2012

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You would think that the financial service industry, of all industries, would not be the last one to keep up with technology, but it is. They certainly are adept at making new financial instruments, like credit-default swaps (CDS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDO), even if it causes the laxest lending standards in American history - and the highest foreclosure rate as a result.

Yet every time I deal with a bank, I am flabbergasted as to its total lack of technological aptitude. I'm reminded of my grandmother trying to use a web browser. It's like the ones that work for Wall Street and the ones that work for Main Street are of completely different generations.

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I'm very picky when it comes to Android apps; unlike a lot of people, I don't have a ton of crap installed on my smartphone. I'm starting this blog entry with the Android apps I have right now, and I'm going to update and republish it at the end of the year to see what has continued to make the cut throughout the year.

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I ran across a great article the other day on HN about how to log client-side errors using Google Analytics. This is brilliant, and I've already implemented it for my biggest site. I'd like to hope everyone is logging their server-side errors too! Sadly, I bet many web developers aren't because I know that I wasn't doing it for years. When I first did, I quickly realized it was an invaluable tool for ensuring the robustness of my websites, because I immediately became aware of several page errors and bugs I had no idea existed in my apps.
What happens when a user gets an error on your site?
Do you have a system in place to tell you about it?
Because I guarantee you can't test every possible use case on your webapp if it's even moderately complex. Here's how I monitor server-side errors in IIS.

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Notch, the author of the bestselling Minecraft game, officially announced his next creation: a space MMO called 0x10^c.
No, that's not scientific notation for zero times 10 to the power of the speed of light; rather, it's the hexadecimal code for 16 raised to the power of 12.
This is 2⁴⁸, or a really really big number that presents the backstory for the game: people go into stasis in sleeper ships from the 1980s and wake up a trillion years in the future due to a computer glitch. The universe is in the final days of entropy, so there are black holes everywhere and little else.
Energy is at a premium, since almost all the stars have burned out, but your spaceships are governed by 16-bit computers designed when the Super Nintendo was popular.

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If you've been a gamer for a long time, you probably remember these blasts from the past. If any of them are new to you, then you should definitely check them out because they are all genuine classics that helped to define or redefine their genres. These online video game remakes are so amazing, they're just like playing the originals - only better in some cases!

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A picture is worth a thousand words, and icons are a great way to visually convey information in a small space. Any web project can find a use for them, but if you're like me - more of a programmer than a designer - they can be invaluable. Icons are especially helpful when you need to make menus, categories, lists, or action links more eye-catching, so I've used them often in CMS's and various backend web apps. However, even the front end of some of my sites use them because they can go a long way to making up for my obvious bias towards function over form. Frankly, I have a site or two that would look absolutely awful without icons because they would be all text and no graphics without them. Here are my all-time favorite icon libraries that I find myself using over and over again - what I consider to be the best icons ever.

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