1. a professional programmer picks a worthwhile problem to attack; we are engineers, not scientists, and therefore should attempt solutions that will solve real user problems. 2. a professional programmer has a dedication to the end-user experience; most computer applications built these days are Web applications built by small teams and hence it is now [...] Read more – ‘→ Professionalism for Software Engineers’.
First, get some mercury. The kind we want is Hg-196, a naturally occurring isotope with 80 protons and 116 neutrons in its nucleus. The 80 protons are what make it mercury. Gold, meanwhile, has 79 protons — you see where I’m going with this. Finding sufficient Hg-196 could take some doing, though, as only 0.15 percent [...] Read more – ‘→ How to make Gold from Mercury’.
The great inventor Thomas Edison visited the home of Mark Twain in 1909, and captured footage of “the father of American literature” (says Faulkner) walking around his estate and playing cards with his daughters, Clara and Jean. Mark Twain Captured on Film by Thomas Edison (1909) | Open Culture. Read more – ‘→ Mark Twain Captured on Film by Thomas Edison (1909)’.
People who constantly try to always get that great deal end up spending all their time chasing those deals and never actually get things done. I’ve seen people do this their entire lives, and it is debilitating. When we change your mindset from getting the best deal to getting the best quality, it changes the [...] Read more – ‘→ Pay Too Much’.
English spelling is notoriously inconsistent, and some have gone further, calling it “the world’s most awesome mess” or “an insult to human intelligence” (both these from linguists, one American, one Austrian). … one would have to say that English, far from being a pure maiden, looks like a woman who has appeared out of some [...] Read more – ‘→ The myth of English as a global language’.
We now have a new super-generalized and minimal abstraction for collections – a collection is some set of things that, when given a function to apply to its contents, can do so and give you the result, i.e. a collection is (at minimum) reducible. In other words, you can call reduce on it. via Clojure/core [...] Read more – ‘→ Clojure/core — Reducers – A Library and Model for Collection Processing’.
To harness the energy that fuels both these drives, we need to move beyond the New Groupthink and embrace a more nuanced approach to creativity and learning. Our offices should encourage casual, cafe-style interactions, but allow people to disappear into personalized, private spaces when they want to be alone. Our schools should teach children to [...] Read more – ‘→ The Rise of the New Groupthink’.
I’ve been hugely impressed with the Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7.5. I’ve had an iPhone since day one, and every model since, but I really like the new path Microsoft is cutting with WP7 so I decided to give it an extended try. It’s been a bit over a week, and so far [...] Read more – ‘Jason Fried on Nokia Lumia 800 + WP7.5’.
Here’s one of the crazy pseudo scientific theories, seems like it is only “popular” in Japan How exactly does blood type personality theory work? According to Nomis book, the ABO blood type determines personality, temperament, and compatibility with other people. Specific blood types are characterized by representative traits that can be used to distinguish between [...] Read more – ‘→ Blood-type personality theory’.
In the days when no anesthetics were known, when the wounded or diseased must suffer the tortures of amputation, or the rough operations known in those days, with no relief till sheer pain should either kill or produce unconsciousness ‐ here was a plant whose wonderful properties alone had the gift of showing mercy! Here [...] Read more – ‘→ The Legacy of Atropos, the Fate Who Cut the Thread of Life’.
The best use of Fourier Transform! In audio signal processing such as speech or music, the Fourier Transform has a straightforward meaning. The sound is broken up into a combination of frequency components. In most instrumental music, this is very simple. The music is a collection of notes or tones with specific frequencies. Percussion instruments [...] Read more – ‘→ Creating Cartoon Voices with Math’.
Although twitter was his most frequent whipping boy, Mayer also targeted the urgency beginning artists feel to update their blogs and youtube channels with new songs or videos to maintain steady flows of interest for their work. Instead, Mayer explained that he found the separation of creation and promotion necessary in his own career, saying [...] Read more – ‘→ John Mayer 2011 Clinic – “Manage the Temptation to Publish Yourself”’.
The simple publishing tools that we used back in the 90s “evolved” into massively complex structures requiring expensive experts to install and administer. CMS like SharePoint, Vignette and Percussion are punishing experiences for the user, turning the joyous task of writing into a machine-led death march. You enter your content and then engage in a [...] Read more – ‘“The Software is Wrong, Not the People”’.
This is fantastic news! Custom B2B apps are built just for you by third-party developers and business partners to address a specific business process, integrate with a unique back-office environment, or deliver a custom interface for your users. Using the Volume Purchase Program, you can securely and privately purchase custom B2B apps for iPhone and [...] Read more – ‘→ Apple Volume Purchase Program for B2B apps’.
I’ve gone back and forth on whether managers should code and my opinion is: don’t stop coding. Each week that passes where you don’t share the joy, despair, and discovery of software development is a week when you slowly forget what it means to be a software developer. Over time it means you’ll have a [...] Read more – ‘→ Bored People Quit’.
Here’s a quick summary of what’s new in ModeShape 2.6.0.Beta1 Kits for JBoss Application Server 5.x and 6.x Improved overall performance New disk-based storage connector Added cache support in several connectors Pluggable authentication and authorization The JPA connector now support configuring/using Hibernate 2nd-level cache Improved BINARY property support for large files Automatically use the JDK [...] Read more – ‘→ ModeShape 2.6.0.Beta1 is available’.
Dudley Clendinen has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S. This is not about one particular disease or even about Death. It’s about Life, when you know there’s not much left. That is the weird blessing of Lou. There is no escape, and nothing much to do. It’s liberating. I’d rather die. I respect the wishes of [...] Read more – ‘→ “It’s time to be gone.”’.
