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  How the Internet Is Ruining Everything

The ongoing argument about whether the Internet is a boon or a bust to civilization usually centers on the Web’s abundance. With so much data and so many voices, we each have knowledge formerly hard-won by decades of specialization. With some new fact or temptation perpetually beckoning, we may be the superficial avatars of an A.D.D. culture.David Weinberger, one of the earliest and most perceptive analysts of the Internet, thinks we are looking at the wrong thing. It is not the co...

   Internet,Everything,Market,Shape world     2011-12-06 09:08:27

  Hey kids, just say NO to programming !

Cory Doctorow's latest talk 'The Coming War on General Purpose Computing' really puts things in perspective about life in the 21st century. This got me thinking more about functional programming languages and how they are related to the intentional limitation/crippling of turing machines by industry and government. What if Stallman is right about the intentional efforts to limit freedom of information ? What if it's even worse than we all think it is ? In relation to functional languages ...

   Programming,Factor,View,Kids,No     2012-01-16 10:16:19

  Why we don’t hire .NET programmers

Skip my post and read this one instead.  It says the same thing, but less offensively.  (Or, rather, more offensively to Facebook and Google employees, less offensive to .NET developers, though the underlying message is the same.) Tuesday midnight edit: After >500 comments, >1000 tweets, and >1000 Facebook likes, I’m closing comments on this thread so we can all get back to work.  The very last comment takes the cake, however, and is a fitting close.  Th...

   ASP.NET,High level,Low flexibility,Weakness     2011-12-20 08:43:28

  Tips for Putting a Price on Your Work

WHEN I first started as a freelance writer, I was eager to sell myself — but not eager to have to discuss money. So I more or less took whatever was offered. Then I read somewhere that no matter what price a new client states, you always say in a polite but firm tone, “I expected more.” The first time I tried it, I was sweating and I doubt my tone was firm — it probably sounded more like pleading — but to my great surprise, it worked. With th...

   Development,Price,Worl,Negotiation     2012-01-29 04:37:17

  Ten things I want Siri to be able to do for me

Now that I've had my iPhone 4S for a couple of days, I'm amazed with what Siri can do. I've asked a number of questions -- real ones, not questions like "What is the meaning of life?" -- and have been totally impressed with how my interaction with the iPhone has changed. But there are more things I'd love to be able to do with Siri, which is the reason for this post.Everyone should understand that Siri is currently a beta product from Apple. A lot of the things I'm talking about here should happ...

   Siri,iPhone 4S,AI,Tweet,Four square,Intelligent agent     2011-10-17 11:24:37

  Create an adaptable website layout with CSS3 media queries

With the rise of both very large screens and mobile devices, web developers have to be able to create websites that display correctly and look good whatever the device is. Sure, you can use good old techniques like fluid layouts, but I’ve got something better to show you today. This tutorial will teach you how you can create an adaptable website layout using CSS3.Getting startedView demo (Horizontally resize your browser to view it in action)Download filesCreating the default layoutT...

   CSS3,Media,Mobile device,Resize,PC,@medi     2011-09-20 12:38:27

  How to be jQuery-free?

jQuery is now the most famous JavaScript library. There are around 57.3% websites in the world using jQuery, i.e, 6 out of 10 websites are using jQuery. If we only consider those websites which use libraries, then the percentage is even higher which is 91.7%. Although jQuery is very popular, its size is still a headache to many websites maintainers. The uncompressed jQuery 2.0 has a size of 235KB, the size is 81KB after optimization.The jQuery 1.8.3 which supports IE 6/7/8 has a uncompressed si...

   jQuery,JavaScript,ECMAScript,CSS3     2013-05-13 11:53:20

  The mystery of Duqu Framework solved

The Quest for Identification In my previous blogpost about the Duqu Framework, I described one of the biggest remaining mysteries about Duqu – the oddities of the C&C communications module which appears to have been written in a different language than the rest of the Duqu code. As technical experts, we found this question very interesting and puzzling and we wanted to share it with the community. The feedback we received exceeded our wildest expectations. We got more than 200...

   Duqu,Code mystery,OO C,C++     2012-03-21 09:29:18

  What Level Programmer Are You?

Everybody's talking about how programming is the skill that we all are going to need. [Except those folks who might feel that most programming could be turned into wizard-like tools. Insert long discussion about Strong AI.] But what's a programmer? Is the guy who set up his own Apache Web Server a programmer? How about the guy who created a complex Excel spreadsheet? The guy who made his own RPG level? Minecraft players? When we say "Everybody is going to have to know programming" what, e...

   Programmer,Skill,Level,Criteria     2012-02-08 10:07:41

  Before Python

This morning I had a chat with the students at Google's CAPE program. Since I wrote up what I wanted to say I figured I might as well blog it here. Warning: this is pretty unedited (or else it would never be published :-). I'm posting it in my "personal" blog instead of the "Python history" blog because it mostly touches on my career before Python. Here goes.Have you ever written a computer program? Using which language?HTMLJavascriptJavaPythonC++COther - which?[It turned out the students ha...

   Python,History,Programming language,B     2012-01-18 08:08:53

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