Interesting Links for 20-6-2011

• The domain naming system is changing - soon you'll see brand names at the top level.
  (tags: internet naming branding)
• Something rotten at the heart of Scots law.
  (tags: law scotland)
• A 3D room/furniture planner.
  (tags: design 3d architecture interior furniture)

I wish C# had a branch and retrieve statement

I want to be able to retrieve a value and then branch on its value, all in
one step. For some reason it irks me to have to say:
var blah = GetBlah();
if(blah != null)
{
//Do Stuff With blah
}

I want to say

if((var blah = GetBlah) != null)
{
//Do stuff with blah
}

I'm not sure why the extra line bothers me - possibly because it's a
pattern I keep having to repeat in my code, and any pattern I repeat irks
me after a while. That's why computers are there, to stop you having to do
the same thing over and over again.