + 1

was useful.

The Real Contribution of Rails - Yes, stop the bloat of these huge frameworks, and reduce the amount of code you write.

10 places you must use AJAX, and places not to use AJAX as well.

I like the new idea that is coming out that you should first design your application to work with any kind of browser, and then add the AJAX features on top. This makes a lot of sense to me, and is what I'm doing with my new big web application.

The Hardest Lessons for Startups to Learn, an essay by Paul Graham.

jQuery - New Wave Javascript.

Comparing XSLT and XQuery.

Round up of 50 AJAX toolkits.

Because I use Ruby on Rails, Prototype and Scriptaculous make the most sense to use, but there are some great ideas in these other toolkits. Now, to come up with a way to be able to use multiple toolkits at once, and to pick and choose the features you require from each of these.

A good programming font is really important. I have done many searches for perfect programming fonts in the past. I really love Monaco, which reminds me of good times spent in front of the Mac Plus. Sometimes I wish I had a Commodore Superpet, with that beautiful green on black. Nowadays, I use Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, which is quite nice, and I have it on a gently coloured background.

What brought this all to mind was a new article on Programmer Fonts.

Some advice for you young coders: Be kind to your eyes, you only get two of them, and they have to last you.

A good KernelTrap interview with the contraversial Theo De Raadt.

Discard your worries, mind!
Remember in your heart That Mother!
She is All-present: in the house and in the forest.
She is behind, in front, inside, outside.
Her Name, drink as the Elixir my friend,
She gives you Ultimate Contentment.
No other than She in Her abundant mercy
Knows the afflictions of your heart.

The month of May is a perfect time to celebrate the divine Mother, and the Virgin Mary is such a universally adored manifestation of the female aspect of God. Here's a prayer that is often said to mother Mary:

Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to you, O virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy, hear and answer me. Amen.

Places to use (and not use) AJAX.

Database War Stories
Number 1 - Second Life
Number 2 - Bloglines
Number 3 - Flickr
Number 4 - Nasa WorldWind

And:

Offline data access in a browser. Sweet.

Money Order scams
Paypal Fees

I just saw a great Google Techtalks video of Scott Barber from PerfTestPlus talking about UCML, User Community Markup Language. This is a visual way to draw out how people will interact with your website. It ends up looking a lot like a Markov Chain diagram. It would be so sweet to do this for Ruby on Rails, so that this diagram could be automatically generated from your actual running website. With Ruby's excellent reflection and dynamic language support, it might not even be too painful.