How Successful People Make Smart Decisions

Your days are filled with a constant stream of decisions. A study from Columbia University found that we’re bogged down by a good 70 decisions a day.

Some decisions are minor, like what to eat, which route to drive to work, or in what order to tackle tasks. Others are more difficult, like deciding between two job offers, whether to move to a new city for someone you love, or whether to cut a toxic person out of your life.

With so many decisions taking up each day, learning to prioritize them and make them effectively is essential to your success and happiness.

While I’m familiar with many strategies successful people use for effective decision-making, what follows are the cream of the crop.

They Turn Small Decisions into Routines …

Decision-making works like a muscle: as you use it over the course of the day, it gets too exhausted to function effectively. One of the best strategies successful people use to work around their decision fatigue is to eliminate smaller decisions by turning them into routines. Doing so frees up mental resources for more complex decisions.

Steve Jobs famously wore a black turtleneck to work every day. Mark Zuckerberg still dons a hoodie. Both men have stated that these iconic images are the simple result of daily routines intended to cut down on decision fatigue. They were both aware of our finite daily ability to make good decisions, as is Barack Obama, who said, "You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing, because I have too many other decisions to make."

… and Make Big Decisions in the Morning

Another great way to beat decision fatigue is to save small decisions for after work (when decision fatigue is greatest) and to tackle complex decisions in the morning, when your mind is fresh. When you’re facing a stream of important decisions, a great trick is to wake up early and work on your most complicated tasks before you get hit with a bunch of distracting minor decisions (phones ringing, e-mails coming in). A similar strategy is to do some of the smaller things the night before to get a head start on the next day. For instance, lay out your outfit at night so you don’t even have to think about it when you wake up.

They Pay Attention to Their Emotions

There’s an old saying: “Don’t make permanent decisions based on temporary emotions,” and it definitely rings true. Successful people recognize and understand their emotions (including their intensity and impact on behavior) so that they are able to look at decisions as objectively and rationally as possible.

Unfortunately, most people aren’t good at managing or even recognizing their emotions. TalentSmart has tested more than a million people and found that only 36% of us are able to accurately identify our emotions as they happen. Strong decision makers, on the other hand, know that a bad mood can make them lash out or stray from their moral compass just as easily as a good mood can make them overconfident and impulsive.

They Evaluate Their Options Objectively

When really wrapped up in a decision, successful people weigh their options against a pre-determined set of criteria because they know that this makes decision-making easier and more effective. Here are some helpful criteria to consider: How does this decision benefit me? How does it hurt me? How does this benefit ___? How does it hurt ___? Does the decision reflect my values? Would I regret making this decision? Would I regret not making this decision? Does this decision reflect my values?

They Sleep on It …

Sleeping on your decision ensures that you have clarity of thought when you approach it the next day. It also allows time for your emotions to run their course. When you act too quickly, you tend to react, but when you give more focus and time to your decision, you expose important facets of it that you didn’t see before.

… but Not for Too Long

Successful people know the importance of gathering as much information as they can, but at the same time, they make certain not to fall prey to analysis paralysis. Instead of waiting for the moons to align, successful people know that they need to have a timetable to follow in reaching their decision. Once they set that date, they are motivated to do their homework and some soul searching in order to meet the deadline.

They Use Exercise to Recharge

The stress of a major decision naturally produces cortisol, the chemical that triggers the fight-or-flight response. Cortisol clouds your ability to think clearly and rationally. When you find yourself stressing about a decision, try exercising. As little as 30 minutes is all it takes to get a good endorphin-fueled buzz and to return to mental clarity. Exercise also helps you get past that fight-or-flight state by putting the cortisol to practical use. Research shows that long-term exercise improves the overall functioning of the brain regions responsible for decision-making.

They Always Go Back to Their Moral Compass

Successful people know the importance of sticking to their morals when making an important decision. Morals serve as trusted guides when your emotions are pulling you in a different direction.

