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There's a very interesting discussion about what are good games and the concept of a "gamer" in the current context on episode 64 of the Hypercritical podcast with John Siracusa[^].
Director of Content Development, The Code Project
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You’ve invested in building an API and now you want developers to use it. Very few companies can get away with creating a successful API ecosystem on technical merit alone. You’ll need documentation, SDKs, sample apps, debugging tools and everything else that goes into a great “developer experience”. Based on my experience of working with an array of different APIs, here is what I believe to be the baseline level of support structure anyone who is serious about their API program should implement. If you build it (well), they will come.
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As I do some app development for Windows 8 I wanted to share my thoughts around localization and what it really means to me to provide a ‘world-ready’ application. The three areas of focus are 1) how the platforms support a localized app, 2) what technical tools you have to automate localization 3) getting culture-correct localization and 4) testing your localized app. Parlez vous good user experience?
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I visit a lot of customers and look at a lot of code. I also worked with a number of large production code bases in my previous jobs and I see a lot of ifs, fors and switches. I see loops inside of loops with ifs inside them, all doing various transformations of data from one form to another. I see strings getting parsed to pull bits of data out in ways that are easy to say in English but take 100 lines to say in code. Should they? There are a million things available to the programmer beyond the first three keywords we learn.
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And they are all implemented by shift, add, and complement.
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When I used to teach programming (C), the first project I gave them was to create a little editor. All it had to do was echo the letters to the keyboard when you typed them and allow you to delete the end letter. Most were quite surprised how many steps that took (and this in console screen). Adding the ability to delete from the center of a line and/or insert a character and they had new respect for all the little things.
So the concept of many lines of code required to do a simple spoken concept. Why the surprise?
Or, to put it another way: if you want a copy of that page, build a xerox machine, push the button, and you're done.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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JSIL is a compiler that transforms .NET applications and libraries from their native executable format - CIL bytecode - into standards-compliant, cross-browser JavaScript. You can take this JavaScript and run it in a web browser or any other modern JavaScript runtime. From C# or Visual Basic to the web in one easy step.
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Text Adventures are excellent mental exercise to write! They are useful for learning to program; they are equally useful for seasoned programmers to refresh and recuperate on! They can fit anywhere on a sliding scale between straightforward and high-end CS-research, and the programmer can slide their game anywhere up and down that scale at whim. And they are fun. It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
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The Chinese government has begun the process of picking a national computer chip instruction set architecture (ISA). This ISA would have to be used for any projects backed with government money — which, in a communist country such as China, is a fairly long list of public and private enterprises and institutions, including China Mobile, the largest wireless carrier in the world. The primary reason for this move is to lessen China’s reliance on western intellectual property. Will it be MIPS, Alpha, ARM, Power... or a homegrown CPU?
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In this, the age of cloud computing, Amazon’s service is so popular, it now runs about 1 percent of the entire internet. But despite some strong reviews from those who have actually used it, Microsoft Azure — more than two years after its debut — is often on the edge of the conversation. Those folks from Washington really know something about clouds.
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Terrence Dorsey wrote: Those folks from Washington really know something about clouds.
They should.
It rains all the time in Seattle. 
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It does seem misunderstood. Here are a few misconceptions I've noticed, and the reality:
- You can't put a cap on costs... actually, you now can (services that exceed their quota will be disabled, or you can disable the quota).
- There are hidden transfer fees... they're not really hidden (perhaps poorly emphasized), and there are built-in ways to avoid them (e.g., affinity groups).
- You are stuck with Microsoft technologies... nope, you can use most technologies on Azure.
- You are locked into Azure... actually, it's not much different than hosting with GoDaddy (from a technical perspective), so long as you remember to avoid using local file storage as a permanent medium.
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It looks like Google has finally pulled the plug on the old GMail UI. There’s no more “revert to the old look temporarily” button, so I guess they’re finally forcing us laggards onto the new theme. As far as i can tell, this redesign is just change for the sake of change. I can’t see a single improvement! But I can spot three distinct un-provements. Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
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I m not comfortable with new look of Gmail. Is this temporary or permanent?
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Is not only permanent, but also unnecessary, f***ed up, and then some. And they whine on MS Office that changes toolbars every version. At least in every Office x+1 you get 100 more buttons. Not 100 more colors.
Someone said "you can make Android in any color as long as is black"? So true.
Nuclear launch detected
modified 20-May-12 3:31am.
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Richard Garriott speaking to a class taught by Warren Spector about... well... ”the stuff that typically doesn’t get talked about,” and the real history of the video game industry. It's almost 3 hours long, but well worth your time if you're interested in the history of gaming. An oral history project for the video game industry.
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With Windows 8, Microsoft is going to potentially install their new design language called Metro on a massive amount of computers of all shapes, from thin low-powered slates to full scale PCs. However Metro was not born overnight and in fact a lot of research was put into it. In this article we will discuss the origins of the Metro design language, the inspiration that was the source of it all. From Bauhaus to your house.
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House Passes CISPA. Hopefully Obama vetoes it.
An interesting side-note is that, according to Wikipedia, Franklin Roosevelt made the most vetoes at 635, while Obama has so far made only 2. Also interesting is that Gover Cleveland has the highest veto density, as he made an average of 282 vetoes per term.
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Ask the senate to reject CISPA here.
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What do games have that we miss in UX and Web design? Games have stunning graphics, missions, high scores, etc.. But adding any of those to our designs does not necessarily provide a better user experience — in many cases they’re frippery. What we are really looking for is what those elements bring to the games. Gamification is here to stay, and unfortunately many people will continue to use it the wrong way.
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When all you know is SQL Server, it’s tempting to try and solve every problem with a relational database, but often it’s not the best tool for the job. Today I want to introduce you to an excellent example of this, the ‘Database As Queue’ anti-pattern. It’s a common specimen that you’ll find in the wild in many enterprise development shops. “When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”
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