Links for the day (aka. Other people's stuff)

A couple of posts of other people that resonate well with me:
http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/07/15/getting-to-the-bottom-of-things/

I think this one hits the nail on the head about multi-tasking and information overload. Also explains why the days that I manage to ignore Google reader and Thunderbird for extended periods of time are my most productive, even though the actual total time spent doing either isn't any less. I probably would see great productivity gains if I managed to restrict how often I look at either of those. I've noticed this summer just how hard it is to get back in a groove on something once you've gotten out, both taking 5 minutes away from intensive coding or taking a multi-day (week?) break from a certain topic. Our brains are like computers in a way, there's only so much you can keep readily accessible.

http://bitecode.co.uk/2008/07/my-views-on-python/

There's not much more I can add here, python just rocks. :) I can't believe there was once upon a time that I did analysis and even generated images using only C (and maybe *shudder* Excel).