programming languages
I've been following Michael Abrash for more than 10 years now; he's one of my programming heroes. So I was fascinated to discover that Mr. Abrash wrote an article extolling the virtures of Intel's upcoming Larrabee. What's Larrabee? It's a
networking
We sit at the intersection of two trends: 1. Most home networking gear, including routers, has safely transitioned to gigabit ethernet. 2. The generation, storage, and transmission of large high definition video files is becoming commonplace. If that sounds like you, or someone you know, there's one tweak
search engines
I was browsing the sessions at an upcoming Search Conference, which describes itself thusly: The way to online success is through being easily found in search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft Live Search. While developers have historically thought of search as a marketing activity, technical architecture has now
keyboard
My beloved Microsoft Natural Keyboard 4000 has succumbed to the relentless pounding of my fingers. A moment of silence, please. OK, it still works, technically, but certain keys have become.. unreliable. In particular, the semicolon key is now infuriatingly difficult to use. I don't know if this is
microsoft
In software circles, dogfooding refers to the practice of using your own products. It was apparently popularized by Microsoft [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food]: > The idea originated in television commercials for Alpo brand dog food; actor Lorne Greene would tout the benefits of the
programming languages
In my previous post, a commenter asked this question: So many of the best minds I have met in computing have a love for music. Is it something to do with being able to see beauty in complex numerical systems? I adore music. I have a vast music collection and
programming languages
Alan Kay is one of my computing heroes. All this stuff we do every day as programmers? Kay had a hand in inventing a huge swath of it: Computer scientist Kay was the leader of the group that invented object-oriented programming, the graphical user interface, 3D computer graphics, and ARPANET,
programming languages
Paul Buchheit, the original lead developer of GMail, notes that the success of GMail was a long time in coming: We starting working on Gmail in August 2001. For a long time, almost everyone disliked it. Some people used it anyway because of the search, but they had endless complaints.
programming languages
In a recent Joel on Software forum post Thinking of Leaving the Industry, one programmer wonders if software development is the right career choice in the face of broad economic uncertainty: After reading the disgruntled posts here from long time programmers and hearing so much about ageism and outsourcing, I&
technology trends
I was going to post another edition of Gifts for Geeks, as I did in 2006 and 2007, but my heart's just not in it this year. I don't know if it's the global economic apocalypse, or what, but I'm having a
user experience
Are you familiar with the uncanny valley? No, not that uncanny valley. Well, on second thought, yes, that uncanny valley. In 1978, the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori noticed something interesting: The more humanlike his robots became, the more people were attracted to them, but only up to a point. If
software development
Software: do you write it like a book, grow it like a plant, accrete it like a pearl, or construct it like a building? As Steve McConnell notes in Code Complete 2, there's no shortage of software development metaphors: A confusing abundance of metaphors has grown up around