= Articles =

 * [http://web.mit.edu/Kerberos/dialogue.html The Kerberos play]: explains why Kerberos works the way it does
 * [http://www.jwz.org/doc/worse-is-better.html The Rise of Worse is Better]: a brief description of the single coding philosophy that has . The [http://web.mit.edu/geofft/Public/gabriel-on-lisp.ps entire article], rather than just the section, is available in PostScript
 * Tim Berners-Lee's [http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/ Design Issues] section, and his piece on why [http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI Cool URIs Don't Change]
 * A definition of [http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/03/dont_shave_that.html yak shaving], which you'll often find SIPB members unwisely engaging in.
 * [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html GNU Philosophy], hardline but worth reading.
 * On that note, the [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html GPLv3] and [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html GPLv2]. Dense legal style, but also worth reading once, to understand what free software is about
 * [http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ The Cathedral and the Bazaar], by Eric Raymond: an overview of closed-source ("cathedral") vs. open-source ("bazaar") design and participation philosophies

= Books online =

 * Abelson and Sussman, [http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs]: the classic textbook for the famous 6.001
 * Eric Raymond, [http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/html/index.html The Art of Unix Programming]: also explains a lot of design
 * Mark Pilgrim, [http://diveintopython.org/ Dive Into Python]: "a Python book for experienced programmers"

Don't forget about [http://safari.oreilly.com/ Safari] -- O'Reilly books online, free for MIT people.

= Blogs =
 * [http://www.joelonsoftware.com Joel on Software], a software developer in charge of a small company
 * [http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/ The Old New Thing], an engineer for MS who writes about stupid hacks in the name of backwards compatibility