The Insider News

Karl Hughes[^]:

We put engineers through rigorous screening processes and ask them intellectually stimulating questions, only to hire them and put them into the admittedly dull task of wiring up 5 or 6 services and making the screen look pretty.

Games Industry[^]:

The Witness developer on his new programming language that could increase productivity by 50 to 80 per cent

Medical XPress[^]:

Job applicants who want to appear calm and collected might be at a disadvantage. According to a new Stanford study, American employers are more likely to favor excited over relaxed candidates.

Engadget[^]:

PixelPlayer can mute the piano if you just want to listen to the violin.

ZDNet[^]:

One day, Linux' creator made a utility called Git to keep track of all the contributions to the Linux kernel. That triggered a string of events leading to the establishment of GitHub as the de facto automated supply chain for software -- not just open source.

Bleeping Computer[^]:

A recent study conducted by academics from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK has revealed that almost two-thirds of second-hand memory cards still contain remnants of personal data from previous owners.

Quote:

... two glass-and-aluminium towers (taller than the Trump Tower, connected by three bridges that glow golden at night) Tencent's new building breathes the future. The South wing measures a whopping 248 metres (about 814 feet) and consists of 50 stories, while the North sits at 194 metres (about 636 feet) with 39 levels.

... Health Link, on level 22, explaining the cameras are facial recognition systems tasked with allowing only authorised personnel to enter each space.

True to its name, the Health Link offers a gym, table tennis and pool tables, a badminton court, a dance studio, a yoga room and more.

We visit its massive indoor rock climbing station, currently kept out-of-bounds while the safety equipment waits to be installed. Later, we find ourselves on a 300-metre indoor jogging track that runs a full circle around the bridge, connecting the North and South towers.

... Some of Tencent's employees, including high-ranking staff, love basketball, our guide tells us. For their benefit, the company made a full-sized basketball court complete with a giant monitor that screens a game from Tencent's sports channel during our visit. The glass windows are soundproofed, no doubt to prevent noise seeping through from passionate players.

Employees who find themselves starving after work or exercise can proceed to any one of the four levels containing staff canteens. They serve a range of cuisines to cater all palates, with staff members hailing from various parts of China and the world. Breakfast is free, with lunch payable at discounted rates ...

Not all facilities are open yet, with Tencent aiming to have everything up and running closer to the end of the year. Some of the things we missed include the third bridge, which holds a library, an education centre, offices, meeting rooms and more. We also missed the swimming pool -- yes, there is a swimming pool in this skyscraper.

The Verge[^]:

Former Google designer Nicholas Jitkoff, who’s now the vice president of design at Dropbox, has created a really nifty new web tool he’s calling itty bitty sites, or self-contained microsites that exist solely as URLs.

IEEE Spectrum[^]:

Popcorn kernels are a natural, edible, and inexpensive material that has the potential to rapidly expand with high force upon application of heat. Although this transition is irreversible, it carries potential for several robotic applications.

Matt Warren[^]:

I’ve been digging into .NET Internals for a while now, but never really looked closely at how the ‘Just-in-Time’ (JIT) compiler works.

Techcrunch[^]:

When we last met UDOO, the team was building a powerful Raspberry Pi-based DIY board with a bunch of impressive features, including more ports and a better processor.

ZDNet[^]:

One of the new tactics by the malware involves an injection technique not seen in the wild until just days ago.