The Insider News

Nettuts+[^]:

IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a protocol, created in 1988, and was meant to help facilitate group discussions, via various channels. The channels served to identify different discussion topics you could pop in on.... What I've noticed in the last couple of years is a resurgence in using IRC as a primary means of communication, especially for open source projects. While there have been group-based services for a while no (Skype, Campfire, Google Hangouts, etc.), the relatively open nature of IRC makes it easy for large groups of people to hop on a channel and collaborate easily.

Julio's Blog[^]:

I’ve been getting a handful of emails offering me front-end jobs recently. Probably about time I admit that I like spending most of my time doing that, even though I ♥ my Rubies and I still believe developers who specialise end up worse off. So I’ve decided to put down in words some thoughts that I had as I read through the job ads. This isn’t another post on how to hire developers in general (much), but on how to hire front-end developers specifically, and at the same time, get you to understand what sort of statements you’re putting out there when you say certain things in a job ad.

amazedsaint's #tech journal[^]:

Recently I was doing a bit of R&D related to finding a viable, low cost platform for client nodes. Obviously, I came across Raspberry Pi, and found the same extremely interesting. Now, the missing piece of the puzzle was how to get going using C# and .NET in the Pi. C# is a great language, and there are a lot of C# developers out there in the wild who are interested in the Pi. In this article, I’ll just document my findings so far, and will explain how develop using C# leveraging Mono in a Raspberry Pi. Also, we’ll see how to write few minimal Windows Forms & ASP.NET applications in the Pie as well.

Medium[^]:

Everyone learns differently. There are absolutely people who use jQuery who don’t want to learn to program and just throw plugins at their problems. However, those are the same people who would be terrible programmers because they don’t want to solve programming problems, they want to solve design or client problems. So, instead of telling a new programmer playing with jQuery to stop and learn “real” JS first, offer them some book suggestions on vanilla JS or be there when they have those stupid questions. Even better, give them some project ideas with jQuery like making a plugin that involves those boring things like math such as a slideshow.

Google[^]:

Glass is always there when you need it and out of the way when you don't. The software that you build for Glass, called Glassware, should draw from the same inspiration to give your users the best experience possible. To build the next great mobile computing experience, you'll use the Google Mirror API, a set of RESTful services that transmit information to and receive notifications from Glass devices. If you're new to Glassware development, the following information goes over what you need to get started with the Google Mirror API.

Gamasutra[^]:

My name is Thomas Steinke, if you are not aware of me; I am the owner of DigitalDNA games, arguably the most successful Xbox Indie Developer, and the creator of the all time best selling Xbox Indie Game CastleMiner Z. In this article I wanted to spend some time and give advice to people that have aspirations of being full time Indie game developers like me.

ZDNet[^]:

What if Microsoft relented and granted users who are lukewarm about Windows 8 two of their biggest requests: Allow those who want to boot straight to the desktop, and bring back the Start button with Windows Blue, a.k.a. Windows 8.1? Though supposedly not part of the original plan for Blue, these two UI options are looking more likely.

Binpress[^]:

To progress, an open-source project needs the same resource as every software development project – developer time. You need dev time to fix bugs, you need dev time to add features, you need dev time to write documentation. If the donation stream is not regular and dependable enough to allow project team members to either quit their jobs (if working full-time) or reduce contracted hours (if working freelance), then donations are not going to add more dev time to the project. If you can’t depend on funds from donations, they are relegated into the “nice-to-have” category. You can use it to pay off some external costs like hosting or running some ads (if it makes sense), but you can’t use it for anything important like salaries.

PCWorld[^]:

It’s easy to wax nostalgic about old technology--to remember fondly our first Apple IIe or marvel at the old mainframes that ran on punched cards. But no one in their right mind would use those outdated, underpowered dinosaurs to run a contemporary business, let alone a modern weapons system, right? Wrong! While much of the tech world views a two-year-old smartphone as hopelessly obsolete, large swaths of our transportation and military infrastructure, some modern businesses, and even a few computer programmers rely daily on technology that hasn’t been updated for decades.