Typography is not merely the process of arranging font on a page. It is a living creature; it feels joy in an exclamation point, takes deep sighs at periods, grabs consciousness with each bold strike and begs for understanding in the space between every italic. It has intricate rhythm and harmony, staccato paragraphs and legato [...] Read more – ‘→ How to Actually Make Text Look Interesting’.
GQ: Sum up your life in a phrase. Hackman: “He tried.” I think that’d be fairly accurate. → Is Gene Hackman Retired From Acting? GQ Interview June 2011: Movies + TV: GQ. Read more – ‘→ Is Gene Hackman Retired From Acting?’.
Now that I’ve used a WP7 phone for a few weeks, I’m asking myself the same question: should I go back to my iPhone? After looking at the clean, ascetic visual language of WP7 for such a long time, iOS suddenly seems garish, overdone, and kind of ugly. Looking at iOS 4 feels like looking [...] Read more – ‘→ Windows Phone 7 review by Lukas Mathis’.
Fascinating! Our brains take a rather different approach to cores, clock speeds, and parallel processing, however. They operate at variable clock speeds between 5 and 500 Hertz. No Giga here, or Mega or even Kilo. Brain waves, whose relationship to computation remains somewhat mysterious, are very slow, ranging from the delta sleep waves of 0-4 [...] Read more – ‘→ Brain has five million “200 million transistor chip cores”’.
A lot of companies don’t like people working remotely as it is disruptive to a normal office schedule. It can also breed jealousy in the people who have to commute every day to the office. When you offer the option to people though it is amazing what can happen if you play your cards right [...] Read more – ‘On working remotely and efficiency’.
What if your pajamas could tell you how well you slept? That’s the dream of startup Nyx Devices, which has developed a nightshirt embedded with fabric electronics to monitor the wearer’s breathing patterns. A small chip worn in a pocket of the shirt processes that data to determine the phase of sleep, such as REM [...] Read more – ‘A Nightshirt to Monitor Sleep’.
Popular is almost never a measure of impact, or genius, or art. Popular rarely correlates with guts, hard work or a willingness to lead (and be willing to be wrong along the way). via Seth’s Blog: What’s the point of popular?. Read more – ‘“What’s the point of popular?”’.
Aching. It turns out that no one can imagine what’s really coming in our lives. We can plan, and do what we enjoy, but we can’t expect our plans to work out. Some of them might, while most probably won’t. Inventions and ideas will appear, and events will occur, that we could never foresee. That’s [...] Read more – ‘Derek K. Miller’s Last Post’.
As a user I really don’t like to see an app I just bought now being offered at a lower price. I feel I made a bad decision buying the app. I regret the purchase. I also feel bad about buying an app I’ve already bought, just because I wish to run it on my [...] Read more – ‘What’s a Quality App?’.
Speaking of Glass, here’s an excellent video of making of an hourglass: The Hourglass from Ikepod on Vimeo. Via Kottke.org Read more – ‘Making of an hourglass’.
Jeroen Verberg on the future of Content Management: It’s not just about Web sites any longer. It’s an integrated Web experience across the Web site, mobile platforms, social, email and all of them across multiple languages. And, most importantly, it’s about delivering content that’s contextually relevant to the user no matter what platform, device or [...] Read more – ‘The Future Of Content Management’.
One might think that Gandhi’s legacy on the whole has been depicted negatively and yet there is no denying Lelyveld’s deep sympathy with the man. The picture that emerges is of someone intensely human, with all the defects and weaknesses that suggests, but also a visionary with a profound social conscience and courage who gave [...] Read more – ‘A Different Gandhi by Anita Desai’.
Rather than feeling I’m competing with others, I can appreciate, enjoy, celebrate and encourage the work I see them doing. When I take this approach, it encourages me in the process, inspiring me to be my best while enjoying others’ success. It’s also a net positive, because those who are celebrated are encouraged to do [...] Read more – ‘Becoming Fully Who You Are’.
When you’re trying to help someone learn how to go from a problem statement to working code, the last thing you want is to get them sidetracked by faux-engineering busywork. Some people are going to run with those scraps of OO knowledge and build crazy class hierarchies and end up not as focused on on [...] Read more – ‘Don’t Distract New Programmers with OOP’.
The idea behind the Slow Company movement is that instead of trying to be the first or to get the most mindshare or market share of any company in your vertical, you try to make something that people genuinely find useful and are willing to pay for it. And instead of trying to woo celebrities [...] Read more – ‘Slow Company’.
The idea of starting a family business appeals to many entrepreneurs. We know this because 90 percent of the 21 million small businesses in America are family owned, according to the Small Business Administration.Last December we shared an infographic about family-owned businesses in the U.S. Now, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we turn our attention [...] Read more – ‘For Better or For Worse: Husband and Wife Businesses’.
there’s two sides to every story, or to quote a less banal maxim, history is written by the winners. That’s the philosophy behind “The Last Ringbearer,” a novel set during and after the end of the War of the Ring (the climactic battle at the end of “The Lord of the Rings”) and told from [...] Read more – ‘Middle-earth according to Mordor’.
why I abandoned the free and open Android rebellion, a movement I have been entrenched in for over a year, for the power of “the Dark Side.” The first and probably most important reason for my change, is the camera. The iPhone camera is great, it’s reliable, and the applications for it are inexpensive and [...] Read more – ‘A traitors review of the Verizon iPhone 4’.
Two years ago, Google sent out an army of hybrid electric automobiles, each one bearing nine cameras on a single pole. Armed with a GPS and three laser range scanners, this fleet of cars began an endless quest to photograph every highway and byway in the free world. via IMG MGMT: The Nine Eyes of [...] Read more – ‘The Nine Eyes of Google Street View’.
