I am super excited to announce that the beta release of Visual Studio version 11 (which includes the .NET CLR version 4.5, Visual Basic version 11 and C# version 5) is available for download right now. As you know if you've been following our CTP releases...

The first time I ran my histogram visualizer I asked for a Cauchy distribution with a minimum of -10 and a maximum of 10, and of course I got a graph that looks much like the one from my article of last week: Looks perfectly reasonable; I guess my program...

My original version of the histogram-generating code that I whipped up for the previous episode of FAIC contained a subtle bug. Can you spot it without going back and reading the corrected code? private static int[] CreateHistogram(IEnumerable<double>...

When building simulations of real-world phenomena, or when generating test data for algorithms that will be consuming information from the real world, it is often highly desirable to produce pseudo-random data that conform to some nonuniform probability...

The standard way to teach beginner OO programmers about classes is to make a metaphor to the real world. And indeed, I do this all the time in this blog, usually to the animal kingdom. A "class" in real life codifies a commonality amongst a certain set...

"Late binding" is one of those computer-sciency terms that, like "strong typing", means different things to different people. I thought I might describe what the term means to me. First off, what is "binding"? We can't understand what it means to bind...

Today, yet another episode in my ongoing series " What's the difference? " This time, a non-computer-related topic . I am often complimented on my choice of outerwear in the Seattle rainy season, and I hate to respond to a well-meant compliment with a...