It's a pity that there was never a volume II for this classic collection of the best software writing, selected and introduced by Joel Spolsky. I just picked it up to re-read some of my favourites, like Bruce Eckel's Strong Typing vs. Strong Testing, which is a bit of a milestone article in the rise of the "scripting" languages like ruby and Python. Adam Bosworth's ICSOC04 Talk which reminds us it is more important for computer science to be understandable by people than by computers. There's also some great pointed humour, with Rory Blyth's Excel as a Database Powerpoint Remix - Aaron Swartz And the legendary A Quick (and Hopefully Painless) Ride Through Ruby (with Cartoon Foxes) by why the lucky stiff Definitely one of the all-time-must-have tech reads (and re-reads).