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  The Erlang Design Pattern

Over the last couple of weeks I did an OO programming experiment. I call it the Erlang design pattern. It is based on the Actor model but goes some steps further. At its core just like the Actor model there are active entities (objects) that have a thread and a message queue with the thread waiting on the message queue to do some stuff. The Erlang design pattern extends the Actor model by first dividing the software program into active (actors, that have their own thread) and passive ...

   Erlang,Thread,Pattern,OS Threads     2012-02-06 07:47:56

  "Simplicity" is not a simple concept

I've come to avoid using the word "Simplicity" or its variants ("Simple," &c.) It means too many different things to different people.For example, my original land-line phone was simple:It's simple by eliminating extraneous use cases. It only handles one user scenario, the one that was the most common when it was invented. If we think of the number of affordances and the number of uses, this kind of simplicity lowers the number of affordances by lowering the number of uses. I call this kind ...

   Simplicity,Software,Usability,iPhone,Phone     2011-11-24 09:21:09

  Web Design 101: Get Your Color Contrasts Right

Great web design is hard.  It requires imagination, a keen eye, and the ability to project ideas onto a, generally digital, medium.  In today’s world this calls for a conflation of both artist and technologist.  I am not one of these people. I am a technologist, but I am no artist (thankfully I know some great artists!). Nonetheless, I’ve always had a good eye for things that look good and for sites that look like they were built with an early version of Micro...

   Web design,Structure,UI,Contrast     2012-02-04 21:42:50

  How can I teach a bright person, with no programming experience, how to program?

I usually prescribe the same sequence for anyone who wants to learn programming. It's very theoretical, but it lays a good foundation. It should take three or four months of fulltime study, but programming isn't something you learn overnight.If you can't get through this sequence, you're not going to be able to program, so you might as well give up now.Code, by Charles Petzold.The C Programming Language, K&RThe Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, Abelson and Sussman.My rule is...

   Steps,Programming,No experience,No knowledge     2011-11-07 08:27:48

  Which web front-end framework to choose?

When doing web design, we often need to choose which front-end framework to use in order to provide great user experience and simplify the development. Also, compatibility problem can be solved by using front-end frameworks. Here is a list of front-end frameworks. Which one are you using? Which one do you prefer?1. Apache FlexApache Flex, is a software development kit for the development and deployment of cross-platform rich Internet applications based on the Adobe Flash platform. Initially deve...

   Web design,Front-end,Framework     2012-07-30 13:57:26

  Does mobile application need architecture design?

Looking back to the history of PC software development a dozen years ago there was no  software architecture design, the consequence of this was that there would be a high cost on software maintainability and scalability. Later, people recognized the importance of software architecture and started to make the concept of software architecture mature. Now almost all software will have architecture design which has been the consensus of the software development companies and developers.Simi...

   Software design,Architecture design,Mobile app     2012-04-12 11:14:37

  Microsoft is going to redesign Bing again

On 10 May,2012, Microsoft announces in San Francisco they will  redesign its search engine Bing, and it will cooperate with Facebook, Twitter etc to build a new search service.Bing now is the second largest search engine in the world, but compared to Google, Bing is always the second city of search. Bing these years has always been putting effort on improving its service and the accuracy of search results. Unfortunately, it still cannot gain market share from Google. Today, Microsoft is goi...

   Bing,Social network,Integration,Sidebar     2012-05-11 05:26:11

  Reasons to use blue in design

Blue color is used in many product designs and logo designs such as Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and our site. Why do companies choose blue color in their design? It's not a coincidence for them to choose blue. One saying is the color blue is associated with trust, efficiency, clarity and simplicity. Beside this reason, are there other reasons? From an interface design standpoint, blue is an incredibly useful color. Among the dark colors designers have in their toolbox, red, orange and green al...

   Design,Blue     2013-12-13 07:13:22

  Do scientists really need a PhD?

Young scientists at a Chinese genomics institute are foregoing conventional postgraduate training for the chance to be part of major scientific initiatives. Is this the way of the future?The approach to extended postgraduate training varies from country to country. The United States and Europe, for example, have long believed that students need to finish a multiyear programme of postgraduate work before they can fully participate in the front rank of research, whether in industry or acad...

   Career,PhD,Scientist,Relationship,BGI     2012-01-02 08:19:32

  Cracks in the Foundation

PHP has been around for a long time, and it’s starting to show its age. From top to bottom, the language has creaky joints. I’ve decided to take a look at how things got to this point, and what can be (and is being) done about it. I start out pretty gloomy, but bear with me; I promise it gets better. In the Beginning, There Was Apache and CGI And there was much rejoicing. In 1994, Rasmus Lerdorf created the “Personal Home Page Tools,” a set of CGI binaries wri...

   PHP,History,Foundation design,Compatibility     2011-12-18 01:03:54

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