The Insider News

Just Well Mixed[^]:

The whole “Live” story — from muddled conception, to haphazard deployment, to quiet abandonment — has played out in a pattern depressingly similar to other Microsoft efforts of the last ten years. Microsoft has shipped a lot of products over that time, but nothing really seems to tie them all together; there’s no grand vision at the heart of the company’s work anymore, unlike competitors such as Apple and Google.

Matt Gemmell[^]:

I’ve designed literally dozens of component APIs over the years, including for clients like Apple, and I’ve learned quite a bit about the process. I periodically release open source components too, and the feedback I’ve had has helped me put together a set of guidelines for API design that I’d like to share with you.

MSDN Blogs[^]:

Interested in writing games for Windows 8? Here's a list of resources Glen Gordon shared at the Atlanta chapter of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) when he gave an introductory talk on building Metro style games for Windows 8.

CodePlex[^]:

Koans allow you to 'try out' aspects of a language while working in the language. As you change the blank (variable) to the correct answer and get the tests to pass, be sure to ask yourself after you get a green bar for each method, 'What did I just learn?'

Dream.In.Code[^]:

Just been messing around with VB11 and did an implementation of the Bottles Of Beer Song.

profserious[^]:

I believe in the sustained relevance of ‘big agenda’ in software engineering: providing scientifically well-founded methods and tools to underpin the development of software systems that meet the needs of users, rapidly and at reduced cost. Better, faster, cheaper, in other words. Substantial technical progress has been made but, it could be argued, we are seeing some evidence of receding impact in those areas where that progress has significantly outstripped the capacity of practice to absorb innovation.

Ars Technica[^]:

"We can turn any surface into a 3D touchscreen," explained Anup Chathoth, one third of Munich-based startup Ubi Interactive. Such claims typically conjure up images of floating Minority Report-style touchscreens made from curved glass, but that's exactly what this three-person team has developed.

The Endeavour[^]:

The Unix philosophy is a noble idea, but even Unix doesn’t follow it too closely. Why does ls have dozens of tangled options? Because users, even Unix users, are not overly fond of the first two points of the Unix philosophy. They don’t want to chain little programs together. They’d rather do more with the tool at hand than put it down to pick up new tools.

TechHive[^]:

Remember the roll-up electronic newspapers from the movie Minority Report? We could soon see something similar used in cell phone, e-reader and tablet displays. Well, maybe not quite, but companies like Samsung and LG are already producing flexible displays for future products. These displays might not be as bendable as a newspaper, but they will offer some enticing design possibilities for hardware manufacturers.

Chris Eargle[^]:

My experience on the ECPI advisory board made me start considering how I would design a degree program that would properly prepare a student to enter the business world as a developer. So, I’m going to list the courses I would require for a software developer degree (not database programmer) in a serialized course setting.

Cloud Computing News[^]:

Someone please tell me we’ve gotten past the either-or debate over NoSQL and relational databases. While NoSQL databases are foundational technologies for web startups — with most of these young companies opting for MongoDB, Cassandra, CouchDB or something else to fulfill their database needs — they might be better served going a hybrid route instead. There’s always room for a good, old-fashioned relational database — especially if they want to conduct and store financial transactions.

Article states:

requires all legal purchasers to sit through 20 seconds of warnings each time they pop in a film, but will be totally absent from pirated downloads

Ars Technica[^]:

Microsoft wants Windows developers to write Windows 8-specific, Metro-style, touch-friendly applications, and to make sure that they crank these apps out, the company has decided that Visual Studio 11 Express, the free-to-use version of its integrated development environment, can produce nothing else.