They Seek Outside Counsel

When approaching a decision, we have a natural tendency to pick an alternative and then to gather information to support that decision, instead of gathering information and then choosing a side (this is called confirmation bias). A great way to beat confirmation bias is to seek outside opinions and advice from people who bring different perspectives to your situation. Their perspectives help you weigh your options more objectively and to spot your subjective or irrational tendencies.

They Reflect on Previous Decisions

Mark Twain described the complicated nature of decision-making as follows: “Good decisions come from experience, but experience comes from making bad decisions.” This isn’t to say that the only way to become a great decision maker is to make a ton of mistakes; it just means that it’s important to keep past decisions front of mind. Successful people are aware enough of past decisions to use them to their benefit when something similar comes up.

Bringing It All Together

With repercussions that can last days, weeks, and even years, making great decisions is an effort that’s worth every bit of your time and energy.

How do you make great decisions? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below as I learn just as much from you as you do from me.

This post is copied from Dr. Travis Bradberry's book and post.

The Next Twenty Years of Java: Where We've Been and Where We're Going

1995 was the year AOL floppy disks arrived in the mail, Netscape Navigator was born and the first public version of Java was released. Over the next two decades, Java witnessed the multi-core revolution, the birth of the cloud, and the rise of polyglot programming. It survived these upheavals by evolving with them, and it continues to evolve even as we celebrate Java's twentieth birthday this year.
But the JVM turning twenty doesn’t make it out-of-date. On the contrary, Java's evolution has lead to a kind of renaissance. That's why we sat down with RedMonk earlier this month to discuss Java's past, present, and future on the Opinionated Infrastructure Podcast. Our discussion centered around Java's role in a web native era, and how major businesses continue to adopt Java and alternative JVM Languages such as JRuby, Scala, Groovy and Clojure for their most critical systems.
In this post, we'll add context to the Podcast discussion and the Java renaissance by retracing the history of the JVM. It’s a story of timing, struggle, competition, community and openness. It contains lessons about software you can apply to your own organizations, and its path through history even hints at a vision for the future. Let’s take a look back at the first twenty years of Java.

In the beginning… (1995-1998)

Java began as an internal project at Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s. The company wanted to create a language for programming next-generation television sets and remote controls. But by the mid-1990s, it was already clear that the online-revolution was beginning. In 1995, the “Internet” and the “World-Wide-Web” became the same thing in most people’s minds. Yahoo! was founded, Powell’s Booksstarted selling books online, and Pizza Hut launched an online delivery service. Fittingly, Sun changed direction to target the Web.
Java hit the ground running in May of 1995, and within five months Oracle, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Macromedia and Borland bought licenses. But the most notable endorsement of Java came from Netscape, which included the Java runtime in it’s free browser. At its peak, Netscape’s usage share was close to 90-percent, which meant Java had its foot-in-the-door in a big way.
A few commercial products were built on Java’s Applets technology, but client-side Java never took off. Server-side programmers, however, loved the “Write Once, Run Anywhere” principle that Java embraced. They also benefited from Java’s automatic memory management, the absence of buffer overflow errors, and the rapid feedback provided by its interpreted runtime. The groundwork had been laid for Java on the server.

Giant leaps and a bursting bubble (1998-2001)

As Java matured, it became faster, more secure and more robust. Sun added a Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler, reflection and collections frameworks, database libraries, and the Swing graphical API. As a result, the runtime grew dramatically in size, which led to the release of Java 1.2 Micro Edition (J2ME), a compact runtime for mobile phones.
But then the bottom fell out of the market. The dot-com bubble burst -- hitting Sun hard. The company’s stock fell to $10 per share from a high of nearly $250 per share. This was the beginning of the end for the once great Silicon Valley heavyweight. But despite Sun’s financial trouble, new Java releases continued to offer performance and security improvements to the platform.
It was around this time that Sun created the Java Community Process (JCP) and the Java Certification Kit (JCK). The JCK was an effort to increase revenue from Java by charging alternative implementations, such as JRockit and Excelsior JET, for the right to call themselves “Java”.
The JCK, which exists today as the Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK), would end up having profound consequences on Java in the coming years.

