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DJ Sures, mastermind behind the EZ-B Bluetooth Robot controller, sent in a really interesting build where he controls a robot with a 1983 TRS-80 computer. The robot in question is [DJ Sures]‘ adorable WALL-E we’ve seen before. WALL-E takes out the TRS-80.
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Once you’ve mastered a particular language, you’ve also mastered a means of thinking. You understand how to decompose a problem into knowable units, and you learn how to intertwine those units into pleasant and functional flow. There is no doubt in my mind that this is an essential and valuable skill for anyone to learn and master. However, there is a language you could master that teaches many of the same lessons, appears far more forgiving in terms of syntax, and has immediate broader appeal. The language you can learn is your own. Writing is the connective tissue that creates understanding.
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The best argument for learning to code appeared this morning, when it turned out that Judge William Alsup in the Google case could program, and learned Java in the course of the trial, and wasn't going for Oracle's claim that a short range-checking function was days of work. I object(!);
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Server teams are made up of the people who write and maintain the code that makes servers go, as well as those who keep that code working. When things go right, nobody notices, and they get no praise. When things go wrong, their phones ring at 3 in the morning.... It's a thankless job. Sysadmins of the world, unite!
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It's time to hook your WiFi up to "t-rays"[^]. Well, it will be once they iron out wrinkles and scale it up.
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Microsoft is changing their Visual Studio 11 User Interface[^] because of all your whining and complaining.
Thank you.
m.bergman
For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. -- Voltaire
In most cases the only difference between disappointment and depression is your level of commitment. -- Marc Maron
I am not a chatbot
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A couple of points.
1. This story has already been covered here in the Insider News, as well as being done to death elsewhere on the forums.
2. People did not whine and complain about the interface. They raised legitimate concerns. Treating them as though they are petulant children who can be talked down to is the type of condescension that got Microsoft into this trouble in the first place. When a seasoned professional who uses your tools all day long tells you that you are going to make them less productive, you'd better believe they have valid reasons and that, perhaps, you don't know better than they do.
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A couple of rebuttal points.
1. I have not seen this story covered or anyplace else. I don't generally go to the soapbox so it may have escaped my attention there.
2. I am with the whining and complaining group regarding the VS11 interface. I think I've even posted by objections to it around here someplace. Microsoft has always talked down to the developers. I still remember those helpful diatribes from Mike Blaszczak in the golden age of MFC. Frankly, some developers need to be talked down to, that is to say, they need a little humility.
3. Finally, I wasn't concerned with the changes so much as the article itself: how it was written, its choice of words. Hence, the title of my message. I am just so impressed with how opacity of the language used by some "technical" writers, specifically, the use of "high energy" and "low energy" as opposed to "exciting" and "boring".
m.bergman
For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. -- Voltaire
In most cases the only difference between disappointment and depression is your level of commitment. -- Marc Maron
I am not a chatbot
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Michael Bergman wrote: 1. I have not seen this story covered or anyplace else. I don't generally go to
the soapbox so it may have escaped my attention there.
In this very forum. Link[^].
It was also posted out in the newsletter, so you should have received it there.
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not listening to me obviously. I wanted Metro to be optional on desktop, like Windows Media Center, now it's spreading to the apps that I frequently use 
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This localtest.me trick is so obvious, so simple, and yet so powerful. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other domain names like this out there, but I haven’t run across them yet so I just ordered the domain name localtest.me which I’ll keep available for the internet community to use. Here’s how it works. Master of your own (test) domain.
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Most of my readers are probably aware that Windows 8 is on the horizon. What I propose to do in this post is argue for a simple proposition...every developer who would like to put some additional money in their pocket owes it to themselves to learn the What, Why, and How of the Windows Store. You can write an app for that!
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In the ‘80s a few giant database companies cornered the market. They did this by promulgating fear, uncertainty, and doubt amongst managers and marketing people. The word “relational” became synonymous with “good”; and any other kind of data storage mechanism was prohibited. Should the database be the heart and soul of the design?
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Of the design? No. Of the implementation? Maybe.
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You really only do three things in programming:
1. Set a storage location to a value.
2. Test a value in a storage location.
3. Jump to a part of the program which will do either #1 or #2.
If not the database, then the data storage. Everything else is fluff.
m.bergman
For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. -- Voltaire
In most cases the only difference between disappointment and depression is your level of commitment. -- Marc Maron
I am not a chatbot
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Michael Bergman wrote: Everything else is fluff.
Great. Now I'm a fluffer. 
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I make no judgments.
m.bergman
For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. -- Voltaire
In most cases the only difference between disappointment and depression is your level of commitment. -- Marc Maron
I am not a chatbot
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Well arguably you also perform arithmetic and logical operations to change the value on its way to #1. Otherwise you'd just be moving the same value around and not accomplishing much.
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There is a difference between setting a value and pushing a value.
m.bergman
For Bruce Schneier, quanta only have one state : afraid.
To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered. -- Voltaire
In most cases the only difference between disappointment and depression is your level of commitment. -- Marc Maron
I am not a chatbot
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Clearly, the sentiment goes, Metro is only for consumer apps. No real line of business work could be done using that interface. I mean, as we all know, LOB apps have to have busy, intimidating, and overly complex, fiddly UIs, right? LOB implies an unfortunate huddled mass of pitiable information workers who don't deserve usable interfaces. The Man can keep them down--because they're paid to use these apps, after all. It's just... we're using new tiles on all the TPS reports before they go out now.
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It’s like this: The browser’s doomed, because apps are the future. Wait! Apps are doomed because HTML5 is the future. I see something almost every day saying one or the other. Only it’s mostly wrong. Which wins? Depends on what you're trying to do.
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With more than 55 million iPads in use around the world and more than 400 million smartphones sold in 2011, companies are increasingly thinking “mobile first” when developing their web and mobile app strategies. Unfortunately, as companies rush to go mobile, they often overlook the importance of maintaining their global reach. That is, their mobile websites and apps don’t always support the breadth of languages and localized content supported by their PC-oriented websites. Users, users everywhere... but can they read your site?
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Today, users have many choices for synchronizing files and backing important memories and personal assets including music, pictures, notes, business documents, and other personal or business files. The offerings range from free to premium services, also known as the “freemium” model. In this post I will cover some of the pros and cons of each and some common scenarios for usage. I will also discuss what you get for free, and what some extra charges will get you an how much it will cost (measured in gigabytes per month). File storage with a silver lining.
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All things being equal, we'd all prefer to have more bandwidth rather than less. But of course, cost and availability both limit the bandwidth we can actually install, forcing organizations to consider not the amount of bandwidth that they want but rather the amount they need. They must also consider how those needs will change. So how can a smallish firm choose the right amount of bandwidth? Too much is never enough.
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Web startups are made out of two things: people and code. The people make the code, and the code makes the people rich. This is the story of a wonderful idea. Something that had never been done before, a moment of change that shaped the Internet we know today. This is the story of Flickr. And how Yahoo bought it and murdered it and screwed itself out of relevance along the way. Integration is the enemy of innovation.
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