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 software
graphics cards
Hello, my name is Jeff Atwood, and I’m an addict. I’m addicted... to video cards. In fact, I’ve been addicted since 1996. Well, maybe a few years earlier than that if you count some of the classic 2D accelerators. But the true fascination didn’t start until
conceptual design
My recent post on netbooks reminded me of Alan Kay’s original 1972 Dynabook concept (pdf). We now have some reasons for wanting the DynaBook to exist. Can it be fabricated from currently invented technology in quantities large enough to bring a selling (or renting) price within reach of millions
hci
I like to take one or two books with me when I travel, and one of the books I chose for this trip is HCI Remixed. Sometimes the books I choose are a bust. Fortunately that didn’t happen this time. HCI Remixed covers all the major milestones in the
programming languages
A few months ago, Dare Obasanjo noticed a brief exchange my friend Jon Galloway and I had on Twitter. Unfortunately, Twitter makes it unusually difficult to follow conversations, but Dare outlines the gist of it in Developers, Using Libraries is not a Sign of Weakness: The problem Jeff was trying
microsoft
By now I’m sure you’ve at least heard of, if not already seen, the new Windows Vista advertisements featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. They haven’t been well received, to put it mildly, but the latest commercial is actually not bad in its longer 4 minute version:
multi-threading
You may have noticed that my posting frequency has declined over the last three weeks. That’s because I’ve been busy building that Stack Overflow thing we talked about. It’s going well so far. Joel Spolsky also seems to think it’s going well, but he’s one
javascript
One of the early technology decisions we made on Stack Overflow was to go with a fairly JavaScript intensive site. Like many programmers, I’ve been historically ambivalent about JavaScript: * The Power of “View Source” * The Day Performance Didn’t Matter Any More * JavaScript and HTML: Forgiveness by Default * JavaScript:
software development
Nathan Bowers pointed me to this five year old Cool Tools entry on the book Art & Fear. Although I am not at all ready to call software development “art” – perhaps “craft” would be more appropriate, or “engineering” if you’re feeling generous – the parallels between some of the advice
software development concepts
As we begin the private beta for Stack Overflow later this week, I wondered: where do the software terms alpha and beta come from? And why don’t we ever use gamma? Alpha and Beta are the first two characters of the Greek alphabet. Presumably these characters were chosen because
software development
Some developers love to gold plate their software. There are various shades of... er, gold, I guess, but it’s usually considered wasteful to fritter away time gold plating old code in the face of new features that need to be implemented, or old bugs that could be squashed. Developers
software development concepts
Ever find yourself clicking on links to music or videos and getting blasted in the face with this delightful little number? That’s right – links to any sort of music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, audiobooks or anything else available through Apple’s iTunes store requires custom software to be installed