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  Signs that you're a bad programmer

1. Inability to reason about codeReasoning about code means being able to follow the execution path ("running the program in your head") while knowing what the goal of the code is.SymptomsThe presence of "voodoo code", or code that has no effect on the goal of the program but is diligently maintained anyway (such as initializing variables that are never used, calling functions that are irrelevant to the goal, producing output that is not used, etc.)Executing idempotent functions multiple times (...

   Sign,Programmer,Characteristics,Knowledge,Skill     2011-10-20 08:56:16

  The 15 Golden Rules of UI design and flow.

Last night a good friend of mine showed me the latest Need for Speed game on the iphone / ipad. Quite an impressive feat of rendering and a relatively good game to boot. However, the front end, wow, a classic case in UI mis-engineering. Loads of stats, pages and pages of bits and pieces to wade through – a classic case of over stimulating the player with lots of decisions they have no business making – stuff that will significantly change their game play experience but being...

   UI design,Game design,Feature     2012-04-05 12:20:18

  When and Where to Use Pointers in Go

When declaring variables in Go, we usually have two syntax options: In some scenarios, pointers; in others, reference; sometimes, either. It’s great to have choices, but it is also confusing sometimes as to which one in which scenario. To be more reasonable in choice-making, I started from pointers, walked through their natures, and summarized some rules in using them in Go. from unsplash, Jordan Ladikos Pointers Go has pointers. A pointer holds the memory address of a ...

   POINTER,GOLANG     2022-05-01 02:24:43

  Are You a Zen Coder or Distraction-Junkie?

What you do when compiling can ruin your life. And not just when compiling, but when waiting for any short computer operation to finish. That time is ridiculously tiny compared to the rest of your workday, yet it can have a huge impact on your productivity and well-being overall. Yes, that’s a big fat claim. And by the way, this article is not just about coders or programmers. It’s about any smart people working with computers. And there will be pictures! Let’s rock and ro...

   Programming.Net,ASP.NET,Platform     2012-02-23 07:14:11

  Prototypes in JavaScript

Following on from his previous article, David Chisnall explores JavaScript as an example of prototype-based object orientation. In this article, he shows how it's possible to implement more complex object models on top of this simple abstraction.My previous article, Prototypes and Object Orientation, considered the differences between class-based and prototype-based object orientation. In this article, we'll look in a bit more detail at the workings of the JavaScript object model, since it'...

   JavaScript,Prototype,Object oriented,Obj     2011-09-02 11:44:12

  Cracking Siri

On October 14, 2011, Apple introduced the new iPhone 4S. One of its major new features was Siri, a personal assistant application. Siri uses a natural language processing technology to interact with the user.Interestingly, Apple explained that Siri works by sending data to a remote server (that’s probably why Siri only works over 3G or WiFi). As soon as we could put our hands on the new iPhone 4S, we decided to have a sneak peek at how it really works.Today, we managed to crack ...

   Siri,Cracking,Defect,Speech to text,Record,AI     2011-11-15 08:38:23

  Use DTrace to diagnose gdb issues

A few days ago, I installed the newest 64-bit gdb program (version 7.7.1) on Solaris 10 (X86_64 platform) to debug programs. After playing with the gdb a day, I found 2 issues about gdb:(1) The "set follow-fork-mode child" command doesn't take effect. By default, after the parent process forks the child process, the gdb will track the parent process, so this command can make gdb begin to follow the child process. But this command works OK on Linux.(2) The gdb can't parse the 32-bit application c...

   DTrace, debug, gdb, UNIX     2014-06-28 05:11:20

  Good to Great Python reads

A col­lec­tion of python “must reads”:The Python yield key­word explainedPython’s super() con­sid­ered super!Under­stand­ing Python DecoratorsWhat is a meta­class in Python?Meta­classes DemystifiedTry/Catch for val­i­da­tion or speed?Python (and Python C API): __new__ ver­sus __init__Python “self” keywordPython and the Prin­ci­ple of Least AstonishmentA Curi­ous Course on Corou­tines and Concurr...

   Python,Reference,eBook,Reading Material     2011-11-15 11:46:12

  What have been Facebook’s greatest technical accomplishments?

To maintain a large website which gets billions of requests er day and keeps very fast response speed is not an easy task. Many big companies are trying best to improve user experience by adopting different techniques. There is a question on Quora which asks "What have been Facebook’s greatest technical accomplishments?". There is a person who worked in Facebook before provided an answer which helps us understanding how Facebook handles huge amount of traffic each day. Here is the answer f...

   Facebook, Design, Efficiency     2013-01-15 07:32:07

  How to Be an Optimist in a Pessimistic Time: A Techonomy Manifesto

Gapminder WorldIt’s no secret that technology is changing the world. Unfortunately, there are a surprising number of people who don’t get it. Many of them, even more unfortunately, are important leaders in business, other powerful instutitions, and governments. To meet the challenges that face us—whether as leaders of organizations, as leaders of countries, or as the global community addressing our collective challenge—we will only be successful if we unreservedly emb...

   Technology,World,Evolution,Dominant     2011-11-21 03:00:33

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