next*

There's a lot of value to learning new programming languages even if you can't use them in your day job. It helps you think about the problems you face differently. See a new perspective on solving problems.

The languages which are interesting to me are:

• D for a c++ like language
• lua for embedded oo scripting
• ruby for web development and automation
• erlang for concurrent and distributed programming
• ocaml for data processing

And smalltalk for knowing what the grandmaster poobahs did back in the day.

To keep your chops up, try learning a new language every year.

www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/loty/

(http://www.pragprog.com/articles/designing-learning )

Learning something new doesn't mean you're rejecting what you already know and do...

Popularity: 6% [?]

Like most large software and web development teams out there, Yahoo! has an internal bug tracking system. Once in a while, funny bugs get filed. For example, this "bug" about the Widget Badge Creator page reports that the page has "too much unused space."

The person who filed this bug was thoughtful enough to add a screenshot, indicating where the unused space was. A Widget engineer (and friend of mine) named Laurie responded promptly to close the bug. "The page looks as designed. This is not a bug," he wrote.

I've dubbed this the "Not Enough Clutter" bug because it's a prime example of the misconception that any available screen real estate on a should be filled – whether with content or advertising. This is particularly irksome to me as a designer because I use space to help a visitor focus and differentiate information.

In this regard, Yahoo!'s homepage and Yahoo's Google-inspired search.yahoo.com homepage are probably at the two opposite extremes of the white space spectrum. Although Google's homepage design was an accident, it highlights the effectiveness of choosing not to include something on a page for the sake of it. And, I suppose it's better than filing a "needs more dropshadow" bug.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Wow, this place is nice! Everything's so new and shiny, it won't take us long to scuff it up.

Why am I wandering the halls of this fancy new place called Next? Well, I wanted to tell you about this great program I run here, but first, let me tell you a little about my myself.

My name is Arlo Rose , and I came to Yahoo! just over two years ago when my company Pixoria was acquired for its flagship product Konfabulator. And really, by flagship, I mean that it was our only product. But it was an awesome one. So awesome that the concept behind it is now an integral part of both major operating systems (Mac and Windows) and is used all over web pages to convey simple, highly contextual, information to people. Konfabulator ran files called Widgets. Sound familiar? I know, they’re everywhere now! Makes me proud.

I’ve done a bunch of stuff since coming to Yahoo!, but my current project is running this thing called Hack. Hack is a program that's all about letting people who like to tinker with code have a voice outside their day-to-day duties.

The basic concept is this: take 24 hours to try and realize whatever you want to build; show it in a science fair setting and let your peers vote on which they think is the best; take the top 25 of those, show them to some execs and well respected peers and let them choose the top three.

Here’s where the Next piece of the equation fits in--we now have a place where we can share winning hacks. It’s an important piece of what Next is going to be about. When a project that’s able to be publicly consumed has had a little bit of polish applied, we’ll publish it on Next while we work out its place in the big picture. This is great because the developers get their work out to the world, and you guys, you know, get to play with this cool stuff we develop out of passion. You can’t beat that.

(Photo from Chad Dickerson )

Popularity: 12% [?]