Scaling Up And Out
Most attention today is focused on adding nodes or cloud instances to scale out systems. Guest editor Nikita Shamgunov emphasizes the importance of scaling systems vertically as well. - Database
Articles
A Long Look at JVM Languages
Exploring the remarkably fertile Java Virtual Machine development platform - JVM Languages
Storage Layout of Polymorphic Objects
Adding at least one virtual function to a class alters the storage layout for all objects of that class type. - C/C++
Intel's 50-Core Xeon Phi: The New Era of Inexpensive Supercomputing
The advent of Intel's massively parallel coprocessor will make every server a supercomputer. - Parallel
Malicious Work with the modify-function-return-value Hack
The modify-function-return-value hack is particularly dangerous because it can be used to intercept function calls in code, user libraries, and in runtime libraries. Knowing how it operates is essential to avoiding it. - Security
Cache-Friendly Code: Solving Manycore's Need for Faster Data Access
As the number of cores in multicore chips grows — Intel just announced the 50+ core Xeon Phi — ensuring that program data can be delivered fast enough to be consumed by so many processors is a huge challenge. Optimal use of processor caches is a key solution, and knowing these coding techniques will become a requirement. - Parallel
The Enduring Challenge of Compressing Random Data
Not all files are compressible. The challenges are figuring out how small you can possibly make random data and how simple the algorithm can be. - Design
Building GUI Applications in PowerShell
How many lines of PowerShell code are needed to create a complete working WPF application? Two! - .NET
Testing Complex Systems
Good design practices can save your system and your sanity - Testing
Best of the Web
Reverse-engineering legacy ANSI C codebases
Start with the data structures, then document the APIs, then...
Quick Read
Exclusive: Anatomy Of A Brokerage IT Meltdown
Regulators last year issued the SEC's first-ever privacy fine against broker-dealer GunnAllen for failing to protect customer data. But former IT staffers say regulators didn't seem to know half of this cautionary tale of outsourcing and oversight gone wrong.
Quick Read
Triple Buffering as A Concurrency Mechanism
Triple Buffering is a way of passing data between a producer and a consumer running at different rates. It ensures that the consumer sees only complete data with minimal lag.
Quick Read
Embedding GDB Breakpoints in C Source Code
Have you ever wanted to embed GDB breakpoints in C source code? Something like this:
printf("Hello,\n");
EMBED_BREAKPOINT;
printf("world!\n");
Quick Read
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Events of Interest
November 27-29. San Francisco,CA. WebRTC Conference and Expo
December 4-7, Burlingame, CA. AnDevCon IV
December 10-14, Orlando, FL. Visual Studio Live
Febrary 21, 2013. San Diego, CA. Hadoop Innovation Summit
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February 25-March 1, 2013. Montreal, Canada. ConFoo
March 3-6, 2013. San Francisco, CA. SPTechCon: SharePoint Technology Conference
March 18-21, 2013. San Jose, CA. GPU Technology Conference (GTC) 2013
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April 8-10, 2013. Cambridge, MA. Big Data TechCon
April 8-12, 2013. Austin, TX. Xamarin Evolve 2013
April 16-17, 2013. Bellevue, WA. Cloud & Big Data Conference
May 28-30, 2013. San Francisco, CA. O'Reilly Fluent Conference
April 22-25, 2013. San Jose, CA. DESIGN West and Embedded Systems Conference
June 18-20, 2013. Santa Clara, CA. O'Reilly Velocity Web Performance and Operations Conference
October 1-3, 2013. San Francisco, CA. Atlassian Summit 2013
Videos of Recent Events
September 2012. Strangeloop
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August 2012. VMWorld
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June 2012. Google I/O 2012
May 2012. Atlassian Summit
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March 2012. Multicore World
July 2011. JVM Language Summit