- A fascinating study of the surprisingly humane system of privateering. Read it and reflect on current attitudes towards ransom in places like Iraq.
- I got emailed a survey today. As an incentive to complete it, the company offered to either put me into a competition to win an iPod, or to buy 75 kilos of CO2 from European industries. How could I go for an iPod when offered this? Clever.
- This discussion of useful features that didn’t end up being necessary is very familiar. We’ve spent many a day implementing some nice abstraction that we don’t end up using.