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New browsers introduce new ways of thinking. IE10 is no different. There are compatibility concerns to make your site look awesome everywhere. So where do you start to learn about this stuff? How about right here! 8 tips for getting the most out of IE10.
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Randall Munroe began his career in physics working with robots at NASA's Langley Research Center. He is famous, however, for engineering a creation of different kind: the iconic web comic that is xkcd. Last week, Munroe won the web's wonder for approximately the thousandth time when he published comic #1110, "Click and Drag," a soaring, spanning, surprising work that encouraged users to explore a fanciful world through their computer screens. As Rev Dan Catt pointed out, if you printed the comic at 300dpi, the resulting image would be about 46 feet wide. Someone on the internet is being interviewed...
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From Xerox Star to OS X Lion, here's a sample of the evolution of scrollbars on your screen. Scroll, scroll, scroll the thumb, quickly down the screen...
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Be nice to the Windows 8 scrollbar along side of these.
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Welcome to our continuing series of Code Project interviews in which we talk to developers about their backgrounds, projects, interests and pet peeves. In this installment we talk to Khaled S. Ali, a software engineer with the Mars Rover team at JPL.
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The goals of a programming system should be: 1. to support and encourage powerful ways of thinking, and 2. to enable programmers to see and understand the execution of their programs. A live-coding Processing environment addresses neither of these goals. JavaScript and Processing are poorly-designed languages that support weak ways of thinking, and ignore decades of learning about learning. And live coding, as a standalone feature, is worthless. How do we get people to understand programming? We change programming. We turn it into something that's understandable by people.
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The ultimate goal is to take a passphrase, tokenize it into individual words, and find low-entropy words in increasingly-long contexts (0th order Markov model, 1st order, 2nd order), using completely local data sources. The front end is a straightforward Backbone.js GUI. Those models and views rely on querying for the existence of 1-grams, 2-grams, and 3-grams in pre-loaded data structures. The backend needs knowledge of roughly 10 million 2-grams and roughly 40 million 3-grams. Test it right in the browser.
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It misses some obvious details though: "banana banana banana" is apparently high entropy - all good and green!
Ideological Purity is no substitute for being able to stick your thumb down a pipe to stop the water
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And there is a bug with that, as when you click the little colored square next to the entropy calculation, it says 'The word <> is not a common word.' no matter what nonsense you put in there.
It also thinks "∆⅍∑₥⅝₡№ὊὀὐἓᴠᴔפסϸФЫȹșȲ" is a low entropy phrase.
I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image.
Stephen Hawking
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We managed to finally get our hands on the finalized (or very near finalized) software development kit (SDK) for Windows Phone 8--the one where only select developers were given access too. The SDK had surfaced on the internet a few days ago via WinUnleaked and has been floating around ever since. After spending a few hours configuring our PC for the SDK (you need Windows 8 Pro RTM 64-bit, seriously), we fired up Windows Phone 8 OS... Take a tour of the next Windows Phone.
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Christian Schormann - responsible for the design of Blend, Microsoft’s visual authoring tool for UX - talks about Expression Blend’s support for building Windows Store apps using XAML and HTML. With HTML being the new offering, Christian dives deep into the HTML and CSS features. Which tools are you using to design Windows 8 apps?
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When I was a kid with a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), sometimes my games wouldn’t load. But I, like all kids, knew the secret: take out the game cartridge, blow on the contacts, and put it back in. And it seemed to work. (When it failed, I’d just keep trying until it worked.) But looking back, did blowing into the cartridge really help? I’ve talked to the experts, reviewed a study on this very topic, and have the answer. But first, let’s talk tech. The answer is no. Here's why.
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The most ridiculous, yet universally believed, technology myth has to be "rubbing the chip of the bankcard".
Giraffes are not real.
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Getting Web video off your PC and onto your plasma screen used to be a niche activity. No more: Consumer-tracking service NPD says TV sets are now the most popular way to watch streaming video. NPD says 45 percent of consumers report that TV is now their primary Web video screen, up from 33 percent last year. It basically swapped places with the PC... Cutting the cable TV cord.