Multiple cores and the benchmark wars (2001-2006)

As the 2000s rolled on, the industry recovered from the bubble and the JCP seemed to be functioning well. Java Specification Requests (JSRs) for the addition of features such as IPv6 support, regular expressions, assertions, logging APIs, and new I/O libraries were implemented and released in Java 1.4.
At about the same time, things were changing for chip manufacturers. Clock rate curves were flattening out, and the struggle to keep up with Moore’s Law became daunting. In 2004, Intel canceled its next-generation microprocessor project to focus on a dual-core chip. The future of the CPU was changing.
For software developers, the multi-core revolution signaled the end of the “free lunch”. Applications would no longer be able to leverage increasingly faster chips, without changing any code, to provide better performance.
Java reacted in a big way. In 2004, the release of Java 1.5 (a.k.a. Java 5.0) included an entirely new concurrency library. This new API and it’s underlying concurrency primitives made the JVM internals more efficient but also allowed Java developers to take advantage of multi-core CPUs within their applications. Java’s native threads, which could be scheduled by the operating system to run in parallel, made it possible for software performance to move in lock step with CPUs once again.
But the engineers at Sun were not the only programmers working on JVM internals. A growing number of alternative Java implementations were under development by BEA and IBM. BEA’s runtime, JRockit, included a management console (which exists today as Java Mission Control), deterministic garbage collection, multi-tier support channels, and an arguably better memory model.
The competition from these alternative JVMs led to improvements on all fronts. BEA, IBM and Sun challenged each other for dominance in the benchmarks of the day. The results included concurrent garbage collection, non-uniform memory access support, large page support, and heap compaction. Server-side Java performance was beginning to rival code written in C.
But as Java was taking the world by storm, Sun continued to be very bad at making money. The company reported a decline in revenue for 12th consecutive quarters. It also made its share of strategic blunders.

Politics and doldrums (2006-2010)

The release of Java 1.6 (a.k.a. Java 6) was the last major Java release for five years. Sun was bleeding and desperately trying to assert control over it’s most valuable asset: Java. As a result, the JCP began to fall apart when it’s members opposed Sun over a licensing dispute.
Sun’s Java License was too restrictive. It’s “field of use” clause prevented a truly open-source implementation of Java from being distributed by one of its licensees. This came to a head when the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) attempted to secure a license for its Harmony project. The end result was gridlock in the JCP, of which ASF was a member.
But as Java languished, a new crop of JVM-based languages emerged. These languages leverage the fact that Java code is compiled into bytecode that is executed by the JVM. Thus, language designers were able to write their own compilers to generate JVM bytecode.
One of the first, and most popular of these languages was JRuby. It exploited the concurrency features offered by the JVM to add new capabilities to the Ruby language, which was otherwise single-threaded. JRuby was soon followed by Groovy, Scala, Clojure and many others. Each language introduced features that were unique and unavailable in Java, allthewhile taking advantage of the performance and reliability of the JVM. Java was clearly still an industry leader, despite it’s lack of progress.
As if to confirm that Sun’s only strength was Java, the company renamed its stock ticker to JAVA in 2007. But it was too little too late. In the first quarter of 2008, Sun posted losses of $1.68 billion while revenue fell by 7%. That November, the company announced plans to lay off nearly 6,000 people (18% of its workforce). IBM was the first to flirt with buying the company. But the final suitor was Oracle, which purchased Sun in June 2009.
While Sun’s demise was slow and painful, the end result could be considered positive. The new JVM-based languages signaled a bright future for Java as a platform. And the foundation had been laid for a truly open source implementation of Java despite the JCP in-fighting. As the decade came to a close, things were looking up for Java.

