hey, co-worker Rory Browne gets namechecked on James Hamilton's blog! woo

'For the most senior officer on board, the one who had been entrusted with the care and safety of this magnificent ship, his job was far from over. In fact the Captain had just added a new job title to his resume, that of ON SCENE COMMANDER. But apparently he didn’t realize it because he took off in a lifeboat, leaving this giant steaming pile to be picked up by the Italian police and Coast Guard who are continuing to search for survivors, and prevent looters from gaining access. The Captain didn’t just take off in a lifeboat, he left the entire scene completely.' oh dear. (via Tony Finch)

good tips on riding in a city; I use all of these, every day, and they're entirely correct. The comments have some good ideas, too

really quite good advice -- all except for "take the whole lane", which in my experience aggravates drivers and causes road rage and risky behaviour. avoid

discussion thread on the cons of using Turing-complete general-purpose programming languages in places where it's not necessary, such as configuration files