programming

Bring back the basics. Two computer science professors at New York University complain that universities aren't preparing students for today's software industry. They claim that students trained in Java "found it hard to write programs that did not have a graphic interface, had no feeling for the relationship between the source program and what the hardware would actually do, and (most damaging) did not understand the semantics of pointers at all, which made the use of C in systems programming very challenging."

Read the full story on Slashdot: "Professors slam Java as 'damaging' to students" … Read more

GoneIn60s is a neat little program that makes those Homer Simpsonesque "D'oh!" moments where you close Firefox instead of iTunes a thing of the past. Weighing in at a hefty 206KB, Gone keeps closed programs running in your RAM for an additional 60 seconds after you hit that tantalizing red X, just in case you hit the wrong one.

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Once you explore the power of NoteTab Light, you may find this text editor beautiful despite its hectic interface. At its core, NoteTab Light is to Windows' Notepad as a smart phone is to a rotary phone. The program incorporates top-level tabs similar to most Web browsers, so that you can manage several different projects at once, and it can automatically replace Notepad so that Notepad's icon opens NoteTab instead.

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Web scripting languages like PHP are hot, but it's Java and .Net that pay the bills, according to a new survey by Robert Half Technology's 2008 Salary Guide:

Next year, application developers and senior web developers skilled in Java, Java Enterprise Edition and Microsoft's C# and VisualBasic.NET look likely to have more leverage in salary negotiations and pull in more cash than those armed with Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl/PHP/Python (LAMP) or AJAX, according to a new salary survey.

IT employment specialist Robert Half Technology's 2008 Salary Guide found application and senior web … Read more

Today it is possible to mash together Web services into a passable site with only a hobbyist's knowledge of programming. Tools like Yahoo Pipes get you started with the concepts, and then the APIs for products like Google Maps make things like the Chicago Crime Map buildable without requiring a large investment in original technology.

The same has not been true for hardware, but Peter Semmelhack at Bug Labs wants to change that. The company is releasing a hardware development system made of sensing and input modules that snap into a low-cost central Linux-based core, allowing you to mash … Read more

WASHINGTON--Copyright holders are "losing the battle" against piracy, at the expense of economic security and public health, and will never prevail unless a wide swath of governments and industries gets proactive, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said Wednesday.

The media conglomerate's chief shared a lengthy attack plan in a speech at an antipiracy summit here hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He wants alleged intellectual property violations to take center stage at all levels of government, from the White House to U.S. embassies around the world. He wants Congress to create dedicated IP enforcement … Read more

If you haven't managed to snag one of the free beta tokens from another Joost user, today is your lucky day, because the service has launched version 1.0, and is free and open to anyone who wants to use it. The once invite-only video content program is one of the few services we've seen since Google's Gmail to successfully use beta access to both intentionally control the scale of its user base and build up hype. It also doesn't hurt when it's created by the same duo that made Skype and Kazaa.

If you've been a loyal Joost user since the company rolled out its private beta last year, version 1.0 isn't a whole lot different from the latest build, however the newer "plastic" menus are much better looking than the contrastacular ones of yore. There's also a ton of content, which Joost pits somewhere above 150,000 shows, spanned across 250 or so "channels," including one with entire episodes of the original Transformers series.… Read more

If you haven't managed to snag one of the free beta tokens from another Joost user, today is your lucky day, because the service has launched version 1.0, and is free and open to anyone who wants to use it. The once-invite-only video content program is one of the few services we've seen since Google's Gmail to successfully use beta access to both intentionally control the scale of its user base and build up hype. It also doesn't hurt when it's created by the same duo that made Skype and Kazaa.

If you've … Read more

Soon you can brag about your travels to your fellow MySpace friends as well as your height, weight and looks.

Where I've Been aka WIB, an application for sharing a map on places you've visited, lived in or want to visit, will now be available for MySpace users, the company plans to announce Friday.

The mapping application allows users to color-code the world by where they have visited or lived and where they would like to go. The U.S. is broken out by states while the rest of the world is broken out by country.

The Chicago-based … Read more