April 2015 Learn More Links

Links from the bottom of all the April 2015 articles, collected in one place for you to print, share, or bookmark.

Why Do Designers Hate Comic Sans?

https://www.kidscodecs.com/why-designers-hate-comic-sans/

Comic Sans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_Sans

Vince Connare

http://www.connare.com/
https://twitter.com/VincentConnare

Why Comic Sans

Connare’s history of creating Comic Sans
http://www.connare.com/whycomic.htm

Fonts Included in Microsoft Products

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/

Dezeen Interview with Vincent Connare

http://www.dezeen.com/2014/11/27/vincent-connare-typography-interview-comic-sans-ms/

Higgs Boson Announcement Made in Comic Sans

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/04/higgs-boson-discovery-comic-sans_n_1648494.html

Pope Benedictus XVI Tribute

His resignation letter is on page 61 of this document, published in Comic Sans.
http://www.vatican.va/bxvi/omaggio/index_en.html

Why You Hate Comic Sans

Excellent and detailed technical description of the problems with Comic Sans, with an emphasis on lost kitten posters.
http://kadavy.net/blog/posts/why-you-hate-comic-sans/

What is wrong with Comic Sans?

http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/38226/what-is-wrong-with-comic-sans

What’s So Wrong with Comic Sans?

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-11582548

Can Anything Save Comic Sans, the World’s Most Hated Font?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerhard-bachfischer/comic-sans-font_b_5188026.html

Not My Type: Why the Web Hates Comic Sans

http://mashable.com/2012/10/03/comic-sans-history/

New Study Explains Why Comic Sans Font So Hilarious

From The Onion, with cheap shots at WingDings and Papyrus tossed in.
http://www.theonion.com/video/new-study-explains-why-comic-sans-font-so-hilariou,21202/

Comic Sans Cartoon

https://imaginaryanomaly.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/comic-sans/

Comic Sans Criminal

http://www.comicsanscriminal.com/

Ban Comic Sans Website

http://bancomicsans.com/main/

Top 10 Most Notoriously Hated Fonts

http://www.topdesignmag.com/top-10-most-notoriously-hated-fonts/

There is Nothing Wrong with Comic Sans

The one site I found which supported the font.
https://eamann.com/tech/theres-nothing-wrong-with-comic-sans/

Comic Sans

Try out the font with your own words and phrases at My Fonts.
https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/microsoft/comic-sans/

Letterform (Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterform

Typography (Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography

Felt Tip Roman Font

https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/marksimonson/felt-tip-roman/
https://typekit.com/fonts/felt-tip-roman

CrimeFighter BB Font

A great source for informal handwritten comic book fonts better designed than Comic Sans.
http://www.blambot.com/

Variables, Constants, and Data Types

https://www.kidscodecs.com/variables-constants-data-types/

Pen and Paper Coding

https://www.penpapercoding.com

Erik Linde

https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=936246

The 10 Principles of Good Web Design for Developers

https://www.kidscodecs.com/10-principles-of-good-web-design-for-developers/

Mitch Boyer

https://twitter.com/mrmitchboyer
https://instagram.com/mrmitchboyer/
http://mitchboyer.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrmitchboyer

The Flatiron School

http://flatironschool.com
http://flatironschool.com/web

The 10 Principles of Good Web Design for Developers

http://blog.flatironschool.com/post/103222909668/the-10-principles-of-good-web-design-for

Dieter Rams

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams#Dieter_Rams:_ten_principles_for_good_design
http://design.designmuseum.org/design/dieter-rams
https://www.vitsoe.com/us/about/dieter-rams

An Interview with Joe Dytrych and Dee Saigal, Creators of Erase All Kittens

https://www.kidscodecs.com/an-interview-with-joe-dytrych-dee-saigal/

Erase All Kittens

https://eraseallkittens.com/
https://twitter.com/EraseAllKittens

Drum Roll HQ

http://drumrollhq.com/
https://twitter.com/DrumRollHQ
http://drumrollhq.com/blog/
http://drumrollhq.com/a-festive-update-from-tarquin-glitterquiff/

