technology trends

Mouse Ballistics

hardware

Mouse Ballistics

Let me be completely honest with you. I have a full-blown mouse fetish. I’ve owned every single major mouse model from Microsoft and Logitech since the bad old days of the original Microsoft “Dove bar” mouse, and the Logitech MouseMan. I remember quite clearly bringing home my first mouse,

By Jeff Atwood ·
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A Lesson in Control Simplicity

usability

A Lesson in Control Simplicity

I was struck, the other day, by how much I had to think when attempting to heat up my sandwich in the microwave. There are so many controls: a clock, a set of food-specific buttons, defrost and timer controls, and of course a full numeric keypad. Quick! What do you

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Practicing the Fundamentals: The New Turing Omnibus

computer science

Practicing the Fundamentals: The New Turing Omnibus

While researching Classic Computer Science Puzzles, our CEO Scott Stanfield turned me on to A.K. Dewdney’s The New Turing Omnibus: 66 Excursions in Computer Science. This is an incredibly fun little book. Sure, it’s got Towers of Hanoi, but it’s also got so much more: The

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Online Newspapers, Offline

software development concepts

Online Newspapers, Offline

One of the premium features of the New York Times website is the Windows Reader. It’s free if you subscribe to home delivery of the paper, otherwise it’s $14.95 per month. One of the key attractions of the Times Reader is that it lets you read the

By Jeff Atwood ·
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hardware

Choosing Dual or Quad Core

I’m a big fan of dual-core systems. I think there’s a clear and substantial benefit for all computer users when there are two CPUs waiting to service requests, instead of just one. If nothing else, it lets you gracefully terminate an application that has gone haywire, consuming all

By Jeff Atwood ·
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The Coming Software Patent Apocalypse

patents

The Coming Software Patent Apocalypse

Every practicing programmer should read the Wikipedia article on software patents, if you haven’t already. Many software companies are of the opinion that copyrights and trade secrets provide adequate protection against unauthorized copying of their innovations. Companies such as Oracle Corporation and Red Hat are therefore generally opposed to

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Lessons from Garry’s Mod

lua

Lessons from Garry’s Mod

Garry’s Mod is a fascinating study in guerilla programming. It’s an incredibly successful mod for the game Half-Life 2 that essentially converts it into a giant sandbox powered by Lua. There are a large number of Lua scripted 3rd party modifications for Garry’s mod. In a server

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Futurist Programming... in 1994

programming languages

Futurist Programming... in 1994

Paul Heberli and Bruce Karsh proposed something they call futurist programming in 1994: We believe there is a great opportunity for Futurist principles to be applied to the science of computer programming. We react against the heavy religious atmosphere that surrounds every aspect of computer programming. We believe it is

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Steve Mann, Cyborg

wearable computing

Steve Mann, Cyborg

I may have an unusual affinity for hardware, but Steve Mann is in a class of his own. He lives the hardware. Steve Mann may be the world’s original cyborg. Steve Mann, an engineering professor at the University of Toronto, has lived as a cyborg for more than 20

By Jeff Atwood ·
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The Technology Backlash

technology trends

The Technology Backlash

Riding the waves of technology in the computer industry is exhilarating when you’re twenty, but there’s a certain emptiness that begins to creep in around the edges by the time you’re forty. When you’ve spent the last twenty years doing nothing but frantically hanging ten on

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Why You Don’t Want an iPhone – Yet

mobile devices

Why You Don’t Want an iPhone – Yet

Let me start by saying up front that I am a fan of the iPhone. The mobile phone market is a sad, pathetic wasteland in desperate need of improvement. I’m hoping iPhone will the collective kick in the pants the smartphone market needs to finally stop making user hostile

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Learning, or, Learning How To Learn

technology trends

Learning, or, Learning How To Learn

One of my most eye-opening early experiences was a tour of a local manufacturing plant during high school. One of our tour guides was a MIT trained engineer who accompanied us, explaining how everything worked. At the end of the tour, he gave each of us a picture of a

By Jeff Atwood ·
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