All blog posts

It is important to understand and appreciate few key points regarding full batch Gradient Descent and Stochastic gradient descent methods along with their shortcomings so that one can appreciate ...

Collecting user input from the wearable app is more challenging than doing so from the iOS app because watches have much smaller screens and the user typically wants to interact quickly ...

Now, when we have the REST client class implemented we can verify its functionality. Because we already know how to write unit tests, we can test the client class automatically. To create unit ...

Over the past several decades, embedded systems have steadily increased in complexity. The internet’s birth has only accelerated the process as our society has been in a race to connect nearly ...

Crossing paths with so many developers in my career, I am often asked to recommend a good book to get started with Xamarin Forms, or a good book to get started in Azure, or a good book on how ...

Hands up if you can remember the early days of the Internet, surfing pages on dial-up connections that were slow, prone to drop-outs and struggled with anything more than just plain ...

MySQL is most famous for its Server product using the InnoDB storage engine for the back-end storage. However, MySQL uses an architecture that allows for pluggable storage engines, so ...

Although tabbed and page-based project templates can be utilized to quickly create multi-view iOS applications, these project templates are not always suitable. In such cases, you can manually ...

You've probably seen those crazy statistics about the amount of data being created and stored on a daily basis. Experts suggest that 90% of the data in the world has been created in just the past 2 years ...

Over the last couple of years I have noticed a huge gap between what the Marketing community need and what game developers can provide. However neither of them knows this gap exists ...

Welcome to the exciting world of building projects with BBC micro:bit! In this post, you’ll learn how to write your first code for the micro:bit with the online Python editor, and the Mu editor ...

As the founder and CEO of Content Analytics, the “Control Center for eCommerce,” David Feinleib has worked with the world’s largest brands and retailers as they have ...

Each year, many entrepreneurial, growing, and developing companies contemplate international expansion as a marketing and growth strategy. When developing a strategic blueprint ...

I was recently asked about how to implement drag-and-drop of items in a wx.ListCtrl or in ObjectListView. Unfortunately neither control has this built-in although I did find an article ...

Yes the following 3 resolutions are from my own accomplishments and I have posted my own pictures. However let me assure you that I am not some weirdo that has super determination ...

Kubernetes is an open source platform that features deployment, maintenance and scaling mechanisms that help us simplify the management of containerized Python applications ...

The combination of sound and vision has been an integral part of human nature from the very beginning. In a very simple form of correspondence, people moved their mouths to produce ...

Of course it does. However in this blog we will work out whether size really does matter in HTML5 game development. The question specifically is referring to what HTML5 game developers ...

To become a better programmer, you need to decide to obsess about mastery. Every day is a new opportunity to become better than the day before. Every line of code is an opportunity to improve ...

Building a cluster to run SQL Server, and other associated services, can be a daunting task. Luckily, in my new book, SQL Server AlwaysOn Revealed 2nd Edition, I walk through each step of this process. The book ...

Analytics is the pursuit of truth. We want to find the truth because we want to take the best possible decision in face of any given situation. The concept of analytics is to understand all the different ...

Android is the most popular mobile platform today, with over 80% of smartphones sold worldwide using the Android Operating System. Alongside with this vast user base, Android has nourished ...

If you are thinking of delving into mobile game development, the first thought you would have had was to ask yourself which platform to learn first; Android or Apple. Native Mobile Apps appear to be the “cool" ...

America cannot grow its economy, foster entrepreneurship, or lift the wages and incomes of its workforce unless small and medium-size businesses reach beyond U.S. borders and sell products and services ...

Everyday when we open our favourite editor or IDE taking a decision, often we use our favourite programming language, sometimes we study a new one but, consciously or unconsciously, we are taking ...

When was the last time you visited an app’s mobile web site rather than its native app counterpart? Was it an enjoyable experience? What did you like about it? What could have been better? ...

Many ecommerce web sites are driven by user input and the choices they make. As a developer, you want to help them make the right choices and have a positive experience with your site, so they will complete ...

