technology trends

Updating Your Utility Belt

technology trends

Updating Your Utility Belt

I just updated my utility belt. Well, metaphorically speaking – every self-respecting geek has one. Lately I’ve been trying to minimize what I carry around even further. After having children I’ve come to appreciate the value of less stuff in my life. So here’s my everyday carry in

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Why Ruby?

.net

Why Ruby?

I’ve been a Microsoft developer for decades now. I weaned myself on various flavors of home computer Microsoft Basic, and I got my first paid programming gigs in Microsoft FoxPro, Microsoft Access, and Microsoft Visual Basic. I have seen the future of programming, my friends, and it is terrible

By Jeff Atwood ·
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The Organism Will Do Whatever It Damn Well Pleases

history

The Organism Will Do Whatever It Damn Well Pleases

In the go-go world of software development, we’re so consumed with learning new things, so fascinated with the procession of shiny new objects that I think we sometimes lose sight of our history. I don’t mean the big era-defining successes. Everyone knows those stories. I’m talking about

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Touch Laptops

touchscreens

Touch Laptops

I’m a little embarrassed to admit how much I like the Surface RT. I wasn’t expecting a lot when I ordered it, but after a day of use, I realized this was more than Yet Another Gadget. It might represent a brave new world of laptop design. How

By Jeff Atwood ·
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A SSD in Your Pocket

usb 3.0

A SSD in Your Pocket

Updated August 2015 I woke up a few days ago and realized I was still carrying the same 32 GB USB flash drive on my keychain that I purchased in 2010. I thought to myself, this is an unacceptable state of affairs. Totally. Unacceptable. It’s been few years since

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Do You Wanna Touch

chromebooks

Do You Wanna Touch

Traditional laptops may have reached an evolutionary dead-end (or, more charitably, a plateau), but it is an amazing time for things that… aren’t quite traditional laptops. The Nexus 7 is excellent, the Nexus 10 looks fantastic, I can’t wait to get my hands on the twice-as-fast iPad 4,

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Computer Crime, Then and Now

security

Computer Crime, Then and Now

I’ve already documented my brief, youthful dalliance with the illegal side of computing as it existed in the late 1980s. But was it crime? Was I truly a criminal? I don’t think so. To be perfectly blunt, I wasn’t talented enough to be any kind of threat.

By Jeff Atwood ·
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I Was a Teenage Hacker

security

I Was a Teenage Hacker

Twenty-four years ago today, I had a very bad day. On August 8, 1988, I was a senior in high school. I was working my after school and weekend job at Safeway as a cashier, when the store manager suddenly walked over and said I better stop ringing up customers

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Today is Goof Off at Work Day

software development concepts

Today is Goof Off at Work Day

When you’re hired at Google, you only have to do the job you were hired for 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time, you can work on whatever you like – provided it advances Google in some way. At least, that’s the theory. Google’s 20

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Coding Horror: The Book

software development concepts

Coding Horror: The Book

If I had to make a list of the top 10 things I’ve done in my life that I regret, “writing a book” would definitely be on it. I took on the book project mostly because it was an opportunity to work with a few friends whose company I

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Betting the Company on Windows 8

operating systems

Betting the Company on Windows 8

I’d argue that the last truly revolutionary version of Windows was Windows 95. In the subsequent 17 years, we’ve seen a stream of mostly minor and often inconsequential design changes in Windows – at its core, you’ve got the same old stuff: a start menu, a desktop with

By Jeff Atwood ·
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The PHP Singularity

php

The PHP Singularity

Look at this incredible thing Ian Baker created. Look at it! What you’re seeing is not Photoshopped. This is an actual photo of a real world, honest to God double-clawed hammer. Such a thing exists. Isn’t that amazing? And also, perhaps, a little disturbing? That wondrous hammer is

By Jeff Atwood ·
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