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Microsoft just released SQL Server 2012 in March, and now you can learn all about it in this free ebook. The print version, should you prefer, is available from O'Reilly or your local bookseller. Data point: did we mention it's free?
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The word “publishing” means a cadre of professionals who are taking on the incredible difficulty and complexity and expense of making something public. That’s not a job anymore. That’s a button. Publishing is not evolving. Publishing is going away.
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There are few things sadder than the software that ships with your car's in dash computer. It's 2012 and we have hybrids that can regenerate power from inertia but the car manufacturers haven't figured out that we just want the in-dash car screen to be powered by our smartphone. She's got a competition clutch with a 4 on the floor... but no Pandora.
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Walt Mossberg tries, who writes for a living, tries using voice dictation on his phones for a week to see how well it works. For those who find typing on glass clumsy, the microphone key on Android and the new iPhone is something you might want to add to your arsenal of ways to use your phone. Voice-controlled typing is ready for prime time.
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It’s becoming the great 21st century social media con: They make friends with you, then take as much as they can—only they’re not getting your money; they’re taking your privacy for their own gain. Privacy is fast becoming the de facto currency with which we transact online.
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When the printer portion of your all-in-one printer, copier, scanner decides to retire, why throw away a perfectly good scanner. Mikko Ristila did this and ended up with a slim scanner plus a few handy parts for tinkering. Here's how he did it. When you run out of ink, it's so tempting to just buy a new one.
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A census of OpenStack code contributions set off discussions (some heated) on the value of code contributions. [ITworld]
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As a programmer, I can honestly say that I am lazy. Forget the menial job of repeating tasks... if it takes me an hour to complete an iteration, I would rather spend 3 hours automating the process. You never know when you might need to do it again, and the click of a button is much more satisfying than an hour of processing data. Don't repeat yourself... especially if you can get a tool to do it for you.
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When you’re working in a strongly typed language like C# or Visual Basic, instantiating an object is done with the new keyword. It’s important that we recognize the significance of using this keyword in our code. Any time you use the new keyword, you are gluing your code to a particular implementation. You are permanently hard-coding your application to work with a particular class’s implementation. That’s huge. Using new isn’t wrong, it’s a design decision. It should be an informed decision, not a de facto one.
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PHP is an embarrassment, a blight upon my craft. It’s so broken, but so lauded by every empowered amateur who’s yet to learn anything else, as to be maddening. It has paltry few redeeming qualities and I would prefer to forget it exists at all. But I’ve got to get this out of my system. So here goes, one last try. Virtually every feature in PHP is broken somehow.
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Even worse from a development viewpoint than the inconsistent naming conventions, lack of stacktraces and truly cranky equality operator are the code examples you get from 99% of PHP community sites and contributors. Quite simply the worst code I've ever seen. Years ago I demoed some fairly simple PHP classes to a prospective employer who didn't get functions, let alone OO: he didn't believe you could or should code that way. Even when I showed it working and debugged it using Zend, he didn't trust what he was seeing and I didn't get the job, a decision I am thankful for every day I wake up. C# is Microsoft and costs actual money, but you get what you pay for rather than a free-of-charge mess that is primarily the object of affection for people that shouldn't be let near a computer.
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In-memory DBMSs have been around for some time. They were originally employed in performance sensitive applications serving telephony and financial services markets. There is a resurgence of interest around in-memory database technology and we are starting to see in-memory DBMS technology reach a disruptive tipping point for a number of scenarios. Here's why. Why in-memory databases are important, and what Microsoft is doing about it.
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When personal clouds begin to act as peers with other network services, people gain unprecedented power and leverage. Personal clouds can change how we relate to everything in our lives, rearrange how we buy and sell products and services, and revolutionize how we communicate with each other. For these changes to take place, personal clouds must be able to un applications for you, under your direction. Your own, personal GLaDOS.
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The PC industry is so young that a remarkable percentage of its most significant figures are still with us. But it lost a key one on Sunday when Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore, died at 83. Commodore was one of the first important PC companies, and Tramiel, in his own idiosyncratic manner, played a vital role in getting the PC revolution underway. My first computer was a PET. What was yours?
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Atari 400; best machine I ever owned.
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Have you ever wondered why a supercomputer is called a supercomputer? Is it the number of processors or the amount of RAM? Must a supercomputer occupy a certain amount of space, or consume a specific amount of power? Let's walk back through the history of these machines to see what made them so super. I feel the need... the need for speed!
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One Laptop Per Child was a good idea, a noble and ambitious one at that. Originally proposed in 2006, OLPC aimed to build an inexpensive laptop that would be sold to governments in the developing world and made available in turn to the children in those countries via their respective ministries of education. Easier said than done. What were they expecting, cargo-cult hackers?
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Windows Phone 8 is now starting to show up in the browser statistics of analytics services. Is Microsoft being too slow with updates for the phone? I'd say no, and here's why. Microsoft's update timeline is clever. Android is shipping way too quickly.
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As nice as it is to simplify your code and iterate over many different types of collections, the real improvement comes when you start to reuse the functions passed to the iterators. But, you ask, how can I reuse my big, complicated function? Here's how. For loops are so last year.
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How will history judge the donation of $200 million in code? [ITworld]
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Microsoft starts XP retirement countdown[^]
"To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" - Homer Simpson
"Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction." ― Francis Picabia
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With IE10 Metro going plugin-free, it’s incredibly important to document steps to help developers provide their users with great experiences without the need for proprietary 3rd party add-ons. If you’ve built a plug-in-free browsing experience for the iPad, a few changes will make it ready for the new IE10 plug-in-free experience on Windows 8. Here's how. The web thanks you.
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The world does not want a new programming language, especially from me. But since you are hell bent on creating a new one, you might as well make it an improvement. Here are 8 tips to help make your toy language actually useful. Please, please. please, don't make a new language.
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