Another busy week of coding and doing little else ... whew.  Work/life balance has definitely suffered... as has blogging.  Fortunately eyesFinder have hired a couple of top new engineers - more dilithium crystals, Scottie!  And meanwhile:

So ... Larry Ellison has retired... from being Oracle's CEO.  He's going to continue on as their CTO, so it's a sort of gradual retirement.  I have to say he's most definitely a hero of mine ... an engineer who came from the bottom, founded a technical company, ran it all the way from a tiny startup to a tremendously successful tech icon, stayed involved in the technology, and made time for serious sailing along the way. 

Excellent: New Skype for IOS 8 uses extensions for answering calls from the lock screen.  With Skype's ability to use a data connection for voice (WiFi calling, VoLTE, etc) this could be the most important benefit of IOS 8 yet.  Shows why "extensions" are so valuable - much like the entire third-party app ecosystem. 

Justin Timberlake has a cold.  The end of the rock star era.  How interesting... the pendulum has definitely swung away from mass entertainment.  (Everywhere except sports, that is, where the concentration is heavier than ever.) 

Elle does an interview with Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  "It makes no sense as a national policy to promote birth only among poor people."  Yes!  It does not. 

Three reasons why New Zealand has the best designed government in the world.  An interesting survey of the differences between democracies. 

Congratulations to India: The Mars Orbiter Mission, called Mangalyaan, entered orbit last night. 

Baidu is trying to speed up image search using FPGAs.  Cool. 

Brad Feld: The Rapidly Growing Chicago and LA Startup Communities.  It always seems to come back to a tight relationship with local universities, and then you add a little local capital, and ... magic. 

True:  When a distinguished scientist says something is possible, he is almost certainly right.  When he says it something is impossible, he is very probably wrong - A.C.Clarke 

Stephen Hawking: There is no God.  "Science offers more convincing explanations for existence."  Of course, this only means there need not be a God, but it seems the simplest explanations of the universe are the most valid. 

JWZ: Mixtape #144.  "Please enjoy"  Okay, thanks, I did!  (And may I say, I enjoyed the creative video editing almost as much as the music.) 

John Gruber: Now batting for the Yankees, Number 2.  A great story about a great end to a great career.  Who knew that Derek Jeter's last game would be the only one which was meaningless? 

Here we have the most spectacular buildings of 2014.  I feel like some of them are just weird for weird's sake, but others are amazing. 

The Burned Out Bloggers Guide to PR.  Good stuff. 

Finally, here's 150 adorable baby sea turtles being born.  You're welcome! :)