Robert Martin has an interesting post about the danger of relying on a debugger. Any time I have to run code through a debugger, I feel like something has gone horribly wrong. Obviously, any code with a unit test almost never has a bug that must be found with a debugger, but a lot of the time I find myself working with other people’s code that doesn’t have unit tests, or with third party code that I don’t know enough about to delve into without the debugger. Those are unpleasant times.

Is it just me, or does this Bucket Boss briefcase look like the ultimate cheap laptop bag for a geek? The only issue is that it doesn’t have padding specifically for a laptop, but I wonder if a laptop sleeve is an acceptable workaround.

Not to be missed: Juan Cole’s brief synopsis of the Bush visit to Baghdad. Slate also has a description of the hush hush nature of the trip.

The Slacktivist has a guide to registering voters. Not only useful, but humorous. For example, step 7:

Select a public location where people gather. If you wish to target a demographic that is more likely to vote for candidates from a particular party then you should factor this in your choice of location. If you are a Republican, try a local country club or a corporate trade convention. If you are a Democrat, try pretty much anywhere else.

Daniel Frommelt has written an article describing how he created a standards compliant version of the Slashdot home page. Compare the standards compliant version with the current version. Nearly indistinguishable.

I’m back from my trip but this holiday week will probably slow for links. On the other hand my big project is finally finishing my Movable Type migration. I’ve actually done all the heavy lifting in terms of migrating my old content. The last bit is updating the templates so they look like I want them to look.

I’ll be on a trip with no Internet access until Sunday.

The next time you see a link to a piece at TechCentralStation, bear in mind that the whole site is the publication of a lobbying firm that specializes in Astroturfing.

Not too long ago, The West Wing was my favorite network TV show. How the mighty have fallen. TV critic Rick Kushman captures just what went wrong. (I watched the first couple of episodes this season, but then I bailed out, never to return.)

Tunisian weblogger Zouhair Yahyaoui, who was imprisoned for criticizing his government, has been paroled. Justice was not served in this case but I’m thankful that he’s been released from prison.