the life and times of endenizen » Programming

First, an announcement from today: the next version of Android. Better performance, wifi tethering (!), ‘update all’, and more! I can’t wait to get this. These are much-needed updates that make the platform much more powerful. Check out the embedded video below for details.

[Via: Google Announces the Next Version of Android.]

Next, an announcement from yesterday: easy web fonts! The previous solutions to non-web-fonts-on-the-web involved rendering images, embedding flash objects, or using canvas (when it was available). These methods might have gotten the job done, but they were difficult to implement and each had its share of drawbacks.

Along comes Google Font API and all those problems disappear. Now you can easily use real fonts without adding complexity. Best of all, it’s cross-browser (even IE6!) and works just the way it should: just set the font-family in css. I’ve already added a new font to my blog which you can see in the screenshot. It really was as easy as they say:

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Tangerine">
<style>
  body {
    font-family: 'Tangerine', serif;
    font-size: 48px;
  }
</style>

(Note: I’m not actually using Tangerine. I tried it, and it’s gross.)

[Via: Making Good Typography on the Web Easier: Google Introduces Font API and Directory.]

Categorization is hard. Categorization of code is boring. This list (made up of responses to a question posted on Stack Overflow) spices it up a bit by giving you FUN ways to talk about your most dreaded bugs, design patterns, and lack of documentation. A few of my favorites:

• Banana Banana Banana: Placeholder text indicating that documentation is in progress or yet to be completed. Mostly used because FxCop complains when a public function lacks documentation.
• Bugfoot: A bug that isn’t reproducible and has been sighted by only one person.
• Counterbug: A defensive move useful for code reviews. If someone reviewing your code presents you with a bug that’s your fault, you counter with a counterbug: a bug caused by the reviewer.
• Shrug Report: A bug report with no error message or “how to reproduce” steps and only a vague description of the problem. Usually contains the phrase “doesn’t work.”
• Smug Report: A bug report submitted by a user who thinks he knows a lot more about the system’s design than he really does. Filled with irrelevant technical details and one or more suggestions (always wrong) about what he thinks is causing the problem and how we should fix it.

[Via New Programming Jargon — Global Nerdy.]