A brief overview of the current landscape in 2020 — Machine learning is a hot topic that has permeated numerous public and private industries, as well as a diverse spectrum of academic disciplines, extending far beyond its humble computer science origins. Machine learning techniques are generally considered a subset of the broader field of artificial intelligence (AI), although these two…

Learn how to load web images into your Android application with just a URL string. — Occasionally, adding images to your android application is simple and straightforward, and all you have to do is place the image in the drawable folder and set the ImageView source (“src”) property in your layout xml file to the correct path.

Metaphors for a Richer Understanding of Software Development This post will provide a brief overview of the 2nd chapter of Steve McConnell’s Code Complete (2nd Edition). If you haven’t already, please first read the Introduction to the Series. You may also want to check out the Review of Chapter 1 if you missed it. Metaphors Good metaphors often provide…

Welcome to Software Construction Welcome to the first installment of my review of Steve McConnell’s influential text Code Complete (2nd Edition). If you haven’t already, please first read my Introduction to the Series post, it’s short I promise! In this post we will dig into the content and get started with the first chapter…

Welcome to the introduction to my Code Complete Review series. This post will provide a brief overview of my intentions with this series, and lay out what to expect (and not expect) from it. I’ve heard (and read) so many positive things about Steve McConnell’s influential book Code Complete that…

You may have seen the same email from Dropbox that I received today, essentially explaining that they will no longer support “the ability to render HTML content in-browser via shared links or Public Folder.” Although I’ve never actually considered permanently hosting a website on Dropbox, I absolutely love the ability…

Learn how to significantly improve USB 3.0 transfer speeds by changing a default Windows setting. — If you just bought a new USB 3.0 thumb drive (or hard drive) and noticed surprisingly slow read/write speeds, read on for the quick fix! A USB 3.0 drive should be getting write speeds of at least 15–20 MB per second, if not more. …

If you develop with Ruby on Rails, especially if you are new to it, you may at some point have questions about gem versions. Sometimes it can be confusing which gem version to choose, whether or not to explicitly state a version number, and how to do it. In order…