A brave new world (2010-Today)

In the wake of the JCP dispute over licensing, Sun created the OpenJDK project: an effort to implement a truly open source version of Java. While the engineers from Sun were settling into their new roles at Oracle, the OpenJDK project grew. By 2011, the project had the full support of Oracle, IBM, RedHat, Apple and others. These companies contributed better garbage collectors, management tools, and more. Open source Java had arrived.
Java had its first release under Oracle nearly two years after Sun’s acquisition. Java 7 was somewhat lackluster, but it was the first Java release in which the reference implementation was free and open source under the GNU GPL License.
One notable feature of Java 7 was a new bytecode instruction called invokedynamic. This instruction supported method invocations in the absence of static type information. Java is a statically typed language and couldn’t make use of this instruction in Java 7. It was created specifically for dynamic languages such as JRuby and Groovy. The addition of invokedynamic was the first indication that alternative languages would get first class support on the JVM.
Today, languages such as JRuby, Scala and Clojure are no longer considered emerging. They are used in production environments all over the globe. Developers adopt these languages to implement unique solutions to long standing problems. Business adopted these languages because they offer the same reliability and security as Java itself. The software world is changing, and Java is changing with it.
Java’s biggest release ever came in 2014. Java 8 included new language features like Lambdas and Streams, improved date and time APIs, eliminated the long despised permanent-generation memory (memory that could not be reclaimed by the garbage collector), and introduced a new Javascript runtime called Nashorn. Nashorn is lightweight, high-performance, and leverages the invokedynamic instruction. It’s capable of running common Javascript tools, and may even run Node.js thanks to the Nodyn project.
Nashorn is just one more example of how far Java has evolved since it’s early days. The JVM is a platform for a wide range of languages running on an even wider range of devices. Java is portable, flexible and open. And those are the characteristics that will define how it is used through the rest of the decade and beyond.

The next twenty years

When Oracle purchased Sun, nearly 6 years ago, most developers were skeptical of how it would affect the future of Java. Would Oracle narrow the scope of it’s openness? Would they hinder the community’s ability to contribute JSRs? Thus far, Oracle has upheld Sun’s promise of an open JVM. Today, Java is more accessible than ever, and the community is larger and more vibrant than it was in the Sun years.
Oracle still maintains a strong grip on the “Java” name and API design, as demonstrated by the Oracle v. Google dispute, and the TCK is still a source of revenue. But Oracle has also funded extensive open source improvements to the OpenJDK project. Could Java be more open? Yes, but it’s hard to complain about it’s current status given the history we’ve reviewed. It has grown under Oracle -- both in openness and adoption.
Today, the JVM runs on an estimated 89% of computers, 3 billion mobile phones, and 125 million TV devices. There are 9 Million Java developers worldwide and Java is at the top of the TIOBE Index. But Java is not the only JVM Language on the list. The TIOBE Index includes Scala, Groovy and Clojure.
Alternative JVM languages are powering critical systems at Netflix, Twitter, LinkedIn, Square and Google. At Heroku, alternative JVM languages have become nearly as popular with our users as Java itself. Organizations are able to leverage these languages with little cost to tooling and without having to retrain an entire team of developers.
The Java language will always be the flagship of the platform, but the future of the JVM is polyglot programming. Software developers are no longer content to solve all problems with a single language. The JVM enables developers to choose the right tool for the job and allows those tools to interoperate using a consistent and robust platform.
While the languages used to implement JVM-based applications are growing, the JVM’s ability to run in more and more places is growing too. Java is powering the Internet of Things with it’s portability, and the next release of Java will further improve this capability. Project Jigsaw, a proposal for a modular JVM, will enable more compact runtimes that run on the smallest devices without giving up networking, database connectivity or other essential features.
Java has become more than just a language. It is a platform, an API, and a community. Businesses trust the JVM with their most important and sensitive technologies. This is due to it’s maturity, reliability and security. Java is at the precipice of the next-generation of software and hardware. No matter what trends emerge, developers and businesses will look to Java as a platform that can to create innovative products

