Google CodeJam in Corner Cubicle

rjolitz — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:43:51 -0600

Morning All.

I just stumbled on this and didn't recall seeing anything on it here so figured - what the heck!

http://code.google.com/codejam/index.html

New DIC Moderator: Gabehabe in Dream.in.code News

skyhawk133 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:51:47 -0600

Please welcome and congratulate gabehabe to the team! He's dream.in.code's newest moderator! Gabehabe will be helping us look after the lounge and the c++ forums as well as the rest of the site. Show him some love!!

Adobe Announces SWF Specs... Google Can Index Flash! in Industry News

born2c0de — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 11:28:01 -0600

I'm surprised nobody posted about this. It's quite a big deal.

Adobe officially released the File Format specifications of the SWF Format.

You can download it here.

Google and Yahoo search are supposedly using this information to enable searching for and within Flash files.

July Call For Articles in Dream.in.code News

skyhawk133 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:38:29 -0600

July's newsletter goes out next Wednesday. I'm looking for articles again and have room for a couple this time. Looking for between 400-800 words. You are welcome to include a link to your personal blog or web site, and I'll feature your article on the homepage if I choose to run it in the newsletter.

Good ideas for articles include new technology, reviews, how-tos, information articles (security, news, etc.), anything controversial, comparisons, etc.

Try to appeal to the broadest audience possible.

I'll pick 1 or 2 of the best and run them in the newsletter. Circulation last time was 74,731 members.

Is the industry too fragmented? in Corner Cubicle

Martyr2 — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:22:12 -0600

I just recently watched a video covering Google's Android and how the basics of it are setup from the Linux kernel up the stack to applications. That was a nice talk and everything seemed fine until it went to Q&A where the developers in the audience started attacking the speaker for about 20-25 minutes with "Will Android work with this? Will it work with that? Can I develop even more applications? Can I integrate this with that and put it on android flawlessly?"

It got me wondering, is the industry a bit too fragmented in your opinion? I mean we have a ton of computer languages all which are capable of doing the same thing. We have a ton of mobile applications on a plethora of mobile devices leading to bajillions of combinations of potential device setups.

To accurately field the questions the speaker had to know or have an idea about 10-15 technologies, most of which were niche market technologies, just to successfully answer how Android will work with them. And you know what? Each questioner was probably alone in the technology they were talking about. None of them were really talking about the same ideas or working on the same problems. Some were probably even working on their own proprietary language or technology and they wanted to throw that on top of Android.

Even one developer, a female mind you, started asking if Android was not already "reinventing the wheel" and just adding another option to the pool of technologies already out there. Sure, throw another technology on the barbie and let it do what other platforms can do but with a flashy name and maybe 1 or 2 absolutely unique features.

In my opinion it might sound even better to work on merging some of these technologies and cut our 100+ programming languages for instance down to 10 really solid well used. But also cutting down the now booming mobile device OS market down to 2 or 3 just to simplify the combinations a bit and keep it under 100,000 combinations.

Interested in what you guys think of that. Do you think the industry should start focusing not only creating unique technologies but perhaps merging a few together so that we can all get on the same page?

Scrawlr - Finds SQL Injection Vulnerabilities in Industry News

snoj — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:46:53 -0600

It's a pretty neat tool. So far I've used it on a couple of my projects and it hasn't found any injection points!

The best part is, there should be no 1500 page limit!

https://download.spidynamics.com/Products/scrawlr/

[Admin Edit: Scrawlr will crawl a website while simultaneously analyzing the parameters of each individual web page for SQL Injection vulnerabilities. ]

Project Resources in Discuss Projects

skyhawk133 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:20:45 -0600

I want to compile a list of resources you use when working on a web site, program, etc.

Things like scripts, stock photo sites, font sites, scripts or tools you use, etc.

