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Stack OverflowWho are the "Jeff Atwood" and "Joel Spolsky" outside the Microsoft universe?
[+30] [16] Ola Eldøy
[2008-12-19 11:34:48]
[ discussion blogs ]
[ http://stackoverflow.com/questions/380739] [DELETED]

Joel and Jeff have been a great source of enlightenment and learning for me. However, they are a bit Microsoft-centric.

In order to widen my horizon... Are there less Microsoft-centric people out there who:

omg wiki !!!! questions!! - community_owned
(1) maybe we should do a request SO to make a "force wiki" feature. - dr. evil
(16) I am not sure jeff is a source of enlightenment. Entertainment maybe, but not enlightenment... - Tim
It's interesting to note that the most popular blogs are related to Microsoft technologies. I personally loved Steve Yegge's former Amazon blog which is more gneral: sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/blog-rants - Dhruv
[+29] [2008-12-19 11:43:49] Ruben Steins [ACCEPTED]

Check out this Top 200 Blogs for Developers [1]. There's a lot of nice blogs in that list. Although Joel is at the top, there are a lot of non-MS oriented guys in there as well.

[1] http://www.noop.nl/2009/09/top-200-blogs-for-developers-q3-2009.html

(2) Although Paul Graham is great person about several subjects such as startups and business he's nto writing about technical subjects anymore. It's quite weird to make TOP second developer blog! - dr. evil
(1) The list was based on suggestions by developers (combined with all kinds of page ranks); apparantly we (developers) like to read inspiring stories about startups as well (at least I do) :) - Ruben Steins
(2) Yeah but Paul Graham can be a bit much. - BobbyShaftoe
(2) Updated List: noop.nl/2009/09/top-200-blogs-for-developers-q3-2009.html - SwissCoder
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[+15] [2008-12-19 11:37:22] John T

Jon Skeet [1]?

[1] http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon_skeet/Default.aspx

I was typing the exact same thing! - Mehrdad Afshari
(1) I looks like Jon Skeet is the 42 of the 21-st century. - Gamecat
+ 1 for his active participation in SO - yesraaj
hahaha, where's his site? - melaos
pobox.com/~skeet - John T
Is "Jon Skeet" the new "First post"? - Gunnar Steinn
@Gunnar: Oh please, no. If SO ever gets to the point of having "First!" answers or comments, I'm leaving. - Graeme Perrow
(21) Who is this "Jon Skeet"? - Jeff Atwood
(3) I'm tempted to downvote you for the question mark. Of course it's Jon Skeet! :) - Bill the Lizard
(6) No offense to the all mighty but Jon Skeet wrote the book on C#...I wouldn't exactly consider that "Outsite the MS universe" - Michael Haren
HA . - jjnguy
(16) Well, we now have the official "secret handshake" for SO users. If you're out in public and somebody asks a general question, instead of saying "42!", say "Jon Skeet!" and see how many people look at you approvingly. 8^D - Dillie-O
(4) Also, see how many frown, then usher their kids to the other side of the street. They were just asking for directions to Union Station... :P - Jimmy
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[+12] [2008-12-19 11:38:20] Charles Graham

Well, just look at some of the bloggers that they admire like Paul Graham, Steve Yegge, and Clay Shirkey.

You might want to also look at Greg Brill's blog from Infusion. There is some great stuff there about business and tech in general.


(3) Steve Yegge is one of the funniest guys I have ever read. Guy is a classic and smart as. - Anonymous Type
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[+9] [2008-12-25 11:03:14] Onur Bıyık

Steve Yegge


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[+8] [2008-12-19 15:44:13] tsps

Martin Fowler


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[+8] [2008-12-19 12:03:39] Charles Graham

Software Engineering Radio [1] is also a must.

[1] http://www.se-radio.net/

I really like the guys, but sometimes I nod while listening to them, specially if it is not Markus who is speaking (no offense to others, I haven't heard most of the latests episodes) - Manuel Ferreria
Very true. It's hit or miss on there. - Charles Graham
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[+6] [2008-12-25 11:00:10] Onur Bıyık

Miguel de Icaza [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_de_Icaza

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[+5] [2008-12-19 11:38:58] Gunnar Steinn

Is Linux too far away from Joel and Jeff?

If not then I recommend LugRadio with Jono Bacon and co. http://lugradio.org/

Apart from that, this thread on SO should help you out: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1644/what-good-technology-podcasts-are-out-there


Linux is definitely outside the Microsoft universe, so your answer is right on! +1 - Ola Eldøy
Sadly lugradio is no more. Great show though and the archives are available. - frankodwyer
But Jono Bacon as a personality is still out there doing things, I suppose. - BobbyShaftoe
Yes he is - actually Jono and Stuart Langridge are both working for canonical (ubunutu) now. Jono has a blog, and Stuart has a good technical blog, mainly on Javascript and free software related stuff. - frankodwyer
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[+3] [2008-12-20 05:28:47] Ola Eldøy

As a side note, I've found a number of "gurus" out there who don't necessarily blog so much, but they are nevertheless making an "online presence" by means of interviews, conference sessions and similar... People like Kent Beck [1], and the Pragmatic Programmers [2].

[1] http://www.threeriversinstitute.org/
[2] http://www.pragprog.com/

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[+2] [2008-12-19 13:50:46] frankodwyer

I usually find what David Heinemeier Hansson (the Rails guy) has to say interesting.

He has a blog at loudthinking.com.

This presentation in particular is pretty good:

http://www.omnisio.com/startupschool08/david-heinemeier-hansson-at-startup-school-08


(3) I see some people are voting this up, others down. I'd be interested to know why the downvotes? Just a dislike for DHH or what? - frankodwyer
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[+2] [2008-12-19 14:16:26] ArjanZuidhof

Don't forget a relatively new source, Hacker News @ YCombinator [1]. !00% non-Microsoft, so if you're having trouble with Python, Smalltalk and List, dont't go there :)

Otherwise, there might be a lot to learn!

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/

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[+1] [2008-12-22 11:26:43] Ola Eldøy

I would like to mention Michael Feathers. His book Working Effectively with Legacy Code [1] gave me added incentive to investigate developer testing. His blog [2] is informative on a variety of topics, and he has also been known to give the occasional audio interview [3].

[1] http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0131177052
[2] http://michaelfeathers.typepad.com/michael_feathers_blog/
[3] http://www.developerfusion.com/podcast/9371/michael-feathers-talks-legacy-code/

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[+1] [2010-10-11 08:54:08] Sedate Alien

Off the top of my head, with respect to the Mac developer world:

These are the blogs that I refer to on a semi-daily basis.

[1] http://cocoawithlove.com/
[2] http://boredzo.org/blog/
[3] http://mikeash.com/pyblog/
[4] http://mattgemmell.com/
[5] http://rentzsch.tumblr.com/
[6] http://speirs.org/

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[0] [2008-12-22 20:07:44] Rob Kam

There is the Journal of Alias [1] for Strawberry Perl.

[1] http://use.perl.org/~Alias/journal/

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[0] [2008-12-19 11:43:28] Abizern

And an interesting developer podcast without getting too technical is the Mac Software Business Podcast [1].

[1] http://www.mac-developer-network.com/podcasts/macsb/index.html

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[0] [2008-12-19 11:37:46] Abizern

On the Mac - Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster is the first one that comes to mind. His blog Call Me Fishmeal [1].

He isn't the only one. The Mac developverse has many active bloggers.

[1] http://www.wilshipley.com/blog/

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