The holiday season is in full swing and for a lot of people this Friday marks the start of a long vacation. To celebrate while keeping your mind sharp, here are a few things to check out over the weekend:

  • If you missed it, Python was voted best language for the third year running by readers of Linux Magazine. C++ was the runner up, which sort of makes sense. A lot of C++ developers embed Python in their applications.

  • TextMate (the popular Mac OS X text editor) is getting a refresh with 2.0-Alpha out. Matt Gemmell wrote a letter to TextMate explaining why their affair had to end.

  • Speaking of Mac OS X, the crew over at We Love MacRuby is trying to persuade Apple to support MacRuby on iOS. If you’d like to write iOS applications using Ruby you should head over to their site and join the campaign.

  • David Tchepak, like a lot of software developers, has decided to move away from good ol’ QWERTY and try Colemak instead. He wrote an interesting article about how the transition has been going.

  • John Larson wrote a thought provoking essay about cheap software development labor (mostly overseas). As a freelance software developer I can attest to having to rewrite a lot of software that was originally developed overseas.

  • Some videos to watch: The micromouse won a maze race in 4 seconds. Of course, it previously had exposure to the maze for training (via Hack a Day). This hexabot looks like a Jellyfish (via Hack a Day). And finally, a lizard uses its tongue to play a touchscreen game (via kottke).

Have an excellent weekend!