fastinternational.org | Interests About Programming

Computer technology is rapidly evolving, and so many blogs have appeared concerning a variety of IT issues. It can take a long time to find really useful and informative blogs. In order to facilitate this task, a list of 30 best websites on programming and computing has been compiled, covering computer science, programming, computing theory from different angles, as well as points of contact of computer science with such topical issues as education, women in science, business and many others.

General informatics and programming

1. Communications of the ACM

The blog is an online publication dedicated to various areas of computing and information technology. Records and news articles are posted directly on the website. Besides, the blogroll is of interest; it also contains links to other blogs that may be useful for a novice programmer.

What to read at the ACM: Those who say that code doesn’t matter

2. Gödel’s Lost Letter and P = NP

The site is dedicated to a specific computational theory question – problem P = NP. Unlike articles from academic journals, the blog posts are written in accessible language and understandable to a wide audience of readers.

What to read at Gödel’s Lost Letter and P = NP: Deviations in algorithm development

3. Lambda the Ultimate: The Programming Languages Weblog

The authors of the blog articles are representatives of academia and industry. The topic of the posts is mainly programming languages. Short notes causing heated discussions make this blog one of the most active program communities in the blogosphere.

What to read on Lambda the Ultimate: Costs of semantics of functional languages

4. Embedded in Academia

This active personal blog is led by John Regehr, assistant professor of computer science at the University of Utah. Although John’s topics vary, most of his posts are in computer science and programming.

What to read in Embedded in Academia: A New Convenient Dialect C

5. Matt Might

No blog list will be complete without a collection of articles from the Matt Might website. Posts are published as a list under different headings, such as “functional programming”. They cover a wide range of tasks, from pragmatic questions from the novice student to detailed technical consideration of programming languages.

What to read at Matt Might: What every IT professional should know.

6. Computational Complexity

This purely technical blog highlights the difficulties that can be encountered when combining mathematical and programming methods. The site also contains information about events and personalities related to the field of computational complexity.

What to read at Computational Complexity: Favorite Theorems: Quantum Interactive Proofs

7. The Endeavor.

The blog is led by John Cook, a programmer (formerly a professor of mathematics) who has moved into consulting. John talks about possible methods of interaction between programming and business and their subsequent use in solving world problems.

What to read on The Endeavor: Classic Programming

8. Female Science Professor

An anonymous blog is led by a woman professor of a large research institute. She reflects on the teaching of computer science in higher education and explores the problem of sexism in programming and academia.

What to read on Female Science Professor: In science, it is important whether women are the last to come.

9. Shtetl-Optimized .

Scott Aaronson, a theoretical scientist at MIT, regularly posts entries on computational complexity and quantum computing. He also touches on general issues of the relationship between computational scientists, industry, politics and the general public.

What to read on Shtetl-Optimized: Do scientists – theoreticians despise their IT colleagues?

10. Female Perspective of Computer Science

Gail Carmichael, an instructor at Carlton University in Canada, claims that this blog contains her reflections on teaching and research as well as technical notes on the art of coding.

What to read on Female Perspective of Computer Science: Combining C++ and Java in CS2: A Great Discovery or Disaster?

11. Coding Horror

In this blog, Jeff Atwood talks about his interests and describes his computer science and programming projects. His rare publications are widely discussed in the community. The blog recently celebrated its tenth anniversary.

What to read at Coding Horror: Coding Horror’s 10th anniversary.

12. Proper Fixation: A Substitute for Anaesthesia

The blog is led by Yossi Kreinin, a software developer. The site materials cover a wide range of issues, such as programming languages, career guidance and tips for finding coding errors.

What to read on Proper Fixation: Features of Python that I miss on Go

13. Jason’s Computer Science Blog

This blog contains information about the education and experience of Jason Ernst. He talks about his current research and projects, and about events and conferences of interest to a wide range of computer scientists.

What to read at Jason’s Computer Science Blog: Improved DNS zone update mechanism for Hostmonster

14. Terry Tao’s Blog

Terry Tao – mathematician, whose articles often concern the activity of scientists in the field of computer science and calculations. Most of his notes are purely technical mathematical proofs. Because of this, the blog is not only intellectually complex, but also provides food for thought to an informatics or math student.

