The Insider News

Computerworld Blogs[^]:

Windows may be the software that helped gain Microsoft gain worldwide dominance, but if the company wants to thrive in the future, the Windows brand may need to die. Microsoft would still build Windows operating systems, but would emphasize the Microsoft brand instead, and cut prices drastically for Windows licenses. So conclude several analysts, and they may well be right.

Anil Dash[^]:

In my years working in technology, I have learned a few things. These lessons have become oft-repeated refrains when speaking to people, so I thought I'd collect them so I have a link to send folks when needed. 1. Given enough time, any object which can generate musical notes will be used to play the Super Mario Brothers theme on YouTube....

Microsoft on the Issues[^]:

Today we have asked the Attorney General of the United States to personally take action to permit Microsoft and other companies to share publicly more complete information about how we handle national security requests for customer information. We believe the U.S. Constitution guarantees our freedom to share more information with the public, yet the Government is stopping us.... Until that happens, we want to share as much information as we currently can.

The Verge[^]:

With this quarter's mixed financial results, Nokia revealed that Lumia sales were up to a record high of 7.4 million. That means that the company sold more Windows Phones last quarter than BlackBerry sold phones. Just one year ago, BlackBerry was selling almost two phones for every one Lumia Nokia sold. It's a stark change of fortunes for the Canadian manufacturer, and appears to reaffirm Microsoft's statement that Windows Phone is now the third-place platform for smartphones.

Quote:

Comparing the latest Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) List Of Top 100 Global Software Leaders published in May of this year with current Glassdoor ratings based on employee feedback provides valuable insights into the best software companies to work for in 2013.

CodeProject[^]:

I’m David Rodriguez, a happy Spanish guy living and working in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) where I born. I am one of the lucky ones who has the opportunity to work with cutting edge technologies at DNN as the Lead Engineer on the Cloud Team.

Haacked[^]:

A while back I wrote a riveting 3-part developer’s guide to copyright law and open source licensing for developers.... I’m pretty sure you read every word at the edge of your seat. Who doesn’t love reading about laws, licenses, and copyright!? Seriously though, I hope some of you found it useful. In this post, I want to talk about some recent developments that should make it easier for developers to license their code.

The Visual Studio Blog[^]:

In Visual Studio 2013, we have introduced new features that boost productivity and save time when working inside the Editor. Some of these are new features and some are the most popular extensions from Productivity Power Tools.... Our primary focus for the Editor in this version is to keep the developer in context as much as possible. This blog post describes capabilities that bring information to your fingertips and allow you to do as much as possible without leaving your place in code.

O'Reilly Media[^]:

So how can we optimize mobile web development? The first answer is pretty simple: don’t try to use JavaScript for tasks (like photo or video editing) that push it past its limits. As far as JavaScript has come, it wasn’t built for that. Native apps are indeed good for more than building browsers. The second answer is trickier: it means recognizing that web applications include much more than JavaScript.

Ankur Sethi's Blog[^]:

I am currently working on a single page web application written with AngularJS that communicates with a REST API written with Django and Tastypie. Since I run both the client and the server locally on my machine, every HTTP request that my AngularJS application makes receives a response from the REST API in tens of milliseconds. This is not ideal.

Superfeedr[^]:

RSS is dead has been the motto of several tech publications (none of whom actually deleted their feeds… but that’s another story!). The truth is these people were right in the sense that RSS has seen very little innovation, because one player was incredibly dominant and no-one could really distinguish from it. Now, that player is gone, but if we only use new readers who provide the same experience, we’re probably not going to see this ecosystem explode again.

reactivemanifesto.org[^]:

A new architecture has evolved to let developers conceptualize and build applications that satisfy today’s demands. We call these Reactive Applications. This architecture allows developers to build systems that are event-driven, scalable, resilient and interactive: delivering highly interactive user experiences with a real-time feel, backed by a scalable and resilient application stack, ready to be deployed on multicore and cloud computing architectures. The Reactive Manifesto describes these critical traits which are needed for going reactive.

AnandTech[^]:

If we limit our discussion to personal computing devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops), where Intel uses two microarchitectures ARM uses three.... If we look at currently available cores, there’s the Cortex A15 on the high end, Cortex A9 for the mainstream and Cortex A7 for entry/low cost markets. If we’re to draw parallels with Intel’s product lineup, the Cortex A15 is best aligned with ultra low power/low frequency Core parts (think Y-series SKUs), while the Cortex A9 vector parallels Atom. Cortex A7 on the other hand targets a core size/cost/power level that Intel doesn’t presently address.

CNET News[^]:

Google has patched a security vulnerability that could have left Glass users with some major issues. Lookout Security discovered a flaw in Google Glass back in May that would allow a hacker to create a QR Code that -- once scanned by Glass -- could see all of the connections running through the glasses-mounted computer. A hacker could also deliver a payload over the Internet that would wreak havoc on Google Glass and possibly steal information.

Sucuri Blog[^]:

A few days ago, Peter Gramantik from our research team found a very interesting backdoor on a compromised site. This backdoor didn’t rely on the normal patterns to hide its content (like base64/gzip encoding), but stored its data in the EXIF headers of a JPEG image. It also used the exif_read_data and preg_replace PHP functions to read the headers and execute itself.

Visual Studio Magazine[^]:

More than 40 percent of software developers globally say that security isn't a top priority for them, and a similar percentage don't use a secure application program process, according to a new study.... On the development side, only about 62 percent "always" take security into account when developing or contracting for software applications. Thirty-one percent "usually" do, and 7 percent "never" do, the survey found.

Scott Hanselman[^]:

I've blogged before, in fact in 2004, (!) that Windows is missing the text mode boat. There is a massive opportunity for a great, nay, awesome and pretty, command line on Windows. If someone cracks this problem, they're gonna be heroes.... Here's some command line utilities that augment and help - but don't yet complete save - the Windows Command Line.

Ars Technica[^]:

A couple of years ago, Linus Torvalds was discussing Linux version numbers and said, "I think I will call 3.11 Linux for Workgroups." It turns out he wasn't joking. With a release candidate of Linux 3.11 now available, Torvalds has actually named the new version of the kernel "Linux for Workgroups." He even gave it a Windows-themed boot icon featuring Linux's mascot penguin, Tux, holding a flag emblazoned with an old Windows logo.