News Wire Stories for February 2014
Image by Kevin Dooley on Flickr
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.
Is the Universe Made of Math?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-the-universe-made-of-math-excerpt
The Art of Box Making
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/31/the-art-of-box-making/
http://inventorartist.com/box-making/
A Kids' Book Where Every Character Can Be 3-D Printed
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/12/characters-come-alive-in-this-3-d-printable-book/?viewall=true
Why Do Most Programming Languages only Return a Single Value from a Function?
It Works! A Tiny Speaker Printed on a Single Sheet of Paper
http://www.wired.com/design/2013/12/a-tiny-speaker-made-out-of-paper/?viewall=true
As Engineers, We Must Consider the Ethical Implications of our Work
Engineers are behind government spying tools and military weapons. We should be conscious of how our designs are used.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/05/engineering-moral-effects-technology-impact
Exploring Canvas Drawing Techniques [in HTML5/JavaScript]
http://perfectionkills.com/exploring-canvas-drawing-techniques/
To What Extent Do We See with Mathematics?
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/11/27/to-what-extent-do-we-see-with-mathematics/
How Do Languages Count? And Are Languages with Restricted Number Systems "Primitive"?
JavaScript has problems. Do we need Dart to solve them?
http://arstechnica.com/business/2011/10/javascript-has-problems-can-googles-dart-solve-them/
Why More Women Conference Speakers?
http://www.ultrasaurus.com/2014/01/women-conference-speakers/
Raspberry Pi and Primary Computing
Excellent comparison of the Pi in classrooms with alternatives.
http://www.simonhaughton.co.uk/2014/01/raspberry-pi-and-primary-computing.html
Internet Users Ditch "password" as Password, Upgrade to "123456"
Contest for most commonly used terrible password has a new champion: 123456.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/internet-users-ditch-password-as-password-upgrade-to-123456/
The Whole Story Behind Low AP CS Exam Stats
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/14/01/20/1319213/the-whole-story-behind-low-ap-cs-exam-stats
Author
Also In The February 2014 Issue
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.
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.
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.
Database Design
How you store and retrieve data in a relational or NoSQL database depends on how well you design the database structure.
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.
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.
Interface Design Basics
Interfaces are the primary way people work with computers and websites. Here are concepts used to design human interactions with computers.
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.
docstrings
Docstrings are special comments embedded in software code that survive compiling the code, for example, help text.
Database Normalization
Relational databases need to have their data organized a certain way.
What is Information Architecture?
When you think of architecture, you think buildings not information. However, information also needs careful design and structure in computing.
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 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.
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 for February 2014
Links from the bottom of all the February 2014 articles, collected in one place for you to print, share, or bookmark.