18 Best Free Java IDE Softwares

Here are 18 best free Java IDE software. These let you create various useful Java applications easily. All these Java IDE software are completely free and can be downloaded to Windows PC. These free software offer various features, like: lets you build Java applications, testing for JUnit, TestNG, debugging, code inspections, code assistance, support for multiple refactorings, Maven build tools, ant, visual GUI builder and code editor for XML, Java, make backend server, do data modeling and build queries, builds classes in Java and transform tables into objects in Java, lets you build cross platform and professional mobile, web, enterprise and desktop applications etc. So, go through this list of free Java IDE software and see which ones you like the most.

You can download these IDEs by writing their name at google.

IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition

IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition is a free Java IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for Android app development, Scala, Groovy, Java SE and Java. Its various features are testing for JUnit, TestNG, debugging, code inspections, code assistance, support for multiple refactorings, Maven build tools, ant, visual GUI builder and code editor for XML, Java. 

Java Inventor

Java Inventor is a free Java IDE. It lets you build Java applications. With the help of this freeware you can also create webpages. It lets you make backend server, do data modeling and build queries. Java Inventor lets you do coding in Java. It builds classes in Java and transform tables into objects in Java.

NetBeans IDE

NetBeans IDE is a free Java IDE (Integrated Development Environment). It is extensively used by software developers. This is a cross platform Java IDE. With the help of this freeware software developers can build cross platform and professional mobile, web, enterprise and desktop applications. If you are looking for a free and useful Java IDE for creating Java based applications then you will find this software very useful. 

NaviCoder IDE for Java

NaviCoder IDE for JAVA is a Java IDE. This IDE is very useful for Java developers. It lets you debug and compile Java applications from the editor and lets you view java classes as well. Navicode IDE for Java lets you build complex Java applications. Its main features are JDK profiles, tabbed documents, package viewer, class viewer, wizards and project management. 

Jcoder Java IDE and Compiler

Jcoder Java IDE and Compiler is a free Java IDE and Java Compiler. By using this freeware software developers can build, debug, modify and navigate code quickly and more efficiently. You can combine this freeware with various JDK kits by customizing JDK profiles. Its main features are project wizards, syntax highlighting, editor, debugger interface, package viewer, project management and customizable user interface. 

SkyIDE

SkyIDE is a free Java IDE. It also supports Haskell, Pascal, Java, VB.NET, C#, Digital Mars D, Visual C++ Express, C++, OpenWatchcom, LCC, GNU C++, Borland C++ etc. It also has full support for multiple compilers and multiple projects beside with an advanced system of variables to create your commands for compiling software. SkyIDE transforms variables into values. It returns those values which are related to your files and projects and merge these values with the environment variables of Windows. 

Enide Studio 2014

Enide Studio 2014 is a free Java integrated development environment for creating Java applications. It also supports Eclipse, Java and JavaScript. It is very useful for Java developers. They can use this application to create highend mobile, web, enterprise and desktop Java applications. Its main features are editor, git addon, start explorer, rest client tool, GFM viewer, Mark down editor etc. 

ObjectScript

ObjectScript is a free Java IDE. By using this freeware software developers can build various cross platform Java Applications. Its main features are regular expressions, support for Windows COM, RPC-XML support, synchronization and threading, exceptions for error handling, various types of fields and methods, class system, compilation with byte code etc. 

Java Development Kit

Java Development Kit is a Java IDE for programmers and software developers. It is a useful integrated development environment for creating cross platform Java applications for mobile, web, enterprise and desktop. Its main features are Java debugger, dis-assembler class, javap, java byte code compiler, javac etc. This freeware is must for every Java programmer. 

