Best of the Web Archive
Reverse-engineering legacy ANSI C codebases
Start with the data structures, then document the APIs, then...
How Well Does the HP TouchPad Handle HTML5?
"For the HTML5 app developer, here are a few things to look out for when building for the TouchPad. Avoid SVG — not only is it not supported, when the browser encounters it, it does strange things. The same goes for..."
How Debuggers Work
A detailed series of articles explaining how debuggers work their magic.
Custom Development Becoming Key Strategic Differentiator
At financial services firms, developers rule once again!
Learn Git Fast
A series of approachable, to-the-point tutorials on how to use Git.
A Layman's Introduction to Formal Grammar
For an easy-to-understand explanation of formal grammar in one concise essay, start with this.
A Deep Look at Font Rasterization
How fonts are rasterized and optimized for display (with an emphasis on open source tools).
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.
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");
Writing Kernel Exploits
Why attack the kernel? Because it has a huge attack surface with potential for very interesting bugs. This presentation (pdf) takes a code-level dive into recently reported Linux-kernel exploits.
Compiling the JavaScript Engines
With growing demand for out-of-browser JavaScript (e.g., server JavaScript), a good knowledge of JavaScript engines is becoming more important.
OpenStack: An Overview
Back in July 2010, Rackspace Hosting and NASA jointly launched a new open-source cloud initiative known as OpenStack. The ultimate goal was to enable any organization to create and offer cloud computing services that run on standard hardware. Since that date, about six revisions of OpenStack have been released, and more than 150 companies have signed up to support the platform. Simply put, OpenStack is a "cloud operating system" designed for the data center. What's more, OpenStack is also viewed as the kernel for cloud operations, on which vendors can build all sorts of software to run on in the cloud.
Triple Buffering as A Concurrency Mechanism
While triple buffering is most commonly used between images produced by a graphics card and a monitor, it is also applicable as a small-scale lock-free concurrency mechanism. Many applications consume real-time data but want to operate on fixed snapshots, or the data-processing operation performed takes longer than the time between each new piece of input data (and missing input data is acceptable).
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.