Hey all,
Do any of you have any tips that could help me be a better programmer? Other than the basic - 'just practice ALOT!!'

Anywhere I can get my hands dirty with uncommon sample code - simplified solutions, etc?

An example of somthing I'm looking for is

lets say I was taught to write a program using arrays to print out a binary number in twos complement - its basic, its lengthy- yet thats all I've learned regarding that in the course.

Now I come accorss this 'snazzy' little tidbit :

Code:
// Convert the number to its two's complement equivalent.
        number = ((number * -1) ^ 0xFF) + 1;
which sure beats for loops and array manipulation.


Any help? Any other tips you've picked up along the way would help a great deal as well.
book names, favorite programming authors (deital & deital, kernegie Richie etc), sample code that knocked sense into you?