BlueJ

BlueJ is a Java integrated development environment for programmers and software developers. It is useful for those who want to learn java and also for those who are already learning the java Programming language. Its main features are interactive object creation, debugger, virtual machine, compiler, inbuilt editor etc. BlueJ lets you build advanced Java applications for various domains. 

DrJava

DrJava is a free Java IDE for programmers, software developers and students. It lets you create Java applications easily. It is a lightweight software. Its main feature are unit testing tool, a source level debugger, an interactive pane for evaluating text of the program, intelligent program editor etc. If you are a java programmer then this freeware is must for you. 

Eclipse

Eclipse is a free Java IDE for developers and programmers. It lets you create various cross platform Java applications for mobile, web, desktop and enterprise domains. Its main features are Window Builder, integration with Maven, Mylyn, XML editor, Git client, CVS client, PyDev, Subversive - SVN Team Provider etc. It lets you provide various types of packages for software development. 

Javelin

Javelin is a free Java IDE. It is useful for java programmers and developers. With the help of this freeware, developers and programmers can build various Java applications. It is a lightweight application. It lets you offer code management and zero time synchronized generation. If you have a passion for Java programming then this freeware is must for you.

jEdit

jEdit is a free integrated development environment for Java programmers, analysts and developers. It lets Java developers and programmers to create various useful Java applications. Its main features are auto indentation, syntax highlighting, regular expressions, object embedding, key bindings, editable syntax coloring, text encoding sniffer etc. It is a lightweight application.

jGRASP

jGRASP is a useful integrated development environment for Java Programmers and developers. It is a lightweight application. It supports VHDL, Ada, Python, Objective-C, C++, C, and CSD for java etc. It also includes canvas viewer and dynamic object viewer which works in combination with the workbench and inbuilt debugger for Java. The main features of jGRASP are hash tables, binary trees, linked lists, queues and stacks etc. 

JSource

JSource is a free Java IDE. It is useful for Java developers and programmers. It lets them create useful cross platform java applications for various domains. It is a lightweight application. JSource lets you run, compile, edit and create java files. Its main features are syntax highlighting for multiple languages and Java Swing components. 

JotAzul

JotAzul is a free Java IDE for Java developers, programmers and students. Software developers and programmers can use JotAzul to create various Java applications in multiple domains. It is a lightweight application and offers various features to its users. If you are an aspiring Java programmer then this freeware is good for you. 

Asterix IDE

Asterix IDE is a Java IDE. It also supports HTML, C/C++ etc. This freeware lets you create various Java applications. It is an integrated development environment for Java developers, programmers and students. It lets Java developers and programmers create various useful Java applications in multiple domains. It is a lightweight software. 

Top Five Hottest Programming Blogs In 2014: Trusted and Respected Sources

Programming blogs are quite plentiful on the world wide web, but they can usually be whittled down to a small handful that are the most useful and insightful. Even if they’re for a niche audience, many of them are read by thousands who want to keep up on the constant evolution in computer programming.

Dr. Dobb’s CodeTalk

If you’ve read any programming blogs before, you may have heard of this one. With guest blogs from some of the top names in programming (such as Scott W. Ambler, Allen Holub, Bruce Eckel, Larry O’Brien, Dave Thomas, Andrew Koenig, etc.) who taught courses early on at various conventions , you’ll get trusted information here on everything within the field.

Andrew Binstock, who is the Editor in Chief of Dr. Dobbs, has been working in the software development from the 80’s. He has worked as a columnist for SD TImes, reviewer for InfoWorld, and editor of UNIX Review.

Dr. Dobb’s covers it all, from programming developments in the cloud, to web development, featuring: articles, source code, blogs, forums,video tutorials, and audio podcasts, as well as articles from Dr. Dobb’s Journal (a monthly programming journal published in the US by United Business Media). You’ll also find plenty of deep-thinking articles on standard programming languages like C++ and Java.

