technology trends

Secrets of the JavaScript Ninjas

javascript

Secrets of the JavaScript Ninjas

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:

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Quantity Always Trumps Quality

software development

Quantity Always Trumps Quality

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

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Alpha, Beta, and Sometimes Gamma

software development concepts

Alpha, Beta, and Sometimes Gamma

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

By Jeff Atwood ·
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The Ultimate Software Gold Plating

software development

The Ultimate Software Gold Plating

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

By Jeff Atwood ·
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iTunes is Anti-Web

software development concepts

iTunes is Anti-Web

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

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Revisiting the XML Angle Bracket Tax

xml

Revisiting the XML Angle Bracket Tax

Occasionally I’ll write about things that I find sort of mildly, vaguely thought provoking, and somehow that writing turns out to be ragingly controversial once posted here. Case in point, XML: The Angle Bracket Tax. I’m still encountering people online who almost literally hate my guts because I

By Jeff Atwood ·
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The Greatest Invention in Computer Science

programming languages

The Greatest Invention in Computer Science

What do you think the single greatest invention in computer science is? Besides the computer itself, I mean. Seriously, before reading any further, pause here for a moment and consider the question. I’ve talked before about how young so-called modern computer programming languages really are, and it bears repeating

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Large USB Flash Drive Performance

storage

Large USB Flash Drive Performance

In the last three years, I’ve gone from carrying a 512 MB USB memory stick to a 16 GB USB memory stick. That’s pretty amazing. According to the storagereview.com archives, hard drives with 16 GB of storage were introduced sometime around the beginning of 1999. Barely 10

By Jeff Atwood ·
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It’s Clay Shirky’s Internet, We Just Live In It

programming languages

It’s Clay Shirky’s Internet, We Just Live In It

I can’t remember when, exactly, I discovered Clay Shirky, but I suspect it was around 2003 or so. I sent him an email about micropayments, he actually answered it, and we had a rather nice discussion on the topic. I’ve been a fan of Clay’s writing ever

By Jeff Atwood ·
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Cleaning Your Display and Keyboard

software development

Cleaning Your Display and Keyboard

Let’s say, just as a hypothetical, you’re sitting at your computer, casually chatting with a fellow programmer. You begin to describe some bit of code, then bring it up on your display to illustrate. You want to highlight some particular part of the code. Perhaps you move the

By Jeff Atwood ·
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technology trends

Supporting DRM-Free Music

You’ve probably read this classic boner of an iPod quote at some point: No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame. It’s from the Slashdot article on the introduction of the original Apple iPod back in 2001. I had always assumed this particular quote was written by a

By Jeff Atwood ·
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The Mainstreaming of GPS

technology trends

The Mainstreaming of GPS

The Garmin Nuvi GPS first got my attention when it came not just recommended, but insanely recommended by Jason Fried in late 2005. So, back to the... Oh wow. The Nuvi 350 is insanely good. Next to the iPod it’s the the best piece of consumer electronics I’ve

By Jeff Atwood ·
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