Learn More Links for February 2014

An extensive Microsoft tutorial to show how to combine relational and NoSQL databases in a single application.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn271399.aspx

Why You Should Never Use MongoDB

While her title is overwrought, and inaccurate, this is a great description how people model data in the real world and how they work with technology. It also shows how non-relational databases are still young technology with limitations compared to older SQL databases which have a few decades of evolution and iteration behind them. Comments on this article also are interesting.
http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2013/11/11/why-you-should-never-use-mongodb/

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Database Normalization

https://www.kidscodecs.com/database-normalization/

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Database Normalization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283878
http://www.dbnormalization.com/
http://www.bkent.net/Doc/simple5.htm

Introduction to Relational (SQL) Databases

http://www.techopedia.com/definition/1234/relational-database-rdb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database

Introduction to NoSQL Databases

http://www.mongodb.com/learn/nosql
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/27689/nosql-database
http://www.techopedia.com/definition/25218/non-relational-database
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NoSQL

E.F. Codd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_F._Codd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codd%27s_12_rules

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What is Information Architecture?

https://www.kidscodecs.com/information-architecture-design/

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Information Architecture Defined

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_architecture
http://iainstitute.org/en/learn/resources/what_is_ia.php
http://www.webmonkey.com/2010/02/information_architecture_tutorial/
http://journalofia.org/volume3/issue2/03-resmini/
http://www.lynda.com/Web-User-Experience-tutorials/Foundations-UX-Information-Architecture/122427-2.html

IA Professional Organizations

http://iainstitute.org/

Publications

https://twitter.com/boxesandarrows
http://journalofia.org/

A/B Testing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A/B_testing
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/24/the-ultimate-guide-to-a-b-testing/

Card Sorting

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

Tree Testing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_testing
http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/tree-testing-ia.php

Cognitive Psychology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychology
http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/f/cogpsych.htm

Semiotics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiotics
http://users.aber.ac.uk/dgc/Documents/S4B/sem01.html

Measuring the Success Of a Classification System

Describes card sorting process but in a way that offers insight into how information architects work.
http://boxesandarrows.com/measuring-the-success-of-a-classification-system/

Information Architecture 101: Techniques and Best Practices

http://sixrevisions.com/usabilityaccessibility/information-architecture-101-techniques-and-best-practices/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/iainstitute
https://twitter.com/danklyn
https://twitter.com/resmini
https://twitter.com/Abby_the_IA
https://twitter.com/austingovella
https://twitter.com/helpkidscode/lists/information-architects
https://twitter.com/helpkidscode/information-architects/members

Taxonomy and Folksonomy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy

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A Short History of Lorem Ipsum

https://www.kidscodecs.com/a-short-history-of-lorem-ipsum/

Lorem Ipsum

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

Lorem Ipsum Generators

http://www.lipsum.com/
http://generator.lorem-ipsum.info/
http://www.ipsum-generator.com/
http://mashable.com/2013/07/11/lorem-ipsum/

Cicero’s De finibus bonorum et malorum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_finibus_bonorum_et_malorum
http://books.google.com/books?id=C0ZuoEMeeeAC&dq

How to Create Color Palettes

https://www.kidscodecs.com/how-to-create-color-palettes/

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Color Theory for Designers

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/28/color-theory-for-designers-part-1-the-meaning-of-color/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/02/color-theory-for-designers-part-2-understanding-concepts-and-terminology/
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/08/color-theory-for-designer-part-3-creating-your-own-color-palettes/

Practical Approach to Creating a Color Scheme

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/website-color-scheme/

3 Time-Tested Ways To Pick The Perfect Website Color Combination

http://blog.crazyegg.com/2011/12/30/pick-website-color-combination/
http://blog.crazyegg.com/2012/07/11/website-color-palettes/

Selecting Your Own Color Scheme

http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/design-theory/selecting-your-own-color-scheme/

True Colors: What Your Brand Colors Say About Your Business? (Infographic)

http://www.columnfivemedia.com/work-items/infographic-true-colors-what-your-brand-colors-say-about-your-business

Color Generators

https://kuler.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/
http://colorschemer.com/
http://www.colourlovers.com/photocopa
http://colorschemedesigner.com/
http://mobile.colorotate.org/

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docstrings

https://www.kidscodecs.com/docstrings/

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docstrings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Docstring

docstrings in Python

http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0257/
http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0258/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctest
http://docs.python.org/2/library/doctest.html
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/comp.lang.python/DfzH5Nrt05E/Yyd3s7fPVxwJ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pydoc
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphinx_%28documentation_generator%29
http://sphinx-doc.org/

Elixir

http://elixir-lang.org/

Clojure

http://clojure.org/

Markdown Syntax

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown
http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax

Documentation Generators

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_documentation_generators
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epydoc
http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/

Documentation from docstrings in Multiple Languages

http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/

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Interface Design Basics

https://www.kidscodecs.com/interface-design-basics/

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CS Unplugged: Human Interface Design (The Chocolate Factory)

http://csunplugged.org/human-interface-design

Common Ground: A Pattern Language for Human-Computer Interface Design

http://www.mit.edu/~jtidwell/common_ground.html

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwitr/docs/idguide/

Human Computer Interaction (Coursera class)

https://www.coursera.org/course/hci

Open Classroom: Human Computer Interaction Design

http://openclassroom.stanford.edu/MainFolder/CoursePage.php?course=HCI

Don Norman: Designing for People

http://www.jnd.org

Affordances

http://youtu.be/NK1Zb_5VxuM
http://www.uxbooth.com/articles/foundations-of-affordances/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance

Affordance Photo Search on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=affordances&l=commderiv&ss=0&ct=0&mt=photos&w=all&adv=1

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Fizz-Buzz and Other Odd Questions

https://www.kidscodecs.com/fizz-buzz-and-puzzle-questions/

Manhole Covers

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhole_cover
http://www.flickr.com/groups/[email protected]/

How Would You Move Mount Fuji? Microsoft’s Cult of the Puzzle

http://books.google.com/books?id=hojAaIwFn9YC&printsec=frontcover

Using FizzBuzz to Find Developers who Grok Coding

http://imranontech.com/2007/01/24/using-fizzbuzz-to-find-developers-who-grok-coding/

How to Interview for Programming Jobs

http://www.kegel.com/academy/getting-hired.html
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/02/why-cant-programmers-program.html
http://www.codeslate.com/2007/01/you-dont-bury-survivors.html
http://readwrite.com/2008/07/22/top_10_concepts_that_every_software_engineer_should_know

How to Build a (Simple) Website

https://www.kidscodecs.com/how-to-build-a-simple-website/

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W3 Schools

While there are many online HTML reference sites, this one makes it easy to practice HTML.
http://www.w3schools.com/html/
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/

HTML Help by the Web Design Group

This site is a little ancient but it includes prior versions of HTML, if that is useful.
http://htmlhelp.com/

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JavaScript

https://www.kidscodecs.com/javascript/

JavaScript

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/About_JavaScript
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECMA_Script

Object Oriented JavaScript Reference Card

http://refcardz.dzone.com/refcardz/object-oriented-javascript

JavaScript Turns 18

resin.io/happy-18th-birthday-javascript/

Off Beat: Snow shoes versus Cross Country Skiing

https://www.kidscodecs.com/snowshoes-versus-cross-country-skiing/

Snow Shoe Videos

Which is better, snow shoes or cross country skis?
http://www.youtube.com/embed/0zDK6INAmas

Extreme Snow Shoeing
http://www.youtube.com/embed/F7b96bQfnjE

Learn How to Snow Shoe

http://www.snowshoemag.com/first-timers/
http://www.youtube.com/embed/bIylS8VFGcg

Learn How to Cross Country Ski

http://www.youtube.com/embed/p_HihVl7QKw

Best Places to Snow Shoe or Cross Country Ski?

http://matadornetwork.com/trips/10-places-to-snowshoe-in-north-america/
http://www.xcski.org/

Which Burns More Calories?

http://snowshoes.com/learn/40?category=8
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/12/get-a-better-winter-workout/index.htm

Snow Shoe Racing (Seriously)

http://www.snowshoeracing.com/

The DailyTekk.com 2012 List of Lists

http://dailytekk.com/2013/01/08/the-ultimate-life-hack-2013-200-life-enhancing-sites-services/

Last Words: What is Design?

https://www.kidscodecs.com/what-is-design/

Learning to See

http://ia.net/blog/learning-to-see/

Design Axioms

A great list with short explanations.
http://www.mit.edu/~juhan/design_axioms.html

7 Design Principles, Inspired by Zen Wisdom

And feel free to challenge and ignore every one of these… Simplicity can be an overrated fetish.
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1671947/7-design-principles-inspired-by-zen-wisdom

Designing User Interfaces for Your Mother

https://medium.com/design-ux/dd45ec50f7b0

The Dribblisation of Design

http://insideintercom.io/the-dribbblisation-of-design/

Why Subtraction is the Hardest Math in Product Design

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/01/the-simple-complex/

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.

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Also In The February 2014 Issue

Notebook

Summer 2014 Code and Technology Camps

It may be the middle of winter in the Northern Hemisphere but now might be a great time to start thinking about technology summer camps if you're a kid or have kids.

People

An Interview with Susan Kare

You’ve looked at and used Susan Kare’s work, or work inspired by hers, every time you use a computer. The garbage can icon and other taken for granted icons can be traced back to Kare’s icons on the first Macintosh computers.

Notebook

User Experience Designers

User experience design touches on all the ways people interact with software or hardware. This includes how people use technology, the hardware design, and documentation.

Best Practices

Database Design

How you store and retrieve data in a relational or NoSQL database depends on how well you design the database structure.

Notebook

How to Create Color Palettes

Here are several ways to create a color palette that looks professional for web sites and interfaces. It's not as easy as you might think.

Projects and Puzzles

Fizz-Buzz and Other Odd Questions

There are at least two types of questions coders might face in job interviews, fizz-buzz and puzzle questions. Both can be learned ahead of time.

Best Practices

Interface Design Basics

Interfaces are the primary way people work with computers and websites. Here are concepts used to design human interactions with computers.

History

A Short History of Lorem Ipsum

No discussion of design is complete without the history of lorem ipsum. It's more than placeholder text you stuff into a visual design.

Code Snippets

docstrings

Docstrings are special comments embedded in software code that survive compiling the code, for example, help text.

Concepts

Database Normalization

Relational databases need to have their data organized a certain way.

Concepts

What is Information Architecture?

When you think of architecture, you think buildings not information. However, information also needs careful design and structure in computing.

Language of the Month

JavaScript

JavaScript is a programming language and an historical artifact from the early internet conflicts between Netscape, Microsoft, and Sun for open standards.

News Wire

News Wire Stories for February 2014

Interesting stories about computer science, software programming, and technology for the months of December 2013 and January 2014. More stories can be found at the News Wire link at the top of of this site.

Projects and Puzzles

How to Build a (Simple) Website

Here is the simplest possible way to learn how to build a website, as well as how web pages and websites work.

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Learn More Links