A couple of weeks ago, I had never heard of a set-associative cache. Then, I was assigned an interview exercise on HackerRank entitled “Set-Associative Cache Optimization”. (I won’t give away the company or any details about the exercise, since that wouldn’t be fair.) Since I hadn’t heard of such a cache, I decided to learn …
Continue reading Set-Associative Cache in C#, Part 1: Analysis & Initial Design
Category:software
On Recruiting
I’ll have more to say about this later, but I want to get this quote out there now so that technical leads, engineering managers, engineering directors, and vice-presidents of software engineering can have it embroidered on a pillow, printed on a t-shirt, and taped to their bathroom mirrors: The quality of your company’s software will …
Continue reading On Recruiting
Master Foo and the Technical Recruiter
I found Eric Raymond’s Unix Koans of Master Foo several years ago and simply loved them. Like the Zen koans they are taken from, they are a succinct way to communicate concepts of software development, specifically as they relate to the Unix development subculture. In the same spirit as Eric’s koans, I wrote a similar …
Continue reading Master Foo and the Technical Recruiter
Dragsens version 1.4
UPDATE: Download the latest version from the main project page. There is also a version of this utility with a graphical interface that’s easier to use. It’s time for a new version of the command-line version of the dragsens utility, which allows one to change the mouse sensitivity for detecting mouse drag actions in Windows. …
Continue reading Dragsens version 1.4
Windows Version of Dragsens
UPDATE: Download the latest version from the main project page. There is also a console-based version of this utility that’s more suitable for system administrators. In response to a comment on the previous version of the drag sensitivity utility, I’ve created a new version of the utility that includes a graphical interface and a means …
Continue reading Windows Version of Dragsens
Updated Version of Dragsens
UPDATE: Download the latest version from the main project page. There is also a version of this utility with a graphical interface that’s easier to use. I have built a new version of the dragsens utility, which allows one to change the mouse sensitivity for detecting mouse drag actions in Windows. This new version fulfills …
Continue reading Updated Version of Dragsens
My Life With Programming Languages
A language that doesn’t affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing. — Alan Perlis My first programming language was Basic on a TI-99/4A. Contra Dijkstra, I don’t think it did me too much harm. Of course, I did eventually “outgrow” that language. Just now I was pondering my progression through various …
Continue reading My Life With Programming Languages
Olympic Note Passing
A good analogy can often be useful to explain intricate technical details. In an earlier article, “Wrong Fish Food”, I related an analogy that I used to describe a technical issue to a non-technical audience. This article shares an analogy I created for a technical audience, because sometimes even techies need an analogy to grasp …
Continue reading Olympic Note Passing
I have a wide screen. Let me use it.
Dear web-design people, Please don’t design sites that look like this: Rather, please design sites that look like this: I’m not knocking Herb Sutter, here. I’m pretty sure he’s just using a stock template, but templates that don’t flow to fit the browser width really puzzle me. Is there a good reason for them that …
Continue reading I have a wide screen. Let me use it.
A Script to Find All Aliases for a Cmdlet
I’ve mentioned before that I love PowerShell, but I’m still trying to commit enough Cmdlets and aliases to memory that I can be immediately productive from a Powershell prompt without having to have a browser window open to the Powershell documentation on another monitor. Several of the Cmdlets may also be referenced through one or …
Continue reading A Script to Find All Aliases for a Cmdlet