In response to my recent crusade for feed unsubscription, I was asked who I’m still reading. Out of my remaining feeds, here are two active favourites from each of my categories, with a link to a recent article that I appreciate from each one¹.

Web Programming

My web development reading is centered around Javascript since it’s my working language right now. Francisco Tolmasky, one of the creators of Cappuccino, writes thoughtfully and infrequently on building thick client web apps.

John Resig, creator of JQuery, has a similarly consistent blog on pushing boundaries with Javascript.

Business of Software

If you’re fascinated by the startup world, Paul Graham is a staple.

For more applied thoughts on software business and product design, I read Signal vs. Noise. I’ve looked up to the 37signals guys since I came across them almost ten years ago, and their “do less” mantra has always resonated with me.

Vancouver Notables

I don’t generally follow people just because they’re local, but there are lots of people worth reading that are in town. Boris Mann is a central figure in the Vancouver tech and startup scenes.

Dave Shea is a central figure in standards-based web design, and gets super bonus points for introducing me to The Alibi Room.

Design

For Mac-centric design writing, Cocoia is top notch.

On the more technical side, Jon Snook writes on a mix of design and web programming.

Fun Stuff

I try to keep my feeds professionally oriented – getting distracted is enough of a danger without it being fed into your system automatically. That said, the geeky dark humour of SMBC and Zero Punctuation are classics.

Projects

RSS is perfect for subscribing to feeds of projects you use, even if they rarely update. It kicks mailing list ass, that’s for sure. The SproutCore Blog, for example, is great for me as a user of the framework.

Google Chrome Releases takes the format of the wonderful Burning Edge, and is great for me since I live on the Chrome Mac development builds.

Friends

I’m blessed with many friends who write about technology. Forced to pick a top two, I’d name Curtis Lassam and Bruce Alderson. Both write well on both web technology and creative topics, and I think of their blogs as cousins to Antipode.

Apple

John Gruber is in some of ways the pulse of the Apple geek community. It is with reluctance I’m still subscribed to his high-volume links feed rather than simply full posts², but a posts-only feed is available too.

On serious Mac development, I read Cocoa with Love. I’m a novice Objective-C developer, so Matt’s in-depth Cocoa development posts sometimes go over my head, but that’s the point. If you’re not reading some things that go over your head, you’re in trouble.

More

I’m always trimming my feeds and keeping an eye out for more. Do you have any suggestions based on my this list or my topics here?

1. I’m linking to specific articles partially because I think I’ve linked to every single one of these people before, with the exception of the comics. Still, writing this was a great exercise in thinking about who I’m inspired by. [↩]
2. Daring Fireball has by far the highest post volume in my feed reader, and often posts things he doesn’t have in-depth knowledge of. On the other hand, the link mix and annotation are so good that they stay on my list. [↩]