I get it: it's not easy being a genius. So, if you don't mind, I have a request. Given that it would certainly not tax you professionally, because it's all so simple and obvious, do you think that you could contribute something to Python or some Python-related project that demonstrates your immense base of knowledge and helps other people?

Ah but wait! You have. I've seen that one package you keep talking about that you wrote and released six months ago. It has a couple of users, even. But look... uh... oh dear.. this is awkward. I don't mean to be negative here. But there's a couple problems. You may be a genius, but at 33% test coverage, you better be almost omniscient. I'm personally not a genius, so I need to rely on something so banal as package test coverage metrics to make decisions about what to use.

Look. Let's be frank. I know you were the smartest guy in your high school class. I realize that in your circle of peers, you are the one who most often actually knows what he's doing. I get the fact that you like puzzles, and you're good at solving them. I realize you believe you are hot shit, and a few other people might too.

But if I may be so bold, here are some suggestions:

• Shut the fuck up. I mean this in the kindest, and gentlest of ways, as maybe a friendly uncle might tell you to "shut the fuck up".
• Work on your capacity to talk with other people without being a complete, utter cock. We've already adjusted our expectations, with you being a programmer and all, we realize you're constitutionally straightforward. But there's a difference between being straightforward and being a dick. Your profession and your history as "the smartest guy in the room" doesn't excuse you from displaying basic courtesy.
• You don't need to prove anything to me or anybody else. I could care less. It's not always about you.
• Write some code that works all the time, every time that lots of people find useful. Maintain that code for 5 years. At this point, you will have something to be proud of.

Thank you.

The profile is pretty good, and makes a strong case for pair programming. While I’m not fully prepared to surrender my freedom to another person for 100% full-time pair programming, I think that doing pair programming is something that can be very effective.

One thing that the New York Times doesn’t really play up is that pair programming is good for management. This is sometimes lost on management, who wonders why they should use two programmers to do the work of one. They miss the point, though, when they do the math. First, a second programmer provides a second set of eyes, meaning that bugs are reduced. Fixing bugs takes time, and this reduction in bugs actually saves time. Second, management also misses the fact that two people put in eight hours of productivity each day, together, rather than perhaps four hours total, if they were programming separately. This is due to the fact that programmers get bored, get distracted, or generally get off task, but with another person there is a peer pressure to keep working.

At the end of the day, even if the lines of code written are lower, the problems solved, bugs avoided, and logic worked out is of higher quality and improved stability. For those who have never tried pair programming, I highly recommend it.

Importing a normal, rectangular map of Middle-earth as a Google Earth overlay is too narrow toward the north.

I wanted to measure distances in Tolkien's Middle-earth. While a flat map distorts such measurements, it occured to me that Google Earth can correctly measure both lines and paths across the curved surface of the globe. I soon found excellent documentation for using image overlays with Google Earth, so I downloaded a map of Middle-earth and tried placing it on the globe.

Imagine my disappointment when I saw the result shown in the above image! At first I made the mistake of not holding down the Shift key when resizing the image in Google Earth; the Shift key is absolutely critical for the image to maintain its aspect ratio as you stretch it to the right dimensions. But even after learning this habit, it was painfully clear that the Middle-earth map's projection was different from that expected by Google Earth: the map is far too narrow at the top.

Obviously, it was time to pull out Python, my favorite programming language, and see whether the Python Imaging Library could help me make short work of converting a map from one projection to another.

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