Author Archives: Russell Finn

Debugging software for laymen

Posted on November 28, 2009 by Russell Finn

Brent Simmons provides what is possibly the best description for laymen of the joy/agony of debugging software that I’ve ever seen.

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Posted in Programming | Leave a comment

O @comcastcares, hear my plea

Posted on June 5, 2009 by Russell Finn

As of this evening the TV Guide channel is not displaying the scrolling list of program information — just the mindless “American Idol Rewind” and other programming at the top of the screen. You can usually see an empty space … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Where have you gone, Fake Steve Jobs?

Posted on April 5, 2009 by Russell Finn

As Fake Steve Jobs, Dan Lyons made a terrific anonymous satirist. As Newsweek’s technology columnist, he leaves something to be desired. Pass over the Microsoft marketer’s crack about Macs being “washed with unicorn tears” pass by, because, really, that just … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple | Leave a comment

OCPython, anyone?

Posted on December 5, 2008 by Russell Finn

As dynamic scripting languages become more widely used, many developers are interested in using them to write “native” Mac OS X software, rather than having to learn Objective-C (which, of course, is a dynamic language in its own right). And … Continue reading →

Posted in Apple, Macintosh, Python | 6 Comments

Visual Studio 2005: Not Ready To Lead

Posted on October 26, 2008 by Russell Finn

Glenn Howe writes of an anomaly in Visual Studio 2005′s C++ compiler: … I discovered today (Friday) that if you compile something like:double x = (false) ? 0 : 1.4;that x will not equal 1.4 as most people (and the … Continue reading →

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Will no one rid me of this troublesome plugin?

Posted on October 17, 2008 by Russell Finn

So, facing the “Would you like to install Flash Player 10?” message in the browser page at Adobe’s, I had a micro-aneurysm or something, and thought, my daughter spends all her free time playing Flash games, so I’ll need this … Continue reading →

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Insta-poll: Adobe Flash Player 10

Posted on October 17, 2008 by Russell Finn

Which slightly annoying and possibly overused net meme best describes this effort by Adobe to publicize the new features in Flash Player 10? Adobe outlines Flash 10′s new features on a page that, for people running older Flash versions, leads … Continue reading →

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