Today's Question:  What does your personal desk look like?        GIVE A SHOUT

SEARCH KEYWORD -- Product release

  Announcing the Windows 8 Editions

Today I would like to share information with you on the editions that will be available for "Windows 8" when it is released to market. We have talked about Windows 8 as Windows reimagined, from the chipset to the user experience. This also applies to the editions available – we have worked to make it easier for customers to know what edition will work best for them when they purchase a new Windows 8 PC or upgrade their existing PC. Windows 8 has the flexibility you need - whether...

   Windows 8,Windows RT,New version     2012-04-17 06:19:16

  Eight C++ programming mistakes the compiler won’t catch

C++ is a complex language, full of subtle traps for the unwary. There is an almost infinite number of ways to screw things up. Fortunately, modern compilers are pretty good at detecting a large number of these cases and notifying the programmer via compile errors or warnings. Ultimately, any error that is compiler-detectable becomes a non-issue if properly handled, as it will be caught and fixed before the program leaves development. At worst, a compiler-detectable error results in los...

   C++,Compiler,Error detection     2012-04-08 09:55:20

  Understanding lvalues and rvalues in C and C++

The terms lvalue and rvalue are not something one runs into often in C/C++ programming, but when one does, it’s usually not immediately clear what they mean. The most common place to run into these terms are in compiler error & warning messages. For example, compiling the following with gcc: int foo() {return 2;} int main() { foo() = 2; return 0; } You get: test.c: In function 'main': test.c:8:5: error: lvalue required as left operand of assignment True, this code ...

   lvalue,rvalue,C++,locator value,elaboration     2011-12-15 07:51:38

  On Programming Deadlines

There are a lot of differences between programming, and programming professionally. The most notorious of which, is deadlines.DeadlinesWhen you're writing code for yourself, you can spend as much (or as little time) on it as you please--but when you're writing code for other people, you've got only a limited amount of time and resources to get the job done. In my experience, this typically leads to one of two situations:You've got to extend the deadline to finish the job properly.You've got to w...

   Programming,Deadline,Transparent,Test,TODO     2011-11-01 07:10:21

  Touching and Gesturing on iPhone, Android, and More

One of the most important parts of creating an effective and intuitive user interface on touch-enabled smartphones has nothing to do with visual appearance—instead, it has to do with creating an interface that properly responds to user input based on touch. For Web applications, this means replacing mouse events with touch events. In Dojo 1.7, new touch APIs help make this process easy. This is an updated version of the post Touching and Gesturing on the iPhone, published in 2008. I...

   Touch,Gesture,iPhone,Android     2012-04-12 11:21:42

  Taking C Seriously

Dennis Ritchie, a co-creator of Unix and C, passed away a few weeks ago, and was honored with many online tributes this weekend for a Dennis Ritchie Day advocated by Tim O’Reilly.It should hardly be necessary to state the importance of Ritchie’s work. C is the #2 language in use today according to the TIOBE rankings (which, while criticized in some quarters, are at least the best system we currently have for gauging such things). In fact, TIOBE’s pre...

   C,Efficiency,Memorization,Dennis Ritchie     2011-11-03 13:42:14

  How to write good requirements

Requirements are pretty ubiquitous in the embedded world. They are used to define tasks, help coordinate large development efforts, and to communicate the behavior of the desired end product between the developers and the customer. When done right, requirements can be very useful. Unfortunately, if you spend much time working in the embedded world you quickly discover that there are a lot of bad requirements. And then when you try to go fix them, you quickly discover that writing good req...

   Requirement gathering,Good requirement     2012-02-18 12:53:15

  JavaScript as a First Language

At Khan Academy we've been investigating teaching Computer Science to students in some new and interesting ways. The most interesting aspect of which is that we're likely going to be teaching them JavaScript as their first language. We're in a very unique position as we're primarily aiming to teach students who've been through our previous math and science-centric curriculum. Because of this we can create some rather compelling exercises and projects that never would've been feasible other...

   JavaScript,Learning,First language,Inheritence,Prototype     2011-12-23 07:53:45

  Designing Fun

What is “Fun?”“I’ll know it when I see it.”In 1964, in Jacobellis v. Ohio, the US Supreme Court needed to decide whether the state of Ohio could ban a film it called “obscene”—a concept people understood but were hard-pressed to define. Justice Potter Stewart, in his concurring opinion, wrote: “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I ...

   Design,Fun,Create,Define,Research     2011-09-19 13:35:12

  A brief guide to tech internships

Planning to be an Intern in the Bay Area during Summer 2012? Make sure to read an Intern's Guide to the Bay Area, and join the 2012 Facebook group.  (via this guy, via this guy) Joel Spolsky, from the Joel On Software blog and StackOverflow, wrote an article with Advice for Computer Science College Students back in '05. According to Joel,  No matter what you do, get a good summer internship. As such: here’s everything you ever wanted to know about tech inter...

   Internship,Advice,CS student     2012-02-01 04:48:31

RECENT