The Insider News

All this[^]:

My relationship with spreadsheets is long and complicated. In the early days, they simply didn’t have the power to do the kinds of calculations I needed. In the late 80s, though, that changed,2 and I got very good at using Excel. Soon, though, I began to hate Excel as Microsoft made the Mac version more like the Windows version. Still, I kept using it. When I switched to Linux in the late 90s, there were no decent spreadsheets available, so I went back to more traditional programming/scripting. I found it superior to working with spreadsheets and haven’t looked back.

GitHub[^]:

This document gives you an overview of F#'s goodies for DSL development. It assumes you are familiar with F# syntax; the features are introduced in the order of their encounters by the author. This is by no means a complete reference of F#'s DSL-friendly functionalities. Most of the features are introduced in the context of internal DSLs; however, some of them are helpful in making external DSLs as well.

PCWorld[^]:

What's the most difficult thing you did in the last year? Now stop. Before you answer, can it compare to creating a full-fledged indie game—slated to be approved on Steam—created entirely with QBASIC? Probably not.... But why QBASIC when there are so many other powerful tools out there that would probably be simpler to use? Lance McDonald, the game's creator, hearkened back to when he made games as a kid with QBASIC and wanted to make a love letter to the great games of the '90s.

The Official Microsoft Blog[^]:

More than a year ago, we began bringing two-step verification for certain critical activities, like editing credit cards and subscriptions at commerce.microsoft.com and xbox.com, or accessing files on another one of your computers through SkyDrive.com. For these scenarios, two-step verification is required 100 percent of the time for everyone, given the sensitive nature of these tasks. With this release you can choose to protect your entire account with two-step verification, regardless of what service (or device) you are using with your Microsoft account. It’s your choice whether you want to enable this, but for those of you that are looking for ways to add additional security to your account, we’ve worked hard to make set-up really easy.

Wired.com[^]:

We know what Moore’s Law is and how it works, but not many people reflect on why it exists. Because inventors, visionaries, engineers — whatever you want to call them — have to arrive at each level before they can even imagine a way to the next one.. and then create it. That’s how Pixar and its first film Toy Story — the first feature-length computer-animated film — became a reality. The secret was Moore’s Law, and not just in the technical way one would think. The enabling idea of our vision was computation, of course, but the idea of computation alone would not have gotten us far.... Because we — Catmull, I, and our colleagues — conceived the notion of the first completely digital movie almost four decades ago. It took 20 years to realize that dream with Toy Story, but Moore’s Law is what gave us the confidence to hang on for those two decades.

Network World[^]:

Windows 8 has been out for a while, featuring an interface that's as cool as it is annoying . . . until you get the hang of it. But, like any computer operating system, it can fall over. Luckily, there is an easy way to solve the cause of most crashes; just call up WinDbg, the Windows debugger; a free tool to diagnose the most common causes of Windows crashes -- misbehaved third party drivers.

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.