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In my home I watch infinitely more video on a PC than on a TV.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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better code often means less code. I don’t think about lines of code exactly, or something similarly stupid, but in terms of meaningful code. However, argument for less code isn’t about making code as compact as possible, avoid redundancy, etc. The argument is about not writing code at all whenever reasonable or possible. Should we focus on deciding what should and what should not built instead of polishing our software development craft then? How about writing just as much code as necessary?
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Terrence Dorsey wrote: Should we focus on deciding what should and what should not built instead of polishing our software development craft then?
Yes, because "polishing our software development craft" should be left to people that demonstrate a skill at "polishing" - while it's a bad metaphor, just because I drive a car doesn't mean I am qualified to work on the engine. Similarly, there are very good programmers that are very good at what what they do, but I wouldn't want to engage them in the craft of polishing.
Marc
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The build I saw this week was still very much under development, but it looked good and seemed to be relatively bug free. RIM is really pulling out all of the stops for BlackBerry 10, though I worry that waiting until 2013 to release the update may end up killing the OS before it even has a chance to come to market. The smartphone industry moves at an incredible pace... Once the king of the smartphone world, Research In Motion now struggles to stay in the game.
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I'll admit, it has my curiosity. I'm not a Apple fanboi, and I'm still on the fence for Samsung.
/////////////////
-Negative, I am a meat popsicle.
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The backdoor contains code that allows remote attackers to take control of the underlying server running the modified phpMyAdmin, which is a Web-based tool for managing MySQL databases. The PHP script is found in a file named server_sync.php, and it reads PHP code embedded in standard POST Web requests and then executes it. That allows anyone who knows the backdoor is present to execute code of his choice. HD Moore, CSO of Rapid7 and chief architect of the Metasploit exploit package for penetration testers and hackers, told Ars a module has already been added that tests for the vulnerability. Are script kiddies checking your site for a compromised phpMyAdmin?
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Thus, for Windows 8 to break the five-figure app threshold – in a world in which it’s six figures or bust – by launch, the operating system must undergo a massive burst of developer release before its debut. However, looking at the above chart, the Windows Store is growing by under 100 apps per day. Thus, at its current rate, given the time until Windows 8 becomes generally available, we can expect around 5,000 apps to populate its virtual shelves. Remember, however, that not all will be available in all places. Thus, under 5,000 apps for everyone. Are developers waiting for the plaform to ship, or just aren't interested?
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I don't think developers are waiting per-se. I think we are mostly ignoring it for now. While I think Windows 8 is quite nice for tablets and Windows Phone has been impressive for phones (Though consumers and developers are not very interested there either), the desktop world is not particularly excited about it. MS has a lot to prove with this release and so far, I'm not convinced it's the right direction for the desktop - in fact I feel that it is a bad direction. On top of the lack of excitement, MS is now adding a barrier where once there was none - e.g. an app store submission process. That is a major shift for Windows and not something all consumers are excited about.
If these numbers say anything, they say that Windows consumer/B2B app development - in particular new app developments - is not nearly as fast paced as mobile device development. That is not necessarily a bad thing, the desktop is a mature environment and thousands upon thousands of existing apps remain available - just not in the store. If MS wants to play a numbers game with the app store, they can do that in more proactive ways. Right now, MS is placing the responsibilities for app store solely on developers not themselves. For existing consumer and B2B apps, why would I want to go through their process after I've developed an app that is stable, works for my clients and my clients are not asking for it? Why exactly? If MS want's numbers, they can hire the staff to take existing apps and make them available in their store via a search mechanism (e.g. the store provides a single search interface, but doesn't control the installation experience), or by co-opting the MSI installers with a more aspect-oriented approach instead of the current force-a-change approach.
The other things these numbers show is that reporters always want to sensationalize a story.
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If you are developing desktop applications, then you don't have to go through the app store at all. Just because WinRT forces this route doesn't mean we have to follow it - we can continue to develop desktop apps as we always have, and ignore this whole app store. I can see why MS wants us to develop apps and sell them for WinRT, but some solutions work better without this and I, for one, will continue to develop desktop applications.