When you write more complicated programs, you can choose to write them in long, complicated modules, but complicated modules are harder to write and difficult to understand. A better approach is to ...

While push notifications on the web are a powerful feature that inches the web ever closer to native apps, some developers have started to transform them into trite annoyances that have conditioned users to ignore ...

Simple lookup tables are just one type of logic table that you may find useful. This article explores what simple lookup tables look like, discusses when they may be applicable, and steps through some of the details for proper ...

Imagine creating a software so smart that it will not only understand human languages but also slangs and subtle variations of these languages, such that your software will know that “Hello, Computer! How are you doing?” and “wassup dude?” mean the same thing.

Back in 2005, Shopify got off the ground when a couple of folks in Canada wanted to sell snowboards online but couldn’t find an Ecommerce platform to meet their needs. Since then, the capabilities of the Shopify ...

I frequently speak with customers who have SQL Server performance issues. Sometimes they complain that there is deadlocking and go on to describe scenarios where queries are blocked for long periods of time ...

How do you know that your program works? Can you rely on yourself to write flawless code all the time? Meaning no disrespect, I would guess that’s unlikely. It’s quite easy to write correct code in Python ...

As a speaker, you have far more control over slide design than over outside disturbances. More control doesn’t unfortunately always mean full control. If you work for a big company – and I have also had ...

Data science is a hot topic these days; you hear it mentioned all the time. But what is actually meant by the term data science tends to differ depending on who you ask to define it. I will give you my definition ...

I teach a lot of people to write T-SQL. Sometimes these are beginners trying to get their first job in tech, and sometimes they are developers who just need to improve their skills. I am frequently asked this question ...

For those seeking an image editing application with broad capabilities, but don't require “industrial strength” (not to mention the expense), Pixlr Editor editor is the ideal choice. A huge benefit this program offers ...

Teachers have always used physical models to explain abstract concepts. How does that change if the teachers (and the students) now have 3D printers? It seems like it should be easy to just whip up some models ... 

Simply put, the Internet of Things refers to devices that collect and transmit data over the Internet. These devices can be anything from your toaster or washing machine to your cell phone or wearable devices ...

It was a perfectly ordinary Friday when the Wannacry ransomware struck in May 2017. The malware spread around the world to more than 150 countries in just a matter of a few hours, affecting the National Health ...

After upgrading my open source project "Echoes Player" to work with the latest stable angular-cli 1.0 version, I set down to refactor the application's code. I always like to look at implementations few times and ...

We recently had an opportunity to check in with author and SharePoint expert Tony Smith. Tony has worked with SharePoint technologies from release day one from Microsoft, and has designed and deployed more than his ...

There are multiple types of sensors, ranging from inertial to proximity/location to audio/visual. Let’s go over the three types of sensors (inertial, audio and visual) and describe how they generally work ...

Email is not private. Ever. We’ve heard a lot about email security during the last year and I am afraid people may have gotten some wrong impressions from the discussion. Most of the debate has been ...

I had been using ROW_NUMBER in my T-SQL code for years without realizing that it is one of a group of incredibly useful functions called window functions. Only when putting together a presentation on new ...

Ether and bitcoin are beans inside giant, inviolable bean counters: their respective virtual machines. These “coins” are actually more abstract than they sound. They’re not even digital “objects,” in the programmatic sense, but ...

Arduino is one of the most famous development boards. You can attach sensor and actuator devices easily into the board. But which one should you be using? Each Arduino model has unique features. To optimize ...

We recently had an opportunity to catch up with MCSE Stacy Simpkins, a SharePoint Engineer at leading managed cloud computing company, Rackspace. As someone who regularly teaches, presents, troubleshoots ...

When I was 16, I started writing a computer game on a C64 computer with a couple of friends. At first, programming was easy. We created graphics, levels, and an intro. But as the program evolved, programming ...

You can use the canvas element in HTML5 to create some fun graphics. Canvas is very different from SVG – the main thing is that canvas is completely implemented in JavaScript. The only part that is in the markup is a ...

