security
In order to speed up my web browsing experience, I disable Flash in Internet Explorer. I’ve got nothing personal against Flash, mind you, but it’s generally chrome. It’s visually (and sometimes audibly) distracting, and it adds download time to each page view. An image is worth a
software development concepts
I noticed something strange in a Windows ME screenshot embedded in a Joel Spolsky article I linked yesterday: Notice the Qantas icons? Those are shortcuts to a now-defunct unix machine at Joel’s company, Fog Creek Software. You can find evidence of it at the bottom of this forum post
configurability
I’ve recently been experimenting with a few hand-picked desktop utilities, but I am rapidly reaching the point of diminishing returns: the effort required to run and maintain all these utilities is greater than the productivity benefit. Furthermore, if I learn to rely on a highly custom desktop, I’ve
software development concepts
Navigating a new codebase can feel like like landing on an alien planet. That’s where static code analysis tools come in handy; they’re akin to software tricorders. They provide a general snapshot of unfamiliar code: Is it normal? Is it unusual? Is it dangerous?* There’s an element
software development concepts
I’m beginning to wonder if the book Head First Design Patterns would be better titled Ass Backwards Design Patterns. Here are some quotes from pages 594 and 595 of this 629 page book: First of all, when you design, solve things in the simplest way possible. Your goal should
shortcuts
I’m sure everyone knows that the Windows key brings up the Start Menu, but there are also a bunch of standard Windows key shortcuts built into Windows: Set focus to first tray icon Show Desktop Windows Explorer Find Files or Folders (aka Search) Minimize All windows Undo minimize all
usability
A reader recently pointed out that the second edition of Don’t Make Me Think is about to be released. I know I’ve pimped this book ad nauseam, but I can’t help myself – it’s just that good. If you only read one book on usability and UI,
usability
In this 1996 Alertbox, Jakob Nielsen champions writing for the web in an inverted pyramid style: Journalists have long adhered to the inverse approach: start the article by telling the reader the conclusion (“After long debate, the Assembly voted to increase state taxes by 10 percent”), follow by the most
programming languages
If you’ve ever viewed UNIX documentation, you’ve probably encountered variables foo and bar at some point. Here’s a Ruby example I found in the newsgroups: foo = 0 bar = 0 1.times do foo = 1 foo := 2 bar = foo+1 end puts foo, bar O’Reilly’s FooCamp
machine learning
Computer geeks have a long history of gaming the gaming industry. One of the most notable exploits is documented in the book Bringing Down The House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions (read an excerpt in Wired). But things have changed now that gambling
lazy programming
Philipp Lenssen agrees that inspired laziness is a desirable trait for software developers: ... only lazy programmers will want to write the kind of tools that might replace them in the end. Only a lazy programmer will avoid writing monotonous, repetitive code. The tools and processes inspired by laziness speed up
gaming
You may be familiar with the classic Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing* series of software from Broderbund. You play it interactively courtesy of the always amazing Internet Archive. Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing! : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArchiveSoftware Toolworks, Inc., The Also ForAmiga, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, MacintoshDeveloped