technology trends

programming languages

Keeping Up and “Just In Time” Learning

Do you ever feel like you’re buried under umpteen zillion backlogged emails, feeds, books, articles, journals, magazines, and printouts? Do you ever feel that you’re hopelessly behind, with so much new stuff created every day that you can never possibly hope to keep up? Well, you’re not

By Jeff Atwood ·
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server

Web 2.0 and The “Whatever Box” Server

One of the key differences between the original dot-com bubble and the Web 2.0 bubble we’re entering now is that our servers are a lot cheaper and a lot more powerful. Moore’s Law in action isn’t exactly news, but the new web is definitely powered by

By Jeff Atwood ·
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UML, Circuit Diagrams, and God’s Rules

software development

UML, Circuit Diagrams, and God’s Rules

Very few software engineers use UML symbols to design software, but electrical engineers regularly use circuit symbols to design electronics: Circuit symbols are constructed into circuit diagrams – the the visual language of electricity: If circuit diagrams are a standard, universally understood way to talk about electronics, why doesn’t UML

By Jeff Atwood ·
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laptop

How Much Power Does My Laptop Really Use?

I’ve determined power usage on my desktop and on my server, but I hadn’t gotten around to testing the power usage of my laptop. As battery life is always a concern with a laptop, I was particularly curious to see which parts of the laptop draw the most

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Teach Yourself Programming in 23 Hours

programming languages

Teach Yourself Programming in 23 Hours

I see that Scott Mitchell has a new book out, Teach Yourself ASP.NET 2.0 in 24 Hours. Let me preface this post with a disclaimer: Scott Mitchell is a great writer. I’ve been a fan of his work since his 4 Guys From Rolla days. Anything he

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Menus and Toolbars Don't Scale

user experience

Menus and Toolbars Don't Scale

I’ve witnessed the death of the main menu. And toolbars are on their last legs, too. This screenshot* clinches it for me: Granted, very few people would install this many Firefox extensions. But between this and the Office 2003 debacle, it’s patently obvious that the whole menu-and-toolbar paradigm

By Jeff Atwood ·
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The Login Explosion

password management

The Login Explosion

I have fifty online logins, and I can’t remember any of them. What’s my password? I can’t use the same password for every website. That’s not secure. So every password is unique and specific to that website. And what’s my login name? Hopefully it’s

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Everything You Know Will Be Obsolete in Five Years

software development

Everything You Know Will Be Obsolete in Five Years

One of the peculiarities of software development is how rapidly knowledge becomes obsolete. Dan Appleman cited a parable from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass which illustrates this wonderfully: ‘Now! Now!’ cried the Queen. ‘Faster! Faster!’ And they went so fast that at last they seemed to skim through

By Jeff Atwood ·
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.net

Microsoft Doesn’t Trust .NET

Richard Grimes recently posted an Analysis of .NET Use in Longhorn and Vista, wherein he draws two conclusions: 1. Between PDC 2003 and the release of Vista Beta 1, Microsoft has decided that it is better to use native code for the operating system 2. Microsoft has shown no intention

By Jeff Atwood ·
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SDWest 2006: My McConnell Moment

programming languages

SDWest 2006: My McConnell Moment

I’ll be attending SDWest 2006 all next week (March 13 - 17) in Santa Clara, California. If you’re attending, let’s meet up somewhere! I’ve met a handful of people in person at past conferences: * Sara Ford * Steve Maine * Walt Rischler The highlight of SDWest, however, will

By Jeff Atwood ·
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In Pursuit of Simplicity

minimalism

In Pursuit of Simplicity

John Maeda created quite a stir with his montage of the Yahoo and Google homepages from 1996 to 2006 in simple is about staying simple: Although Philipp Lenssen has posted on this topic before (he calls it the portal plague), it’s still striking. Altavista made the same mistake, and

By Jeff Atwood ·
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On Audio Visualization

audio visualization

On Audio Visualization

I’m a big music fan. And as a longtime computer enthusiast, I’ve always been intrigued by the intersection of computers and music: audio visualization. The first experience I had with visualization was the 1993 CD-ROM add-on for Atari’s short-lived Jaguar console. It included Jeff Minter’s VLM-1

By Jeff Atwood ·
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