regex
Here’s an interesting regex problem: I seem to have stumbled upon a puzzle that evidently is not new, but for which no (simple) solution has yet been found. I am trying to find a way to exclude an entire word from a regular expression search. The regular expression should
programming concepts
Even the best programmers make shitty software, with bugs. But some programmers are naturally proficient at creating this special kind of software, as illustrated by a Croatian developer known as Stinky: The anecdote that best reveals how little Stinky knew about programming started when he asked Bojan to help him
scam
A recent Los Angeles Times article reveals that the 419 scam spammers have their very own anthem: a song titled I Go Chop Your Dollars by Nigerian recording artist Osofia: “419 is just a game, you are the losers, we are the winners. White people are greedy, I can say
virtual memory
If you have 2 gigabytes (or more) of memory in your PC, have you considered turning off your pagefile? Here’s how to do it: 1. Control Panel, System 2. Advanced tab 3. Performance group, Settings button 4. Advanced tab 5. Virtual Memory group, Change button 6. Select “No paging
blogging
Jakob Neilsen may not be today’s hip and trendy Web 2.0 fixture, but he’s still dispensing solid advice. Check out his Top Ten Blog Design Mistakes: 1. No Author Biographies 2. No Author Photo 3. Nondescript Posting Titles 4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go 5.
unit testing
Why does Wil Shipley, the author of Delicious Library, hate unit testing so much? I’ve certainly known companies that do “unit testing” and other crap they’ve read in books. Now, you can argue this point if you’d like, because I don’t have hard data; all I
visual studio
One of the most enjoyable new features in Visual Studio .NET 2005 is Code Snippets. This animated GIF illustrates how it works: I’m demonstrating three types of snippets here: * simple expansion * template expansion (with variables) * surround The easiest way to enter a code snippet is to begin typing part
media center
As Omar recently pointed out, Update Rollup 2 for Windows XP Media Center 2005 adds one essential new feature that makes it a “must have” upgrade – non-linear stretch! I took a few screenshots on my HTPC to illustrate. This is typical 4:3 television content: On a widescreen 16:9
programming languages
I just updated my Programming Fonts entry. It now includes a much larger code sample in each font, and a few new fonts including the “gee, did I really just pay $100 for a single font” Pragmata. Be sure to check it out. It’s a shame that there’s
hardware
Software engineers aren’t the only ones planting secret Easter eggs in their products. Here’s a fun article on the hidden art etched into microchips. There are a handful of images in the article, but many more at the Silicon Zoo website. Here’s one I found of Mr.
asp.net
Inspired by Scott Hanselman’s recent post on ASP.NET viewstate wrangling, here’s a roundup of tips for dealing with that ornery viewstate stuff. The first rule of thumb, of course, is to turn it off whenever you can. But sometimes you can’t. I think the DotNetNuke developers
programming languages
In the process of researching a few recent blog entries, I found the amazing Atari Archives. The title is a little misleading; it isn’t completely Atari specific. The archives contain incredible page-by-page high resolution images of many classic computer books, including The Best of Creative Computing, volume 1 (1976)