Nate LaClaire

52 Weeks of Code

// January 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // 52 Weeks of Code

I read in the January issue of Dream.In.Code’s newsletter about a challenge called “52 Weeks of Code” that the site has launched. From the site:

For the next 52 weeks we will challenge you, and you will challenge yourself, to become a better programmer. The goal is to broaden your knowledge and understanding of various languages, programming concepts, and techniques. This is not a competition between members. There are no winners or losers. It is simply meant to expose you to new languages, new concepts, and bleeding edge technologies and help you learn.

A new challenge will be posted to the forum each Monday and will be designed to encourage exploration of the topics covered. The challenges will not be limited to any specific area of development (such as Web, games, etc.). The site is inviting programmers to submit their own challenges. In fact, it looks like this week’s challenge is one that was submitted in this manner.

This looks like a fun way to explore some new technologies and to re-familiarize myself with (or further explore) some technologies that aren’t so new to me. I probably won’t be able to participate on a weekly basis, but look forward to participating throughout the year. If you’re so inclined, post a comment and let me know that you’re doing the same so that we can keep in touch about it!

PubSubHubbub

// December 28th, 2009 // 3 Comments » // Technology, Web Development

For the past few months, my blog has been participating in something called PubSubHubbub. Other than “something with a cool name,” what is PubHubSubbub? It is “a simple, open, server-to-server publish/subscribe protocol as an extension to Atom and RSS.” Using the protocol, servers are able to get near-instant notification of feed updates (feeds are used by blogs and other sites to notify subscribers of new content). Using traditional technology, feed consumers (such as feed readers) periodically poll servers (such as a blog’s web server) for feed updates. This process works, but it wastes bandwidth and other resources since checking is done whether or not updates are available, while also causing delayed notification since polling occurs infrequently. PubSubHubbub fixes this by allowing feed consumers to receive near-instant notification of feed updates. It turns the traditionally-pull-based feed technology into a push technology, so that bandwidth and other resources are only used when actual updates are available and subscribers receive updates almost immediately. PubSubHubbub is a distributed system that is free and decentralized, meaning that no company is at the center of controlling it and anyone can run a “hub,” the component that sits between publishers (such as servers running blogs) and subscribers (such as Google Reader). As you can see in the demo below, this technology enables services to provide a greater level of real-time notification.

The Fall Collection on Google Code University

// August 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Technology

Back-to-School usually means preparing new courses and topics. Educators as well as students are looking for exciting and fresh content. We are happy to announce that we are able to share some new additions to Google Code University’s repository of CS course materials just in time for the fall semester. As always, all of these course materials are Creative Commons licensed and can be reused and adapted to curricula at universities everywhere:

University of Southern California: Exercises on AJAX Programming

California Polytechnic State University: Lectures and lab exercises on Distributed Systems

University of Washington: Assignments on Distributed Systems

Please also check out our CS Resources page for updates on useful training materials.

But that’s not all! We want to encourage educators to contribute their great content to Google Code University. By implementing a submission form we hope to make the process easy and convenient. Just follow the big blue button on the homepage and tell us about your materials. We look forward to hearing from you!

By Andrea Held, Google Code University Team

via feedproxy.google.com

A great site for computer science students and educators from Google!

Posted via web from Nate’s posterous

What is a Browser?

// June 25th, 2009 // No Comments » // Technology, Web

This is scary, I tell you…

Lifestreaming the easy way

// December 3rd, 2008 // No Comments » // PHP

I recently discovered a new PHP/MySQL lifestream tool named Sweetcron. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of lifestreams, a lifestream simply displays posts you have made to your social networks, blogs, photo sites, etc. It displays a stream of content that is representative of your life, I suppose. I began playing around with lifestreams a few months ago after seeing Joe Tan’s lifestream. Although I really like the way Joe uses Yahoo! Pipes to create his lifestream, I am infinitely happier with Sweetcron.

If you have any PHP experience, you will find Sweetcron very easy to install. If you don’t, I imagine you can figure out the installation without too much difficulty. Simply create the database, change a few lines in a couple of files, upload the files, and complete the installation via the web. Adding new feeds to your lifestream is a snap. Once your feeds are added, you can manually initiate a feed check or wait for Sweetcron to automatically do it. Sweetcron’s feed fetcher prefers to be run automatically via Cron or a Cron-like tool, but the software provides its own “Pseudo Cron” in case you don’t have access to such a tool.

My own installation of Sweetcron uses the default theme, but it looks easy to customize the layout and I look forward to doing some of that and posting a follow-up.

By the way, Sweetcron was developed using the CodeIgniter PHP web application framework and provides a good demonstration of what CI can do. I have looked into CI before but never put a lot of time into it. I’m hoping to get to know it better now that I have seen it in action.

15 Minute SEO List

// November 29th, 2008 // No Comments » // Web Development

Kelvin Chan clued me into a fantastic page from webconfs.com that lists the best and worst practices for search engine optimization. Check it out here:
15 Minute SEO List – Learn how to SEO

Protecting against SQL injection in PHP

// November 26th, 2008 // No Comments » // PHP

MySQL’s DevZone provides chapter 3 of php|architect’s Guide to PHP Security for free download. The chapter explains how to protect your PHP applications from SQL injection. Download it now.

Get SitePoint’s “The Art & Science of CSS” for free!

// November 23rd, 2008 // No Comments » // Web Development

My absolute favorite web design and development resource publisher is giving away the PDF edition of The Art & Science of CSS, one of their many books. I haven’t read much of the book yet, but I like what I’ve seen so far. To take advantage of this terrific offer, go to Twitaway.com and follow SitePoint on Twitter or give SitePoint your email address. The offer only lasts another 9 days, so get it while you can!

Yahoo! BrowserPlus now available

// November 21st, 2008 // No Comments » // Javascript

As a follow-up to a previous post, I am excited to note that Yahoo! has released its BrowserPlus technology for general use! This looks like a promising technology and I look forward to playing around with it. I certainly won’t be using it in any client sites any time soon, but I can see it becoming useful in the future.

Yahoo! BrowserPlus

// July 24th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Javascript

Yahoo! recently released a “Sneak Peak” of BrowserPlus, “a technology for web browsers that allows developers to create rich web applications with desktop capabilities.” Perhaps “released” isn’t the right word – Yahoo! is providing the documentation along with a number of demos that utilize the technology, but they are not opening the technology for use by developers yet. BrowserPlus has promise and is a technology I will definitely be following.

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