While it’s been around a while, it’s still going to be a leading blog source this year.

Coding Horror

Give credit to this having one of the best titles for a programming blog in existence. The fact that

owner, Jeff Atwood, doesn’t take himself or the blog overly seriously is to its benefit.

Jeff Atwood is also the co-founder of the question-and-answer website Stack Overflow which features questions and answers on a wide range of topics in computer programming and software development.

The Codding Horror, with a subtitle of “Programming and human factors”, is one of the few programming sites out there that’s close to satiric. It shows some of the real horror stories programmers have to deal with in the industry while still giving useful solutions to show light at the end of the tunnel. As the author says “You’re an amateur developer until you realize that everything you write sucks. YOU are the Coding Horror.“

I chose that title for my blog because it’s a clever in-joke about becoming a humble professional programmer. That’s what I try to do here. I write to learn and explore topics that deal with computers and programming, and because I’m easily bored, the topics I find most interesting tend to apply to a wide audience of programmers.

Joel on Software

Integral Web Solutions thinks this blog by Joel Spolsky may be the best programming blog ever.

While Spolsky and his blog have been around for 14 years, it’s not expected to change this year as one of the leading programming sites to combine the business side of the industry.

As a CEO of his own software company and the co-founder of Stack Overflow, Spolsky has longtime clout in knowing this angle through and through. It’s a blog of simple design, yet proof that content means more than blog bells and whistles.

With categories ranging from New Developer, Rock-star Developer, Software Designer, Tech Lead, Project Manager, Startup Founder, to CEO, you can find everything you need to design, develop, manage and sell your software solution.

GirlDeveloper

The programming blog world needs more women to be represented, and this blog is one of the best.

Run by Sara Chipps, a product of Generation Y, she gives the female side of programming and how it intersects with real life.

Chipps has also done a lot of good in getting more women into programming through a non-profit organization called Girl Develop It — “an international organization, that exists to provide affordable and accessible programs to women who want to learn software development through mentorship and hands-on instruction.“

I think building software is not that hard. The developer community tries to make it look super hard so we can feel really important.

Scott Hanselman

Another blog named after someone (which is sometimes a good move), this programming blog may

be the most popular programming blog out there.

With a reported 20,000 subscribers, Hanselman works out of his home office in Portland, Oregon as part of Microsoft’s web platform team.

His blogs cover a lot of ground in the world of programming thanks to his own varied and interesting experiences in the industry. He also frequently ponders the future of programming while analyzing how programming affects our gadgets of today.

Aerion AS2 the first supersonic business jet that will fly at 1217 mph

Nevada: Airbus is teaming up with US-based Aerospace firm Aerion to create a supersonic jet that can fly from London to New York in three hours and from Los Angeles to Tokyo in six hours. The Aerion AS2 business jet will fly at 1,217 mph, using proprietary supersonic laminar flow technology - almost as fast as Concorde, which flew at 1,350 mph.

The two companies announced this week that they will be joining forces on the project, sharing “capabilities in design, manufacturing and certification”. Engineers from Airbus' Defence and Space Division will work with Aerion at its base in Reno, Nevada. The cost of the AS2 is thought to be more than $100million - over £60million - and Aerion hopes test flights will begin by 2019.

The jet, which will fly between major global cities, will be made mostly from carbon fibre composite material. Design features include wings which reduce overall drag by 20 percent, allowing for lower fuel consumption and longer range and a luxurious 30-foot-long cabin will seat up to 12 passengers. Aerion Chairman Robert M Bass, said in a statement, “This is a major step forward for Aerion.

It puts us solidly on track toward our objective of certifying the world's first supersonic business jet in 2021.” After 27 years of service, British Airways retired the Airbus' Concorde airliner - which travelled at more than twice the speed of sound -- in October 2003, signaling the end of the supersonic passenger jet. Modern commercial long-haul jets typically cruise at speeds between 480 and 560 mph.

