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Jeff Atwood went and set fire to the Internet a couple of days ago:

The “everyone should learn to code” movement isn’t just wrong because it falsely equates coding with essential life skills like reading, writing, and math. I wish. It is wrong in so many other ways.

This point feels a little stretched to me. I’m not sure where Atwood is getting these “coding is as important as reading/writing/math” vibes from, but why isn’t there a place for coding in schools beyond the core curriculum? Put another way: why exclude Computer Science / programming from that seemingly arbitrary list of auxiliary subjects that we make our schoolchildren learn over their 12 years of pre-university education?

The general populace (and its political leadership) could probably benefit most of all from a basic understanding of how computers, and the Internet, work. Being able to get around on the Internet is becoming a basic life skill, and we should be worried about fixing that first and most of all, before we start jumping all the way into code.

This part makes perfect sense. However, what he proposes here doesn’t have to be at the exclusion of teaching more people programming, yes?

Here’s a response, by Zed Shaw of Learn Code The Hard Way:

I wonder if he’s going to tell his kids they shouldn’t learn to code when they want to become just like Daddy? Probably not. He’ll gleefully run over and show them how to code and tell them it’s so much fun and that they should all do it and it’s the best thing ever! But, of course, your kids shouldn’t learn to code, and you shouldn’t, and your friends shouldn’t, just Jeff and his kids should.

I do think Shaw’s taking a bit far when he cites resentment as Atwood’s motivation for telling people not to learn how to code, but then, running a (very good, supposedly) programming education website could do that to your perspective. Both articles make good points, but I’d recommend Shaw’s to anyone feeling a bit deflated after reading Atwood’s.

The Economist, on the incensed hordes:

Wait a second! Did Eduardo Saverin plunder us? Are we now a desolate husk of a country, sucked dry by Eduardo Saverin’s rapine?

Ah, Americans.

What a movie. Credit where it’s due (and not just to Stan and Jack!).

A great little tool for sending webpages directly from one browser a bookmarklet (i.e. from any browser–iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows) to your Mac’s default browser. Much handier than Safari’s Reading List, and the website has some of the best design & copy ever:

• “Send2Mac: It will probably drive you nuts!”
• “Imagine a shitty icon here”
• “THIS IS ALPHA SOFTWARE, IT MIGHT BE REALLY BUGGY”
• “It is easy and awkward at the same time.”
• “Keep your API key private! If someone else knows it, they can drive you crazy.”

Garrett Murray digs into The Verge’s Paul Miller’s stunt to leave the Internet for a year:

If you feel you have a problem with using the internet too much, use the internet less. Nothing is gained by making it ten times harder to order a pizza on a Friday night or find a homeopathic cure for a rash.

Ahh! Stupid tech bloggers.

Five movies that lead up to this.

Made with Paper. I also just bought Procreate, which is supposed to be great once you get over the giggle-inducing name (“Hey! Look at me! I’m procreating on my iPad!”), but all those brushes and options are a bit of a turn-off now. Hmm.

Barack and Michelle:

But we only finished paying off our student loans—check this out, all right, I’m the President of the United States—we only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago.

Wow. That makes me feel a lot better about the six-year scholarship bond I completed nearly two years ago.

Also, has someone made an audio loop out of “check this out, all right, I’m the President of the United States” yet?

I found this ESPN article from a retweet somewhere, describing it as a really touching story about Twitter. Turns out it’s about MLB pitcher–and former college dorm neighbour!–Jeremy Guthrie, still apparently as nice a guy as ever:

In other words, Twitter and Jeremy Guthrie and a chemotherapy nurse gave Woody Roseland the greatest single day in a life that’s been a little light on them.

Comics Alliance breaks down an “untold origin” story for Batman from the 1950s, which reveals how he learns to be a detective. It’s “actually pretty dumb”, and the article goes into some depth to very entertainingly illustrate why.

My favourite bit, though, is at the end where they talk about Iron Fist’s origin:

That dude bear-hugged a dragon until it died and then got mystical kung fu powers from its immortal heart. That is rad.

It is!