From a Virgin Media call center agent before trying to get me to upgrade my package at a ‘discount’:

“Your name has been added to the list of our valued customers.”

To me this seems to imply

• I hadn’t been valued all the time I’d been with them.
• They still have customers who pay them money every month who aren’t valued.

I’m sure she didn’t like my answer. I expected more from Virgin.

While trying to streamline my growing book collection, I thought to do a post on the books that have been most useful. So here goes:

• The Rails Way by Obie Fernandez
  Useful both as a reference book and a source of advice from the trenches. Covers Rails 2. Smashing.
• The ZEN of CSS Design by Dave Shea, Molly E. Holzschlag
  The definitive CSS showcase.
• Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action by Dave Crane, Bear Bibeault, Tom Locke
  Work with Prototype and Scriptaculous? You need this.
• jQuery in Action by Bear Bibeault, Yehuda Katz
  As above but for the jQuery javascript library.
• DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith
  Absolutely recommended as an intro to working with the Document Object Model.
• Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm
  Lots of useful CSS tips and tricks.
• Bulletproof Ajax by Jeremy Keith
  Very friendly in-depth intro to ajax. Useful even if you use a framework.
• RESTful Web Services by Leonard Richardson, Sam Ruby
  The title says it all. Web Services the modern way.
• Rails Cookbook by Rob Orsini
  If you need to choose just one Rails recipe book, choose this.
• Don’t Make Me Think! by Steve Krug
  Engrossing usability and user interface design book. Read it from cover to cover in a day.
• PHP 5 Objects, Patterns, and Practice by Matt Zandstra
  All you need to get started with Object Oriented Programming with PHP 5.
• Agile Web Development with Rails by Dave Thomas, David Hansson, Leon Breedt, Mike Clark, James Davidson, Justin Gehtland, Andreas Schwarz
  The “official” rails book. Has everything you need to get started with Rails.
• Rules of Management by Richard Templar
  Lots of useful advice for managing resources.
• Php|architect’s Guide to Programming with Zend Framework by Cal Evans
  Currently the only Zend Framework book on sale and it’s really good.
• No Nonsense XML Web Development With PHP by Thomas Myer
  Very good. Walks through an article management project while introducing different aspects of XML with PHP.

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The 2008 Formula 1 season has started and the first race was absolutely smashing. For real.

Brit Lewis Hamilton qualified at pole position and went ahead to win the race but that’s not the best part of this year’s first race.
In my view, the highlight is the introduction of rules designed to make the races less dependent on electronics aids. The consensus then is “out with technology”.

• Traction control is gone (a system which helps limit rear wheel spin or loss of traction when excessive throttle or steering is applied by the driver).
• Engine assisted braking is also out (in the simplest terms, a form of anti-lock braking – but not quite).
• Goodbye Launch Control (a system that allows the driver at the start of the race and at pit stops achieve optimal getaway without spinning the wheels).

The results? Out the 22 cars at the beginning of the Australian Grand Prix, only 7 finished the race. No more safety nets when the driver overcooked it.
Watching the drivers battle to hold the cars when the rear-end threatened to step out of line was a real joy to watch. Now that’s what I call racing.

These changes have a strong parallel with the current emphasis on designers and developers knowing how to hand-code rather than relying on Dreamweaver and friends to do the ‘dirty’ work.

Can’t wait for the Malysian race next weekend. Meanwhile, I’ll go have a drink on Lewis.

As an aside, these technologies have been making their way from Formula 1 cars into production cars. I wonder if that’s going to stop.