I'll start out:

Stock Photos
http://www.sxc.hu

FTP
http://www.smartftp.com

Blogging
http://www.wordpress.org

Keyword Research
http://www.seobook.com

Site Stats/Analytics
http://www.haveamint.com
http://www.google.com/analytics

Benefits of Virtual and Software Development in Corner Cubicle

Mr_Mom — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:51:35 -0600

Hello,

I am wondering everyones opinions on the benefits of running Virtual PC's during your Development process.
What do you use it for?
If you don't what do you use instead?

Is it beneficial for Web Apps as well?

Thanks,

Software & Web Developer Salaries in Corner Cubicle

skyhawk133 — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:44:10 -0600

I'm curious what the average salary is for desktop app programmers, and web app programmers.

This is an anonymous survey, so your name won't be associated with your vote.

I realize there are many factors, but I'm looking for an average.

Feel free to share and discuss titles, education, and how it relates to the salaries in your industry.

Learning to be a successful software developer in Software Development

rancor — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:31:53 -0600

I'm currently working towards acquiring a bachelor's degree in Computer Science. My curriculum has been primarily taught in Java (95%), and I've had a course or two in C++. Recently i've been applying for part-time jobs and internships to get some experience in the field, but every job application i see seems to expect me to know about ten languages (even for sophomore/junior level)... I'm kind of confused about where to start - there are so many different languages and out there and i feel like i have to read a book on each of them to get a solid understanding. I know a good programmer can glance at some code and be able to catch on relatively quickly, but i feel like i only touch the tip of the iceberg when i do that and i really wouldn't have a clue how to write the code without reading a book! So far I've been attempting to learn PHP and MySQL because those are the languages appearing most frequently on the job applications (aside from the other five or six that vary from job to jon). After reading a few pages i feel like i also need to learn about ajax, coldfusion, ruby on rails, the django framework, HTML & CSS, ASP.NET, JSP, javascript, etc etc and i just get lost in a seemingly endless abyss of languages that i need/want to learn - and those are for web development alone! Aside from that, my knowledge of the languages i've been exposed to is not extensive... i still need to put more time into learning more about java and C++ let alone every other language out there! How do you find enough time in the day to be so well rounded and know so many different languages?
Sorry for my long shpiel here, I just feel kind of lost and direction less right now. Any advice or tips would be much appreciated!

Are You (and Your Web Sites) Ready for FireFox 3.0? in Industry News

skyhawk133 — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 20:52:34 -0600

I fixed the last couple FireFox3 related bugs here at DIC this morning so we're all set for FireFox 3.0 prime time on Tuesday! I've been running the beta since Beta 2 I believe and I honestly love some of the new features, especially the smart address bar.

I'm going to have to get used to "tagging" my bookmarks, but I did it all the time with del.icio.us so I think I can manage.

It's a LOT faster than FireFox 2.0 and that makes me (and DIC) happy.

Here's a "Guide to FF3" for those that aren't up on all the new features: http://www.dria.org/wordpress/archives/2008/06/12/655/

FF3 drops Tuesday morning and hopes to break a world record for most downloads in a single day.

Transition From College to the Real World in Corner Cubicle

jjsaw5 — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 11:02:56 -0600

During lunch today my co-workers and I started talking about college and how prepared you were for the real world after graduation.

There were a lot of mixed answers but most of us feel into the "I used very little to nothing i learned in college"

I too feel into this category where my college experience did little to prepare me for "real world" tasks. Now grant it non of us were expecting to walk out of college into a job and know everything we needed to.

But if you fell into the same situation, what did you feel would have been beneficial for you to experience in college?

Did you do an internship? Was it worth it? Did your college assist you in finding one? Do you think they should?

Once you were in the "real world" how did you help yourself get up to speed with the rest of your co-workers?

I think this would be helpful for college kids to look at to get advice and an insight to what they can expect. Also to get an idea as to what they need to do to help prepare themselves for the dreaded "REAL WORLD" /ohmy.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":o" border="0" alt="ohmy.gif" />

Please share your experiences, advice, thoughts, and suggestions!

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