other
This page contains other things that don’t really fit anywhere. Most notably, links to things I’ve found useful, well written and interesting. (NB I’m not including the painfully obvious, github, stackoverflow etc. etc. I did make an exception for Evernote, because it’s just that damn good for anyone).
Products or services
Evernote
Has revolutionized my life. All my notes in one place. Everywhere I go. On any platform (thank you nixnotes/nevernote). Locally available with seamless cloud syncing. I mean, what more do you want.
Instructive or educational
Understanding Git
This is a conceptual description of how Git works, and something I found pretty useful after a few months of sort of blindly hacking my way through Git’s use. It’s funny how when I started programming I saw version control as a pain and an extra complication – now I literally can’t imagine doing software development without it.
Jeff Erickson’s Algorithms Course Material
Prof. Erickson is a member of the CS faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and has kindly put up an absolute wealth of material to rival Cormen’s Introduction to Algorithms (i.e. the gold standard in algorithm course text books) all available for free. It’s a remarkable act, both in terms of the quality of material and the donation to the world. Genuinely inspirational.
List of free technical CS books
I mean, not really a site exactly (although if you code and don’t use stack overflow you’re doing it wrong), but this list has a HUGE collection of free computer science, programming and technical books (including The Wizard book, which, I’m ashamed to say I’m yet to read – all in good time).
Blogs and other interesting sites
The Endeavour – John D. Cook (blog)
John Cook has, “worked as a math professor, programmer, consultant, manager, and statistician” and I typically find myself agreeing with everything he says.
Raganwald’s posterous – Reginal “raganwald” Braithwaite (blog)
Raganwald consistently hits the mark in all his writings, from technical issues to social ones. I’ve read one of his books (How to Do What You Love & Earn What You’re Worth as a Programmer), which I would highly recommend to anyone in the tech industry, although there a few more on my “to read” list.