programming languages
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
storage
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.
programming languages
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'
software development
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
technology trends
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
technology trends
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 350… Oh wow. The Nuvi 350 is insanely good. Next to the iPod it's the the
programming languages
One of the central themes of stackoverflow.com is that software developers no longer learn programming from books, as Joel mentioned: Programmers seem to have stopped reading books. The market for books on programming topics is miniscule compared to the number of working programmers. Joel expressed similar sentiments in 2004&
programming languages
Edsger Dijkstra had this to say about Beginner's All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code: It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC; as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration. I'm sure he was
multicore cpu
Dual core CPUs are effectively standard today, and for good reason -- there are substantial, demonstrable performance improvements to be gained from having a second CPU on standby to fulfill requests that the first CPU is too busy to handle. If nothing else, dual-core CPUs protect you from badly written
software development concepts
(Update: This piece originally ran on April Fools' day; although the content of the post is not an April Fools' joke, the retro styling definitely was. View a screenshot of how this post looked on April 1, 2008) I occasionally follow Jamie Zawinski's blog. Jamie'
technology trends
I lived in the Denver area at the time Denver International Airport's completely computer automated baggage system was unveiled in 1994. The troubled development of this system was big local news. The premise of Denver's plan was as big as the West. The distance from a
unicode
These are available as bumper stickers and t-shirts: Here's my rhetorical question to you: why is this funny? * The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!) * There Ain't No Such Thing as Plain Text * On the Goodness