The Insider News

The Code Project[^]:

In this installment we talk to independent Mac app developer and creator of the Alfred app, Andrew Pepperrell.

O'Reilly Radar[^]:

I had been tempted to classify IFTTT as a merely an interesting toy for playing with social media. Granted, it’s nice that I can archive all my tweets into an Evernote note, but so what? However, IFTTT’s growth in features is showing it to be more than a bauble. The service is becoming an empowering tool that gives users more control over their own data, previously often accessible by programmers alone.

mca blog[^]:

Very often I am asked to tell someone if their implementation is "RESTful", "is a REST API", is "RESTful enough", etc. Rarely am I asked to tell someone if their chosen architectural style is appropriate for the problem at hand. IOW, people want to know if the work fits a label invented over a decade ago by a PhD candidate in his dissertation. Almost everytime the answer is the same: "NO."

Everything Sysadmin[^]:

A co-worker watched me type the other day and noticed that I use certain Unix commands for purposes other than they are intended. Yes, I abuse Unix commands. I hope you enjoyed my little tour of Unix commands that are useful to mis-use. I'd be interested in hearing what commands you abuse.

snax[^]:

There is a distinct lack of practical or comprehensive information on RSI treatment available online. Instead, there are people promoting gimmicks/scams, fear mongering, and bloggers complaining about pain but never discussing whether or how they got better. Were this not the case, I would never consider offering anecdotal medical advice, and I look forward to corrections in the comments.

PCWorld[^]:

Is it time to give Java the boot? Experts say yes. Java, the programming language designed to make the web fun and interactive, has become one of the weakest links in a PC’s and Mac's defenses against external threats. Consider the most recent Java vulnerability, a weakness currently being exploited by malware distributors: When Oracle, Java's maker, released an emergency update to fix the software, security analysts reported that even the hot-off-the-presses code contains additional vulnerabilities.

Ars Technica[^]:

Fingerprint-reading software preinstalled on laptops sold by Dell, Sony, and at least 14 other PC makers contains a serious weakness that makes it trivial for hackers with physical control of the machine to quickly recover account passwords, security researchers said.

TechHive Beta Blog[^]:

Nokia today announced its new flagship Windows Phone 8, the Lumia 920, with a powerful PureView camera as the centerpiece. The Nokia Lumia 920 has a 4.5-inch curved glass display with a resolution of 1280 x 768, a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 32GB of storage.

Wired[^]:

“In federal rules tests, there are just two dummies tested,” Reed reveals. “And manufacturers are using computer simulations that are effective in predicting what will happen in a dummy test.” But what about real humans? What about the 75-year-old man with soft ribs and a curved back, whose short-sightedness causes him to sit close to the dash? ...state-of-the-art computational models are tweaking airbags, seatbelt and vehicle designs to accommodate him and the rest of the world’s drivers.

The Escapist[^]:

We should all be pretty well aware at this point that the robot apocalypse (or "robopocalypse," if you will) is on its way. Our most gifted storytellers have been warning us about it for years, from the legend of the golem to James Cameron's Skynet. In their latest volley against an unsuspecting human race, our metallic overlords-to-be have conscripted MIT researcher Kate Darling to draft a new research paper that suggests humans grant rights to robots. According to Darling, robots don't need rights on par with humans (yet), but due to the emotional connections humans can create with them, we may find it beneficial to ascribe them similar rights to our pets.

GeekWire[^]:

Windows Phone 8 looks great. Its features and capabilities are far better than Windows Phone 7 (and you know I already think WP7 was a “superior” product). It has a well-designed look and feel that enables it to stand out. It has all the features the competition has and also some innovative capabilities they don’t. Will Windows Phone 8 devices sell in sufficiently large numbers to make Microsoft a strong force in the smartphone space and keep Nokia in business? I don’t know.