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  Kicking ass together: How to improve coding skills as a group

Over the last year and a half, I have worked with a small group of students and staff to create an excellent online learning community at Mendicant University. Unfortunately, because Mendicant is something that we’re intentionally scaling at a very slow pace, we won’t directly reach as many people as we’d like to any time soon. In this post, I’ve collected some of the things that I think contribute to making Mendicant University a great place to learn. I’d love...

   Code skill,Group,Improvement,Efficiency     2012-01-31 23:59:33

  Native Audio with HTML5

Once upon a time, audio on the web lived primarily in the world of third-party browser plug-ins like Flash, QuickTime and Silverlight. This was not a bad world, but it had its issues.For one, most plug-ins require the user to install them, but not all users are willing (or able) to install them. Also, many players built with these plug-ins are inaccessible, making it difficult for folks who use assistive technologies to access the audio or alternative content.Then there are the front-end design ...

   Audio,HTML5,Built in,Audio tag,Video     2011-10-13 13:04:07

  FTP Must Die

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is specified in RFC 959, published in October 1985. The attempt in this specification is to satisfy the diverse needs of users of maxi-hosts, mini-hosts, personal workstations, and TACs, with a simple, and easily implemented protocol design.That's from the introduction. Does anyone here know what a TAC is? I don't. I had to look it up, since the acronym wasn't even expanded in the RFC. It took three tries in Google, and I finally found it in some obscur...

   FTP,Future,Death,Trend,Protocol     2012-02-06 08:13:36

  JavaScript's Two Zeros

JavaScript has two zeros: -0 and +0. This post explains why that is and where it matters in practice. The signed zero Numbers always need to be encoded to be stored digitally. Why do some encodings have two zeros? As an example, let’s look at encoding integers as 4-digit binary numbers, via the sign-and-magnitude method. There, one uses one bit for the sign (0 if positive, 1 if negative) and the remaining bits for the magnitude (absolute value). Therefore, -2 and +2 are encoded as f...

   JavaScript,zeros     2012-03-24 05:21:49

  Cache them if you can

“The fastest HTTP request is the one not made.” I always smile when I hear a web performance speaker say this. I forget who said it first, but I’ve heard it numerous times at conferences and meetups over the past few years. It’s true! Caching is critical for making web pages faster. I’ve written extensively about caching: Call to improve browser caching(lack of) Caching for iPhone Home Screen AppsRedirect caching deep diveMobile cache file sizesImproving app ...

   Cache,HTTP request,Websiite     2012-03-27 12:54:02

  SkipList in Go

Algorithmic thinking is the must-have in the coding world, so I have been keeping the routine of algorithm practice every week, consolidating my knowledge of data structures on one hand, and improving my coding skills as well. A difficult one happened to be stuck in my mind- Implement SkipList with Go, which took me quite a weekend. Below is the front-line report of how I finally got the hang of it. First, from its concept. Wiki has explained it well. a skip list is a probab...

   GOLANG,SKIPLIST     2022-04-05 02:21:59

  10 super useful PHP snippets you probably haven’t seen

When working with PHP, it is very useful to have a “toolbox” of handy functions and code snippets that can save lots of time when needed. Today, I’m going to show you 10 super useful code snippets that you probably never heard of. Text messaging with PHP using the TextMagic API If for some reason, you need to send text messages to your clients cell phones, you should definitely have a look to TextMagic. They provide an easy API which allow you to send SMS to cell...

   PHP,Code,Snippet,Useful code segment     2012-01-19 11:07:16

  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

  bakercom1 5 Ways to Make Your IT Staff Unpoachable

When it comes to hiring practices, the tables have turned – capsized, actually. After a global recession saw thousands of jobs lost in IT departments everywhere, now the race is on to hire swarms of top talent. The trouble is: There isn’t enough talent to go around, and the threat of losing key staff to “poachers” is growing daily. “In the current war for talent in Silicon Valley, a lot of leaders believe that it is not possible to compete with the Google an...

   IT,Experts,Keep,Unpoachable     2011-07-25 08:35:49

  10 New Year’s resolutions for designers

Get the new year off to a positive start with these design resolutions Wake up. I hope you enjoyed your holiday because it’s a new year and it’s time to get back to work. We did pretty good last year. We started standing up for ourselves. We stopped working for free. We started getting our financial house in order. (Please don’t make me do the contract thing again this year.) We rediscovered typography ...

   Designer,Chanllenge,2012,New UI     2012-01-18 09:11:02