Indoor enthusiast. Co-founder of Stack Overflow, Discourse, and staygold.us. Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about. Let's be kind to each other. Find me
programming languages
How do you recognize talented software developers in a 30 minute interview? There’s a roundtable article on this topic at Artima Developer with some good ideas from a group of well known developers: * Explore an area of expertise * Have them critique something * Ask them to solve a problem (but
.net
Kit George is the program manager for the .NET Base Class Library team. Kit recently posted an entry on the BCL blog describing a solution to a customer problem: We recently got asked this question by a customer: “In C#, how do I ensure that a string entered into a
software development practices
Marco Dorantes recently linked to a great article by Watts Humphrey, who worked on IBM’s OS/360 project: Why Big Software Projects Fail. Watts opens with an analysis of software project completion data from 2001: Figure 2 shows another cut of the Standish data by project size. When looked
software development concepts
It’s the coolest hack in years – The Sound of iPod: I got an iPod for Christmas. The ipodlinux project was one of the main reasons for my choice and so I started exploring the iPod as far as I was able to. I patched the bootloader and got some
remote desktop
Some of my coworkers have an annoying habit of remoting into our Win2k servers and never logging out. They also like to do this in pairs, which means nobody else can remote into the machines due to Microsoft’s default two-user administrative mode Terminal Services limit. Yeah, I could
processor
I recently built a new, much lower wattage home theater PC using the Pentium-M processor. The P-M was, until very recently, a mobile-only part. And that’s why it’s ideal for HTPC duties – it offers very high levels of performance at an astonishingly modest power draw.
programming languages
In Revenge of the Right Brain, Daniel Pink sees a future where being technologically savvy isn’t enough: Few issues today spark more controversy than outsourcing. Those squadrons of white-collar workers in India, the Philippines, and China are scaring the bejesus out of software jockeys across North America and
ownership
One of the frustrations I’ve experienced with offshoring projects is the diminished sense of ownership. We’re still responsible for the software put in front of the end users, and yet we’re not allowed to put our hands on the code. Instead, we draw UML diagrams, we enter
hardware
The “beige box” PC industry has been slow to capitalize on Apple’s proven track record of design. I may not be interested in the Mac Mini, but I sure hope it spurs Taiwanese manufacturers* to produce more interesting looking small form factor PCs designs. And some of that will,
monitor
In multiple monitors and productivity, I proposed three LCD panels as the standard developer desktop configuration. The only thing holding us back was price, and the minor inconvenience of obtaining a second video card to drive the third monitor. I recently upgraded my home system to match my work configuration.
.net
I recently posted a question about console apps and AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException – specifically, why doesn’t it work as described in the MSDN documentation? I even filed an official bug report on this. I guess it worked, because Microsoft’s Jonathan Keljo was kind enough to explain this behavior in
software development concepts
I’m currently building up my new Pentium M system for HTPC duties. This means doing a bench (open air) install, clean OS build and Prime95 torture test burn in. I also flash the BIOS to the latest revision from the manufacturer’s support page. Sometimes the motherboards are fairly