Programming against a database benefits from a different style than is applied to non-database programming. Database programming relies on the relational model, and there is a distinction to be made between atomic ...

All but the simplest apps you’re likely to use typically include a preferences window where the user sets application-specific options. On macOS, you’ll usually find a Preferences… menu item in the application’s ...

People want to be recognized for work well done; it is just human nature. The challenge for IT folks is being able to quantify how application, infrastructure, and operational changes improve the business by making ...

We recently had a chance to catch up with Wouter de Kort, Principal Consultant DevOps at Ordina and Microsoft MVP to ask about DevOps and Microsoft’s Visual Studio Team Services. This is what he shared ...

No matter which direction you turn nowadays, microservices is the buzzword that is most often heard. Everyone is starting to use microservices, and traditional Java EE applications seem that they are becoming a thing of ...

There is going to come a point where you will want to update your existing database model from your code. The typical way to do this is to use migrations; however, using Code First with an existing database requires ...

The third quarter of 2016 server market report by IDC has not been kind to purveyors of server technology. Among the major OEMs, whose deliveries are heavily weighted toward the traditional enterprise ...

Fostering DevOps culture is essential to the success of your DevOps initiative. Your organization may bring in new automation tools and cloud infrastructure, but if you see a newly formed DevOps team on your org chart ...

There’s much to understand when working with digitally published documents. There are several kinds of file formats and many different reading devices. And every time you turn around, something new appears ...

I wrote my first book in 1996. It was called Active Java and it was written when the web was starting to mature and running applications in browsers was an exciting idea. This week Apress has published ...

Web application development is not what it used to be, even a couple of years back. Today, there are so many options, and the uninitiated are often confused about what’s good for them. Not just the broad stack ...

Keystone.js is an open source Node.js based CMS and web application framework created by Jed Watson in 2013. The framework makes it very easy to build database-driven websites, applications & APIs and is built upon ...

It's the operating system used by more than 95% of the world's supercomputers. Google, Netflix, and Facebook all use Linux. The vast majority of virtual machines fired up on the leading cloud computing platforms ...

Today, let’s talk about creating a spreadsheet-based wizard. By “spreadsheet-based,” I mean no UserForms. That’s right. There are many good Excel tutorials out there on developing wizards with UserForms ...

When you write an app that will support multiple languages, you have to separate the text and other assets (images, videos, audio) from the code. Having the text strings in a resource file provides two benefits for you ...

This post explores the Unity/Visual Studio development environment by creating a very simple hologram. Although that may seem like a simple task with the powerful tools we have at our disposal, it is fairly ...

Apress is partnering with Humble Bundle this holiday season with a "Code Your Own Games" eBook bundle. Purchase a collection of 18 Apress Game Development eBooks for as little as $18 while supporting amazing charities ...

The benefits of a proper API are best understood by relating the level of entropy in the software system and its maintainability. The relationship is inversely proportional, i.e. lessening the number of safe assumptions ...

Blind students learn visual concepts differently from their sighted peers. Tactile graphics such as raised-line drawings have been around for a long time to help students with visual impairments, but simply adding ...

Before starting to talk about KeystoneJS, let’s look at why some developers prefer to use the Keystone.js framework over other frameworks that are available online. Simply put, Keystone.js provides a standardized ...

Over the years, IT infrastructure domain is moving from traditional way to IAAS (Infrastructure-As-A-Service). Many giant organizations have implemented IAAS based on OpenStack Cloud platform to build and run their ...

What is an enterprise portal? An enterprise portal can be defined as a secured single entry point to multiple applications. In other words, it is a framework for integrating information, people, and processes across ...

I wrote my new book, Management vs. Employees, based on my own experiences as a serial entrepreneur in multiple industries. The book addresses a major problem that has plagued companies for decades ...

This book is the result of a collaboration between two technologists and a veteran teacher, costumer, and choreographer. They came together to pull back the curtain on making fun and innovative costumes and ...