The surprising science of motivation: Dan Pink on TED.com

Amazing.  All managers should watch this and think about it.  What really motivates people?

http://blog.ted.com/2009/08/the_surprising.php

Ubuntu: turn off - show window contents when moving and resizing

$ gconf-editor

apps > metacity > general > reduced_resources –> check off

Google Go language - install and run

It's too bad that it currently only supports Linux and OSX.  (I use Windows and Sparc Solaris.)  I think it'll eventually support other platforms, but for now, it's just Linux and OSX.

Platform

I've installed Ubuntu 9.10 on VMWare, assigning 40GB HDD and 1GB RAM.  Ubuntu 9.10 is much faster than previous version.

Compile and Install

First, installing Go.  Create ~/bin/ directory and add that to PATH.  Then follow the instruction on http://golang.org/doc/install.html I didn't have any issue at all.

Code Editor

After compiling Go lang, in $GOROOT directory, there are documents, samples, and syntax highlighting files for a few editors.  I use VIM, and installed $GOROOT/misc/vim/go.vim file.  Copy this file into ~/.vim/ directory.  And edit ~/.vimrc file:

let mysyntaxfile = "/home/MY_USER/.vim/go.vim"
syntax on
set nu
set ai
set tabstop=4
set ruler
set laststatus=2
set showmode
set expandtab
let loaded_matchparen=1

(First two lines are for go lang.)

Documents, Tutorials, Sample code

In $GOROOT/doc, the documents -- tutorial, document on Go memory, specification, FAQ, Go Course (day1-3) PDFs, effective go, and sample code are all there.  No need to download from the site separately.

... More on Go lang later.

Golang

Everyone probably heard of Go lang already by now.  I read many other people's experiments with it -- some are good reviews and some are bad.

Played with the examples on Ubuntu.  Compiles fine, up and running in no time.  Too bad it doesn't have Windows or Sparc Solaris versions yet.

Anyhow, I need to test further, but syntax looks great, threading model looks good, garbage collection looks fine too.  Need to play around with it more...

Lisp

1. http://www.daansystems.com/lispide/ - Simple, and the best IDE for Lisp beginner

2. http://sbcl.sourceforge.net/platform-table.html - SBCL

3. Lisp in a box = emacs+common lisp+SLIME, on WIndows, http://gigamonkeys.com/lispbox/#download

4. Allegro CL Free Express Edition, http://www.franz.com/downloads/

This is a free version, but I think it's a bit overkill for Lisp beginner.  Free version has a limit, e.g. heap size 60MB max.

5. Scheme, http://www.plt-scheme.org/

6. Use Clojure plugin Eclipse

7. Use Clojure plugin for NetBeans, http://enclojure.org/

8. New Lisp, http://www.newlisp.org/