The Insider News

Computerworld[^]:

Need to reformat data for use in another application? Plot it on a map? Use it for an interactive Web graphic? These open-source JavaScript libraries can help turn your data into a suitable format for analysis or a compelling online presentation.

Coding Journal[^]:

So why are there so few Windows 8 apps? I will tell you my (and only my) opinion and experience. I developed a few Windows 8 apps, some of them fairly complex. I tried to develop a few really great apps but many of those projects never got done. The reason is the API (WinRT). Let’s start with something (that should be) trivial. Imagine you want to display HTML files with images, CSS, JS in a WebView.... It can be done on Android, iOS and even on Windows Phone by copying the data to isolated storage and pointing the WebView there. This scenario is impossible in WinRT.

programminggeek.com[^]:

Today, I'd like to talk about a different behavior that seems irrational to me. There is a view that when you write software it should be designed around your database, simply because that is where you are storing your data. It sounds harmless, but the effects are quite negative over time. The first offense that always happens is your code starts to be structured the same as your database. Databases use a relational model, object oriented code uses an object-oriented model. These are not the same thing at all.

C++ Rocks[^]:

It’s been more than half a year since my last comparison of the C++11 support across different compilers. This time I’d like to see how different compilers stack up based on the documentation for the pre-release versions of these compilers.... I’ve also thrown in v.13.0 of Intel’s C++ compiler out of curiosity, although it isn’t pre-release and there were a few features I couldn’t find information about. I didn’t find any information about the upcoming version of this compiler.

Quote:

It’s a case of déjà vu. A decade ago the rise in popularity of Flash steered many web designers down the wrong path. It wasn’t the fault of the technology, but of the people using the technology. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. I'm all for innovation, but innovation should not be regressive.

MacSparky[^]:

I remember back when RSS was amazing and something you paid for. I also remember when Google Reader showed up and very quickly started taking over. It was free. It was Google (back before we were all scared of Google) and it wrecked the market for all of the paid RSS services. We all wondered how Google monetized its Reader expense but we wonder that about most Google services so we all cancelled our paid services and lept. Now Google is yanking the cord.

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows[^]:

Look, we’re not going to really make any profound changes happen at Microsoft, I get that. Pragmatically, I’ve been recommending that users of the firm’s platforms learn the new way of doing things because this is indeed the future. And to that end, I’ve written over 60 Windows 8 tips and over a dozen Windows 8 feature focus articles, with more to come in each series. NT’s not coming back, I know. But you can get closer to the NT ideal by using ModernMix and, if you’re really hardcore, Start8. There are huge benefits to being on Windows 8 even if you’re not touching the screen.

Polygon[^]:

It is possible to play SimCity offline indefinitely, according to a video of a modded version of the game posted to YouTube. Modder UKAzzer uploaded the video which shows him disabling the game's disconnection timer. Previous tests confirmed that SimCity will kick a user from the game after roughly 20 minutes of offline play; however, while its impact on a number of features in the game means this offline mode is still not ideal, the video demonstrates some form of unlimited offline play is indeed possible.

TechHive[^]:

Everybody knows the value of pi is 3.14… er, something, but how many people know where the ratio came from? Actually, the ratio came from nature—it’s the ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter, and it was always there, just waiting to be discovered. But who discovered it? In honor of Pi Day, here’s a semi-brief history of how pi came to be known as 3.14(1592653589793238462643383279502884197169…and so on).

A Curious Mind[^]:

The symbols for the arithmetic operations of addition (plus; “+”) and subtraction (minus; “–”) are so common today we hardly ever think about the fact that they didn’t always exist. In fact, someone first had to invent these symbols (or at least other ones that later evolved into the current form), and some time surely had to pass before the symbols were universally adopted. When I started looking into the history of these signs, I discovered to my surprise that they did not have their origin in antiquity.

CodeProject[^]:

Welcome to our continuing series of CodeProject interviews.

Rahul's space[^]:

LINQ to Entity is a great ORM for querying and managing database. It offers a lot of things, so it is mandatory to know about performance of it. These are right up to a certain point as LINQ comes with its own penalties. There are some tips and tricks that we should keep in mind while designing and query database using entity framework ORM. Here is a list of some tips that I would like to share with you.

Christopher Bennage[^]:

Something disgusting, like six years ago, I listed on 43Things that I wanted to write a video game. I’ve actually made numerous arrested attempts ever since I started programming with my TI-94a back in 1983. My last attempt has been much less arrested (though still incomplete). I’ve learned a lot in my most recent endeavor, so it’s time to share. You can follow the actual work in progress, but my plan it to recreate the steps I’ve gone though over the course of a few posts.