On Computer Science

It's been a while since I did a CS-related round-up (and still more catching up on stuff that came out while I was on vacation.):

• Congratulations, Luis von Ahn -- one of the 2006 McArthur Genius awards goes to a computer scientist.
  
• Language Wars By Joel Spolsky about which language to choose for which project, always a controversial issue when you get a bunch of programmers together. Spolsky has an interesting take on the issue -- you don't know until it's too late.
  
• Also from Joel on Software, The Guerrilla Guide to Hiring. It's a series of articles on hiring software developers. They're pretty interesting, revealing a lot about the culture. Interestingly, many of the same ideas are relevant for hiring librarians, especially those with specialized skillsets.
  
  
  • Finding Great Developers
    
  • Field Guide to Developers
    
  • Sorting Resumes
  
  
• Offshoring Implications: Innovate to Succeed -- the U.S. General Accounting Office released a report on offshoring in US semiconductor and softwares industries. The ACM published a similar report on the software industry.
  
• The Tenure Gender Gap in computing. Highlights two recent articles in the mainstream media describing the recent National Academies report on women in science.
  
• Position Opening: IT "Image" Strategist -- how bad is the image of your field when you have to hire an image strategist? Yep, that bad.
  
• The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. Jane'll be there. Have fun & I can't wait to hear about the conference. (My b-day is actually Oct. 6th. 44!) UPDATE: via Topix, the Silicon Valley Watcher on the conference.
  
• Electrical Engineering Future -- what EE's do and why you'd want to be one, here.