Why I like Java
From the highly eclectic blog of Mark Dominus
How we made editing Wikipedia twice as fast
Over the past six months we deployed a new technology that sped up Wikipedia’s backend application, reducing the median page-saving time for editors from about 7.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds.
Creating 3D worlds with HTML and CSS
An experiment in creating a 3D environment using HTML elements and CSS transforms featuring lights, shadows and collision detection.
Fira Sans: a Free, Open Source Typeface Commissioned by Mozilla
As designers in open source, we’re constantly looking for opportunities to bring the principles of universal access and redistribution to new areas. While the term “open source” may still be mainly associated with code, the value in free collaboration benefits every discipline – particularly design.
Rust means never having to close a socket
One of the coolest features of Rust is how it automatically manages resources for you, while still guaranteeing both safety (no segfaults) and high performance. Because Rust is a different kind of programming language, it might be difficult to understand what I mean, so let me be perfectly clear: * In
“A Windows 7 deployment image was accidently sent to all Windows machines”
Emory's Microsoft 365 software license is available to all Emory Employees (Faculty, Staff, Students and Healthcare) and is paid for by Emory. The license includes five (5) add-on subscription products that are available to Faculty, Staff and researchers for a nominal monthly fee.
Things You Should Know About Tor
Updated: July 1st at 6:30PM to add information about traffic correlation attacks. We posted last week about the Tor Challenge and why everyone should use Tor. Since we started our Tor Challenge two weeks ago we have signed up over 1000 new Tor relays. But it appears that there are still some...
Which is better, Adblock or Adblock Plus?
Note: This is explicitly posted in my private blog rather than the Adblock Plus blog. This post represents my own opinion only. It is likely unwise to rant about a competing project but I just don’t want to keep my findings to myself. If you are here for Adblock Plus bashing and don’t care enough to read the post…
When security goes right
A few weeks ago, I heard that my slow and unreliable ISP was raising their prices, and I decided to look around for a better ISP. I found one in the form of Novus , which has fibre runs to towers around the Vancouver area. I signed up; they came to the building and placed the necessary patch cable in the basement…
Say No
Saying yes is so much easier than saying no, but nobody else will ever value your time as much as you do so you need to be a responsible steward of it. Say No to meetings. Say No to interruptions. Say No to things that are urgent but not important. Prioritize your time based on impact, be transparent about those…
How to Learn Efficiently
I am convinced that much of the gap between the best college students and the worst is explained by study habits. Frankly, most students study poorly. To make matters worse, most teachers are incapable of teaching good study habits. Learning is proportional with effort Sitting in a classroom listening to a professor…
The Lost Art of C Structure Packing
This page is about a technique for reducing the memory footprint of programs in compiled languages with C-like structures - manually repacking these declarations for reduced size. To read it, you will require basic knowledge of the C programming language.
Mac App Store: The Subtle Exodus
The Mac App Store was released in January 2011 and it marked the beginning of a great new distribution channel. Even though it lacked some bells and whistles, the developer community was hopeful the problems would be addressed in due course. Unfortunately, it has been years and there's no evidence that the core issues…
Minimum Viable Block Chain
Block chain is agnostic of any 'currency' and it can (and will) be adapted to power many other use cases. This is a ground up explanation of why the particular pieces (digital signatures, proof-of-work, transaction blocks) are needed, and how they all come together to form the minimum viable block chain with all of…
Dear Web Developers: EFF Needs Your Help
Donate a Few Hours to Help Us Create a Free Software Backend for Contacting Congress, Make the World a Better Place for Digital Rights UPDATE (4/16/14): We're lowering the threshold for getting prizes, take a look below. For years, EFF has been helping concerned technology users contact Congress....
Firefox 33
We'd also like to extend a special thank you to all of the new Mozillians who contributed to this release of Firefox!
Class Hierarchies? Don't Do That
In theory , JavaScript does not have classes. In practice , the following snippet of code is widely considered to be an example of a “class” in JavaScript:
Post Mortem: A single whitespace character
Cloud printing for retail and food and beverage operations.
ISPs Removing Their Customers' Email Encryption
Recently, Verizon was caught tampering with its customer's web requests to inject a tracking super-cookie. Another network-tampering threat to user safety has come to light from other providers: email encryption downgrade attacks. In recent months, researchers have reported ISPs in the US and...
Letter to a Young Haskell Enthusiast
*The following letter is not about what "old hands" know and newcomers do not. Instead, it is about lessons that we all need to learn more than once, and remind ourselves of. It is about tendencies that are common, and understandable, and c
I found a bug in the .NET framework and fixed it by hand-altering the DLL
Alex Clemmer is a computer programmer. Other programmers love Alex, excitedly describing him as "employed here" and "the boss's son".