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I'm more or less ignoring it, Windows 8 Metro/RT development that is.
I'm running Windows 8 on my work PC and home, but have turned off all the metro stuff (and taken great lengths to do so), so it's like Windows 7 but with the nice Windows 8 file copy. I understand devs would have put a lot of hard work into the Metro interface, I just don't like it in a production environment. Or even home actually.
On topic - I gave it a shot, I liked the interface at first, but then it got in the way. I haven't tried Windows 8 on a tablet, it could be nice on that. But I am using it on a touch screen desktop at work - and it's not that nice in my opinion.
I agree with you - I think Microsoft has a lot to prove and I do feel that this may be a bad direction. Microsoft do need to do something, but I'm just not sold this is the correct way. A bit about me - I've been a WinForms developer for ages, started with C++Builder and VCL and now a .NET dude through and through. I've liked MS stuff for ages and love the .NET framework for enterprise and desktop apps. The Windows ecosystem has always been so open, but this direction with Windows RT seems to be the other direction. On Android, I can easily develop an APK file, put it on any device and give it a test. I can't seem to do that with Windows 8. I can remotely debug a device, but even that is limited to x86 CPU's and not ARM.
I'm looking at making a mobile app for phones and tablets but for this app I'm doing - I'm not targeting desktops. I'm targeting people that have tablets that are at the beach or in bed or on a train - people sitting at a desk using a keyboard and mouse is not my target audience. I've looked at various ways to target mobile development. I was thinking target the Windows RT apps, but looking at the market (I know hard to say at this point, you'll have to probably wait a couple years) I don't see the reason to target the Windows platform from an app perspective. I've looked at MonoDroid, PhoneGap, the new DXtreme stuff and so on, but I'm now learning Java through Eclipse and targeting Android devices (first anyways).
I first looked at using VS2012 (which I don't like either, I prefer the colorful environment of VS2010) and creating apps through there and I can quickly create an app and use my existing skillset to develop an app - very fast. Some of the controls are awesome. The simulator is pretty handy. But at the end of the day, I want to write an app that will be found by the largest amount of people. At this point in time, it's Apple and Android. That may change in a couple years, but looking at the Microsoft Store right now - it's a pretty sad state. Some of the apps that have been approved are just ridiculous.
I've been asking heaps of people - what phones do they have? If they get a tablet, what would they get? The general consensus I find is that most people like iPhones/iPads or Androids (or the dumb phone category). Not turning this into a platform war, but Microsoft hardly enters the picture for a lot of people (from what I've found). For mobile devices that is. For my desktop, I wouldn't use anything else. But I don't use Microsoft as a... fun device.
I think what I've written is half on topic, half off, but to just answer the question - I think there is an app shortage, but it's to be expected. As a developer trying to get into mobile development, I just don't see a huge amount of interest in the Windows platform as a mobile device. I could be well wrong here. I work in a software house and no one here runs Microsoft as a mobile device. We run dumb phones, Androids or iPhones. I've asked and taken note of all the clients we serve - I haven't found one person running a Windows device.
That Nokia 920 and the HTC/Samsung devices could change things and well, if I start to see good reviews on those devices and if I actually start to see Windows devices out there carried by the public - I'll re-evaluate my priorities.
So all in all - I want to write an app that reaches the most amount of people. I realize that when new Windows computers come out, they'll have Windows 8. It's just I'm not 100% sure yet that's what people will be getting. Apple products are more popular now and Android devices are nearly at a stage where you can use them as a home computer. I think the day and age of having a computer room is nearly a bygone thing. Crikey's, I have a laptop (Windows 8 now), a pretty decent one I use to develop on. But I wouldn't recommend a Windows tablet nor PC to someone wanting a computer just for internet, basic word processing or games.
It's going to take me time and effort to jump from WinForms development into the mobile world and at present, the order of precedence for me as a developer is:
1) Android
2) iPhone
3) Windows 8
Sorry for the long story!
modified 26-Sep-12 17:11pm.
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