How did this EVER work?!
What's the one thing no coder wants to talk about? Chances are, you know a few coders. They're everywhere these days! What you might not know is that most of them have experienced something, well, unexplained: code that works, but shouldn't. At all. It's just part of...
Why the PC is Not Dead, and Why I Ditched Windows 8
If I read one more article about how "the PC is dead, long live the smartphone and tablet!", I just may have to vomit. A lot. Nowadays, it's smartphones and tablets that make the news the most, and not without good reason. Yes, they are capable of some pretty amazing...
How to Fix Audio Static and Slow Typing in Windows
Oh boy, this one was a humdinger. Of 12 computers running either Windows 7 or Windows 8, every single one of them was experiencing one of the following problems: Static, stuttering, and variations in playback speed when listening to MP3 or other audio files When...
Android Update Error: How to Fix Google Play Store Update Problems
So you're merrily rolling along with your Android phone, and all is well... Then one day, perhaps after an Android upgrade, every time you try to update or install any app from the Google Play Store, you get an error message like: Error retrieving information from...
Varnish: Remove all Cookies EXCEPT the ones you want
So, you've got a web server. It's slow. So, you optimize your app, and implement some caching. It's faster, but not fast enough. So, you decide to use Varnish, the popular reverse-proxy web application accelerator. It doesn't work. The reason it doesn't work is that...
How to Program Smarter Without Staying Up Until 4:00am
I just read an interesting article at BusinessInsider.com entitled Why Programmers Work at Night. The article explains why programmers generally tend to prefer working in the wee hours of the morning. Programming requires keeping a lot stuffed in your brain at once,...
Ruby 1.9.3-p362: “Stack level too deep” Error Message is a bug?
Oopsy! On 25 December 2012, Ruby version 1.9.3-p362 was released. Is that dedication, or what? Yesterday, I decided to upgrade to this new version of Ruby that contains only bug fixes. Bad idea. Sure, the site loads... But if you try to create a new record via the...
Paint.NET: The Photoshop Alternative for the Rest of Us
Pretty much everyone has heard of Adobe's Photoshop software. It's extremely powerful stuff that lets you create all sorts of graphics and images, edit photos at a professional level, and so on. The only problem is, Photoshop has a very steep learning curve. What are...
How to Choose LED Light Bulbs: Efficiency, Power Factor, Color Temperature, and Everything Else
These days, it's all about energy efficiency. In some countries, you can hardly even buy normal incandescent light bulbs any more. You are left with a choice of slightly more efficient "a bulb inside a bulb" halogen options, or compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs....
Fix Acrobat PDF Thumbnails in Windows 7 / Windows 8 x64
NOTE: If you like PDF thumbnails, DO NOT install Acrobat Reader DC! See note at the end... Okay, this one is VEEEERY annoying. You have the 64-bit flavor of Windows 7 or Windows 8. You install Adobe Acrobat Reader. You expect that on your desktop and in Explorer, you...
HD Home Theater Setup: HDMI vs Optical, 5.1 vs 7.1, and everything else
So, you got yourself a nice set of speakers, a good home theater amplifier, a fancy blu-ray player, and a giant flatscreen. Now you just want to hook it all together and enjoy the lovely 7.1 channel sound. Piece of cake, right? No. In fact, it is relatively easy to...
Sublime Text: A Programmer’s Text Editor for the Rest of Us
Ya know, I program a lot. I also create a lot of web sites. So, having a good text editor is kind of essential. For the longest time, I've been searching for a good programmer text editor like TextMate. Unfortunately, I shun Macs like the plague since I can build...
Windows 8 Freezes or Hangs: The Fix that Worked for Me
Windows 8 will be released to the masses in October of this year. As a developer, I'm lucky enough to get Windows 8 RTM a bit earlier. Despite what everyone is saying, the new Start Screen really isn't that bad. In fact, it will be very nice once all your apps are...
AC Induction Motors: How do they work?
A lot of people wonder how alternating current (AC) induction motors work. In fact, I myself wondered exactly how they worked for a long time. You see, I'm an electrical engineer, so I should know these things from my university education. Unfortunately, in this age...
Windows Update Error: How to make Windows Redownload Corrupted Update Files
This one is a really, really fun problem: You dutifully let Windows download updates. It tries to install them, but fails with some kind of "0x800*****" error code. Great, what now? Well, normally you'd just click the button and try to install them again. You'd think...
Can’t Uninstall a Program in Windows? Now you can!
Every now and then, you'll probably come across some program on Windows that you simply cannot uninstall from the "Uninstall a Program" page in Control Panel. Normally, it will give you some kind of error that makes no sense whatsoever. I recently ran across this very...