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Comment HTML, CSS, JavaScript and progressive enhancement (Score 5, Informative) 387

by magic maverick (#46034095) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: It's 2014 -- Which New Technologies Should I Learn?

If you are already a programmer, or even if you're not, then there are three technologies that you should attempt to learn (or at least recognize and be able to say "yeah, OK, this makes a sorta sense"). These are HTML, CSS and JavaScript. HTML is the basis for web pages. It is what they are built upon. I suggest starting with HTML 4.01 (strict) and XHTML 1.1 (there are major differences that may not look like being major), and then moving onto HTML 5 (yet to be fully finalized). The older HTML should teach you some good habits, as should the XHTML (and while you're looking at XHTML, learn what XML is, and why XHTML exists). Then you need some style to make your pages look pretty. That means CSS. CSS is broad, and you can just learn the basics and pick up the more complicated stuff as you go along. (That basically means start with CSS 2, and learn "CSS 3" modules as and when you need them.) CSS is capable of doing a lot of stuff that previously required JavaScript.

JavaScript is not an essential. But you should know the basics. And most importantly, you should know two things, when not to use JavaScript, and what progressive enhancement is. (Progressive enhancement might also be called graceful degradation. It's basically the same thing, in the way that Open Source Source and Free Software are basically the same thing. There are philosophical differences, but they still do mostly the same thing.)
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And that's the web. Finished. You can go home now.

Oh, still with me? Yes, there is still more to learn. Learn PHP. "But I heard it's awful" you cry. And it may well be. But it's also probably the most popular backend web language. It's what major and widespread software is written in. WordPress, MediaWiki, Drupal, and others are all written in PHP. But, like with JavaScript, unless you want a job, you don't need to learn more than the basics. There are great docs that can help you with almost anything.

Similarly, learn SQL if you don't already. If you're learning PHP from scratch, use the PDO functions, then you can easily switch databases (and not be stuck on MySQL).
Also, learn how to wrangle an Apache .htaccess file, and especially redirects.

Next, I hear Ruby is getting a lot of press. Maybe learn some of that, and Ruby on Rails.
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Finally, and this is more important than Ruby on Rails, make sure you don't get hung up on pages looking the same in every browser. But do learn the fuck out of how to test in different browsers, and on different devices. And test the fuck out of your pages in different browsers. If you're page isn't readable in Lynx, maybe you need to do some reconsidering.

Comment Re:Marked as forfeited? (Score 3, Interesting) 408

by magic maverick (#45983687) Attached to: US Government To Convert Silk Road Bitcoins To USD

That would be an interesting point. However, there is no method currently in BitCoin to prevent seized bitcoins from being "spent" (transfered to another address). Nor, as far as I know, is there any wallet that would highlight that a particular bitcoin is "bad". So, if the gov. does it sensibly, they could easily sell off these bitcoins for cash. Hell, they could even just hold an auction rather than going through an exchange. They probably will do that. And they'll find someone willing to pay at least $10 a bitcoin (which is like 1% of the current value) because once they bitcoins have changed hands, they are easy to launder (or "mix") if not to just spend.

Submission + - Zerocoin Set To Become A Fully Anonymous Bitcoin Alternative (forbes.com) 1

Submitted by Sparrowvsrevolution
Sparrowvsrevolution writes: At the Real World Crypto conference earlier this week in New York, Johns Hopkins cryptography professor Matthew Green announced the next phase in the evolution of Zerocoin, an alternative cryptocurrency with a focus on perfect anonymity. The new coins will go into circulation in May in some sort of beta program, with their own miners, blockchain, and exchanges, just like Bitcoin. But unlike Bitcoin, Zerocoin is designed to be spent and received without revealing even a trace of a user’s identity.

Zerocoin, which began as an attempt to upgrade Bitcoin's codebase but is now being spun out into an independent cryptocurrency, use a decades-old mathematical scheme called a “zero-knowledge proof,” which makes it possible to prove that a mathematical statement is true without revealing the content of the computation. That means Zerocoins can act as sealed envelopes of cash that can be combined, split, or spent without either revealing the value of the cash inside those envelopes or their path through the network, all while still protecting against fraud and forgery.

Comment Re:oh come on (Score 4, Insightful) 375

Quite. This is merely a concept, not an actual working product.

It's certainly interesting, and I was all excited for a little bit, but there is no product here. There is no revolutionary scuba mask. (And if it is, I can mock up some pictures of a "revolutionary 'bird-wings'" that allows people to merely flap their arms and fly! Oh, on Earth.)

Submission + - Ask Slashdot: Best open source wiki/knowledgebase software for small business

Submitted by wbr1
wbr1 writes: I work for a small tech company that focuses on device repair, business IT support, hosted and managed services, as well as a few other tech niches. I am looking into setting up some sort of Wiki for in house knowledge. There are a couple of considerations that I am looking at. The primary one is ease of use/editing/maintenance. Nobody here has time to spend on a large learning curve just to edit articles. It would never get used. The second, and not as important, may be partitioning/permissions. At some point we may want to add articles for specific customers, or for all customers, and have some sort of granular permissions over who can not only edit, but view various articles. This would leave us with two main groups, shop and public, with the possible addition of smaller groups later. I have been doing some research, and cannot seem to find what I want, so I ask you my Slashdot siblings to bequeath your vast knowledge upon me.

