Short Takes: December 15, 2010
By SD Times Editorial Board
December 15, 2010 —
(Page 1 of 2)
Just do it
Earlier this month, I taught a class of high school kids at Stanford for a weekend of learning. My course was specifically about how they should handle college in regards to getting a job in the video-game industry. But as the class went on, I found myself repeating the same message, over and over: Just do it.
If you want a job in the games industry, I said, make games. If you want to be a programmer, teach yourself to program. Don't sign up for a class that starts in five weeks. Go home and Google up a tutorial right now. If you want to design video games, then you'd better go play a ton of them. And learn by doing.
Of course, I told them where to find the right tools and books to help them, but the fundamental message is one that I find myself ruminating upon. When I was the age of these kids, I remember the boundless energy and interest I could bring to bear on a topic. I sometimes miss that dedication, but I also realize that it was my love of computers in those years that got me where I am today.
So to the parents of all those kids, I apologize if they turn into basement-dwelling, game-addicted programmers. Hopefully they'll get rich and take care of you in your old age. — Alex Handy
Last call for Symbian stuff
Dec. 17 will be a sad day for Symbian devotees as the Symbian Foundation shuts down its websites, including the main website, developer sites, and blog and ideas sites, which were used for suggestions to improve the Symbian mobile operating system.
According to the foundation’s blog, anyone interested in the source code for the current version of the operating system, kits, wiki, bug database, or reference documentation should download it before Dec. 17. If anyone tries to access the content afterwards, expect to wait until Jan. 31, 2011 when the content is done being prepared, the foundation said.
Related Search Term(s): Microsoft, Symbian
Share this link: http://sdt.bz/35081
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Virtualization: Not just for machines anymore
Network virtualization allows multi-tiered applications to behave as though they were in a physical network
|
|
Zeichick’s Take: The handheld and the tablet, circa 1976
Texas Instruments' and Hewlett-Packard's calculators were doing things decades ago we take for granted today
|
|
Google talks tools at AnDevCon III
New 3D debugging tool and recent ADK changes are detailed by Google developers at the third Android Developer Conference
|
|
Android is the focus of two new design tools
Anywhere Software and Xamarin provide ways for developers to create and test their applications on PCs
|
Virtualization: Not just for machines anymore
Network virtualization allows multi-tiered applications to behave as though they were in a physical network
|
|
Achievements and learning: Gamification comes to businesses and schools
Startup takes page from gamers by offering achievement marks to get developers more engaged in their projects
|
|
Google talks tools at AnDevCon III
New 3D debugging tool and recent ADK changes are detailed by Google developers at the third Android Developer Conference
|
|
SmartBear rolls out new quality solution: API Complete
Software gives organizations ability to write test scripts and monitor APIs by bridging the DevOps divide
|
Creation
To write better software, cultivate your ability to be creative.
|
|
Slick...but who needs it?
compilr.com is a well-designed site and the folks behind it seem to have their heart in the right place. But...who needs it?
|
|
How to be a better software developer
Want to be a better developer? You won't get there by mastering an interesting language or learning a new set of APIs.
|
|
Wooing Galatea
Do yourself a favor and check out Galatea 2.2, a wonderful book by novelist Richard Powers.
|
Five SCM Best Practices
Two-thirds of all software projects fail, according to the Standish Group’s CHAOS study. Improper usage of software configuration management...
|
|
|
Best Practices for Branching and Merging Patterns
Development teams often create a branching pattern, usually drawn out on a white board or in a Visio document, that is used as a model to...
|
|
Automated Error Reporting
We invite you to read a short e-zine that tells you all about automated error reporting for .NET applications. This 8-page e-zine is packed...
|
|
The End of Application Redeploys
Imagine that every time you wanted to write, send or receive an email, you needed to restart your computer. How much time would this take, a...
|