The Insider News

Stories For Sad Robots[^]:

In this post I will demonstrate how to parse and calculate an arithmetic expression a general-purpose parser. When we’re done, we’ll be able to handle expressions such as 1 + 2 * -(-3+2)/5.6 + 3, and hopefully you’ll have gained the tools to handle much more. My motivation is to provide a simple and fun lesson in parsing and formal grammars, as well as to show-case PlyPlus, a parser interface I’ve been working on-and-off on for the past few years.

Bruno Terkaly[^]:

This particular post is about getting everyone up to speed about what Hadoop is at a high level. Big data is a technology that manages voluminous amount of unstructured and semi-structured data. Due to its size and semi-structured nature, it is inappropriate for relational databases for analysis. Big data is generally in the petabytes and exabytes of data. However, it is not just about the total size of data (volume). It is also about the velocity (how rapidly is the data arriving). What is the structure? Does it have variations?

Ayende @ Rahien[^]:

The command pattern is a behavioral design pattern in which an object is used to represent and encapsulate all the information needed to call a method at a later time. I adore this pattern. If this pattern had a paypal account, I would donate it money on a regular basis.

bitsavers[^]:

A language for both the beginner and the experienced programmer, Turbo Basic's integrated design permits quick program turnaround without sacrificing the powerful features professional programmers demand. It is compatible with IBM's Advanced BASIC (commonly referred to as BASICA) interpreter version 3.00 and Microsoft's GW BASIC TN (with minor exceptions because these are interpreters), and contains many extensions.

Clark's Tech Blog[^]:

When you are an experienced computer user and use a mouse you don’t notice the mouse. Rather you just think about moving the cursor on the screen. The mouse withdraws. However if your cable comes lose you suddenly see the mouse as the mouse. It’s operational failure lets you encounter it anew. Good design shouldn’t call attention to itself but should withdraw the way a mouse does. It becomes an extension of yourself. If it isn’t withdrawing then probably there’s something wrong with the design. (It may turn out to be a calculated tradeoff, of course).

Ars Technica[^]:

A maternal nag familiar to the ears of many young gamers usually follows the lines of "you're wasting your life in front of a console." Browbeaten controller wielders rejoice—a new study from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) has proven the superior hand-eye coordination skills honed from hours of joystick-based gaming are the same talents required to master the world's most advanced robotic surgery tools.

John vs. Internet[^]:

In what will hopefully be the first of many “Metro++” blog posts on improving the Metro experience, I wanted to focus on discoverability of functionality. One of the weaknesses in Metro as it now exists is that the emphasis on typography instead of chrome means that it isn’t always clear when any particular piece of text is meant to be clickable and do something, and when it is meant to simply be read.

Eurogamer.net[^]:

The Karaoke Channel boasts that the app's advantage over other singing games is that you don't have to download the tracks. Each song simply streams from the game's servers, which is great until the internet goes down. You can favourite songs, tweak their keys and listen to an optional vocal track. You'll also be able to acquire Achievements.

Quote:

It seemed not only was Apple scanning messages for malware, it was also scanning the content of each attachment and exercising some kind of rule about it. Apple wasn't merely flagging the message or sending to a spam folder, but deleting it outright.

Sergey Barskiy's Blog[^]:

I have a project I am working on for the client that targets Azure. I wanted to move up to .NET 4.5 to take advantage on async/await keywords and other improvements. It is a an MVC 4 project. Of course in order to run .NET 4.5 on Azure, you have to update your project configuration. Here's how you do it...

Devlicio.us[^]:

I’ve been responsible for the technical evaluation portion of some developer interviews recently. I stumbled through the first few, unhappy with my aged and worn approach of asking questions, having the candidate write pseudo code on a white-board, and so. A friend challenged me: he said that the interview should be a positive experience for the candidate even if they don’t get the job. With that in mind, here’s what I decided to do.