Joe Dytrych

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/joe-dytrych/a3/aa8/5b1
https://twitter.com/SomeHats

Dee Saigal

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/dee-saigal/32/1b4/354
https://twitter.com/deesaigal

Learn Typography Online

https://www.kidscodecs.com/learn-typography-online/

The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

http://webtypography.net/
http://webtypography.net/toc/

Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton

http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/
https://twitter.com/ellenlupton

Skillshare Typography Courses

http://www.skillshare.com/search?query=typography

Typography That Works: Typographic Composition and Fonts

A free basic typography course on Skillshare taught by Ellen Lupton.
http://www.skillshare.com/classes/design/Typography-That-Works-Typographic-Composition-and-Fonts/1694217981?refId=4452958

Lynda.com Typography Courses

http://www.lynda.com/search?q=typography

HackDesign

https://hackdesign.org/lessons/8 (Typography in Practice, and Where to Go From Here)
https://hackdesign.org/lessons/2 (Dive into Typography)

KernType

For best results, click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab top right to learn the correct way to play the game.
http://type.method.ac/

ShapeType

http://shape.method.ac/

Maggie Appleton

http://maggieappleton.com/
http://www.quora.com/Maggie-Appleton
http://www.quora.com/Maggie-Appleton/answers

Letterform (Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterform

Typography (Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typography

Help Build Applications Online

https://www.kidscodecs.com/help-build-applications-online/

Assembly.com Website

https://assembly.com
https://assembly.com/help/basics
https://assembly.com/about
https://assembly.com/terms
http://blog.assembly.com/

Assembly.com Meta Pages

This URL lets you see how Assembly manages its own business using the website.
https://assembly.com/meta/bounties

Swift Programming Language

https://www.kidscodecs.com/swift-programming-language/

Swift

https://developer.apple.com/swift/
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/swift/conceptual/Swift_Programming_Language/GuidedTour.html
https://developer.apple.com/swift/resources/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swift_%28programming_language%29

Swift Inspirations

http://www.nondot.org/sabre/
http://lighttable.com/2014/06/10/light-table-and-apples-swift/
http://lighttable.com/2012/06/24/its-playtime/
http://vimeo.com/36579366 (Bret Victor)
http://vimeo.com/66085662 (Bret Victor)

Why Apple's Swift Language Will Instantly Remake Computer Programming

http://www.wired.com/2014/07/apple-swift/

Why Coders Are Going Nuts Over Apple's New Programming Language

http://www.wired.com/2014/06/apple-swift-language/

The One Last Thread Holding Apple and Google Together

Describes how Google and Apple both use LLVM to run apps on their operating systems.
http://www.wired.com/2013/07/apple-google-llvm/all/

Building Your First Swift App

https://developer.apple.com/swift/blog/?id=16

Introduction to the Swift Programming Language

http://www.sitepoint.com/introduction-swift-programming-language/

Swift Tutorial: A Quick Start

http://www.raywenderlich.com/74438/swift-tutorial-a-quick-start
http://www.raywenderlich.com/74904/swift-tutorial-part-2-simple-ios-app

6 Best Free Swift Tutorials for Apple's New Programming Language

http://www.skilledup.com/learn/programming/6-best-free-swift-tutorials-programming-new-language/

Objective-C

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objective-C
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/ProgrammingWithObjectiveC/Introduction/Introduction.html

Cocoa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_%28API%29
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/navigation/#section=Frameworks&topic=Cocoa%20Layer
http://www.cocoadevcentral.com/

Cocoa Touch

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_Touch
http://developer.apple.com/technologies/ios/cocoa-touch.html
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/Miscellaneous/Conceptual/iPhoneOSTechOverview/iPhoneOSTechnologies/iPhoneOSTechnologies.html%23//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007898-CH3-SW1

