The Control Revolution And Its Discontents - "the long process of algorithmisation over the last 150 years has also, wherever possible, replaced implicit rules/contracts and principal-agent relationships with explicit processes and rules."
posted by kliuless on Feb 23, 2012 - 25 comments

How to Ace a Google Interview
posted by Artw on Dec 26, 2011 - 146 comments

Programmers Who Defined The Technology Industry: Where Are They Now?
posted by Artw on Oct 22, 2010 - 18 comments

Introducing: Lady Java. (Follow-up to the almost SFW "Java 4-Ever".) [more inside]
posted by iviken on Aug 14, 2010 - 37 comments

Who gets to make money off WordPress? Dust-up brewing in the world of WordPress as theme author Chris Pearson and WordPress head honcho Matt Mullenweg battle out the question: Is a theme a 'derivative work'? [more inside]
posted by ao4047 on Jul 16, 2010 - 147 comments

Could App Inventor, Google's new easy development software for Android, be Hypercard for phones?
posted by Artw on Jul 12, 2010 - 263 comments

Java 4-Ever (safe for work apart from that one bit) - an amusing language centric film trailer made to promote the Scandinavian JavaZone conference.
posted by Artw on Jun 25, 2010 - 25 comments

Why Johnny can't code - David Brin asks how to get kids hooked on programming.
posted by Artw on Jun 22, 2010 - 112 comments

CSS Tips I Wish I Knew When I First Started - Seven JavaScript Things I Wish I Knew Much Earlier In My Career
posted by Artw on Apr 21, 2010 - 65 comments

The Tale of JavaScript. I Mean ECMAScript. (MP4 version, slides) Yahoo! JavaScript architect Douglas Crockford, the creator of the JSLint JavaScript quality tool and the JSON data-interchange format, talks about what he says is simultaneously the worlds most popular and unpopular programming language. Previous JavaScript (sadly video linked by the FPP is down, try here). Previous Maniac Mansion. More video from MIX Online. A similar, more in depth talk at Google.
posted by Artw on Mar 18, 2010 - 48 comments

A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages
posted by Artw on May 8, 2009 - 47 comments

India's Outsourcing Problems One of the most controversial aspects of the global economy has been the newfound freedom of companies from physical location and the subsequent spread of outsourcing jobs. No country had embraced tech outsourcing with the passion of India. Of late, problems there are beginning to rise: engineers start a project, get a few months' experience, and then bolt for greener pastures, bringing a level of attrition that replaces entire staffs within the course of a year. Combine that with salaries in Bangalore that are rising at 12% to 14% per year and it is no surprise that companies are leaving India for a slew of emerging hot spots for IT outsourcing such as the old Soviet Bloc, China, and Vietnam. This comes as companies such as Microsoft continue to laud outsourcing and proudly proclaim that it is here to stay, and it looks as if Ho Chi Minh City will be the next Bangalore.
posted by PreacherTom on Dec 11, 2006 - 19 comments

Yahoo doesn't get enough credit.
posted by Tlogmer on May 29, 2005 - 33 comments

How I lost my childhood: It may seem hopelessly lame to many, but as as child I, and many others of the same time period -- the first children of the microcomputer revolution -- spent many hours in front of our shiny new home computers reverently copying in BASIC programs from source printouts in books and magazines. For some, myself included, this was the launchpad into a sexy, exciting, fascinating career as a professional geek. Now, the book that was one of my sacred texts during this time period, David Ahl's BASIC Computer Games, is available, scanned, online. [via Boing Boing]
posted by jammer on May 14, 2004 - 34 comments

"This is getting ridiculous!" complained one veteran programmer on USENET a bit over two years ago... after being out of the workforce for a while, he was having trouble getting back in the door. While there's no way to put yourself in his prospective employers shoes and make a real judgement, it looks like he had the chops. Wonder how he's doing today...general conditions don't seem good, and I know several people with the same problem. The longer a period of unemployment goes, the worse your resume looks, and the harder it is to get a job. How do you break the cycle (from either a policy or a jobseeker standpoint)?
posted by namespan on Jan 4, 2003 - 29 comments

While poking around today, I found a link to Treefold, which isn't all that impressive in and of itself. The reason for my interest was that it's the first use I've come across of the Proce55ing language, which is a sort of continuation of John Maeda's teaching language, DBN(Design by Numbers). While still not ready for general release, it's grown a lot since the last time I looked at it.
posted by Su on Sep 10, 2002 - 11 comments

Go for the gold! Concord 2002: Site of the upcoming Loebner Prize. Can reigning champion A.L.I.C.E. repeat her triumph? Chat bots from around the globe are scouting out their rivals on the AI competitive circuit and studying their crib notes.
posted by otherchaz on Feb 9, 2002 - 0 comments

Is it sloppy programming, or do full computer security vulnerability disclosure make it too easy for hackers? Microsoft has a personal interest in minimizing the exploit of their code, but the evil you know is better than the evil you don't. Others have weighed in on this debate in the past, or provided a fair but vague blueprint for the computer security community. Do you think that a middle ground exists?
posted by machaus on Oct 18, 2001 - 14 comments

Someone reverse engineered the Win-XP activation mechanism. It's not as bad as many people thought. It's certainly no cause for paranoia.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jul 9, 2001 - 25 comments

The Story of Mel - Almost everyone's seen the Story of Mel on USENET or via email... the story of the guy who wrote programs for a particular ancient drum computer by using the characteristics of the drum to handle memory allocation and time delays. In a footnote on the Jargon File, it seems that his last name is known... An interesting footnote to an interesting and probably true story.
posted by SpecialK on Apr 7, 2001 - 5 comments