I always liked the ActiveRecord pattern – it makes sense to me. But reading this I can see how it is misapplied in many implementations, including my own. In a recent review of an app I had worked on, I realised that I had a limited database-model relationship. This article has helped me realise how, and the kinds of design considerations I should be making with MVC in the future. Fat controllers indeed. Confusion and delay!

I love reading about typography. It is a fine discipline and to me forms the basic structure for all our visual communication. And it is so neglected by many digital designers, (although the tide does seem to be changing with that, and its importance is being more and more acknowledged). This is probably basic stuff to your average experienced or well trained print designer. As a developer I like to know these basic concepts.

Stephen O'Grady summarises some views on why software patents are bad or are wrong, and concludes with his view, which is that they simply cannot work. Good reading.

I would never have thought I'd find a sysadmin's narrative on hunting down and fixing a compromised server's problem this interesting or filled with detective story suspense. Someone in Hollywood ought to get the film rights to this.

Can this work? And what can it work for? It's an interesting idea – to aggregate anecdotal and narrative based user input. Measuring and plotting qualitative data seem like an oxymoron. But tools for assessing social attitudes and identifying ways of encouraging change does sound interesting. One has to wonder how much subjective slant can be applied to the infomation graphics produced by a system like this. One to watch indeed.

Sometimes one's brain doesn't quite get to the logic of SQL, and a list like this can hopefully help one out.