The reeason is not … that Alfred Nobel’s wife (sometimes mistress or fiancée) had an affair with a famed mathematics professor (actual name of professor varies based on who’s telling the story, but most popular go with famed Swedish mathematician Gosta Mittag-Leffler). So Nobel stipulated in his will that there should not be a Nobel [...] Read more – ‘Why there is no “Nobel Prize for Mathematics”?’.
Traditionally, Java programmers enforced preconditions using explicit parameter validation code in public methods, and assertions in non-public methods. Likewise, they enforced invariants and postconditions using assertions. This approach is described in detail here. Since then, new features in Java 5 have enabled a more convenient and expressive implementation of contracts. Contracts for Java is our [...] Read more – ‘Google Contracts for Java’.
The work you take on can define you— it’s what you practice, what you get recognized for, and what you’ll be hired to do next. Passion & belief in a cause is easily a sufficiently motivating factor, as are bills that need to be paid. The way I see it— if you’re into it, do [...] Read more – ‘You Are What You Eat’.
Recently I’ve been pondering about the languages and translation etc. I’ve always been thinking that using efficient and beautiful language constructs is esoteric. As result, I’m very skeptical about any machine or program (in my lifetime at least) produce anything even remotely equal to a human mind when translating something from one language to the [...] Read more – ‘On Google Translate’.
I use SSH to login to different servers I manage. There are some nifty tools available for a Mac for transferring files to a server via SCP like Fugu and Cyberduck. But I wanted to have the entire folder mounted in Finder so that I can access it anytime. The MacFuse + sshfs combination worked [...] Read more – ‘Mounting remote (ssh) filesystem on Mac OS X’.
Ninety-five percent of Dutch Microsoft employees work from home at least one day a week; a full quarter do so four out of five days. Each team has a “physical minimum;” some meet twice a week in the office, others once a quarter. Online communication and conference calls save time, fuel and paper waste. The [...] Read more – ‘More and more Dutch companies promote flexible work hours’.
The Path of a Doer’ is a pocket guide to helping you to achieve more. To help you understand the ebb and flow of making something happen. via The Do Book Co. – The Path of a Doer. Read more – ‘The Path of a Doer’.
Brent Simmons’s notes on threading in Cocoa applications: Stuff happening in threads is private and self-contained. Black boxes, train cars. Communication between two things should be on the main thread, except in carefully controlled circumstances. Communication includes notifications and KVO, not just direct calls. Using GCD or NSOperationQueue is way better than the old ways [...] Read more – ‘→Threading in Cocoa applications’.
Learn-Clojure.com is “an attempt to gather together everything you will need to learn Clojure, assuming that you already know another programming language or two or three.” via Learn Clojure. Read more – ‘Learn-Clojure.com’.
Seth Godin: Once you overload the user, you train them not to pay attention. More clutter isn’t free. In fact, more clutter is a permanent shift, a desensitization to all the information, not just the last bit. Read more – ‘→ The inevitable decline from clutter’.
So you learned the base id, class, and descendant selectors – and then called it a day? If so, you’re missing out on an enormous level of flexibility. While many of the selectors mentioned in this article are part of the CSS3 spec, and are, consequently, only available in modern browsers, you owe it to [...] Read more – ‘→ The 30 CSS Selectors you Must Memorize’.
At the root of all 8 hour workday issues is this. The 8 hour work day is a creativity killer. Today, human creativity is at an all time high because less and less people are working in offices. People are finding ways to make a sustainable living by tapping into their own creative potential. This [...] Read more – ‘→ Why the 8 Hour Workday Doesn’t Make Sense’.
A few years ago, French photographer Sacha Goldberger found his 91-year-old Hungarian grandmother Frederika feeling lonely and depressed. To cheer her up, he suggested that they shoot a series of outrageous photographs in unusual costumes, poses, and locations. Grandma reluctantly agreed, but once they got rolling, she couldnt stop smiling. via Grandmas Superhero Therapy 18 [...] Read more – ‘→ Grandmas Superhero Therapy’.
I read somewhere that you need 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. Dominico DeMarco has been making pizzas since 1964 that is more than 402,000 hours of Pizza Making. The Best Thing I Ever Done HQ from MargaretEmily MacKenzie on Vimeo. Read more – ‘Dominico DeMarco’s Pizza’.
I’ve worked for a handful of companies over the course of the last 6 years. I started all of them with a fair amount of enthusiasm, but within 5 months of each I dipped into a depression. By 7 months the work was having a tangible effect on my mood and outlook, and by nine [...] Read more – ‘In Praise of Quitting Your Job’.
I call it my billion-dollar mistake. It was the invention of the null reference in 1965. At that time, I was designing the first comprehensive type system for references in an object oriented language (ALGOL W). My goal was to ensure that all use of references should be absolutely safe, with checking performed automatically by [...] Read more – ‘→ Null References: The Billion Dollar Mistake’.
P2 is a theme for WordPress that transforms a mild-mannered blog into a super-blog with features like inline comments on the homepage, a posting form right on the homepage, inline editing of posts and comments, real-time updates so new posts and comments come in without reloading, and much more. via P2 WordPress Theme, like Twitter [...] Read more – ‘→ P2 WordPress Theme, like Twitter in a box’.
Jeroen Reijn (@jreijn) on his experience with heap dump analysis: One of the great things about Eclipse Memory Analyzer is that it starts indexing the heapdumps on first load. This makes the processing of the heapdump very fast and once youve parsed the entire heapdump, reopening it is a piece of cake, because it does not [...] Read more – ‘→ Large heap dump analysis with Eclipse Memory Analyzer’.
The problem with talking smack is you immediately put yourself on the clock. You almost guarantee public disappointment when the product does not ship as or when promised. If you just shut your mouth and let the product speak for itself—once you actually have a product—then there’s a much better chance for people to be pleasantly [...] Read more – ‘→ Why Apple Doesn’t Talk, Vol. 1: LG VaporTab’.
