It’s a manageable list this week.

• Markov Chains Explained.  It’s useful to at least know what Markov chains are, because there are some silly text tricks that can be done, and it’s a good term to use so that you sound smart.  (via)
• Rob Pike’s 5 rules of programming.  (via)
• Similar: Epigrams in programming.  (via)
• snowdrift.coop, a new funding service for open source projects.  It’s not launched yet, but it appears to be using a ‘shares’ approach which could be interesting.  (via IRC)
• Unix: never go topless.
• On the cruelty of really teaching computing science.  Good quote where I found it, too.
• Don’t tell people to use VIM (because) You’re Using It Wrong.  Notes how trendy “use Vim!” articles have become. (via)
• The levels of Emacs proficiency.  (via)
• The genre-defining video games we forgot. A surprisingly in-depth documentary.
• Eulerian Video Magnification.  Heartbeat reading with common cameras.  (via a newsletter)
• Sometimes you think of something that should exist, and then you immediately find out it does exist – foot switches for emacs.
• Explaining X11 for the rest of us.  (via)
• Awesome-awesomeness.  Curated lists of resources for various languages.  Two things struck me: one is that Github is being used more like a document repository than a code repository, sometimes, and the other is that this is such a huge list, it almost overwhelms the original purpose of showing what to use next.  (via)

Your unrelated comics link of the week: Formicapunk.  Boulet’s version of analog technology.