Feb 12
Feb 09
When buying a new PC, should you spend the extra cash to upgrade your RAM? Here’s a rule-of-thumb for how much memory you need to run Windows Vista:
Windows Vista RAM
- 2 GB is minimum
- 3 GB if you can afford it
- 4 GB is mostly wasted (on 32-bit Vista)
Feb 07
Netcraft’s monthly survey has found 155,583,825 sites on the World Wide Web. The slowing global economy may have impacted the Web’s growth rate, with only 354 thousand new sites added in January compared to 5.4 million new in December.
Jan 31
A debate is raging on the ‘net these days as to whether all software, music and digital content should be free.
Wouldn’t it be great if all software was free? And if cars, homes, sex and big-screen TVs were free too. And I wish I could stop paying my taxes, fly like a bird, see through solid objects with X-ray vision, and poop out golden eggs by the dozen.
But unfortunately there’s a big difference between fantasy and reality, and in the real world:
If something has value,
we have to pay for it.
Tags: Free Music, Free Software, Open-Source
Jan 29
“Men Behaving Badly” was a cheeky British comedy from the 90’s that was voted “Best Sitcom in BBC History” for the BBC’s 60th anniversary in 1996. The series featured two men in their thirties taking a keen interest in “booze, birds and football” (that’s alcohol, women and soccer to our American readers). The otherwise lovable pair often behaved badly, causing those around them to suffer with comedic results. Today we discuss a few examples of otherwise good software that occasionally behaves badly, causing its users to suffer with frustrating results.
Jan 28
What do you do if original content from your website or blog is stolen and republished in full on another site? You fight back!
A splog or “spam blog” is a blog that steals content from other web sites, then aggregates and republishes the content on its own blog. Splogs are created primarily to make money from ads shown on the splog and/or promote affiliated web sites. Splog owners are too dishonest, lazy or stupid to create their own original content and instead thieve yours.
Splogs are harmful because they effectively steal a portion of your blog’s search engine ranking, traffic and ad revenue.
Jan 18
Recently I posted a list of the Best C# Blogs. Today we recognize the best C# Web sites.
Following (in alphabetical order) are the best C# sites active on the Web today. Also included is the “About” section of the site (edited for space and clarity). Please comment if you can recommend other excellent C# web sites that didn’t make my list.
Tags: C# Web Sites
Jan 11
“People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn’t they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines. There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters.”
As Bill Gates once warned, computers have indeed become our silicon masters, pervading nearly every aspect of our modern lives. As a result, some of the greatest minds of our time have pondered the significance of computers and software on the human condition. Following are 101 great quotes about computers, with an emphasis on programming, since after all this is a software development site.
Tags: Bill-Gates, Computer Programming, Quotes
Dec 21
Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the snacks are so delightful,
And since we’ve no place to go,
Let me code, let me code, let me code!
What should a software developer do over the holidays? Many take off to be with family and friends during the last two weeks of December. Others (including me) have spouses who must work or have used up vacation, so they find themselves working in half-empty companies.
Tags: Holidays, Worker Productivity