tech stuff » developer

A Beginner’s Guide To jQuery

Cody Taylor — Fri, 15 May 2009 01:00:14 +0000

How can it make my life easier as a developer? How do I get started? Well, jQuery makes writing Javascript fun again and really allows you to take advantage of some of the more difficult aspects of Javascript with relative ease.

Steve Jobs Seen Returning Post-WWDC Brandishing New iPhones

Cody Taylor — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:00:16 +0000

While all eyes are on Apple’s annual developers conference as a likely forum for new iPhone hardware announcements, one Wall Street analyst is advising clients that better bets may be placed on an event a few weeks later that may also mark the return of Steve Jobs. In a note to clients, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said he believes a press…

The More Popular the Browser, the Slower It Is

Cody Taylor — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:00:19 +0000

demishade writes “Peacekeeper, the browser benchmark from the makers of 3DMark comes out of beta and shows an interesting (though perhaps not surprising) tidbit — the more popular a browser, the worse its performance. While it should not be surprising to anyone that IE slugs at the last place, the gap between Firefox and Chrome, is. Once IE’s market share goes the way of the Dodo will web developers start cursing Firefox? How long until Google comes out with a JavaScript intensive application that will practically require Chrome to function?”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Hidden Secrets of Online Quizzes

Cody Taylor — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:00:07 +0000

LegionKK writes “”Ultimately, deciding whether you should take an online quiz comes down to a question of trust: Are you comfortable putting your information — personal or financial — into the owner’s hands? Remember, even if you don’t directly input data, it can be passed along. Such is the case with Facebook, where just opening an application automatically grants its developer access to your entire profile. And don’t assume that the developer isn’t going to use the information within. [...] The ads can follow you long after you click away, too. Just look at RealAge, a detailed quiz that assigns you a “biological age” based on your family history and health habits. The site, a recent investigation revealed, takes your most sensitive answers — those about sexual difficulties, say, or signs of depression — and sells them to drug companies looking to market medications.”"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Have Sockets Run Their Course?

Cody Taylor — Wed, 13 May 2009 09:00:05 +0000

ChelleChelle writes “This article examines the limitations of the sockets API. The Internet and the networking world in general have changed in very significant ways since the sockets API was first developed in 1982, but the API has had the effect of narrowing the ways in which developers think about and write networked applications. This article discusses the history as well as the future of the sockets API, focusing on how ‘high bandwidth, low latency, and multihoming are driving the development of new alternatives.’”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

11 Killer Apps for Microsoft Surface [Video]

Cody Taylor — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:00:23 +0000

Microsoft’s interactive table, dubbed Surface, brings the heady dream of interactive computing closer reality. As developers find ways to make Surface’s gorgeous multi-user interface shine, more and more companies are turning to the device to reinvent their customer experience.

Qt Opens Source Code Repositories

Cody Taylor — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:00:14 +0000

sobral writes “Following the announcement of the LGPL license model, since yesterday the Qt source code repositories are open to the public together with their roadmap. The contribution model is online and will enable developers from the community to submit patches through a single click process, avoiding the previous hassle of sending in signed paperwork. The code is hosted at qt.gitorious.org and an instant benefit of this launch is that Qt Software has been working together with Gitorious maintainers for the last four months to improve Gitorious and all these new features are already submitted upstream.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple Freezes Snow Leopard APIs

Cody Taylor — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:00:07 +0000

DJRumpy writes in to alert us that Apple’s new OS, Snow Leopard, is apparently nearing completion. “Apple this past weekend distributed a new beta of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard that altered the programming methods used to optimize code for multi-core Macs, telling developers they were the last programming-oriented changes planned ahead of the software’s release. …`Apple is said to have informed recipients of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard build 10A354 that it has simplified the`… APIs for working with Grand Central, a new architecture that makes it easier for developers to take advantage of Macs with multiple processing cores. This technology works by breaking complex tasks into smaller blocks, which are then`… dispatched efficiently to a Mac’s available cores for faster processing.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Firebug & a bad Web Developer >>> Customer Service

Cody Taylor — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:00:10 +0000

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Mozilla Prism 1.0 Beta Launches With New Website

Cody Taylor — Tue, 12 May 2009 01:00:32 +0000

“With the release of Prism 1.0 beta we are ready to start fostering an ecosystem that makes it easier for developers to create and distribute compelling web app bundles”