The Insider News

Infoworld[^]:

According to Foote Partners, IT job growth in January 2016 was the worst in nearly a year and a half, but extra pay inched up at the end of 2015

Redmond Magazine[^]:

The Reliable File System (ReFS) v2 in Windows Server 2016 TP4 still isn't faster than NTFS -- not surprising at this stage of its development, though its block-cloning feature is highly optimized for virtualized workloads.

InfoQ[^]:

Developers looking to migrate their project from one platform to another will often run into the roadblock of having to determine which APIs their code uses versus what is provided by the target platform they desire. Microsoft has provided the .NET Portability Analyzer (NPA) an effort to make this migration process easier.

Visual C++ blog[^]:

We have all used the Visual Studio Debugger to step through code, in the hunt for bugs. For C or C++ code, that Debugger relies upon a file, with the extension “.pdb”, called the “Program DataBase”, or simply “the PDB”. The PDB is written by the Linker when you build your program; it contains line-number and symbols information.

ZDNet[^]:

The flaw could allow an attacker to run arbitrary code as the logged-in user.

Ars Technica[^]:

Microsoft responds to customer feedback, tells us what goes in each update.

Brian Harry[^]:

Create a Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) extension that helps developers create, test, deploy, etc. Java apps. Or, create a Java app using Visual Studio Team Services Eclipse plugin (aka Team Explorer Everywhere) or JetBrains IntelliJ plugin.

The Verge[^]:

Amazon has launched a new game engine named Lumberyard — and it's giving it away for free. The company says the software is capable of building triple-A games for PCs, consoles, mobile devices, and even VR platforms.

Gizmodo[^]:

The US military is looking for ways to insert microscopic devices into human brains to help folks communicate with machines, like prosthetic limbs, with their minds. And now, DARPA’s saying scientists have found a way to do just that—without ripping open patients’ skulls.