The Dynamic Code Evolution Virtual Machine (DCE VM) is a modification of the Java HotSpot(TM) VM that allows unlimited redefinition of loaded classes at runtime. The current hotswapping mechanism of the HotSpot(TM) VM allows only changing method bodies. Our enhanced VM allows adding and removing fields and methods as well as changes to the super [...] Read more – ‘→ Dynamic Code Evolution VM’.
On the same subject of Measuring: Software organizations tend to reward programmers who (a) write lots of code and (b) fix lots of bugs. The best way to get ahead in an organization like this is to check in lots of buggy code and fix it all, rather than taking the extra time to get [...] Read more – ‘→ Measurement’.
Old, but still worth linking again. First, forget about it unless you are willing to invest significantly and heavily to establish a culture of innovation like Apple’s. Because it’s not just about copying Apple’s approach and procedures. The vast majority of executives who say, “I want to be just like Apple,” have no idea what [...] Read more – ‘→ You Can’t Innovate Like Apple’.
Why should you have a proper product roadmap, instead of implementing every feature request from the customers: Customer feature requests are closely tied to Customer Acquisition. Every product should have a clear roadmap and a clear understanding of what the product does and does not do. If your team does not have this in place, [...] Read more – ‘UX Won’t Save You’.
Another example of Mac Software Developers Awesome-coolnesss ! A few months ago Dmitry Chestnykh, the founder of Coding Robots and copyright holder of Mémoires, discovered that his program – like many others – was being shared via The Pirate Bay. Out of curiosity he decided to download the torrent to find out how it was [...] Read more – ‘Pirate Bay Receives Notice To Keep a Torrent’.
The average respiratory rate for adults is 12-20 breathes per minute, which is the rate that the sleep-indicator light fades in and out on most Apple laptops. Older models such as the Macintosh PowerBook, however, use a blinking LED indicator, with discrete pulses in one-second intervals. The other day, I noticed that my friend’s Dell [...] Read more – ‘Apple’s Attention to Detail’.
Apple first launches a private API for internal use. The API is iterated until there are no more internal questions. It then goes public. Feedback is critical to further refine the service so it has longevity over the span of several generations. via A View Into How Apple Develops APIs – ReadWriteCloud. Read more – ‘A View Into How Apple Develops APIs’.
This is really interesting. I’m checking out the site right now. OpenHatch is a place for developers who want to be involved in open source but don’t know where to start. You can go to the site and search for a way to contribute based on a language you know or a project you like. [...] Read more – ‘Ready to be an open source contributor but don’t know where to start?’.
Amazing macro photographs of eyes – beautiful and creepy at the same time. Your beautiful eyes on the Behance Network. Read more – ‘Your beautiful eyes’.
Marketing your open source project doesn’t have to be hard, or expensive. It just takes a bit of resourcefulness and passion. Most importantly, be patient. It will take time to build up your developer audience. Keep at it and they will come. Read more … Read more – ‘→ Marketing your Open Source Project’.
Wave has not seen the user adoption we would have liked. We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. The central parts of the code, as well as [...] Read more – ‘Google finally gets rid of wave’.
You should begin the day with a team meeting, and in this respect MDD(Meeting Drive Development) is in agreement with XP’s practice of holding daily “stand-up” meetings. Like many meetings that are driven by the calendar rather than by a need, your morning meeting will probably devolve into a pointless ritual that serves only to [...] Read more – ‘Morning Stand-Up Meeting’.
Every night we’ll email you the question “How did your day go?” Just reply with your entry and it’s saved here instantly. This is a pretty neat idea. The site is nicely done too. → OhLife.com Read more – ‘→ Oh Life’.
Amazing virtual tour of Trans-Siberian Railway courtesy of Google and Russian Railways. The Great Trans-Siberian Railway – the pride of Russia – is in 2 parts of the world, 12 regions and 87 cities. A joint project by Google and the company “Russian Railways” will allow you to not leaving the house to pass on [...] Read more – ‘Virtual Tour of Trans-Siberian Railroute’.
If you want to raise your game and build an organization filled with people who will change everything, the first thing to look for is someone who hasn’t been brainwashed into believing that they’re not capable of great work. via Seths Blog: Low esteem and the factory. Read more – ‘→ Low esteem and the factory’.
I don’t want to stare at some photo of me at 21 when I’m 50 and contemplate everything I was, or could have been. I don’t want to have to drown in partial truths, grasping at a falling memory to paint in details. I’d rather either remember, or not. Rather know, or forget. I’d rather [...] Read more – ‘→ Pictures’.
The ModeShape project proudly announces that version 2.0 is now available and ready for use. ModeShape 2.0 now implements the JCR 2.0 specification (JSR-283). Specifically, ModeShape supports all the JCR 2.0 required features and most of the JCR 2.0 optional features. ModeShape 2.0 supports five query languages: the JCR-SQL2 and JCR-QOM query languages defined in [...] Read more – ‘ModeShape 2.0’.
I wrote Hand to Mouth to India in 1997/8 at the age of 20 and it’s the tale of how I hitchhiked from England to India with no money. via Hand to Mouth to India. Read more – ‘Hand to Mouth to India’.
For years, Web designers and developers have struggled to make Web sites look and act the same in every browser. But every browser is different. They each have their own capabilities and limitations. So making every experience the same across all browsers means not taking advantage of some opportunities capabilities and hacking around existing limitations. [...] Read more – ‘Designing for Mobile First Helps with Big Issues’.
The current status is that the WebDAV addon has default support for the Hippo assets folder. This was actually quite easy to develop. This can also be used to copy all assets from a CMS 6 instance directly into a running CMS 7 instance. All other folders are not WebDAV enabled yet, but I have [...] Read more – ‘→ Hippo CMS 7 WebDAV Support’.
