The Insider News

LinuxInsider[^]:

The size of Linux's waistline has long been the focus of recurring attention here in the Linux blogosphere, even drawing occasional criticism from Linus Torvalds himself. Recently, however, a fresh weight-related complaint was made -- not about the kernel itself, but about today's Linux distros. "Linux fatware? These distros need to slim down" was the title of the InfoWorld piece that got the conversational ball rolling, and it's sparked quite a lively discourse.

Gamasutra[^]:

The PlayStation 4 is due out this fall, and its technical specifications have been largely under wraps -- till now. While the company gave a presentation at GDC, the system's lead architect, Mark Cerny, hasn't talked publicly in any great depth about the platform since its unveiling this February.... What follows is a total breakdown of the hardware from a developer's perspective: the chips on the board, and what they're capable of.

Mike Volodarsky[^]:

IIS7 was revolutionary in opening the IIS web server platform for public extensibility. Prior to that, few software vendors wrote extensions for IIS, using the native ISAPI Filter and Extension APIs. IIS7 completely changed this, creating a public extensibility model on top of which the web server itself was implemented, and opening it for managed development via the familiar ASP.NET API. Here are a couple things you can do only with native modules, and why you will probably never have to do them.

Ole Begemann[^]:

Compiler warnings are one of the most helpful tools for developers. The compiler can not only warn you about obvious mistakes (such as a method you forgot to implement); it also identifies many code patterns that, though syntactically correct, are potentially dangerous (like signed/unsigned conversion) or just plain wrong (such as mismatched format specifiers in a format string). Both the Clang compiler frontend and Apple’s default Xcode project templates have a default set of warnings enabled, designed to warn you about many probable errors in your code but not annoy you with tons of false positives.... They are not the best choice for new projects, though. Instead, you should strive to switch on as many warnings as possible.

Robert Scoble[^]:

Here's my review after having Google Glass for two weeks: 1. I will never live a day of my life from now on without it (or a competitor). It's that significant. 2. The success of this totally depends on price.... This is the most interesting new product since the iPhone and I don't say that lightly.

ReadWrite[^]:

Let's say the rumors are true, and that Microsoft does in fact bring back the Start button and a boot-to-desktop option to address longstanding user complaints. Can that fix what's ailing Windows 8? Perhaps, eventually — but Microsoft is still treating the symptom rather than the disease. The problem is the PC itself, not the operating system that runs it. And that's what Microsoft (and, secondarily, its Wintel partner Intel) really needs to transform.

NPR[^]:

Smartphones can check e-mail, record videos and even stream NPR. Now NASA has discovered they make pretty decent satellites, too. Three smart phones launched into space this past Sunday are orbiting above us even now, transmitting data and images back to Earth. The PhoneSats, which cost just a few thousand dollars each, could usher in big changes for the satellite industry.

CITEworld[^]:

When exactly did the enterprise stop being a place that ran only Windows? It was probably in the second half of 2010 when employees started asking IT to install their work email on their new iPads.... IT departments must also keep managing PC-based Windows 7, Windows XP and, to a smaller extent, Windows Vista and Mac OS. While Windows 8 remains missing in action in the enterprise, Windows 7 adoption has surpassed XP use, which is good timing given that Microsoft will end XP support in April 2014.