Not talking about Hacking

Funny, the original poster "talks" about "not talking about hacking". But he does. Hilarious, in a way:

Welcome to Hacking. The first rule of Hacking is: you do not talk about Hacking. The second rule of Hacking is: you DO NOT talk about Hacking! Third rule of Hacking: if someone yells "stop!", goes limp, or gets arrested, the hack is NOT over. Fourth rule: only two guys to a hack. Fifth rule: one hack at a time, fellas. Sixth rule: the hacks are bare Windows PC's. No Linux, no Unix, no Macs. Seventh rule: hacks will go on as long as they have to. And the eighth and final rule: if this is your first time at hacking, you have to hack.

http://www.dailytech.com/Australian+Federal+Police+Mock+Hackers+Only+to+be+Hacked+in+Return/article16023.htm

Structuring Unit Tests

A very fine idea for naming and nesting unit tests:

To have a nested class for each method being tested.

Sources:

• http://haacked.com/archive/2012/01/01/structuring-unit-tests.aspx
• http://zendeveloper.blogspot.com/2012/01/structuring-unit-tests.html

This little trick, this one simple sentence, is like a missing piece in the jigsaw. I liked it from the very start. It fits very well alongside guides for naming of testing methods, like expressed in this article:

http://blog.stevensanderson.com/2009/08/24/writing-great-unit-tests-best-and-worst-practises/

I just wonder how this practice could fit into JUnit. Will have to try.

Also on the same page:

• http://haacked.com/archive/2013/03/04/test-better.aspx
• http://haacked.com/archive/2013/04/22/better-testers.aspx

Agile articles worth reading

http://agilewarrior.wordpress.com/articles/

New programming jargon

• Egyptian Brackets
• Yoda Conditions -- hello, Java programmers!
• Nopping
• Loch Ness Monster Bug
• Ninja Comments
• Smurf Naming Convention
• Jenga Code
• ... and more!

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/07/new-programming-jargon.html

Using Trello for IT project management

As Joel Spolsky wrote on his blog:

Tuesday, April 17, 2012
The folks over at UserVoice are using Trello quite extensively throughout their development process.

Founder Richard White describes it all in detail.

Project triangle: cheap, fast, good - pick any two

• http://www.google.pl/search?q=Cheap,+fast,+good+pick+any+two
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_triangle
  

The moral? You can't fulfill all three objectives, but only two of the above.

A New User Guide to Linux Communities

http://linux-blog.org/a-new-user-guide-to-linux-communities/

A minty experience leaves a pleasant taste

Relation from transitioning a "typical user" from Windows to Linux. Interesting and funny one, too.

Knowing what sort of computer user type this person is I decided to make sure I chose the right distribution for them. After careful thought and a bit of google trolling (in the searching sense of the word) I decided to give Linux Mint a go. So I backed up their computer and settled down to install Mint.

Naturally the install went without a hitch. [...] Note the only changes I made were upgrading wine and installing amsn. Everything else I left as is.

I called them over and spent a couple of minutes showing them where their data is and left them to it. After a while I checked in to see if there were any problems. There were none so I let them be. Suddenly they stormed out and shouted "This G.D. computer is so user friendly!!" [...]

Every now and then other exclamations burst forth such as "This is great!", "It's like a new computer" and more. Each time the old liquid pump almost burst under the pressure of pride at a new assimilation.

I did not have to do any training. I did not have to do any hand holding although, I fully expected to have to. This person found exactly what they needed and could do everything they could do before. The things they are most happy about? They are free of windows virus's, their computer runs fast again and is easy to use. So I am very happy with my choice of Mint for them as are they. The Mint developers have made a very good distribution and it has suited this person to the T. It is the first time I used Mint and I have to admit, I was impressed.

That's truly opposite to one of the previous entries, Linux is for smart people. It's almost as good as one of the Helios writings ;-) Which brings us to the point that people are not necessarily stupid when they use Windows - but they are rather afraid of change or don't want to invest enough time to understand and assimilate the differences.

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/locutus/a-minty-experience-leaves-a-pleasant-taste-38151

jQuery selectors performance

Several very on-topic articles:

http://java.sys-con.com/node/1179088
http://www.artzstudio.com/2009/04/jquery-performance-rules/
http://jquery-howto.blogspot.com/2009/02/5-easy-tips-on-how-to-improve-code.html

Ironic view at software diagramming

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/16/verity_stob_software_diagramming/

Somewhat funny look at different diagramming techniques over the course of years. I suspect the author's experience cannot let him feel the 'real' power of UML to use it correctly. Although UML is far from perfect, it's the best we have now (similiar to what Churchill has said about democracy).

But anyway, there is a hidden gem in the above article, a link to an open-source State Machine Compiler: http://smc.sourceforge.net/

Good news on ASP.NET MVC

Fine description of MVC pattern implementation in ASP.NET can be found on ScottGu's blog. This post accompanies the Release Candidate of ASP.NET MVC 1.0:

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/01/27/asp-net-mvc-1-0-release-candidate-now-available.aspx

JFXBuilder - The First JavaFX Visual Designer

A cool Java Web Start application for creating JavaFX files. Good!
http://www.reportmill.com/jfx/

Also an original announcement:
http://www.reportmill.com/news/2008_12.html

What's new in PHP V5.3, Part 1

What's new in PHP V5.3, Part 1: Changes to the object interface
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-php-5.3new1/index.html

Schema Design Patterns: Avoiding Complexity

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/11/20/schemas.html

Using W3C XML Schema

http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2000/11/29/schemas/part1.html
(printed version: http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/691)

And from Oracle:

• XML Schema: Understanding Namespaces
  
• XML Schema: Understanding Datatypes
  
• XML Schema: Understanding Structures
  

And from WebReference:

• The XML Schema Companion. Chapter 15: Patterns
  
• 15.9 Character Class Escapes
  

jQuery to ship with ASP.NET MVC and Visual Studio

Blog entry of Scott Hanselman with simple, yet effective example:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/jQueryToShipWithASPNETMVCAndVisualStudio.aspx

Free 3D games with raytracing engine

Two nice 3D games, with graphics engine that renders images via raytracing - done by CPU. Two titles there, Let there be Light and Outbound:

http://igad.nhtv.nl/~bikker/projects2.htm

Mule and real open-source ESB

Set of links:
* http://www.keith-chapman.org/2008/06/is-mule-really-open-source.html
* http://sanjiva.weerawarana.org/2008/06/mulesource-giving-up-on-open-source.html
* ESB | WSO2 - http://wso2.com/welcome/esb/

Java Code Conventions

A yes, there is also a similar documentation for Java:

http://java.sun.com/docs/codeconv/

.NET Framework Naming Guidelines

Now that's interesting. I already knew there are naming conventions for Java, however .NET doesn't seem to be left behind. Go and check it out:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/xzf533w0.aspx