50 Tools and Resources for Swift Programming

http://www.computersciencezone.org/swift-programming-language-tools/

Design Patterns and Anti-Patterns

https://www.kidscodecs.com/design-patterns-anti-patterns/

Software Design Patterns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_design_pattern
http://sourcemaking.com/design_patterns

Software Design Anti-Patterns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-pattern
http://sourcemaking.com/antipatterns

Model-View-Controller Pattern

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model%E2%80%93view%E2%80%93controller

Design Patterns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_pattern

Code Golf

https://www.kidscodecs.com/code-golf/

CodingBat

Probably a great place to start with Java and Python problems. Includes a box to type in your solution plus answers and link to help with relevant parts of each language.
http://codingbat.com/

Code Golf (Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_golf

Anarchy Golf: All Problems

Problems in many different languages. You can upload your solution for a score.
http://golf.shinh.org/all.rb

StackExchange Code Golf

These problems are considered off-topic but easily found with the code-golf tag.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/code-golf
http://codegolf.stackexchange.com/

Reddit Code Golf

https://www.reddit.com/r/codegolf

What Code Golf Taught Me about Python

By Louis Brandi, provides some insights into the strengths and limits of code golf.
http://lbrandy.com/blog/2008/09/what-code-golf-taught-me-about-python/

Programming and Logic Puzzles

Beyond code golf are sites with lots of programming problems to test your skills and knowledge, for beginners to expert coders.
http://www.billthelizard.com/2009/06/programming-and-logic-puzzles.html

Squeezing a playable chess program into 487 bytes

And beyond programming problems to test your skills are big problems like coding entire applications in the smallest amount of code possible. Here’s a chess program written in 1-2 kilobytes (your average video game is tens of megabytes in size, if not bigger).
http://1kchess.an3.es/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/01/squeezing-a-playable-chess-program-into-487-bytes/

Online Security Tips

https://www.kidscodecs.com/online-security-tips/

How to Keep Your Personal Information Secure (US FTC)

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0272-how-keep-your-personal-information-secure

Internet Fraud (USA.gov)

http://www.usa.gov/Citizen/Topics/Internet-Fraud.shtml

National Cyber Security Alliance

https://www.staysafeonline.org/

Be Safe on the Internet

http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Safe-on-the-Internet

The secret to staying safe online (BBC)

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141010-the-secret-to-staying-safe-online

How to Make Your Entire Internet Life More Secure in One Day

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-make-your-entire-internet-life-more-secure-in-on-1348598911

How to Stay Secure Online

http://lifehacker.com/5714296/how-to-stay-secure-online

9 Things You Absolutely Must Do to Keep Your Online Identity Secure

http://gizmodo.com/5932663/9-things-you-absolutely-must-do-to-keep-your-online-identity-secure

Tips to Protect Yourself from Online Fraud

https://www.team-cymru.org/tips.html

Secure Your Online Accounts by Removing Third Party App Access

Includes links to Google, Dropbox, and other services.
http://www.howtogeek.com/198673/secure-your-online-accounts-by-removing-third-party-app-access/

Google Android Device Manager

https://www.google.com/android/devicemanager
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Responsible-Tech/2013/0805/Google-unveils-Android-equivalent-of-Find-My-iPhone

Windows Find My Phone Service

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/how-to/wp8/settings-and-personalization/find-a-lost-phone
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/how-to/wp7/basics/find-a-lost-phone

How to Keep Your Business Information Secure

http://guides.wsj.com/small-business/technology/how-to-keep-your-business-information-secure/

Survey: Hardly Anybody Uses a Password Manager

http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/security-software/332517-survey-hardly-anybody-uses-a-password-manager
http://www.roboform.com/blog/password-security-survey-results

