Smart Development

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"Smart Development" provides concepts and working code for the practicing programmer, several times each week of the year. While this blog mostly leaves mainstream domains like Java, C#, and SaaS to specialists, there's an abundance of good ideas having to do with such secondary technologies as Python, SNMP, Expect, and IPv6 that deserve to be passed on. "Smart Development" particularly favors lightweight techniques: underappreciated languages or styles that yield robust results with a small entry cost.

by Cameron Laird

Cameron is a member of the Python Software Foundation and Internet Press Guild, an Invited Expert in SVG, ...

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Animation standards ready to use

Posted Jul 05, 2010 - 05:34 pm

You probably know already that the only image format that effectively supports animation is GIF. If you do ... you're wrong. There are at least three other ways to animate images in any format. Cameron presents a trick to achieve the effect quickly.
Development, animation, css
Database round-up

Posted Jul 01, 2010 - 08:09 pm

News you should know about relational database managers
Software, database
Naked Oracle connections

Posted Jun 22, 2010 - 08:10 pm

Oracle is a top-of-the-fleet carrier: the cockpit is filled with specialized controls, and it assumes operation by a big crew. For development, tuning, and problem diagnosis, though, you sometimes need to "start the engines" as quietly and simply as possible. Where's the "on" switch for such a situation?
Development, database, development
PDF bookmarks for the end-user

Posted Jun 17, 2010 - 08:31 pm

"Bookmarks" decorate many PDF instances, but most consumers don't know what they are or what to do with them. Here's what to tell them.
Business, bookmark, PDF
Valuable conferences in computing

Posted Jun 07, 2010 - 07:56 pm

Three summer-time conferences have Cameron's attention.
Software, python, svg
Oversimplification of computing concepts leads to error

Posted Jun 07, 2010 - 11:36 am

Many folks who work in computing -- sometimes even experienced decision-makers -- operate as though being able to say the words means that they understand the concepts.
Development, compatibility, database
Documentation and imagination crucial to SVG

Posted May 31, 2010 - 01:43 pm

Examples of what SVG can do right now.
Development, Eclipse, graphics
How to repair a full Unix directory

Posted May 29, 2010 - 08:03 pm

What if you accidentally fill a Unix directory with so many files that the shell runs out of memory trying to remove them? A few easy techniques quickly bring the situation under control.
Software, administration, bash
Basic video cabling for computer users

Posted May 26, 2010 - 05:07 pm

You've got stuff on a computer here, and you want it to appear on a display there. What's it take?
Hardware, display
Remote-control and related software

Posted May 23, 2010 - 05:07 pm

VNC and other open-source software
Software, remote control, VNC

October is...
Unified Communications Month

BY THE NUMBERS: UC&C

HOW-TO: Look alive and professional in Web meetings

TIP: Use your cell phone as a WiFi VOIP phone

TOOLBOX: Six alternative tools for small business collaboration

CASE STUDY: Enterprise social network moves ad agency into the future

Microsoft's Security Essentials isn't the best antivirus program, according to Microsoft

2 comments
AMD pushes forward with new video cards and a few surprises

2 comments
Change Microsoft Office 2013's default search engine from Bing to Google

2 comments
See - and hear - what it was like to surf the web 20 years ago

1 comment
Valve completes its trifecta of announcements with the Steam Controller

1 comment

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