Tag Archives for programming

Information Overload | April 12, 2012

This installment of IO is science & technology themed!

Lots of good stuff in the news this week, so I’m doing another IO to share some of the best.

Can journalism be more scientific? | Read Write Web

I really like this article because it’s something I think about often. As an academic whose research is primarily on science and technology, and also as an environmental journalist, I am constantly trying to ensure that the science I report on and write about is accurate. But as a journo, it’s also part of my job to convey ideas to a general readership who are probably not all experts in science. However, I think that if journos can approach their work with a researcher’s mentality—since I consider journalism to be another facet of research anyway… hence how I found myself as a journalist…—we can ultimately hold our readership to higher standards, and have more in-depth conversations about science.

Etsy Narrows the Gender Gap with a Coding Scholarship for Women | Good.is

This is so awesome. Good job, Etsy! I really think that these kinds of projects are going to help balance the gender gap in programming and computer science. I would kill to go toHackerSchoolfor three months; alas, I don’t get that much time off of work.

Build Your Own VPN to Pimp Out Your Gaming, Streaming, Remote Access, and Oh Yeah, Security | Lifehacker

Thinking about setting this up at home. Do you have a system like this? The setup seems pretty straightforward. I’m totally lazy when it comes to web security so it’s probably time that I step my game up a bit.

The First Universal Quantum Network | Slashdot

This is… kind of amazing, and kind of mindboggling.

8 things Instagram did right | Read Write Web

Count me in as an Instagram fangirl. I really do enjoy this app, but we’ll see what happens now that it’s in Facebook’s hands. Is anyone else getting really tired of Facebook? I want to stay connected to people, but the interface of Facebook feels so outdated compared to much snazzier apps and social networking sites available.

Information Overload | February 27, 2012

Ah, it’s a new week. I swear my weekends just fly by. One moment, I’m sitting at my desk on a Friday afternoon looking forward to hours of freetime, and the next, I’m back at my desk on a Monday morning wondering what the hell I spent my weekend doing. By my last post, you can probably tell that I spent much of it playing Mirror’s Edge. I also finished a book and started a new one, and I watched a video game orchestra rehearse for an upcoming show. And I watched the new episode of The Walking Dead and a few old episodes of Firefly. So I guess I was productive.

In other good news, it finally snowed! And it snowed a lot. I’m mostly just annoyed that it had to snow on a Monday morning rather than over the weekend when I could have stayed in my pajamas and enjoyed the weather on my balcony.


Anyway, here’s some cool stuff from the interwebs.

SCIENCE

Nature Editorial: If you want reproducible science, the software needs to be open source | ArstTechnica

This is an important part of the open source movement—allowing other researchers to replicate your work. Replication is a necessary part of the research process, and code should be accessible.

CULTURE

Everyday Carry | Reddit.com

So apparently, there’s a subculture of people who share the vital items they carry around with them every day. As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about this, I couldn’t believe that this is an actual thing. Ever since I was a kid, I loved having what I privately thought of as my “survival kit,” which doesn’t actually mean things required to help me survive, but things I use often and like to have with me. I might just do a separate blog post about this. The Verge does a cool feature where they interview someone and investigate the contents of their bag.

In any case, I love that the internet is filled with weirdos like me!

Smartass State Lawmaker Proposes Vasectomy Limits for men | Jezebel

I have just one word for this: ZING! Okay, I would never actually be anything close to okay with this sort of legislation, but in terms of satire, it’s a fucking great idea to turn the tables on the birth control/abortion issue just to demonstrate how crazy it all is to tell an entire gender what they can’t do with their bodies.

TECHNOLOGY

Should 3-year olds learn computer programming? | Good.is 

I think yes, because I think everyone should learn computer programming. I also strongly believe that young children are extreme capable of high level cognitive activities, so if we give them complex opportunities to learn, they will carry that into adolescence.

ART

Beef up your smartphone with these swappable lenses | Hello Android

I love my phone. I love taking pictures on my phone. I definitely need to get me some of these lenses!

We Love Phoneography 

Speaking of phone art, I was super excited to find this Tumblr since I’ve been so interested in mobile photography lately. Also, I’m thinking about switching photography apps—currently I use Pixlr, but I’m trying out Streamzoo and a few others to see if I like them better. I’ve only taken one picture of it so far. Android users, what’s your favorite photography app?

Have a great week!