What to read on Terry Tao’s Blog: Derivative Multiple Functions

15. Freedom to Tinker

Numerous authors at Princeton have made this very active blog a useful resource on all matters related to digital technology and computing. A few articles are directly related to computer science, but the site provides more general useful content where computer science is seen as part of the larger computer world.

What to read on Freedom to Tinker: It is time to introduce Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies into the computer science curriculum.

16. Theory, Evolution, and Games Group

This blog weaves together computational mathematics, theory of evolution and game theory into a masterpiece of interdisciplinary research.

What to read on Theory, Evolution, and Games Group: Theory’s Apology.

17. Young Female Scientist

Although rarely updated, this learning blog is a kind of chronicle of sexism in science. It also covers research on scientific systems and the general psychological problems associated with degrees and publications.

What to read on Young Female Scientist: Oh, don’t worry about me.

18. Bit-Player .

Brian Hayes, the author of the blog, is one of the main authors of articles in Scientific American. Bit-Player hosts articles on computation and mathematics.

What to read on Bit-Player: Pi man

19. Bits and Pieces

This blog belongs to Harry Lewis, a computer science professor at Harvard University. Although his personal blog is mainly about reasoning about different subjects, Lewis often talks about the points of contact between computer science and programming and the academic, political, and business worlds.

What to Read on Bits and Pieces: The Huge Influence of Harvard Computing Theory

General Computer Science and Education

20. Computing Education Blog

This blog is the most authoritative and well-known resource on information technology in K-12. The main topics are reflections on pedagogy, political barriers to computer skills training, and conference announcements.

What to read at Computing Education Blog: State Conference on IT Education in the K-12 System

21. Computer Science Teacher

The blog presents Alfred Thompson’s view on teaching computer science in the K-12 curriculum. Site materials include funny thoughts about programming problems, contest announcements and a review of the latest interesting news from computer and technology companies.

What to read on Computer Science Teacher: Fun with “Code Monkeys “1.

22. Knowing and Doing

This blog is run by Eugene Wallingford of the University of Northern Iowa. The site publishes short posts, sometimes containing nothing but quotes that Eugene found interesting. In addition to articles on information technology and software development, the site also includes articles on teaching informatics and its use in business and management.

What to read on Knowing and Doing: Archives for September

23. Computer Science Teachers Association

The blog contains announcements, news, articles on pedagogy as well as changes in the membership, management and organization of the Association.

What to read at the Computer Science Teachers Association: Beyond Computational Thinking.

24. Process Algebra Diary

The blog contains a collection of conference papers and papers on algebra, general math and computer science teaching. The reader can also find vacancies and votes by nomination (EATCS Fellows, Gödel Prize, etc.).

What to read at Process Algebra Diary: Competitive Nomination Selection: Presburger Award 20152

25. Treehouse Blog

The site is one of the best blogs for students who want to learn directly from the Internet. The authors act as teachers, and their posts often contain step-by-step instructions on how to solve computational problems. These include creating websites, coding, and helping to understand how popular mobile phone operating systems such as iOS and Android work.

What to read on Treehouse Blog: New Course: Modular CSS with Sass

26. My Biased Coin

The site deals with computer science, algorithms, networks and information theory from a pedagogical point of view.

What to read on My Biased Coin: Teaching the sorting algorithm

27. An Open Mind

Miles Berry passes on his many years of experience as a Rector Lecturer and a professional in his field, revealing a unique perspective on education, technical and applied sciences and culture.

What to read at An Open Mind: Creativity in the new computer science curriculum

28. Academic Computing

In this blog, Neil Brown expresses his opinion on teaching informatics at the University of Kent in the UK. The posts are fascinating and address important issues, but they are clear and accessible to a wide range of readers.

What to read at Academic Computing: Programming: A range of interesting solutions

29. Teach Computing

The site is fully dedicated to how to teach computer science in the K-12 system. Although the blog was created relatively recently and new posts rarely appear, it covers common pedagogical issues and provides advice on how to become a good teacher.

What to read at Teach Computing: Do girls prefer to program in groups?

30. Rob Miles’ Journal

The blog is led by Rob Miles from Hull University, UK. Rob covers areas such as game development and programming for mobile devices. He has created many good curricular resources. On his blog, Rob shares links to these resources.

What to read on Rob Miles’ Journal: Joe Stead talks about cross-platform C#.

IT-specialists – creations are whimsical. They need comfortable conditions for work and rest. Here are 10 simple ways to make life more pleasant for IT specialists.