With Flickr you can get out, via the API, every single piece of information you put into the system.Every photo, in every size, plus the completely untouched original. which we store for you indefinitely, whether or not you pay us Every tag, every comment, every note, every people tag, every fave. Also your stats, view [...] Read more – ‘→ Flickr Data Ownership’.
Enterprise Content Management ECM is another great use case for which it makes a lot of sense to offer the BPM capabilities where they are used. In the industry over the last 2 years you see more and more focus on bringing these worlds together. It makes a lot of sense. via Process Developments: Standalone [...] Read more – ‘→ Standalone BPM Is Dead’.
Frequent TV and Web surfers sitters have higher rates of hypertension, obesity, high blood triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and high blood sugar, regardless of weight. Lean people, on average, stand for two hours longer than their counterparts. The chair youre sitting in now is likely contributing to the problem. “Short of sitting on a spike, [...] Read more – ‘→Your Office Chair Is Killing You’.
Anyone who occupies themselves with the task of creating truly usable products becomes instantly aware that achieving simplicity is not that simple. For any single feature in a product we must take into account the way it looks, the way it functions, its place in the overall system, affordances to help convey context of how and why it [...] Read more – ‘→ Simplicity isn’t that simple – 52 Weeks of UX’.
Experiment with GUIs which don’t trace their descent to Xerox PARC. Forever renounce the idiotic practice of copying Microsoft, that cheap imitation of a cheap imitation. If you are creative, create. Otherwise, strive to find a strong-willed Jobs figure gifted with good taste, and become his loyal servant. This is how we get quality products, [...] Read more – ‘“Creativity requires mind, and a herd has none”’.
These are among what developers would leave behind if they choose to abandon Apple for uncharted and unproven platforms of other vendors. Users do not follow esoteric open/closed platform politics, they vote with their money for convenience, reliability and value. In order to become a better garden for developers, it’s not enough for other vendors [...] Read more – ‘Apple to xplatform developers: We’re no longer suicidal’.
In this charmingly narrated autobiographical essay written for the Nobel Foundation, 2009 Chemistry Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan recalls his Indian roots, the shaping role of his exceptional parents and teachers, the affective care he received from his grandmother and aunt, the twists and turns of his scientific career — and how he came to his lifelong [...] Read more – ‘→ From Chidambaram to Cambridge: a life in science’.
The iPhone simulator’s method seems magically wonderful. Since the iPhone OS is MacOS, all the kernel APIs are the same. The natively-compiled frameworks, libraries, and display engine are built from the same source code, so you know they’re the same too. And your Mac’s CPU is a lot faster than the iPhone’s CPU, so the [...] Read more – ‘→ Why the iPhone Simulator is Awesome’.
Code re-use in CSS almost non-existent. File size in CSS just keeps getting bigger as we continue to modify it. CSS code is often too fragile. It can get ruined by the first person to touch it. via LukeW | An Event Apart: Object Oriented CSS. Read more – ‘→ Object Oriented CSS’.
The trouble with the word Chinese is, it is an adjective as well as a noun, and it not only is both singular and plural, but it always sounds plural because of the “s”. A Chinaman is a man, beyond any doubt. A Chinese sounds somewhere between a tapestry and a couple of Chinamen. via [...] Read more – ‘→ The trouble with Chinese’.
Hydrofloors® vertically movable floors enable the client to exploit the surface area of a swimming pool by converting the associated terrace or indoor pool room for other uses e.g. recreation, social events, for dining and dancing. via Hydro Floors → Read more – ‘→ Movable Floors’.
Is there a way to know what fonts will work together? Building a palette is an intuitive process, but expanding a typographic duet to three, four, or even five voices can be daunting. Here are four tips for navigating the typographic ocean, all built around H&FJ's Highly Scientific First Principle of Combining Fonts: keep one [...] Read more – ‘→ Four Ways to Mix Fonts’.
A successful open-source community documentation initiative has: Comprehensive documentation provided on a central, official website. Inline comments and user feedback. The most common paths on the website are the most visible, intuitive paths. Fluent navigation and document hierarchies. (The URL matches the Breadcrumbs matches the content. If users get lost, users give up). Accurate and [...] Read more – ‘→ Improving Community – The power of good, centralized documentation’.
A discourse on the process of designing for real people – a terrific blog by Joshua Brewer the Director of User Experience at Socialcast.com and Joshua Porter is an interface designer and co-founder of Performable. A must read/subscribe. 52 Weeks of UX → Read more – ‘→ 52 Weeks of UX’.
Who’s the man behind the sound you hear, every time you startup your Mac? One More Thing onemorething.nl went down to San Jose to track him down: Jim Reekes. He worked for Apple for over 12 years, during which he left his mark on everything sound at Apple. via OMT in San Francisco #3: Let [...] Read more – ‘→ Jim Reeks: The Man Behind the Mac Startup Sound’.
The Codeorgan works by analysing the body content of any web page and translates that content into music. The Codeorgan uses a complex algorithm to define the key, synthesiser style and drum pattern most appropriate to the page content.Have a go at http://www.codeorgan.com/ → codeorgan.com Read more – ‘→ Codeorgan.com’.
Designed to support question and answer style interactions where the set of questions are dynamic and potentially dependent on the answers received Initially targeted at interactive web applications, however technology independent and could be used in B2B scenarios, mobile devices, etc An embeddable component that complements and works within existing UI frameworks such as Seam/JSF/Spring [...] Read more – ‘→ JBoss Tohu’.
Developer Sahil Lavingia is working on building a complete iPhone application in one week. The effort started from Sunday and so far seems to be going to be at a nice pace. Along the way he’s also sharing some nice tips on how is implementing the features. Your weight, your kill-to-death ratio in a first-person [...] Read more – ‘→ One Week App’.
People seem to want to know if HPHP is widely useful outside of Facebook, and some people are saying “no”. I disagree strongly. In order for HPHP to be useful, you need to have a PHP application which is suffering due to PHP interpreter performance. That matches Facebook perfectly, and they’ve always been the canonical [...] Read more – ‘→ A rant about PHP compilers’.
For those of us surrounded by the minutiae of computers all day, it’s easy to forget there’s a world of people out there who just don’t get it. And it’s not their fault. It’s ours.Apple has decided it’s worth throwing out advanced features in order to get these people onboard. via Computers shouldnt make people [...] Read more – ‘→ Computers shouldn’t make people feel like idiots’.
Passionate about technology Programs as a hobby Will talk your ear off on a technical subject if encouraged Significant and often numerous personal side-projects over the years Learns new technologies on his/her own Opinionated about which technologies are better for various usages Very uncomfortable about the idea of working with a technology he doesn’t believe [...] Read more – ‘→How to recognise a good programmer’.
In 1998, aged just 14, aspiring young cartoonist Amir Avni decided to get in touch with the creator of Ren & Stimpy, John Kricfalusi. Being a hardcore fan of Kricfalusis work, Amir sent him an introductory letter along with a few cartoons hed drawn, some of which contained relatively unknown characters of Johns. To call [...] Read more – ‘→ Letters of Note: Your pal, John K.’.
A 53-year-old man learned that lesson after receiving a record-setting fine of nearly $290,000 for driving 85 mph in a 50 mph zone through the small town of St. Gallen. Adding insult to injury, he was driving a car worth a fraction of the fine — a Ferrari Testarossa. Why the hefty fine for a [...] Read more – ‘→ Swiss Slap Speeder With $290K Fine’.
Depending on your development methodology, unit tests can serve a number of different functions. But if used purely to detect bugs then they are a very high cost approach for low return.Unit tests dont test the overall program, only isolated units. This creates many holes integration, timing, re-entrancy, inter-module communication that need to be tested [...] Read more – ‘→ Quality control in application development without unit testing’.
Grumpy people think more clearly because negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking. The calmest place on Earth is on top of an icy plateau in Antarctica known as Ridge A, several hundred miles from the South Pole. It is so still that stars do not twinkle in the sky because there is no turbulence [...] Read more – ‘→ 50 Things we know now that we didn't know this time last year’.
The Hippo CMS team has big plans for 2010. Early in the year they intend to launch a new web 2.0 platform. This open source product is aimed at the enterprise, to ensure “improved communication, collaboration and knowledge retention while lowering the burden on IT resources.” Features include an integrated approach to user-generated content, an [...] Read more – ‘→ What’s Coming from Hippo in 2010’.
And therein lies the best career advice I could possibly dispense: just DO things. Chase after the things that interest you and make you happy. Stop acting like you have a set path, because you don’t. No one does. You shouldn’t be trying to check off the boxes of life; they aren’t real and they [...] Read more – ‘→ Career Advice’.
Rod Johnson talks about Java’s evolution, in particular J2EE, presenting the lessons to be learned from its failures, like committee-led standards and container-managed frameworks, preparing to avoid such mistakes in the future. via InfoQ: Lessons Learned From Java EE’s Evolution. Read more – ‘→ Lessons Learned From Java EE’s Evolution’.
Be a smart computer scientist Get a job at Google Leave Google,create startup Use your Google resume to get high profile Silicon Valley backing Build something cool, win some fans Sell to Google Tell Silicon Valley insider press about sale Kill product, break a few hearts, get absorbed again by Google but with millions of [...] Read more – ‘Etherpad Goes to Google – Just Another Silicon Valley Soap Opera’.
Unfortunately, despite the anycasting, advanced caching, and extensive security features, Google Public DNS is not the ideal DNS service. For one thing, it's not called “experimental” for nothing. From my home, I can’t reach 8.8.8.8. Packets end up ping-ponging between the addresses 9.9.9.18 and 9.9.9.17. Apparently some routing engineer at Google is a bit dyslexic. [...] Read more – ‘→ Google Public DNS service not ideal for everyone’.
Eko light is a simple yet, highly practical concept for traffic lights that not only helps preserve the environment by reducing pollution but promotes safer driving as well. Eko can be easily installed onto existing traffic light systems without much effort while significantly improving overall traffic dynamics. via Eko – Ecological & economical traffic light [...] Read more – ‘→ Eko – Ecological & economical traffic light concept’.
If you think you’re a genius, that’s great. But you’re not. Even if you are, realise that you aren’t. Even if you actually are, keep it to yourself. Key words here: “Show, don’t tell.” Long story short, do what you enjoy. Do it lots and lots. You’ll get better at it. There’s no easy way [...] Read more – ‘→ You’ll never get what you want.’.
In a study of more than 3,000 mustard seedlings, scientists discovered that the young plants recognize their siblings — other plants grown from the seeds of the same momma plant — using chemical cues given off during root growth. And it turns out mustard plants won’t compete with their brethren the way they will with [...] Read more – ‘→ Mustard Siblinghood’.
How did I miss to post this ? On October 12, 1979, a novelization of a popular British radio series first saw publication. In the next 22 years, its author would become an icon of humorous geek literature, would write four sequels to it, and would, tragically, die of a heart attack at the age [...] Read more – ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide Turns 30’.
The stripes were created by a special device that was fitted to the nozzle end of the tube: a tube within the tube, if you will, about one inch in length and perforated with a ring of small holes around the top. Toothpaste tubes are normally filled from the flat end, which is then folded [...] Read more – ‘How did they get the stripes in Stripe toothpaste?’.
Many Hindus throughout India recently celebrated Ganesha Chaturthi, a 10-day festival celebrating the birth of Ganesh, their supreme god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. Hinduism, the predominant religion in India, is rich with traditional festivals and rituals, celebrated in many ways and locations around the world. Collected here are a few photographs from recent [...] Read more – ‘→ Photos from recent hindu festivals’.
Part the first: The Hypertext Markup Language was designed to describe the structure of scientific documents and how they related to one another. Part the second: The Hypertext Markup Language is used to describe the way a given screen of information is structured, presented and responds to user input. Thesis: Everything wrong with HTML5 can [...] Read more – ‘→ What is wrong with HTML 5’.
Project Coin got its name because it is about making “small change”(s) to the Java programming language for JDK 7. Sun’s Joe Darcy has been leading the project. In his blog post, Project Coin: The Final Five (Or So), has announced which small changes will actually make it into JDK 7. → Discussion on Artima Read more – ‘→ Final list of Project Coin changes for JDK 7’.
“I stood in front of this particular photograph for probably a full five minutes, not knowing why I was staring at it,” she says. “And then it really dawned on me that the girl in the picture was me.” → Robert Frank’s Elevator Girl Sees Herself Years Later Read more – ‘→ Robert Frank’s Elevator Girl Sees Herself Years Later’.
If you have at least a 3.52739619 × 10-5 oz [1] of interest in Design and Typefaces, you might have already heard of IKEA switching its official font face from a customized version of Futura to Verdana. There has been some heavy criticism on the change. In general, most of the designers consider the type face change a disaster. [...] Read more – ‘Ikea changes to Verdana’.
Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo sculpts more than a thousand ice human figures in Berlin for WWFN (World Wide Fund for Nature) they melted in 30min. → Ice Men Read more – ‘→ Ice Men’.
People who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information do not pay attention, control their memory or switch from one job to another as well as those who prefer to complete one task at a time, a group of Stanford researchers has found. → Stanford study: Media multitaskerspay mental price Read more – ‘→ Media multitaskers pay mental price’.
If you have studied Physics in any of the courses, then you must have heard of Richard Feynman. I used to read the 3 volumes of “Feynman Lectures on Physics” religiously when I was in my engineering. Microsoft’s Project Tuva has now hosts some of the Feynman’s lectures, unmissable if you are physics geek! → [...] Read more – ‘Richard Feynman: The messenger series’.
In just over three years, four companies that Fenton invested in while at his current firm Benchmark Capital, or previous one, Accel Partners, have sold for a combined $1.6 billion. Fenton, who ranks on Forbes’ Midas List at No. 50, was an investor in JBoss Inc. (sold to Red Hat Inc. for $350 million), Zimbra [...] Read more – ‘→ What to look for in an Open Source Company’.
We belong to a remarkably quirky species. Despite our best efforts, some of our strangest foibles still defy explanation But as science probes deeper into these eccentricities, it is becoming clear that behaviours and attributes that seem frivolous at first glance often go to the heart of what it means to be human. → Ten [...] Read more – ‘→ Ten things we don't understand about humans’.
There are many ways to make websites run faster. In this section, you can discover performance best practices that real web professionals employ in their everyday work. These practices have improved the user experience for millions of users and we hope they are useful for other web developers. → Let’s make web faster Read more – ‘→ Let's make the web faster’.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook [...] Read more – ‘Specialization is for insects’.
I’m pretty sure that the Heaven, if it exists, has the Internet, otherwise it won’t be heaven. I hope my dad finally gets some time to get online and reads my blog. “You see this goblet?” asks Achaan Chaa, the Thai meditation master. “For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink [...] Read more – ‘Already Broken’.
Wordnik wants to be a place for all the words, and everything known about them. Traditional dictionaries make you wait until they’ve found what they consider to be “enough” information about a word before they will show it to you. Wordnik knows you don’t want to wait—if you’re interested in a word, we’re interested too! [...] Read more – ‘→ Wordnik.com’.
Probably you have heard of TED or watched none of the conference videos already. Now the TED conference talks are being translated into many local languages. The TED Open Translation Project brings TEDTalks beyond the English-speaking world by offering subtitles, interactive transcripts and the ability for any talk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. → [...] Read more – ‘→ TED talks now in 40+ languages’.
Afghanistan’s only known pig has been quarantined because of fears over swine flu, officials from Kabul Zoo say. Acknowledging that being Afghanistan’s only pig is a lonely existence, Mr Saqib says he hopes to find Khanzir a female companion soon. However, he says, because of swine flu, “it is a dangerous and difficult time to get [...] Read more – ‘→ Afghanistan's has only one pig’.
From comment in the code of Xee // At this point, I’d like to take a moment to speak to you about the Adobe PSD format. // PSD is not a good format. PSD is not even a bad format. Calling it such would be an // insult to other bad formats, such as PCX [...] Read more – ‘PSD file format’.
Katie Kirkpatrick, 21, held off cancer to celebrate the happiest day of her life. Katie had chased away cancer once, only to have it return – to clog her lungs and grab hold of her heart. Breathing was difficult now, she had to use oxygen. The pain in her back was so intense it broke [...] Read more – ‘"The Bride Was Beautiful"’.
Good design is innovative. It does not copy existing product forms, nor does it produce any kind of novelty for the sake of it. The essence of innovation must be clearly seen in all functions of a product. The possibilities in this respect are by no means exhausted. Technological development keeps offering new chances for [...] Read more – ‘→ Good design: The ten commandments of Dieter Rams’.
The key ingredient I see in successful apps, Mac or web — and, really, in creative commercial endeavors of any kind — is that the creators are building something they themselves love. That’s what you should copy. - John Gruber via Daring Fireball Read more – ‘→ What you should copy’.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a site that cares about your code ? That threats it as a piece of art and at the same time, encourage people to make it better and more beautiful ? → RefactorMyCode.com Read more – ‘→ Refactor My Code’.
Programmers are the Gods of their tiny worlds. They create something out of nothing. In their command-line universe, they say when it’s sunny and when it rains. And the tiny universe complies. So if you’re working with a programmer, you have to treat him or her like a God. You have to pray. You cannot [...] Read more – ‘→ Programmers are Tiny Gods’.
The AJAX API Playground is currently loaded with over 170 samples for 8 Google JavaScript APIs (Maps, Search, Feeds, Calendar, Visualization, Language, Blogger, Libraries and Earth) that you can edit and run to help you explore what Google’s APIs have to offer. There are also save and export features. The save feature allows you to [...] Read more – ‘→ Google AJAX APIs Playground’.
Here is the mailer I got from (mt) today. Once you click the “Tell Us Anything” button, it takes you to the form with just one large text area, no boring surveys or no 10 field customer data, answering who am I, where am I and other stupid stuff.. just one field. I’m happier being [...] Read more – ‘(mt) feedback form’.
Robert L. Glass from IEEE Software vol. 18, no. 3, 2001, pp. 112, 110–111: This month’s column is simply a collection of what I consider to be facts—truths, if you will—about software engineering. I’m presenting this software engineering laundry list because far too many people who call themselves software engineers, or computer scientists, or programmers, [...] Read more – ‘→ Frequently Forgotten Fundamental Facts about Software Engineering’.
“Australian scientists have reviewed a global pool of research into the effect of modern office design, concluding the switch to open-plan has led to lower productivity and higher worker stress.” - news.com.au This was the same thing I thought and have been arguing with management since I started my career. In fact, this is one [...] Read more – ‘Open-plan office sucks’.
The John Adams Institute is proud to present an evening with Malcolm Gladwell. [30 January 2009] What if the Beatles had never gone to Hamburg in 1960? Would they have become a sensation? What if Bill Gates had been born five years later? Would he have revolutionalized the world? Excellence, we often think, comes from practice. But [...] Read more – ‘30th Jan: An Evening with Malcolm Gladwell →’.
Canon announces new EOS 5D Mark II 21.1MP full frame CMOS sensor DIGIC 4 processor ISO range expandable to 25600 Full HD (1080, 30fps) movie recording High-res 3.0” VGA LCD with Live View 3.9fps JPEG shooting up to card capacity 9-point AF + 6 Assist AF points Magnesium alloy body Read more – ‘Canon EOS 5D Mark II’.
The results from wired.com’s 3G speed survey: Participants in Australia reported the slowest average 3G download speeds of about 759 Kbps. The most “0” results for 3G download speeds came from U.S. participants — presumably those dropped from the 3G network. In the United States, 63 participantsreported “0″ Altogether there were 80 “0″ figures reported. [...] Read more – ‘iPhone 3G Speed results’.
DailyLit sends books in installments via e-mail or RSS feed. We currently offer over 950 classic and contemporary books available entirely for free or on a Pay-Per-Read basis (with sample installments available for free). You can read your installments wherever you receive e-mail/RSS feeds, including on your Blackberry and iPhone. Read more – ‘DailyLit.com’.
Here’s an interesting new online presentation making application. It is called 280slides It looks very similar to Keynote application on Mac. According to the developers the application is built using new a new language/extension to JavaScript, which they call Objective-J. Also the user interface is built using Cappuccino similar to Apple’s Cocoa. I can’t wait [...] Read more – ‘280Slides.com – online Keynote.app’.
Camino is a great browser for MacOS X. Much better than Firefox for Mac. If you use/like the browser please consider donating for the project.Click Here to donate now.
Through the Mozilla Foundation, we’re now able to accept tax-deductible donations that will go toward the development and advancement of Camino. What’s more, through the end of the year the Mozilla Foundation will match 2 to 1 every dollar donated (up to $10,000). Donating now makes your dollar go three times as far as it normally would.Read more – ‘Donate to Camino’.
I just started off with the Newsvine invitation. Newsvine is a collaborative news site, where users can contribute news and read news from top resources. The interface is very slick and very useable. So I started java.newsvine.com. So far its going good and the quality of the news and website is keeping me busy. Just [...] Read more – ‘Newsvine is Here’.
Similar to del.icio.us Yahoo launched its new MyWeb2 service. Now you can save your bookmarks or links and tag them. And the links can be shared with users in your network. And even the shared links can be searched using the tags as well. Yahoo is integrating its services one-by-one, buit around the Yahoo 360. Read more – ‘Yahoo launches MyWeb2.0 beta’.
YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO INSTALL WINDOWS 2000, ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO CONTINUE? - Yes. ARE YOU REALLY SURE? - Yes. ARE YOU REALLY REALLY SURE? - YES! OK, THEN. JUST SO YOU KNOW, WE’RE REQUIRED TO ASK YOU THAT NOW. IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT FOR BEING A PICKY CONSUMER AND SUPPORTING THAT WHOLE [...] Read more – ‘Old but Funny’.
I used Keyhole – a 3D – Satellite-World Viewer software, after it has been acquired by google. It was the trail edition then. Now its been rebranded to Google Earth and like all other google tools its FREE! You can download it from here. Its one of the most interesting software I’ve ever seen. You [...] Read more – ‘KeyHole is now Google Earth’.
Here is the interesting series at groklaw : The History of Free and Open Source, by Peter H. Salus. Very interesting, I am waiting to read the book completely. Among other things, now I am using Liferea for reading news feeds a wonderful tool to read the news and keep yourself updated. You can get [...] Read more – ‘A History of Free and Open Source’.
