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EA’s Software Artists

software development

EA’s Software Artists

Electronic Arts is a lumbering corporate megalith today, pumping out yearly game franchise after yearly game franchise. It’s easy to forget that EA was present at the very beginning of the computer game industry, innovating and blazing a trail for everyone to follow. Gamasutra’s article We See Farther:

By Jeff Atwood ·
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seo

SEOs: the New Pornographers of the Web

There’s something about the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry that I find highly distasteful. I’ve never quite been able to put my finger on it, until I read Rich Skrenta’s pornographers vs. SEOs. It’s all clear to me now. SEOs are the new pornographers of the

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Firefox as an IDE

firefox

Firefox as an IDE

Although I prefer IE7’s native speed and feel for day-to-day browsing chores, there’s no doubt that Firefox is my primary web development IDE. Whenever I need to troubleshoot HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, I immediately reach for Firefox. That’s primarily because of two incredibly powerful developer extensions for

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Pick a License, Any License

software development concepts

Pick a License, Any License

I hate software licenses. When I read a software license, what I see is a bunch of officious, mind-numbing lawyerly doublespeak. Blah, blah, blah... kill me now. If I had my way, everything would be released under the WTFPL. Over time, I’ve begrudgingly come to the conclusion that, like

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Software Projects as Rock Climbing

programming languages

Software Projects as Rock Climbing

If you accept the premise that software development is a cooperative game, then you might wonder: what kind of game is it? Alistair Cockburn believes the closest analog to a software project is the cooperative game of rock climbing: * Technical. The novice can only approach simple climbs. With practice, the

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Mouse DPI and USB Polling Rate

gaming mice

Mouse DPI and USB Polling Rate

Despite my heavy computer use, I rarely experience hand or wrist pain. I consider myself fortunate. However, my mouse hand has been aching a bit lately. In light of my this, I decided it was time to change things up on the mouse front. I currently use the Logitech MX518

By Jeff Atwood ·
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All About My Cats!

pets

All About My Cats!

Update 4/2/2007: In case it wasn’t clear, the topic of this post is part an April fool’s joke. Yes, those are our cats, and I love them to death, but I hope cat blogging is the last thing you’d expect from me. The other part

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Software Development as a Collaborative Game

software development

Software Development as a Collaborative Game

Alistair Cockburn maintains that software development is a cooperative game: If software development was really a science, you could apply the scientific method to it. If it was really engineering, then you could apply known engineering techniques. If software development was a matter of producing models, then you could spend

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Learning on the Battlefield

programming languages

Learning on the Battlefield

I occasionally get emails from people asking how to prepare for a career in software development. Some are students wondering what classes they should take; others have been bitten by the programming bug and are considering their next steps. I always answer with the same advice. There’s no substitute

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Going Commando – Put Down The Mouse

keyboard shortcuts

Going Commando – Put Down The Mouse

One of the quickest ways to increase your productivity on the computer is to go commando: stop using the mouse. When you stop relying on the mouse for everything, you’re forced to learn the keyboard shortcuts. Jeremy Miller calls this the first step to coding faster. I agree. Keyboard

By Jeff Atwood ·
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What’s Wrong With The Daily WTF

blog

What’s Wrong With The Daily WTF

Alex Papadimoulis originally invited me to be a guest editor at The Daily WTF nearly six months ago. I was honored and accepted immediately. Since then, The Daily WTF has been rechristened Worse Than Failure. I’m a big fan of Alex and WTF; his blog is fantastic, and WTF

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Folding: The Death of the General Purpose CPU

cuda

Folding: The Death of the General Purpose CPU

A few recent articles have highlighted the disproportionate contribution PlayStation 3 consoles are making to the Folding@Home effort. The OS statistics page for Folding@Home tells the tale:  TFLOPSActive CPUsTotal CPUsWindows152160,1731,626,609Mac/PPC78,77695,435Mac/Intel92,8647,400Linux4325,239216,067GPU437332,228PS365926,91129,843 There are a couple

By Jeff Atwood ·
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