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  Microsoft’s “Picture Password”: A Breath Of Fresh Air On The Lock Screen, Of All Places

Remember that feeling you got back when Steve Jobs was unveiling the iPhone, and he did the “slide to unlock” gesture for the first time? I remember the way he said it – “You like that? Want to see it again?” Since then I haven’t seen a lock screen interface that has made me feel that same “how obvious, how elegant!” feeling – until today at the NVIDIA press conference, and later at the Microsoft keynote here at CES. It sounds a little silly...

   Microsoft,Windows 8,Picture Password,CES     2012-01-10 06:55:28

  JavaScript Is Not A Language

Recently people presented arguments for and against using CoffeeScript. I felt the argument against was pointless and obviously wrong, but I couldn't figure out why, and I thought the counterargument for was kind of toothless and irrelevant. I've figured out the real issue.The real argument for CoffeeScript is that JavaScript is not really a language.Years ago I read something which explained, in my opinion, why Lisp has never achieved the mainstream adoption its passionate advocates belie...

   JavaScript,Not a language,CoffeeScript,Model     2011-12-29 08:46:15

  Nimbula 'cloud operating system' spans data centers

Nimbula – the build-your-own-cloud outfit founded by Amazon's former vice president of engineering – has announced a new release of its Director platform, saying it will allow businesses to run a unified "infrastructure cloud" across geographically separate data centers. In short, this means that those using such a cloud can log into a single console to tap computing resources served up from disparate physical locations. Nimbula says that Director is the first "cloud OS" t...

   Nimbula,Cloud computing,Data center,Arch     2011-08-23 08:06:39

  What has Google done on improving programming languages

Google is now becoming the most innovative IT company in the world. Every now and then they would deliver one revolutionary product to us such as Google Glass, Google Fiber, Automatic Mobile Cars etc. All these great products are backed up by the powerful software system built into. Google has used many programming languages to develop these software and they have put much resource in improving the programming languages they use and we use today. What has Google done in improving programming lan...

   Google,Programming     2014-02-21 09:36:34

  On being happy

For the whole past night I lay awake without sleeping a minute, mostly because I am still fully jet-lagged from the move to Europe yesterday. For some reason, the one thought that entered my mind was one about what it means to be happy. Yes, of course, being on an exciting startup journey, there are other goals which are more in the foreground. There is creating a product users love, getting funding or earning enough money to sustain yourself. Whilst I greatly enjoy this product and user fo...

   Happiness,Attitude,Steve Jobs     2011-12-26 08:59:08

  What I learned interviewing with Google

Over the last few weeks I’ve been interviewing with Google for a job doing primarily JavaScript development. I didn’t end up getting the job but I thought I would share the process of interviewing for Google as it was both very exciting and a humbling experience. I can’t reveal everything as I’m under a few NDAs. I’m not going to mention the products or teams that I was interviewing for but you may be able to guess. For those that don’t know me, I...

   Google,Experience,Interview,Algorithm     2012-02-10 06:19:17

  The 7 stages of refactoring

You have wanted to fix that module for ages. Just one look at it and you cringe. The documentation, the weird naming of functions, classes that are just plain weird. The module hobbeles along, but it is just plain dirty. The real programmer in you cringe, and when there finally is some time to refactor the module, you jump at it. Step 1 - Desperation  So you start to have a real good look at what you need to. Fix a class here, rename a few functions there, tear out a few function...

   Refactoring,Software,Desperation     2011-08-16 08:35:57

  Why does Symbian collapse?

On 24th January, Nokia announces a disappointing news that they would give up Symbian. The 808 PureView released last year will be its last Symbian model.  Symbian was born in 1998, it was supported by the then three mobile giants : Sony Ericson, Motorola and Nokia after its birth, later Samsung and LG also joined the Symbian camp. In 2000, the first Symbian model in the world Ericoson R380 was released, in 20006, there were over 100 million Symbian handphones on the market. But in 2007, t...

   Nokia, Symbian, Collapse, Analysis     2013-01-28 03:06:09

  Google engineer: What I learned in the war

Veteran's Day is an ideal time to hear from one of those rare folks who combine corporate and military careers. Dan Cross, a software engineer at Google (GOOG) and a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, took a leave to serve active duty in Afghanistan, came home a year ago, and brought back lessons that he couldn't have learned in business. While he had never seen himself as the military type until a personal tragedy made him reroute his career, he's a better man for it. Cross, 34, is now an...

   Military,Marine,Google,Engineer,Lessons,Teamwork     2011-11-12 10:36:03

  SSH Security and You - /bin/false is *not* security

Backstory While at RIT around 2004 or 2005, I discovered that a few important machines at the datacenter allowed all students, faculty, and staff to authenticate against them via ssh. Everyone's shells appear to be set to /bin/false (or some derivative) on said machines, so the only thing you'll see after you authenticate is the login banner and your connection will close. I thought to myself, "Fine, no shell for me. I wonder if port forwarding works?" ...

   Linux,Security,/bin/false,SSH     2012-02-06 07:46:29

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