11,000 Global Variables -- 'nuff said.

Dr. Rosenthal's classic "How Few Copies" examines in detail just how few of copies you might need to preserve your digital data. (The context is Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe, which you need to know about if you care about digital preservation.)

If preservation (and backup is part of preservation) is one of your interests, Dr. Rosenthal's blog is just a generally good blog to read.

Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names (with 544+ comments) is a thorough dissection of the various falsehoods programmers believe about names.

Two takeaways for me:

• Depending on the application, a person may have no name at all -- think about hospitals and automobile accidents, for example.
• Thinking carefully about what name or names you need. Is this name for display to the user? Does it have to be used for email or postal mail? Should the name be sortable? There …