Indoor enthusiast. Co-founder of Stack Overflow and Discourse. Disclaimer: I have no idea what I'm talking about. Find me:
security
In an era of instant online worldwide connectivity, protecting users from themselves is a lot harder than it used to be. For one thing, full trust can't be trusted. And then there are all those dancing bunnies to contend with: What's the dancing bunnies problem? It&
software development
I picked up a copy of The Best Software Writing I: Selected and Introduced by Joel Spolsky [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590595009/codihorr-20]. It's essentially just a collection of Joel's favorite blog entries from the last few years. But it's Joel,
humor
It's funny because it's true: > A Software Engineer, a Hardware Engineer and a Departmental Manager were on their way to a meeting in Switzerland. They were driving down a steep mountain road when suddenly the brakes on their car failed. The car careened almost out
management
Via Scott Hanselman [http://www.hanselman.com/blog/25RulesOfManagement.aspx]: > I've been reading as much as I can on how to be an effective manager lately. For a number of reasons, mostly internal, but also because in a recent lunch Chris Sells said (something like): "If
performance
I noticed on a few projects I'm currently working on that the developers are maniacal about initializing variables. That is, either they initialize them when they're declared: private string s = null; private int n = 0; private DataSet ds = null; Or they initialize them in the constructor:
passwords
Microsoft security guru Robert Hensing hit a home run his first time at bat with his very first blog post [http://blogs.technet.com/robert_hensing/archive/2004/07/28/199610.aspx]. In it, he advocates that passwords, as we traditionally think of them, should not be used: > So
retro
Yesterday's post about code syntax color schemes got me thinking about what is perhaps the ultimate color scheme, Windows 3.1's "Hot Dog Stand": The truly funny thing about this color scheme is that all the other Windows 3.1 color schemes are surprisingly
colorizing
Most developers, myself included, are content with syntax coloring schemes that are fairly close to Visual Studio's default of black text on a white background. I'll occasionally encounter developers who prefer black backgrounds. And I've even seen developers who prefer the white on blue
networking
At work today, we had a problem with a particular workstation. Although it was connected to a gigabit ethernet hub, network file transfers were "too slow". How do you quantify "too slow"? I was reminded of chapter seven of Programming Pearls -- The Back of the
remote desktop
Microsoft's Remote Desktop [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_Desktop_Protocol] is incredibly convenient. It's the next best thing to physically being in front of the target computer-- and it's by far the fastest remoting protocol I've ever used. Over a fast
led technology
I recently purchased the DGL-4300 wireless router, mainly because it includes gigabit ethernet, which is still quite rare in routers. It certainly looks cool, as routers go, with its sleek rubbery design and all-blue LEDs. But those blue LEDs-- particularly a bank of them, all blinking away-- are blindingly bright!
software development
Wil Shipley, the entity behind Delicious Library [http://arstechnica.com/reviews/apps/delicious-library.ars], has a hilarious (and informative) talk on why he develops software for the Mac-- and also netted $54,000 from Delicious Library on the first day with zero advertising. How to Succeed Writing Mac Software [http: