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  If You’re Busy, You’re Doing Something Wrong: The Surprisingly Relaxed Lives of Elite Achievers

The Berlin StudyIn the early 1990s, a trio of psychologists descended on the Universität der Künste, a historic arts academy in the heart of West Berlin. They came to study the violinists.As described in their subsequent publication in Psychological Review, the researchers asked the academy’s music professors to help them identify a set of stand out violin players — the students who the professors believed would go onto careers as professional performers.Weâ...

   Relax,Elite,Achievement,Work life balance     2011-11-11 02:37:03

  API Design is UI for Developers

I’ve been thinking a lot about APIs and their design recently.I stumbled on this fantastic quote from Greg Parker: A programming language is a user interface for developers. Language authors should learn from HCI principles.22/02/2012 19:10 via webReplyRetweetFavorite@gparkerGreg ParkerWhen I first started learning C++ (back in the bad old days) I was convinced that any 1st year student could design a better programming language. One which behaved in a sane fashion without a lot of le...

   API design,UI,developers,PHP     2012-03-11 13:21:43

  CSS and HTML5 responsive images

With the popularity of Retina screen, the requirement of the images in the webpages is higher. How to make sure the image still clear while enlarging twice on retina screen? This brings much trouble to web developers, the good news is CSS3 and HTML5 is trying to change this, we can use response image. What is responsive image? It means user agent loads different images according to different resolutions of output devices, it will not waste bandwidth as well. In addition, it can load respective ...

   CSS3, HTML5,image-set,responsive image     2013-03-10 03:30:07

  #46 – Why software sucks

No one makes bad software on purpose. No benevolent programmer has ever sat down, planning out weeks of work, with the intention of frustrating people and making them cry. Bad software, or bad anything, happens because making things is hard, making good things doubly so. The three things that make it difficult are: Possessing the diverse skills needed not to suck.Understanding who you’re making the thing for.Orchestrating the interplay of skills, egos and constraints over the course of...

   Software design,Sucks,Software industry     2012-03-19 13:10:37

  Comparing Floating Point Numbers, 2012 Edition

We’ve finally reached the point in this series that I’ve been waiting for. In this post I am going to share the most crucial piece of floating-point math knowledge that I have. Here it is:[Floating-point] math is hard.You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly hard it is. I mean, you may think it’s difficult to calculate when trains from Chicago and Los Angeles will collide, but that’s just peanuts to floating-point math.Seriously. Each ti...

   Floating point number,Comparison,True value     2012-02-23 07:11:03

  Learning Go

This year I'm going to try a new programming language - Go. I had this notion that compiled, type based languages are overly complex and reduces developer efficiency. However, after doing some reading about Go, it appeared to take a different path from the rest and felt like something worth trying. Acquainting a programming language is a journey. First few steps you take with it will define your perception about it. These first few steps went well for me with Go and it felt lik...

   Go,Google,Learning,Resource     2012-01-05 08:09:55

  Set Theory in C++11

Have you ever felt the need to perform set theoretic operations on types? Not really? Me neither, but I thought it’s a fun thing to try out. So, if you ever feel the need of using type sets, C++11 makes it quite easy to do so. Especially variadic templates allow for a much more condensed syntax compared to type list constructs formerly used. (Disclaimer: This is rather a proof of concept, but maybe somebody comes up with a useful scenario.) Let’s start by d...

   C++,set theory,Math     2012-03-11 13:15:55

  The Greatest Developer Fallacy Or The Wisest Words You’ll Ever Hear?

"I will learn it when I need it"! I've heard that phrase a lot over the years; it seems like a highly pragmatic attitude to foster when you're in an industry as fast-paced as software development. On some level it actually IS quite pragmatic, but on another level I am annoyed by the phrase. It has become a mantra for our whole industry which hasn't changed said industry for the better. The problem is this, in the guise of sounding like a wise and practical developer, people use it as an exc...

   Tips, Programming, Expert     2011-04-06 11:07:43

  Microsoft is transforming XBox into a PC controlled by expressions

According to the Voice of China "News Coverage" report. When Apple products are changing  the world, the original computer giant Microsoft is also quietly looking for their new foothold in the field of electronics. This time the breakthrough is from its game console Xbox.Xbox was originally a single function console, there are signs that Microsoft may be planning for the Xbox into the computer with new functions. The selling point of this new product lies in its function of communic...

   Microsoft,XBox,New PC,China     2012-04-01 06:57:04

  Why Every Professional Should Consider Blogging

I often argue that professionals should share their knowledge online via blogging. The catch is that virtually anything worthwhile in life takes time and effort, and blogging is not an exception to this statement. So before committing your energy to such an endeavor, you may rightfully stop and wonder what’s in it for you. Is blogging really worth it? In this article, I briefly illustrate some of the main benefits that directly derive from running a technical blog. 1. Blogging can impr...

   Developer,Blogging,Share knowledge     2012-01-29 04:30:07

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