The plan is to certify the plane in 2021 with first delivery in 2022. Flight testing would begin in roughly 2019. Aerion officials knew it would take a well-established original equipment manufacturer to complete the project, he said.

“We couldn't be more delighted with the choice of Airbus,” Barents said. “We think that their footprint around the world is clearly going to help us as we develop the airplane.” Billionaire Bass has been open about his personal mission to offer the first business jet to fly faster than the speed of sound, a project begun in 2002.

Aerion, Chief Executive Officer Doug Nichols, told CNN: “The collaboration with Airbus was an essential piece in order to bring the expertise of a premier aircraft development concern into the fold.” The US forbids civilian planes from the sound barrier -- about 750 mph -- while flying overland due to noisy sonic booms, but the AS2 model will fly at subsonic speeds until it reaches the ocean, when it will speed up. Over Europe it can fly at supersonic speeds without detection.

WhatsApp says it now has half billion users

Washington: WhatsApp now has 500 million regular, active users around the world, the free mobile messaging service being acquired by Facebook said.

That is up from an estimated 450 million as of late February, as the service’s reach expanded rapidly in countries including Brazil, India, Mexico, and Russia. WhatsApp said on its blog that its users are also sharing more than 700 million photos and 100 million videos a day.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that his social network is acquiring WhatsApp for $19 billion. The stock and cash purchase marries WhatsApp’s steadily growing user base with Facebook’s 1.2 billion active users.

The huge price tag raised eyebrows but Zuckerberg told the Mobile World Congress in Spain days after the announcement that he believes WhatsApp is actually worth much more.

He argued that there are very few services that reach so many millions of people in the world. The acquisition would be Facebook’s largest ever.

A renowned Pakistani hacker group, G-Force, hacked GEO TV website yesterday. The group highlighted the elaborate attention the TV channel has been giving to the Axact case, spreading hatred and negativity instead of focusing on important news in Pakistan. G-Force warned that they will continue hacking the websites until Pakistani media straightens up.

G-Force is known to have fought Pakistan’s first cyber war with India back in 1997. This veteran group mentioned past news which should have gotten more media coverage such as Karachi massacre where dozens of citizens were murdered in broad daylight, Bladia Town Fire where more than 300 people burnt alive, Model Town massacre where citizens were killed during a live TV transmission and many more. They mocked media journalists, anchors and politicians to answer their questions because apparently our nation is ‘brainless.’

SEE ALSO: Pakistani Hackers Hacks Popular Indian Music Streaming Service

Geo TV website came back online today after being down for a couple of hours and is now, functioning properly. Let us know your sentiments regarding Pakistani News Media channels in the comment section below.

Pakistani Hacker Hacks Popular Indian Music Streaming Service

Gaana.com  which hosts 7.5 million users monthly was defaced and hacked yesterday by a Pakistani hacker MakMan. The hacker who apparently resides in Lahore posted about his successful hack on his Facebook page. He stated that he was successful in gaining access to user’s personal data which was uploaded to a searchable database. If a user’s email address was entered, voila a jackpot was reached! The database would expose user’s full name, email address, MD5-hashed password, Twitter and Facebook profiles.

MakMan used an SQL injection based vulnerability for hacking the database of Gaana’s website. The database showed that more than 12.5 million users were registered for the services of Gaana. The goal of MakMan was to highlight a vulnerability in Gaana’s website, which initially was reported to the administrator without fail. MakMan then decided to take the route of hacking the website and uploaded all the details onto a searchable database.

As per MakMan’s admission, no financial data was compromised in the aftermath of the hack. He, later on the request of the CEO of Gaana, deleted the user database from the Facebook page which isn’t accessible anymore. It was recommended in light of the hack, that all users were to change their passwords immediately. Gaana’s website was initially taken offline for maintenance but now is accessible again to all the users.