Interesting Links #3

Pfew, that took a while! Didn't expect it to be some much work to plow through a few dozens of links. I kind of forgot that I actually have to read the links I save before I can put them on this list, so once I remembered that I got kind of stumped. But I read them all and cherry picked the most interesting ones. I want to especially want to highlight the OpenGL tutorials link. I plowed through them all and they really give a specific overview of the bare essentials you need to get started with current-date OpenGL. If anything, check out that link!

And now without further ado, the most interesting links from my backlog!


[Article] How To Criticize Computer Scientists, or Avoiding Ineffective Deprecation And Making Insults More Pointed
As a (wannabe) computer scientist this was fun to read. Altough I'm not very sure about how useful it will actually be in practice, it gets the two types of computer scientists kind of right. It would probably get you a pretty good mileage if the computer scientist you're trying to take down hasn't read this article, and if the computer scientist is kind of senior (I don't think anybody told me about Hartmanis in the past 1.5 years). But please, as a sign of thanks, don't use it against me if the day ever comes.
[Tutorial] OpenGL Tutorials
This a great site if you're looking to get into OpenGL. It's really up to date and teaches the programmable graphics pipeline. You know, the one with shaders and shit. I like how it sticks to explaining the raw key concepts of OpenGL, so you can wrap it easily with your own code when you actually start using it.
[Tool] Free Online Font Generator
This thing is so. Much. Fun. I don't know about you but I can just tinker with the sliders and switched for ages. The randomize function (flop it!) is also pretty sweet. There are only two downsides:
  1. The range of fonts you can generate is not very varied.
  2. The license of the fonts you make with the tool is unclear, so it's hard to use it in anything else besides personal projects.
If you can prove me wrong on these points please do so! A tool like this has insane potential because it's applicable to almost every small or indie team.
[Article] The bell has tolled for rand()
Very good article on C++'s random facilities. Not only does it do a very good job explaining why rand() is bad and why it's going to be removed from the standard (and how you can see this coming!), it also goes very deeply into C++'s replacement for rand(). Altogether you get a very nice primer on how randomness should be done, and how it works in C++. A required read for every C++ programmer!
[Living Document] http2 explained
A "living" book about the development of http2. The author is involved in the development of the protocol itself and also has lots of experience implementing it since he's the maintainer of libcUrl. He especially does a very good job explaining why we need it, where it came from and how it is not an evil plan from google. Definitely worth a read if you're slightly interested in the future of the internet.
[Article] The Best Time to Drink Coffee
This article gives you some tips on when and why to drink coffee. I tried to follow the tips but I like it too much to regulate my drinking schedule, but the science behind it sounds pretty solid. I actually didn't find this on reddit but on the Oatmeal. So be warned.
[Article] The Rule of Zero revisited: The Rule of All or Nothing
A nice and short article on why and when you need to define custom move and copy constructors, and why you should actually only default them. I think I'll start using his rule, with one exception: when a class only defines a constructor, I will probably not default all other 4 constructors. Way to verbose. Once I'll define a destructor though I certainly will, there's no reason to disable the move constructor for no good reason.
[Wallpapers] HD Mobile Wallpapers (1080x1920)
I think I found this on the frontpage somewhere. I'm quite the background nut so I was very excited to see this pop up in my feed. There are some really good ones in there but some don't have a too great quality. Then there's the added compression the phone will apply. And there's no way to easily rotate backgrounds on android. But they're pretty. So they're on this list.
[Article] 100 Years of Computer Science
Lately this has been a bit of a trend, and a good one at that. I haven't read any papers from this list but the names have been popping up here and there, so it's probably a good list to start with. Not really a paper but a good read in general is also "You and your research" by Richard W. Hamming (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html).
[Article] In the Beginning was the Command Line
This article is about why the command line is useful, and why it will definitely stick around. On the other hand it's also really objective, and admits it has more than a few weaknesses. I haven't read it in full but the parts that I've read from time to time were interesting by themselves. Recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about the history of the command line and it's major incarnation/implementation, Linux.
[Project] Music library manager
There's not much to say about this, honestly. It's just a kickass open-source command line music library manager. Go check it out!
[Article] Five Popular Myths about C++
Written by Bjarne Stroustrup, in these three "blog posts" he debunks popular myths about C++. If you don't know Bjarne Stroustrup, he's basically C++'s dad. So he probably knows his stuff. My favourite is part 2, why you don't need garbage collection for good software. He does an excellent job showcasing how you can keep resource management simple and fast.

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