Submission + - Senior Managers Are The Worst Information Security Offenders

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: As companies look for solutions to protect the integrity of their networks, data centers, and computer systems, an unexpected threat is lurking under the surface—senior management. According to a new survey, 87% of senior managers frequently or occasionally send work materials to a personal email or cloud account to work remotely, putting that information at a much higher risk of being breached. 58% of senior management reported having accidentally sent the wrong person sensitive information, compared to just 25% of workers overall.

Submission + - International Space Station life extended (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Times reports "Instead of splashing into the Pacific Ocean in 2020 as planned, the International Space Station will continue circling Earth for at least an additional four years, NASA announced on Wednesday. The cost of operating the station, about $3 billion a year, could then be devoted to the moon program.

However, it always seemed unlikely that the station, which was built at a cost of $100 billion and completed just three years ago, would be discarded that soon, and when the Obama administration announced it wanted to cancel the moon program, it gave the first extension, stretching the life of the station to 2020."

Submission + - The vitality of the brain aerobic glycolysis

Submitted by cusabio1
cusabio1 writes: The scientists found that the brains of adults there are still some areas to maintain the vitality of children in general , allowing the brain to form new neuronal connections . This mechanism can help us in adulthood continue to learn new skills , or to form new memories. Article published on January 7 in the journal Cell Metabolism Cell 's .

Washington University School of Medicine and the Allen Institute for Brain Science scientists , the level of gene activity in different regions of the brain were compared. They found that in some regions of the adult brain , and the new connection is established more related gene activity. Because these genes in early childhood brain also has a high activity , the researchers referred to as childlike genes.

"Compared with humans , such as chimpanzees and monkeys close relatives of these genes in the adult human brain is more active, " said first author of the article, the University of Washington ig4v1e4. Goyal said. "We found that the activity of these genes associated with a particular form of energy related production , while this form of energy production , to generate new biological structures provide support , such as generating new neurons needed to connect the new branch ." It is generally believed that nerve new connection cells responsible for the formation of new memories and skills.

Prior to this, the senior author of the paper , Professor Marcus Raichle studied brain glucose and oxygen consumption capacity mechanism , he noted that certain areas of the brain glucose consumption efficiency is particularly high. Studies show that these regions are actively aerobic glycolysis . " Aerobic glycolysis is a favorite fast-growing cancer cells and cells ," Goyal said.

In the new study , Raichle with the Allen Institute for Brain Science , Dr. Michael Hawrylycz cooperation . The construction of the Allen Institute for Brain Atlas human library , covering different age levels of gene activity in different brain regions .

Researchers use this database to analyze gene activity in the high aerobic glycolysis in brain regions . They found that these areas of childlike higher gene activity . In addition, the researchers also identified these areas more than one hundred highly active genes.

The researchers analyzed the data by some other studies indicated that aerobic glycolysis in the brain is more common in young children . "In the adult brain, aerobic glycolysis accounted for 10-12 % of total consumption of Human Proinsulin ELISA Kit , " he said. " In early childhood brain aerobic glycolysis can account for 30-40 % ."

Aerobic glycolysis is not the most efficient way to produce energy . But scientists believe that the rapid growth , the aerobic glycolysis is a better source of energy.

"Even in the adult brain, there is still the need to quickly change the area and this is the reason the adult brain is still using aerobic glycolysis ," Goyal said.

Next the researchers hope clear , be specific brain cells aerobic glycolysis , whether neurodevelopmental disorders or neurodegenerative diseases , such as autism, mental retardation , Alzheimer's psychosis.

"In the future we might be able to meet the metabolic requirements of the adult brain to establish new connections , the brain injury and neurodegenerative diseases treatment ," Goyal explained.
Australia

Submission + - Australian's premier group, CSIRO, apologises for lack of research into dragons (csironewsblog.com)

Submitted by Gumbercules!!
Gumbercules!! writes: The Australian federally funded research group, the CSIRO (the people who brought you wifi, among many other inventions) has apologised on their blog for the lack of research into dragons, after a seven year old girl wrote to them, asking for a pet dragon for Christmas.

While this is obviously a tongue in check response, it's still pretty nice to see a serious scientific research organisation making time to brighten people's worlds in small ways and being able to have a little fun.

Comment Re:And In An Unrelated News Story (Score 0) 37

by magic maverick (#45878215) Attached to: Bruce Schneier Becomes CTO of Co3 Systems

The sun never sets on the British Empire! It also never sets on the French Empire. I'm sure you could argue that it doesn't set on the Americunt Empire for that matter.

Personally, I make sure the sun never sets on me, and therefore there never is a sun rise, by fleeing west ahead of it. My birthday shall never end!

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