Huge Warehouse of Vintage Computing Gear

Check out hachti’s gallery A few impressions from Kiel for a peek at a large stash of vintage computing gear in Kiel, Germany. Apparently they need to downsize this huge collection into a smaller permanent exhibit. There are some early Tektronix storage scope graphics terminals showcased there, among other things.

A Good Online C++ Standard Library Reference

C++ is a language that lets you express yourself in many ways. One of the ways you can express yourself is with very low-level detail oriented code. The kind that deals with raw character pointers instead of string classes, the kind that has you writing your own linked list instead of using std::list. Many times in C++ programming newsgroups and on gamedev.net we counsel new programmers to use the standard string class, the standard resizable array class and so-on, but they seem completely oblivious to their existence.

More on the Fed

Here’s some more information on the Federal Reserve that was sent to me by a couple of friends today.

….and now for something completely different

The Man Who Saved A Billion Lives

Norman Borlaug, March 25, 1914 – September 12, 2009

Norman Borlaug, Nobel laureate agronomist, has died. Read about him on Wikipedia, Hit & Run and The Atlantic Online. Borlaug may have saved over a billion lives, yet few people know of him and his lifelong dedication to feeding the humans on this planet.

The Original George W.

DirectX SDK (August 2009)

Microsoft has finally published the August 2009 DirectX SDK. This is the version of the SDK that includes the final information for Direct3D 11. A summary of what’s new in the SDK and known issues are at the bottom of the download page.

Remanufacturing PDP-7 Switch Handles

“Effective C++”, 3rd edition by Scott Meyers

"Effective C++", 3rd ed.

At the last agile roundtable, I picked up a copy of Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs, 3rd edition, by Scott Meyers. There are some programming books that I read in chunks over time, like Design Patterns, or Refactoring and then there are books that I prefer to absorb in one big intellectual gulp. “Effective C++” is in the latter category.

boost::shared_ptr redux

Emil Dotchevski from Reverge Studios has written a series of blog posts on boost::shared_ptr that are quite interesting:

• shared_ptr handles
• shared_ptr
• More on shared_ptr

Agile Roundtable Notes: September 3rd, 2009

The Salt Lake Agile Roundtable meets the first Thursday of every month at the Borders bookstore in Murray, UT from 2pm to 5pm. These are my notes from the September, 2009 meeting.

C++ Static Analysis

Static analysis refers to analysis of source code outside the context of its execution. For C++, static analysis can identify simple mistakes in your code that you can catch before you ship your code to a customer. Static analysis can be performed during your automated nightly builds alerting you to problems early. In this post, I’ll discuss some tools and techniques for static analysis of your C++ code.

Unit Test Videos

ElMohanned Ahmed shared these links on unit testing videos with the sl-agile mailing list and I’m sharing them with you.

Mike Ross’s CoreStore Photos

CoreStore Photos

Mike Ross’s vintage computer collection is indeed something to drool over. He has one item I highly covet: an Evans & Sutherland vector drawing system! I’m guessing its a PS/390 from the picture. I have the base unit in my collection but I’m missing the peripherals (tablet, dials, keyboard, mouse) and matching monitor. Take the time to browse around his collection!