The Insider News

Techdirt[^]:

One of the key problems is that software patents are essentially patents on mathematical algorithms -- sets of instructions for carrying out a calculation. Since it has long been a principle that you can't patent mathematical formulae or laws of nature, there is a tension there: if software is just mathematics, why should you be able to patent it at all? New Scientist points to an interesting article in the April 2013 issue of Notices of the American Mathematical Society, in which David A. Edwards proposes a radical way of solving that conundrum.... In particular, he believes it should be possible to patent mathematics, and hence software.

Runtime Era[^]:

By common definition, the purpose of a job interview is to allow an employer to screen candidates and find someone to fill an open job position. Each and every applicant must prove his or her worth to the potential employer. Many will apply, but only one (or very few) will be selected. In the world of software, the overall hiring process follows the same sort of pattern. I always aim to impress any potential employer by showcasing my work and showing the best of my abilities. However, I expect any potential employer to reciprocate and make an effort to impress me. When the interviewer finally asks me, "Do you have any questions for me?", I like to conduct a little interview of my own.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun[^]:

I should just repeat the headline a few times and then drop in the link to the free download, but a little context may be helpful. Playing Football Manager, so people jest, is like playing with spreadsheets, poring over lists and figures. They are wrong. Playing with spreadsheets doesn’t lead to a management simulation, it’s more of an arena-based roguelike sort of experience. Cary Walkin, an accountant and MBA candidate at the Schulich School of Business in Toronto, has created an RPG in Excel. Much of the content is procedurally generated, with more than 2,000 possible enemy types and 1,000 item combinations, but there are also boss encounters and a story with several endings.

The Official Microsoft Blog[^]:

To make sure everyone knows what we’re planning and can participate in this rapidly growing ecosystem, I’m pleased to announce and personally invite you to our next developer conference, Build 2013, which is taking place June 26-28, 2013 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. It’s been a while since our last developer event in the Bay Area, and we’re looking forward to a fantastic gathering. Save the date and mark your calendar for the opening of registration next week, at 9 a.m. PT on Tuesday, April 2 at www.buildwindows.com.

Troy Hunt[^]:

An invalid time?! Since when is 1am on March 31 an invalid time? I mean it’s not like it’s November 31 or February 29 on a non-leap year, what an earth is wrong with this time?! And for that matter, how on earth do you get an error when converting GMT to UTC, isn’t it the same thing?! The problem is that 1am on March 31 this year simply will not exist in the time zone above; people there will literally travel through time! The other problem is that GMT isn’t UTC – but it’s close.

.NET Slave[^]:

One of the things that have annoyed me about Visual Studio for many years, is the inconsistency when pasting code copied from websites. Depending on the browser you get different results.... So, in a rare moment of clarity a few days ago, I decided to fix this issue by writing an extension for Visual Studio - Pretty Paste. The idea is to inject some logic just before the regular Paste command in VS executes. That logic will quickly analyze the text being pasted and correct any non-intended line numbers and extra blank lines.

The PyCon blog[^]:

When it came to outreach, we went bigger than ever by reaching down to the little ones: children. For the first time, we offered two days of free tutorials for kids, titled “The Young Coder: Let’s Learn Python”.... “I don't think you'd ever see that kind of experimentation in a classroom full of adults, who would more likely do everything in their power not to break their computers,” Barbara wrote of the kids’ ability to learn, write, and run code that quickly bogged the machine down. Shortly into the course, they learned to write their name in a string and then multiply it by huge numbers. If they went too far, a simple unplug and re-plug brought them back to square one.

James Padolsey[^]:

This is some humble advice on how I believe people should deal with bad code. It’s not technical advice. Actually it’s not really advice. It’s just stuff I’ve been thinking of lately. Typically, the first thing a person does when encountering bad code is determining who they should blame. Immediately it becomes a personal or tribal vendetta. This is wrong. This should not be the first step. A deeper understanding of the code is necessary before we identify the poor soul who should suffer your wrath.

Wrong Side of Memphis[^]:

Probably the most controversial part of PEP 8 is the limit of 80 characters per line. Well, is actually 79 chars, but I’ll use 80 chars because is a round number and the way everybody referes to it.... It seems that, naturally, Python code tends to occupy around 35-60 characters (without indentation). Longer lines than that are much less frequent. Having suddenly a line much longer than the rest feels strange and somehow ugly.... So, even if the initial intention probably has little to do with all those things, I really feel that this limitation helps me writing more readable and compact code. I am sort of a “readability” integrist, in the way that I feel that readability in the code is the most important consideration by default, and should be keeping in mind at all times.