Noel Rappin Writes Here
When Books Could Code 2a: Extreme Programming Explained Explained Extremely
It’s part two of When Books Could Code, we’re still talking about the original XP Explained book, this time looking at the original 12 practices and how they have fared over the last quarter-century.
My Robot Year
It’s been about a year since I started using LLMs extensively to build stuff. How’s it going? I mean, kinda sorta all the ways?
May 2026
It’s the book round up for May, this month we’ve got a celebration of romantasy villans, Murderbot, and fandom around the world. Did I mention Murderbot? Here goes…
April 2026
The book round up for April, 2026. This month we have an old-time lawyer turned detective, a show that is Legally Not Saturday Night Live, and the bloody history of Jewish Socialism. That’s a big back and forth tone shift for one month. Here goes…
When Books Could Code 2a: Extreme Programming Part 1 (of many)
In part 2 of the When Books Could Code series, we take a look at Extreme Programming Explained, a book that was critically important to my career.
The Triumphant Return of a Thing Nobody Will Care About
In 2002, Bill James created Win Shares, a baseball super-statistic. In 2026, I, perhaps, unwisely, decided to calculate it myself.
March 2026
Continuing the monthly book posts, here’s the March round-up. This month, Carl plays cards, we’ve got some good old fashioned space revenge, and President Garfield is shot by one man, but probably killed by his doctors. Here goes.
February 2026 Books of the Month
Continuing my plan of doing monthly book wrap-up posts, here’s February 2026. This month featured a time-loop mystery, heroes in triplicate, and a murder mystery in a very dangerous family.
January 2026 Books of the Month
I’ve decided to XP the book posts by doing them more frequently and with shorter posts. Except for the shorter part. Starting up with January, 2026, a month that featured more Dungeon Crawler Carl, Dracula on a spaceship, and a woman who can talk to pots and pans.
When Books Could Code #1: Design Patterns
Let’s start a new series about a very timely topic – programming books! We’ll kick it off with a discussion of the classic Gang of Four Design Patterns.