It is not enough to have a good IT specialist in the company. You have to make sure that he takes root and doesn’t want to run away to the competitors. How do we do that? How do you motivate and indulge your employees? What can we do to please them besides the obvious things like a good salary, bonuses and a well-organized workspace? HR-department of Sibedge company shares small but effective tricks that increase loyalty of IT specialists and make their working life more comfortable, interesting and rich.

Health and sports

The health of employees should be maintained by all means, from cheap VHI to inexpensive but important little things like delicious vitamins, honey as an alternative to sugar and fresh lemon for tea drinkers in the office kitchen. Another pleasant thing is, for example, free tick-borne encephalitis insurance or bicycle parking near the company building. The corporate discount for employees to visit the gyms is in constant demand.

Free taxi

A corporate taxi for employees who work late is the least the company can do for workaholics. Such care will undoubtedly be appreciated, as many IT specialists are so passionate about work that they lose track of time. It is also not bad to pay for taxis on business trips and trips around the city related to work-related issues. This will save time and nerves of your specialists.

Gifts

Who doesn’t love them? It’s possible to give gifts for and without. They can be branded souvenirs or T-shirts, as well as gifts for birthdays, company days and other holidays. It is obligatory to please employees (including remote ones) with New Year’s surprises and, of course, we should not forget about their children. Children’s New Year’s matinee with the presentation of sweets will delight the kids. As they say, the way to diligence of an employee lies through the smile of his child.

Conferences

Participation of employees in IT conferences is also a pleasant bonus. Every year dozens of major events are held in Russia and abroad, where specialists communicate and share their experience with each other. When a company takes over the payment for a flight, accommodation and participation in such conferences, it kills two birds at once: it improves the skills of its employees, as well as allows them to change the environment and relax.

Professional development

It is not only possible to pump up professional skills and learn something new at conferences. A good employer is one who is willing to invest in the development of its employees. That is why creating a professional competence center inside a company is a great idea. For IT specialists it is possible and necessary to organize English lessons (it is especially useful when communicating with foreign clients), as well as to select individual development plans, which include professional development courses and all kinds of trainings.

Rest area

IT professionals need a place where they can relax and get their thoughts in order. Every large company has a kitchen/lounge/chiaut where employees not only have lunch and consume indecently large amounts of coffee, but also communicate with each other on distracting topics. It is not bad to equip this room with comfortable sofas, projector, game console with a headset of virtual reality and musical instruments for the most creative technicians.

Corporate discounts

Corporate discount card – another way to make life more pleasant and financially profitable. It will provide tangible discounts in cafes and bars, which like to visit IT-specialists, discounts in numerous shops, workshops, hairdressers and beauty salons, cinemas and other equally important places.

Entertainment and hobbies

Management should encourage the commitment of its staff. If someone from DevOps is into karting, why not take part in a friendly race? Several programmers want to create a music band – we’ll give a concert for their colleagues. Participation in sports marathons, hikes to open-air film screenings, interesting master classes, cozy board game nights – if people rest together, the effectiveness of their teamwork is significantly improved.

Good equipment

An I.T. without iron is a very helpless creature. To improve the mood and productivity of IT professionals should pamper new hardware. If you want to see more code, hold a second monitor, if you want to be more mobile, here’s your new MacBook so you can code on the go. Slowly running software – we’ll buy you a high-speed SSD drive. It’s important to understand that these investments will eventually pay off many times and have a positive impact on employee loyalty.

Social activity

The world will not be a better place without our help. The company’s management should encourage employees to strive for social initiatives that benefit society, nature, homeless animals and all those who need support. It is not so difficult to plant trees in the square, collect fodder and medicines for the animal welfare organization. This will not only make the world a little bit better, but also allow the IT specialists to feel that they have contributed to something very important.

***

Of course, not every IT company can afford to create conditions for employees on the same level as digital giants such. Employees of such companies can get an interest-free housing loan, have constant access to massage rooms and “corners of the sociopath”, where you can relax from the noise of the scenes. However, it is necessary to constantly look for your own unique approach to employees so that they feel comfortable, can work fruitfully, feel their own value and significance.

For some, the best choice is to start a company. For some, to turn their career in a different direction, leaving programming. For me, programming is what I want to do, but you have to be realistic. Whatever you do, you have to find a balance between doing what you love and making enough money to make your family comfortable. And often, that’s not an easy choice.