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Programming

How Should a Non-Techie Learn Programming? 346

Posted by Soulskill from the at-gunpoint-is-not-a-valid-answer dept.
CurtMonash writes "Nontechnical people — for example marketers or small business owners — increasingly get the feeling they should know more about technology. And they're right. If you can throw up a small website or do some real number-crunching, chances are those skills will help you feed your family. But how should they get started? I started a thread with the question on DBMS2, and some consistent themes emerged, including: Learn HTML + CSS early on; Learn a bit of SQL, but you needn't make that your focus; Have your first real programming language be one of the modern ones, such as PHP or Python; MySQL is a good vehicle to learn SQL; It's a great idea to start with a project you actually want to accomplish, and that can be done by modifying a starter set of sample code (e.g., a WordPress blog); Microsoft's technology stack is an interesting alternative to some of the other technology ideas. A variety of books and websites were suggested, most notably MIT's Scratch. But, frankly, it would really help to get more suggestions for sites and books that help one get started with HTML/CSS, or with MySQL, or with PHP. And so, techie studs and studdettes, I ask you — how should a non-techie go about learning some basic technological skills?"
Games

Thermoelectrics Could Let You Feel the Heat In Games 102

Posted by timothy from the better-than-bullet-wounds dept.
myshadows writes "Tech Review has an interesting article on how Tokyo Metropolitan University researchers have been able to give a sensory addition to gaming peripherals — namely, temperature. 'As the range of interactions with digital environments expands, it's logical to ask what's next: Smell-o-vision has been on the horizon for something like 50 years, but there's a dark horse stalking this race: thermoelectrics. Based on the Peltier effect, these solid-state devices are easy to incorporate into objects of reasonable size, i.e. video game controllers. In this configuration, just announced at the 2010 SIGGRAPH conference, a pair of thermoelectric surfaces on either side of a controller rapidly heat up or cool down in order to simulate appropriate conditions in a virtual environment.'"
Science

The Possibility of Paradox-Free Time Travel 421

Posted by kdawson from the fire-up-the-delorean dept.
relliker writes in with word of a paper up on the ArXiv by Seth Lloyd and co-workers, exploring the possibility that "postselection" effects in non-linear quantum mechanics might allow paradox-free time travel. "Lloyd's time machine gets around [the grandfather paradox] because of the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics: anything that this time machine allows can also happen with finite probability anyway... Another interesting feature of this machine is that it does not require any of the distortions of spacetime that traditional time machines rely on. In these, the fabric of spacetime has to be ruthlessly twisted in a way that allows the time travel to occur. ... Postselection can only occur if quantum mechanics is nonlinear, something that seems possible in theory but has never been observed in practice. All the evidence so far is that quantum mechanics is linear. In fact some theorists propose that the seemingly impossible things that postselection allows is a kind of proof that quantum mechanics must be linear."

Comment Re:Irony (Score 1) 377

by Samah (#32923686) Attached to: Leaving a Comment? That'll Be 99 Cents, and Your Name

I hate reading comments in most papers (and slashdot) where anonymous trolls spew the worst rhetoric just to get a rise out of people. (BTW, good job here, it worked on me)

This is why (up until recently) I clicked the "hide comments" button on YouTube so I wouldn't find myself reading and replying to trolling. Now that YouTube has gone all 3.0 on us and no longer has that option (that I've seen, anyway) I just hide the entire comment block with the Adblock Element Hider extension for Firefox. Out of sight, out of mind. :)

Comment Re:This is the loaded term (Score 1) 480

by Samah (#32895968) Attached to: Nerds Still More Likely To Get Bullied

The problem, though, is that they generally aren't willing to face the reality of the issue.

Partially correct. The main problem (in Australia at least) is that teachers have no power (legally) to do anything drastic. All a student has to do is make a complaint to their parents that "teacher did this to me" even if it's an outright lie, and the parents come after the school. Who do you think (most) parents will believe when little Johnny comes to them with some bullshit story and the teacher denies it?

