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
I was thrilled to see the book Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think show up in my Amazon recommendations. It seems like exactly the type of book I would enjoy. So of course I bought a copy. Unfortunately, Beautiful Code wasn’t nearly as enjoyable of a read
assembly language
I was tickled to see that James Hague chose The Zen of Assembly Language Programming as one of five memorable books about programming. I wholeheartedly agree. Even if you never plan to touch a lick of assembly code in your entire professional career, this book is a fantastic and thoroughly
user experience
The original Tivo was one of the finest out of box experiences I’ve ever had as a consumer. I remember how exciting it was to tell friends about our newfound ability to pause live television, and how liberating it felt to be freed from the tyranny of television schedules.
user experience
We programmers are obsessive by nature. But I often get frustrated with the depth of our obsession over things like code coverage. Unit testing and code coverage are good things. But perfectly executed code coverage doesn’t mean users will use your program. Or that it’s even worth using
accessibility
In Where the Heck is My Focus, I wondered why web developers don’t pay attention to basic keyboard accessibility issues. I don’t want to navigate the entire web with my keyboard. That’s unrealistic. I was specifically referring to login pages, which tend to be quite spartan and
security
As far back as I can remember – which admittedly isn’t very far – GUI toolkits have included a special type of text entry field for passwords. As you type, the password field displays a generic character, usually a dot or asterisk, instead of the character you actually typed. I’ve
user experience
The web is quite mouse-centric. Ever tried navigating a typical website without your mouse? I’m not saying it can’t be done – if you’re sufficiently motivated, you can indeed navigate the web using nothing but your keyboard – but it’s painful. There’s nothing wrong with the
software development concepts
I recently received an email from Andrew Stuart of the Australian firm Flat Rate Recruitment. Andrew related their technical phone screen process, which is apparently quite similar to the one outlined in Getting the Interview Phone Screen Right. I’m glad to hear it works. A proper phone screen is
xbox 360
When I set up my new Xbox 360, I also connected it to my existing wireless network. It’s about 50 feet from my access point, with approximately 4 or 5 walls in between. I was able to get online, but barely. The signal strength indicator was at literally one
xbox 360
I recently became the reluctant owner of an Xbox 360. Limping along with my ancient PlayStation 2 – I remember buying that thing on launch day way back in 2000 – was no longer viable in light of my Rock Band addiction. I’ve been avoiding a new console purchase for as
technology trends
A new in box Apple //c system was recently sold on eBay. This is quite remarkable; a vintage computer – twenty-three years old – that has never been opened. The people who ultimately won the auction posted a beautiful set of unboxing pictures. For a brief moment, it was 1984 all
database management
A little over a year ago, I wrote about the importance of version control for databases. When I ask development teams whether their database is under version control, I usually get blank stares. The database is a critical part of your application. If you deploy version 2.0 of your