I am a self-taught programmer and I have been programming for over 12 years. I started my interest in programming when I was 12, but wouldn't consider myself into programming until I was 14.

When I was 12, I got a C++ programming book and went through it fairly quickly. My interest was in developing video games like Doom, Quake, etc. At the time I was young and lacked the knowledge or dedication to look into this any further and became attached to HTML/JavaScript, PHP and AS2/3 as a web developer and 2d/3d animator/modeler/artist.

Slightly off-topic bg info: I actually went to school for Media Arts and Animation(Where I flunked out with 1 class to graduate due to financial issues and turned to programming permanently) and while I did take a couple minor programming courses based on AS2, I found that I already knew more than the teachers at my school on the subject from reading through the docs when I was 15-18 and ended up serving as a tutor in the classes(as I did in virtually all classes with nearly straight A's and still unable to graduate from final class, almost laughable if it hadn't cost so much) even though I would now consider my knowledge of AS2 at the time to be infantile. I should have expected as much since the school was dedicated to art students, many of whom could barely work a computer.

Back to the subject: I think the best way to get a new person into programming would be to teach them the fundamentals of object oriented programming first and make sure that it is taught around something they are interested in. For example, if the noobie is interested in games I would suggest teaching them to program in UnrealScript - Unreal Engine 3 - UDK or XNA Game Studio 3.1. If he is into 2d graphics and animation try AS3 or Silverlight(I do not really have experience with Silverlight past a few documentation glimpses and tutorials). If he just likes dealing with data try PHP/MySQL.

The important thing here is to make sure that he grasps the techniques needed to produce reliable, extend-able, clean and well documented object-oriented code. If he's really interested in programming he's probably already good with math and will pick up on the algebraic and geometrical side of things easily in school math classes and be able to relate them to the object-oriented ideas you have already instilled in him allowing him to be able to generate code producing quick visual results with any of the previously suggested packages. All of the languages I have suggested are extremely well documented.

I hope I have been helpful.

Of course if the OP was talking about reconstruction of audio, picture or video, there is already software that will do that for you.

You obviously don't understand the mechanics of computer programming. A computer attempting to execute a backed up program can not possibly view a file in this manner and attempt to show you 'noise' because the computer is missing an instruction in it's likely already compiled code and without being the actual programmer or having access to the original source code good luck knowing what instruction is actually missing.

This is assuming that all bacteria isn't burned up and killed in our atmosphere before becoming the dust trail we have spotted. They would have to test samples from the actual dust trail to know if there is living life exiting our planet and being sent across galaxies.

If you were referring to the bible, perhaps it would be better if you used the term history stories instead.

How can Microsoft possibly conclude that Malware is a greater threat to pirated PCs from the previously quoted data? Obviously the US has a higher infection rate than China, with the US being at 8.2 per thousand and China only at 6.7.

If it were me analyzing the data I'm afraid I would have to conclude that users who use windows update more often and use official copies of windows(US users) are more likely to receive a malware infection than users on pirated copies without using windows update(China).

I guess I deserve a job at Microsoft if I'm able to better comprehend the statistics than they are, assuming the numbers from this article are even true.

I would hope the father would have more experience with what an erection is than his wife. I suppose the mother could be a doctor, nurse, whore or porn star.

I agree and I base my entire mood on the smells of the locations I have been to during my day.

For instance, if I go into a gas station bathroom during my day I am liable to become completely enraged or possibly even suicidal at the thought of the acts previously taken in order to create such smells.

Depending upon how bad the smells were, I may even kidnap a child or go on a shooting rampage because of them.

On the other hand if I journey to a flower shop and take in the 'wonderful' scents of flowers and the unneeded perfumes I am likely to smell emanating from the woman behind the counter I will go even crazier due to my allergies and form some sort of murderous coalition or cult.

As you can clearly see, this proves smells have a great effect on emotions and the actions taken because of them.

Do not try to purchase the chip. That's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth...

What truth?

There is no chip.

For the record, I am not saying that we should get rid of and change the entire judicial system.

I am simply saying that more laws are not the answer to freedom and a peaceful and tolerant society.

We don't need more laws, we need fewer better ones.

I believe having a single law state: 'You can not harm or make contact with another individual or their property without their prior consent.' would fit any necessary situation in the United States if it truly is a free country.

Once again you are twisting everything I say into something else.

Obviously they would have to be found guilty of the crime first and as stated the punishment would have to be equal to the crime. This can be insured by a governing body of officials that approved the final decisions of the jury.

You were unable to even come up with an example where my law would not be effective.

You would have to actually cause harm to another individual or their property in order to be punished under these laws.

We would be able to retain our jail system and even use similar time-based punishments for crimes.

When did I say this? Stop attempting to put your foolish words in my mouth please.

Are you saying that one's punishment isn't currently decided on by a jury of peers or judge? It is mind-numbingly absurd that you attempted to discredit me by bringing the demographics or psychological state of a person into account as though they do not have weight in the current state of laws.

Obviously you would still need some sort of judicial system to decide on a punishment fitting for the crime. I suppose I should not have used the words 'eye for an eye', I should have said that the punishment should fit the crime and should be decided upon on an individual basis by a jury of peers. I definitely used the wrong terminology.

Selling anything to anyone is not harming them as long as the ingredients listed are the true ingredients. If somebody is stupid enough to purchase gasoline and then start guzzling it without first finding the necessary facts about what gasoline does to your system then that is their own fault. Same goes for people supplying their babies with formula as in your example.

The simple fact is that people need to stop using other people's stupidity as an excuse for their own.

On the other hand, if the seller were to not list that gasoline was in the baby formula that you bought then he of course would be punished for harming your child.

You, just like everybody else, are accustomed to there being holes in the system, because this is what allowing for an infinite number of laws creates.

There are no holes in the law I proposed so long as you take on the situation at hand with a rational mindset and do not try to contort it into something it is not.

Both copyright and law systems in all countries are completely flawed. As we continue to add more laws the system becomes increasingly complex and convoluted.

The only real solution would be to break everything down into a much simpler set of laws that do not require changing and do not require any other laws to be added onto them.

For example, in the US there are laws in effect that if completely enforced would turn well over 50% of our population into official criminals. Unofficially I'm sure 99.9% of Americans have done something 'unlawful'. As with every other country I'm sure.

Here is the only law I see us needing:

1. Do not physically harm or come in contact with any individual or their property without consent.

Punishment? It should match whatever the crime was, an eye of an eye.

Sorry all you greedy companies out there, property is physical. Due to the internet distribution of information is now free. You can't stop us from expanding our minds or from experiencing a video game or music that we can't otherwise afford.

The anti-cheating technologies in SC2 will be up to you if the friends list and Battle.Net2 works as they have planned. They plan on implementing a friends list like steam or wow has and it will even be integrated with some in-game features(wow friends list, creating raids outside of wow, etc.).

This means, if somebody is a hacker you will most likely be able to add them to a blacklist and just never play with them again. The alternative method is to make new friends and just don't play with people that are not on your friends list and that you do not know and trust. Hackers only ruin your game if you force yourself to keep playing with them.

Here is a link to some information about BNet2 from IGN:

http://pc.ign.com/articles/101/1017149p1.html

Blizzard has a secret society of gnomes that sneak into SC owner's houses at night and steal the discs.

A recent study showed that Blizzard would have made only 25% of it's recorded profits if they had not deployed the gnomes.