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
It’s always reassuring to be reminded that people much more talented than myself make mistakes, too. And I especially appreciate it when they share those mistakes in the form of advice: On avoiding IT mistakes: Rick Cattell’s, Things I Wish I Learned in Engineering School: * Good technology is
javascript
When I visited Alex Gorbatchev’s blog, I noticed he had a unique client-side code highlighting solution in place, one I hadn’t seen anywhere else. That’s something I’ve wanted on my blog for a while; the vanilla <PRE> sections I’ve been using are
windows
The year 2005 marks the 20th anniversary of Windows 1.0: The first version of Windows I actually used was Windows 3.0. Coming from an Amiga background, I was unimpressed. It wasn’t until Windows 3.1 and Windows For Workgroups 3.11 that I actually started to believe
dvd
Steve Makofsky turned me on to some software I already use: Nero Burning ROM, but more specifically, Nero Recode 2, which is a part of their expanded “ultra” Nero suite. I’ve long considered Nero the definitive DVD and CD burning software; I had no idea they also offered a
multithreading
Back when I was writing for Tech Report, I had an epiphany: the future of CPU development had to be multiple cores on the same die. Even in 2001, a simple extrapolation of transistor counts versus time bore this out: what the heck are they going to do with those
software development concepts
Brad Wilson pointed out a new, interesting blog yesterday: Spurious Pundit. On managing developers: It’s like you’re asking them to hang a picture for you, but they’ve never done it before. You understand what you need done - the trick is getting them to do it. In fact,
.net
Coming from humble Visual Basic 3.0 beginnings, by way of AmigaBasic, AppleSoft Basic, and Coleco Adam SmartBasic, I didn’t get a lot of exposure to formal programming practice. One of the primary benefits of .NET is that it brings VB programmers into the fold – we’re now real
web design
From the Articles That Unintentionally Parody Themselves department: In the last article we listed some of the seemingly good but superfluous elements with which Web designers clutter their sites. We covered: * Counters * Close, Bookmark and Print this Window links * Flashy menus that don't help the user * Right-click
laptop accessories
For all their cool teeny-tiny productiveness, I’ve never been able to effectively use a laptop on... my lap. It’s just not possible, except for brief sessions to check email or the like. To do real work, I have to find a desk or desk-like surface. This
retro gaming
When it comes to gifts for geeks, you can’t go wrong with the plug-and-go classic home videogame emulators. Relative obscurities two years ago, they seem to be wildly popular now. Many of the most influential home console videogame systems are now represented at Wal-Mart and Target:
user experience
Per Steve Krug’s excellent book, Don’t Make Me Think: We all know happy talk when we see it: it’s the introductory text that’s supposed to welcome us to the site and tell us how great it is, or to tell us what we’re about to
software development concepts
If Task Manager Extension is Task Manager on steroids, then Mark Russinovich’s Process Explorer is Task Manager in a ripped anabolic fury, fueled by high octane rage. In other words, it’s extreme: Although it can be a little overwhelming – I think it just kicked sand in my face