The STLport web site has an older (2001) interview with Alexander Stepanov, the father of the C++ Standard Template Library. He talks about generic programming, the design of the STL and also offers his personal view of Java. A must read for C++ people.
For me, the STL is the coolest part of standard C++. It's a joy to work with, and it gives you the possibility to learn something new every day ;-). Definitely something you would not find in any other language.
Thomas Themel writes about Rube Goldberg contraptions and the fun of designing and building them. In short, a Rube Goldberg contraption is any exceedingly complex apparatus that performs a very simple task in a very indirect and convoluted way. This made me think about applying this concept to software engineering. And what came to mind first? All that WS-stuff that is still going on like crazy. Finding other examples is left as an exercise to the reader. Building Rube Goldberg contraptions must indeed be fun.
TechOnLine has a paper by David Carey, presented at the Embedded Systems Conference 2005 discussing the design and evolution of the iPod.
While the paper does not cover the iPod Nano and the latest generation iPod Photo, it nevertheless is interesting. Key insights: how to use commodity parts and clever engineering to build a product that stands out from the competition.