Teachers can only yell so much, and the worst of the students will just laugh at them. A few generations ago the teachers were allowed to give them a rap on the knuckles or a kick up the arse and the parents would assume the retribution was well deserved. Students had a lot more respect for their teachers and parents.

IANAT, but both of my parents are, and I hear some awful stories. My mother is a principal and she has been kicked and spat on by students. She's even come home in tears from the verbal abuse she's received.
Government

Brazil Forbids DRM On the Public Domain 258

Posted by kdawson from the what-they-said dept.
nunojsilva writes "Cory Doctorow reports that the Brazilian equivalent of DMCA explicitly forbids using DRM-like techniques on works in the public domain. 'Brazil has just created the best-ever implementation of WCT [WIPO Copyright Treaty]. In Brazil's version of the law, you can break DRM without breaking the law, provided you're not also committing a copyright violation.' This means that, unlike the US, where it is illegal to break DRM, in Brazil it is illegal to break the public domain."
Earth

The Search For the Mount Everest of Caves 233

Posted by kdawson from the drop-a-rock-and-it-goes-spee-lunk dept.
NoMeansYes writes "An interview with James Tabor, author of the new best-selling book Blind Descent, introduces a pair of accomplished scientists — American Bill Stone and Ukranian geologist Alexander Klimchouk — who are the two most prominent figures in extreme caving. Both have figured prominently in the ongoing quest to discover the deepest cave on earth. Tabor describes what conditions are like inside supercaves like Cheve (-4,869 feet) and Krubera (-7,188 feet), before discussing Stone and his far-reaching technological innovations. These include the Posideon Discovery Rebreather and NASA's ENDURANCE. Extreme caving probably won't remain underground (so to speak) much longer, however. The article notes that James Cameron is planning to release a 3D film next year about extreme cave divers."

Comment Re:escalators too (Score 1) 698

by Samah (#32834864) Attached to: Should Cities Install Moving Sidewalks?

I'm trying to remember the last time I saw someone (besides me) walking up an escalator. They are there for convenience, after all, not for helping you get somewhere faster.

Funny you should say that actually, since I'm trying to remember the last time I saw someone (besides me) standing still on an escalator. Mind you in Australia we're all on our way to meet Saxton Hale and his endless supply of Australium, so we have little time to waste.
Crime

Things You Drink Can Be Used To Track You 202

Posted by timothy from the don't-hate-me-because-I'm-a-beautiful-spy dept.
sciencehabit writes with an intriguing story about the potential of figuring out where people have been by examining their hair: "That's because water molecules differ slightly in their isotope ratios depending on the minerals at their source. Researchers found that water samples from 33 cities across the United State could be reliably traced back to their origin based on their isotope ratios. And because the human body breaks down water's constituent atoms of hydrogen and oxygen to construct the proteins that make hair cells, those cells can preserve the record of a person's travels. Such information could help prosecutors place a suspect at the scene of a crime, or prove the innocence of the accused." Or frame someone by slipping them water from every country on the terrorist watchlist.
Education

Science Historian Deciphers Plato's Code 402

Posted by kdawson from the rewriting-the-foundations-of-western-civ dept.
Reader eldavojohn tips the news of a researcher in the UK, Jay Kennedy, who has uncovered a hidden code in the writings of Plato. From the University of Manchester press release: "[Dr. Kennedy said] 'I have shown rigorously that the books do contain codes and symbols and that unraveling them reveals the hidden philosophy of Plato. This is a true discovery, not simply reinterpretation.' ... The hidden codes show that Plato anticipated the Scientific Revolution 2,000 years before Isaac Newton, discovering its most important idea — the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. ... Plato did not design his secret patterns purely for pleasure — it was for his own safety. Plato's ideas were a dangerous threat to Greek religion. He said that mathematical laws and not the gods controlled the universe. Plato's own teacher [Socrates] had been executed for heresy. Secrecy was normal in ancient times, especially for esoteric and religious knowledge, but for Plato it was a matter of life and death." Here is the paper (PDF), which was published in the journal Apeiron: A Journal of Ancient Philosophy and Science.

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