http://blog.thetonk.com On the science - and art - that is software development. Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:33:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'd like to clear the air surrounding multicore processors.  They're nice, yes.  They're fancy and expensive and have a lot of (potential) horsepower.  But if we don't utilize them properly, there's no point. Most applications you use daily are single threaded.  For those unfamiliar with threading, I liken a thread to ... http://blog.thetonk.com/archives/129 Every once in a while, during my daily activities on and about the web, I see something that stops me in my tracks.  Maybe a horrible color scheme.  Perhaps some very poorly chosen wording.  Whatever it is.  There are simply times when I sincerely wish there were a Universal encyclopedia ... http://blog.thetonk.com/archives/115 I can't get enough of Gmail.  It rules. The conversation-based (as opposed to singular message-based) interface approach is a quite simple, yet ingenious tweak that really gives the web app a nice flow.  And, of course, it's Google technology, so with Gmail, everything is search-able, and you never have to delete ... http://blog.thetonk.com/archives/102 Recently I discovered a need (read: desire that was relatively easily fulfilled, thus necessary) for a web app to have "fuzzy time" display capabilities.  You've got the ironclad, all-superior, well-known, never-fail Unix timestamp (e.g. 1126935037).  Backbone of a LOT software (and for good reason), but useless for display.  You've got ... http://blog.thetonk.com/archives/89 My new foray into web development has been bolstered substantially by using jQuery for any client-side scripting needs.  However, I've also been using a new server-side tool in my belt.  I call it Webstraction... it's a web development not-framework I've recently built. I like the idea of web development abstractions.  ... http://blog.thetonk.com/archives/70 I've had a bit of a writers block lately.  I thought it was due to the fact that I'd been too busy developing to think up things to write.  And then I made a realization - the entire concept of a blog on computer science is to share my experiences; ... http://blog.thetonk.com/archives/60 If you're looking to start a flame war, go ahead and mention that your operating system is better than another.  Do it at work.  Do it in school.  Do it on a public forum.  At lunch.  Anywhere, really. You've heard all about the big three: Windows, Mac, Linux.  I know the ... http://blog.thetonk.com/archives/35 If you're reading this post, and you're familiar with version control software, and you're not using it for one of your current projects, shame on you. That having been said, for those unfamiliar with it, let me explain. Version control software is a client-server application which tracks changes in files over ... http://blog.thetonk.com/archives/11 I'm going to start a small series on applications (or generic types of applications) that every developer should (read: really, really, really should) be using. Now of course I'm going to be able to give examples and recommendations for only the brands that I use. My goal is to introduce ... http://blog.thetonk.com/archives/9 That title should probably read "OO API Wrapper." Sorry, wrong regional dialect. My mistake. I'm pretty sure that anyone who has (successfully) used an API at some point will tell you that they are wonderful. What I'm also guessing, from my admittedly limited experience, however, is that a ... http://blog.thetonk.com/archives/7