The Insider News

The Buffer Blog[^]:

Why is Facebook blue? According to The New Yorker, the reason is simple. It’s because Mark Zuckerberg is red-green colorblind. This means that blue is the color Mark can see the best. In his own words Zuck says: “Blue is the richest color for me I can see all of blue.” Not highly scientific right? Well, although in the case of Facebook, that isn’t the case, there are some amazing examples of how colors actually affect our purchasing decisions.

CodeProject[^]:

In this installment we talk to Oren Eini, perhaps best known for his work on RavenDB.

Codecall[^]:

You may think that making an OS kernel is easy if you've ever programmed before. Think again. You don't have an established API or library to program with; You have to start from scratch. In this tutorial, we are going to learn about bootloaders and linkers and the basics of programming a simple Operating System. If you have never programmed before, I suggest you read some tutorials and try a few smaller projects first.

infoq.com[^]:

Java performance has the reputation of being something of a Dark Art. Partly this is due to the sophistication of the platform, which makes it hard to reason about in many cases. However, there has historically also been a trend for Java performance techniques to consist of a body of folk wisdom rather than applied statistics and empirical reasoning. In this article, I hope to address some of the most egregious of these technical fairytales.

Visual Studio Magazine[^]:

The kind of testing that Visual Studio 2012 provides for UIs isn't going to help here. That testing is intended to prove that the code behind the UI is working correctly. With the kind of testing that Visual Studio supports, "correct" means that the UI is working the way you intended it to work. Unfortunately, the only judges of a UI's correctness are the actual users drawn from the population represented by your personas. Because usability testing involves end users, it can be confused with "end-user testing." You should use end-user testing to test your code because users are cheap and available, and because users have some understanding of the business.

PLT Games[^]:

PHP is the language everyone loves to hate. It's filled with design mistakes and inconsistencies.... The goals for this competition is to write a small and portable language with few dependencies. It needs to be very easy to build and install on a web server. Let's do better than PHP!

Philip Greenspun's Weblog[^]:

As Google hires all of the world’s good software engineers and my friends with startup companies fight over the scraps I am left to wonder how everyone could have been so wrong in predicting that the world would be glutted with good programmers and sysadmins by now.... With the rise of the worldwide Internet, open-source, and inexpensive microprocessors, it seemed inevitable that the world would be glutted with technically skilled people.

Craig Kerstiens[^]:

I recently got asked by a friend and former co-worker how I write SQL. At first this caught me by surprise and I assumed there was nothing different, but after a few additional comments on it, it became clear most people have no concept for creating clean readable SQL. So without further adieu here’s how I write SQL, with a built up example query.

SmartPlanet[^]:

“When you start at Bitly, you go through this emotional cycle. Where first you go, ‘Oh my God, this data is amazing.’ But then you start looking at it and you conclude that humanity is completely doomed.” She gives a wary laugh. “Because what people read is cats and Bieber and celebrity gossip and that stuff.”

Computational Complexity[^]:

A famous computer assisted proof (or perhaps "proof") is the Kepler Conjecture. In 1998 Thomas Hale claims to have proven it. The proof involved rather complex computer calculations. The referees say they are 99% sure its true. Here's hoping an easier proof is found. Computer assisted proofs may become more common. I just hope we still know WHY things are true. Was Appel-Haken the first use of computer assisted proofs? I doubt it, but it was likely the first one to have an impact. It was important to know that this kind of proof could be done.

Ars Technica[^]:

The locomotive of technological innovation has yet to be derailed, but it’s come to a point where we must find particular uses and integrations for all of these advancements. Looking at how companies like Microsoft and Samsung are approaching the future of touchscreen technology may be the surest clues we can get. Talking with visionaries like Bill Buxton, one of the pioneers of touchscreen technology who now works as one of the principle researchers Microsoft Research, doesn't hurt either. It may be impossible to accurately gauge the future of touch, but that won't stop Ars from trying.

ScottGu's Blog[^]:

This morning we released the v2.0 update of the Windows Azure SDK for .NET. This is a major refresh of the Windows Azure SDK with some really great new features and enhancements.... All of these SDK enhancements are now available to start using immediately and the SDK can now be downloaded from the Windows Azure .NET Developer Center. Like all of the other Windows Azure SDKs we provide, the Windows Azure SDK for .NET is a fully open source project (Apache 2 license) hosted on GitHub.

Dream.In.Code[^]:

There are lots of tutorials on doing things in WinForms. It has been the primary GUI development for the .NET developer for years and years. Like any technology people want more from it. More options, faster processing, greater flexibility, more compatibility with other devices. Thus Windows Presentation Foundation was born. WinForms is not dead. I don't expect it to even be retired for years.... There is a bit of a learning curve for the WinForms developer making the transition. I hope this tutorial helps reduce that curve for you and make that transition a little easier.