Dropbox

https://www.dropbox.com

Box

https://www.box.com/

SpiderOak

https://spideroak.com/

LastPass

https://lastpass.com/

Dashlane

https://www.dashlane.com/

1Password

https://agilebits.com/onepassword

Roboform

http://www.roboform.com/

10 Million Passwords

https://www.kidscodecs.com/10-million-passwords/

Today I am Releasing 10 Million Passwords

https://xato.net/passwords/ten-million-passwords/#.VPKCJXbl8yA

The Strange Case of Barrett Brown

http://www.thenation.com/article/174851/strange-case-barrett-brown

Adding 105 Charges Against Barrett Brown

http://www.dmlp.org/blog/2013/adding-105-charges-against-barrett-brown

Facebook Now Actively Seeks Password Leaks to Protect its Users

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/17/facebook-scans-password-leaks/

Mary Glendening Talks about Library Makerspaces as Community Technology Centers

https://www.kidscodecs.com/an-interview-with-mary-glendening/

Mary Glendening

https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mary-glendening/8/852/955/en
https://twitter.com/mglendening

CreateSpace

http://www.createspacemfl.com/
https://twitter.com/CreateSpaceMFL
https://www.facebook.com/createspacemfl
https://www.flickr.com/photos/createspacemfl
http://www.middletownfreelibrary.org/#!createspace/c20ax

Middletown Free Library

http://www.middletownfreelibrary.org

Library Services and Technology Act

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/advleg/federallegislation/lsta
http://www.imls.gov/

MakeyMakey

http://www.makeymakey.com/
https://www.kidscodecs.com/makey-makey-projects/

Squishy Circuits

http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/

Paper Circuits

http://tinkering.exploratorium.edu/paper-circuits

3D Systems MakerLab Club

http://www.3dsystems.com/zh/education/partnersandresources/makerlab-club

littleBits Korg Synth Kit

http://littlebits.cc/kits/synth-kit
http://littlebits.cc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4th8p0jSK9E

Our Makerspace Journey

Another makerspace journey, from a school in Tampa, Florida
http://renovatedlearning.com/our-makerspace-journey/
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2014/02/k-12/teen-tech-week-2014-computer-tear-downs-skyping-raspberry-pis/

Paul Gentile & Soldering Sundays Minecraft Circuits in Real Life kits

http://solderingsunday.com/
http://solderingsunday.com/pixel-pals-chip/
http://solderingsunday.com/projects-2/
http://solderingsunday.com/shop/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/solderingsunday/chip-an-electronics-kit-with-character?ref=card

Makerspaces and the Participatory Library

https://www.facebook.com/groups/librarymaker/

Technology Training and Libraries

https://www.facebook.com/groups/215892381802232/

Author

  • Tim Slavin

    Tim is an award-winning writer and technologist who enjoys teaching tech to non-technical people. He has many years experience with web sites and applications in business, technical, and creative roles. He and his wife have two kids, now teenagers, who are mad about video games.

Also In The April 2015 Issue

Why Do Designers Hate Comic Sans?

The history of the font and the reasons people hate Comic Sans are great ways to learn about typography.

Learn Typography Online

Learn typography online and practice basic typography skills.

The 10 Principles of Good Web Design for Developers

Design basics for developers who do not have a designer around to say "no comic sans!"

Mary Glendening Talks about Library Makerspaces as Community Technology Centers

Librarian Mary Glendening describes how they created their library makerspace.

An Interview with Joe Dytrych and Dee Saigal, Creators of Erase All Kittens

Learn how two people created a fun online game to teach HTML and CSS.

Swift

Apple's new Swift programming language is an interesting language to study and learn, plus an opportunity to watch a new language evolve.

A designer is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist.

Online Security Tips

How to create secure passwords, manage your email accounts, securely backup data, and more.

April 2015 News Wire

Interesting stories about computer science, software programming, and technology.

April 2015 Learn More Links

Links from the bottom of all the April 2015 articles, collected in one place for you to print, share, or bookmark.

Code Golf

Problems software programmers can do to practice their skills, from beginner to advanced.

Design Patterns and Anti-Patterns

How programmers use design patterns and anti-patterns to develop software.

Help Build Applications Online

This website lets anyone practice their coding and design skills.

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