The Insider News

Creative Bloq[^]:

There’s a common mathematical ratio found in nature that can be used to create pleasing, natural looking compositions in your design work. We call it the Golden Ratio, although it’s also known as the Golden Mean, The Golden Section, or the Greek letter Phi. Based on the Fibonacci Sequence... the Golden Ratio describes the relationship between two proportions. Fibonacci numbers, like many elements found in nature, follow a 1:1.61 ratio - this is what we refer to as the Golden Ratio, and as it forms such a common sight in nature, it feels pleasing to the eye when we use this same ratio in our design work.

Computerworld Blogs[^]:

Microsoft's Windows Blue update to Windows 8 makes it increasingly clear that Microsoft wants to kill the Desktop. That may seem self-defeating, but there's method in Microsoft's madness. Here are three reasons I think it wants to eventually kill the Desktop.

Gizmodo[^]:

You might've read some headlines today—in very reputable publications—saying that there's an online attack underway. The biggest in history. Enough to slow down the internet. This would be exciting and scary, except it's just not true.

Locklin on science[^]:

The SAGE system was designed to solve a data fusion problem. Radar installations across North America kept watch against Soviet bombers. These needed to be networked together and coordinated with air defense missiles and interceptors. Seems simple, right? In the 1950s and 1960s, this was not simple.... No group of people could really make the decisions in time to mount an effective defense. You needed some kind of computer to make the decisions. These giant electric brains took up an acre or so of real estate, and were encased in huge windowless concrete pillboxes all over the country.

TechEmpower Blog[^]:

The following post is a comprehensive summary of the developer-facing changes coming in Java 8. This next iteration of the JDK is currently scheduled for general availability in September 2013. At the time of this writing, Java 8 development is still very much in progress. Language features and APIs may still change. I'll do my best to keep this document up to date.

The Old New Thing[^]:

Today's Little Program monitors windows as they come and go. When people contemplate doing this, they come up with ideas like installing a WH_CBT hook or a WH_SHELL hook, but one of the major problems with those types of hooks is that they are injected hooks. Injection is bad for a number of reasons.... This is where accessibility comes in handy, because accessibility lets you specify whether you want your hook to be an injected or non-injected one.

Hack a Day[^]:

There’s a treasure trove of excellent yet ancient games made for DOS that are nearly unplayable on modern computers. Awesome games like the Lucasarts SCUMM adventures, the original Civilization and SimCity, Starflight, the King’s Quest series and even Leisure Suit Larry aren’t played much today because of the near impossibilities of getting them to run on modern hardware or setting up an emulator with proper sound. Patrick has been doing his best to help out classic gamers with an x86 emulator for the Raspberry Pi. It’s designed to be a very capable DOS box with 20 MB of extended memory, a 640×480 display with 256 colors, an ~20MHz 486 emulated CPU, and a Soundblaster 2.0 sound card.

Scientific American[^]:

Turing patterns are a perennial favorite among science writers, especially in light of the 100th anniversary of Turing’s birth last year. Also? Pretty! And narrative angles like why the tiger has stripes play to broad audiences, so editors love them too. Scientists, on the other hand, have mixed feelings about Turing’s little foray into mathematical biology.... Turing was a mathematician, first and foremost, and his proposed mechanism is (by his own admission) a highly simplified and idealized take on a messy, complicated system.