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  Fear of Ignorance

This past week, I was interviewing a candidate for a VP role along with two of our engineering leads. Everyone in the room excluding myself was classically “technical” – they could write code, had experience solving hard software problems and a background in computer science. I wrote my last line of PHP in 2004, and it had to be rewritten by a real programmer within 6 months.During the interview, we had the following exchange (due to an imperfect memory, I’ll ...

   Leader,Team,Technical,Leadership,Ignorence     2011-11-21 10:03:03

  Skills Needed to be a Web Developer in 2011

Many web developers think they already have all the knowledge they need to continue their careers. Check out this list of the ten skills all web developers must have to succeed in 2011 and beyond, and see how you measure up.1) Speak The Basic Languages of the WebBesides the content mark-up of HTML and the style rich sheets of CSS, how are you at your JavaScript and other advanced DHTML features? HTML 5, the latest upcoming W3C standard, includes audio and video embedding, database connectivity a...

   HTML5,Web skills,PHP,.NET,Java     2011-05-12 00:47:49

  Parallel Javascript

Lately the ideas for a parallel, shared memory JavaScript have begun to take shape. I’ve been discussing with various JavaScript luminaries and it seems like a design is starting to emerge. This post serves as a documentation of the basic ideas; I’m sure the details will change as we go along. User Model The model is that a JavaScript worker (the “parent”) may spawn a number of child tasks (the “children”). The parent is suspended while the children exe...

   Parallel JavaScript,API,Spawn,Parent,Task     2012-01-11 12:02:00

  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

  A Brief Guide to Voice Navigation and the Future of UX Design

Voice devices are now everywhere, whether you like them or not. Amazon's Alexa, Google's Assistant, and Apple's Siri have proved that voice interactions are not from science fiction films but part of our new reality. Just as touch screens, voice interaction with devices will completely revolutionize how we interact with our computers, smartphones, and watches (and even cars and houses) in the coming years. But you might ask yourself, why is it evolving at such a fast speed? Well, there are many ...

   UX DESIGN     2021-11-25 02:24:55

  Speed Hashing

A given hash uniquely represents a file, or any arbitrary collection of data. At least in theory. This is a 128-bit MD5 hash you're looking at above, so it can represent at most 2128 unique items, or 340 trillion trillion trillion. In reality the usable space is substantially less; you can start seeing significant collisions once you've filled half the space, but half of an impossibly large number is still impossibly large. Back in 2005, I wondered about the difference between a checksum and...

   Speed hashing,Security,MD5     2012-04-07 10:35:15

  Interview Programming Problems Done Right

Introduction Why 37signals Doesn't Hire Programmers Based on Brainteasers and my comment on HN generated a lot of responses, so much so that I'm writing this post to properly explain the essence of a good (IMHO) interview programming problem. Pascal's Triangle Pascal's Triangle is a shortcut for getting coefficients most often used binomial probability. The root element is 1. Every other element is the sum of the one or two above it (diagonally left and diagonally right). There are severa...

   Interview,Programming problem,Pascal,Triangle     2012-01-06 09:46:43

  Thoughts on Python 3

I spent the last couple of days thinking about Python 3's current state a lot. While it might not appear to be the case, I do love Python as a language and especially the direction it's heading in. Python has been not only part of my life for the last couple of five years, it has been the largest part by far. Let there be a warning upfront: this is a very personal post. I counted a hundred instances of a certain capital letter in this text. That's because I am very grateful for all the opport...

   Python,Python 3,Feature,Drawback,Embrace     2011-12-07 08:46:47

  Cybersecurity | The New Dangers That Lurk Online and Their Solutions

(Image source: Pexels) Data is one of the most important things to us. While robbers that steal valuables like laptops, phones, or money are still a threat, cybercrimes are also more dangerous than ever. That’s because your data is far more valuable than you might think. Companies benefit from users’ data by applying it for their indexing, marketing, and accumulation needs. They actively use this information to sell you more products. Have you ever visited Amazon and instantly got a ...

   DATA SECURITY,VPN     2020-04-23 06:47:37

  Why I love Common Lisp and hate Java

“Common what?” is a common reply I get when I mention Common Lisp. Perhaps rightly so, since Common Lisp is not all that common these days. Developed in the sixties, it is one of the oldest programming languages out there. In its heydays it was used mostly for Artificial Intelligence research at MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon and the like, and therefore has a lingering association with AI. People not in AI shy away from Lisp. Common Lisp is a powerful and versatile program...

   Lisp,Java,Comparison,Common Lisp     2012-01-30 05:48:16

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