JavaScript for Kids is for kids, but also for adults who don't know anything about coding and want to learn. The author, Nick Morgan, is a front-end programmer at Twitter, and he does a great job of clearly presenting programming concepts like data types, control structures, functions strings, arrays, loops. Nothing is dumbed down. You'll also learn jQuery to make interactive web pages, and Canvas to create graphics. Along the way you'll write several computer games.
Collapse OS is an operating system that no-one should ever have to use. It's designed to be useful after worldwide catastrophe destroys human civilization: able to run on junk and easy to work with, assuming a modicum of computer science skill and a copy of the classics. Winter is coming and Collapse OS aims to… READ THE REST
Apple's hardware engineering chief, Dan Riccio, is planning to step down to oversee a new project, the company announced Monday, providing no further details on the longtime executive's latest role. Could this be related to the iPhone maker's foray into self-driving car technology? Your guess in the Boing Boing BBS. From Reuters: Riccio will report… READ THE REST
Here's a fun quiz that finds a delightful semiotic contact point in the late 20th century, the golden age of serial killers and computer scientists. "Can you tell a coder from a cannibal?" I confess that I mistook Dorothea Puente (~15 dead) for Grace Hopper (theorist of high-level programming languages). READ THE REST
While we can't seem to agree on much as a nation these days, there's one thing that the past year has helped us all come to terms with — laptop cameras are not very good. From low resolutions to gauzy filters to some less-than-perfect light adjustment levels, the cams built right into our devices don't… READ THE REST
Headphone people generally fall into two camps. There are the dedicated audiophile types who have no problem rocking full over-ear cups to help drink in every morsel of the sound. Then…there's the rest of us. For us, we want great sound too. We just don't want to feel like we're wearing a 5-pound helmet over… READ THE REST