The Insider News

Lifehacker[^]:

Some of the best and most interesting topics we cover here at Lifehacker are our how-to guides: Those posts that take you through a project step by step and leave you at the end having completed something you've always wanted to do. Here's a look back at our most popular how-to features of 2012.

• Cabin in the Woods was asked to be taken down from Blockbuster, iTunes, Amazon, and others.
• How I Met Your Mother was asked to be taken down from CBS.
• Take down notices were also issued for film reviews and Wikipedia articles.

Nettuts+[^]:

Every new version of JavaScript adds some extra goodies that make programming easier. EcmaScript 5 added some much needed methods to the Array data type, and, while you can find resources which teach you how to use these methods, they typically omit a discussion on using them with anything other than a boring, custom function. The new array methods added in ES5 are usually referred to as Array Extras. They ease the process of working with arrays by providing methods to perform common operations.

Making the Complex Simple[^]:

Now don’t get me wrong. C++11 is fantastic! I am in just about 100% agreement with all of the changes that have been made. C++ has definitely become much easier to use and it has even become more powerful. There is one thing it didn’t become though—and this is the most important—more simple. It seems that many of the seasoned developers have forgotten why we stopped using C++ and moved on to Java, C# and other modern languages.

Develop in the Cloud - Tim Kellogg[^]:

As a programmer, have you ever had to work with multithreaded code? It's horrible. You might as well give up on unit testing and quality; concurrency bugs usually aren't very reproducible. Hence the old adage: "Some people see a problem and say 'I know, I'll use threads.' Now they have two problems...." We need a language where we can write code as we normally do (single threaded) and have the compiler transform it into multithreaded code automatically. Such a compiler could weigh the benefits of multithreading against the overhead of creating threads and optimize accordingly. This is the only solution to our long-term dilemma.

Dr. Bunsen[^]:

The coffers of Unix hold many simple tools, which by themselves are powerful, but when chained together facilitate complex data manipulations. Unix's use of functional composition eliminates much of the tedious boilerplate of I/0 and text parsing found in scripting languages. This design creates a simple and succinct interface for manipulating data and a foundation upon which custom tools can be built. Although languages like R and Python are invaluable for data analysis, I find Unix to be superior in many scenarios for quick and simple data cleaning, idea prototyping, and understanding data. This post is about how I use Unix for EDA.

Ars Technica[^]:

Compared to any of the popular tablets—the various iPads, the Nexus 7, Amazon's range—the Surface Pro is absurdly overpriced and its battery life is pathetic. Compared to an Ultrabook, it's not that bad: a little ahead in some ways, a little behind in others. The thing is, in spite of its pricing, the Surface Pro isn't an Ultrabook.... This makes Surface Pro an awkward sale.

DZone[^]:

Here are some technologies that have such strong "street cred", they are effectively untouchable. Anyone who dares imply that they are deficient in any way is instantly labelled an uneducated moron. It is impossible to have a realistic conversation about these technologies, and it's not very common for enthusiasts of these technologies to admit their failings.