The Entity Framework is an ORM system, a set of technologies that support the development of data-oriented software applications. It's part of the .NET Framework. I have been playing with it for a couple of years and here are my top tips :...

A fresher sent me the following query: Hi Necemon, thank you for accepting my invite. I am new to the IT field and I would appreciate if you could give me some guidance. Based on your work experience, can you tell me what companies look for in a computer guy ? I have heard about you from senior students at Christ University, I am in Bangalore and I like computer science but I do not know what to learn and how to begin. Actually, I think I like programming but I am told that the C language is no longer relevant, and I am also told about Ruby, C#, Python, etc. I'm confused....

This is just a quick update on my ongoing side projects, I have been working on a series of social news web applications where users can submit content and decide, through commenting and votings, what's good (kiffs) and what's junk (zaps). Links that receive community approval raise towards the top, so the first pages are constantly in motion and (hopefully) filled with fresh, interesting links. Nothing impressive, but it gives me a good basis for making a web platform, as in, the common features:...

According to some Hacker News folks, the general assumption of computer security is:...

I just published a beta version of my first complete game. If you have a moment to try it, I hope you will enjoy it : http://babifraya.com/...

Having written Notiflux and AUDE (Automatic Updates Distribution Engine) some time last year, I thought I would play around with the Facebook and Twitter APIs and keep posting links to some fresh news and articles in real time. So depending on the kind of things you like, you might want to join or follow some of those pages:...

Furtivue : a furtive view over your messages. (www.furtivue.com) Furtivue is a web service that allows you to send temporary (self-destructing) emails, as in, you can control how long the message is going to stay with the recipient. When they open your Furtivue message, it appears for a specified number of seconds, then self-destroys. The duration will depends upon the length of the message (Or you can choose how long you want the message to be displayed)....

A common start ups question in the gaming industry is : Which graphical environment should we use ? As time is money, a crucial factor in a choice is time: not only the time it takes to build complete games with each API but also a fluid timing during the gaming experience to make it enjoyable. In this analysis, we compare the OpenGL industry standard to the Microsoft XNA game framework on the speed factor. The study includes learning curve, programming, modeling and rendering speeds on both sides....

Phidgets are a set of "plug and play" building blocks, some low-cost electronic components that you can control from your personal computer via USB. They provide you with some extra input/output methods beyond the classic mouse + keyboard + screen. As Harold Thimbleby mentioned in his book Press On, phidgets are a very nice way to get into hardware programming, as you may want to build real systems, not on screen or web browser simulations : phidgets are so-called because they are the physical equivalent of on-screen widgets (Windows Gadgets). Phidgets = Physical + Widgets (Widgets = Windows + Gadgets) Where to find them ?...

When you create a Windows Service project under Visual Studio, you may have noticed that the following dialog box appears when you try to run the service. In summary, it is simply impossible to run a windows service in Visual Studio, you must necessarily go through the NET START command to start the service after having previously installed it with the command INSTALLUTIL. Except that this method prevents us from easily debugging the Windows Service. As a matter of fact, to debug our code, we must install the service, start it, then link the debugger to the relevant service process from Visual Studio. And by the way, let's keep in mind that we will also have to stop, recompile and restart the windows service in order to load up any change we make to the code. In short, it's kinda annoying. There is a simpler solution though....