Disable Java in your Browser (US-CERT)

IT News

The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) tells users to disable Java in browsers.  http://bit.ly/VR5uJT

How to disable Java in your web browser:

http://www.java.com/en/download/help/disable_browser.xml

Google Search

Improve your Google Search skills:

• Basic Search Help (Google)
• More Search Help (Google)
• Learn about Image search
• Complete List of Google Search features
• A Google a Day is a new daily puzzle that can be solved using your creativity and search skills on Google. Overview (from Google's official blog)
• 12 Ways To Be More Search Savvy (by Google’s “search anthropologist”)
• 18 Ways to Power Search Google

Google Miscellany

Google URL shortener.

Six Google Games to Keep you Entertained

Google Labs, 106 Things

Web Field Trip

Google on the Gorge: Web 2.0 Field Trip

CIS 110 Help Sessions Week 2

For students who missed their week 1 lab or just want extra help, you are welcome to attend one of more Help Sessions.

110 Help Sessions Week 2 (10/1 - 10/5)

4-5pm MTWRF B90CD Onyx Bridge (Science Library)

Note that if no one shows up during the first 10 minutes the session is cancelled.

Getting to B90CD Ony.

Flying Math: Bees Solve Traveling Salesman Problem

From Wired Science, 09-21-2012. Bumblebees foraging in flowers for nectar are like salesmen traveling between towns: Both seek the optimal route to minimize their travel costs.

Mathematicians call this the “traveling salesman problem,” in which scientists try to calculate the shortest possible route given a theoretical arrangement of cities. Bumblebees, however, take the brute-force approach:

For them, it’s simply a matter of experience, plus trial and error, scientists report.

Apollo Guidance Computer

This is the type of computer that went to the moon in the Apollo missions from 1969 to 1972.

There was one computer in the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and one the mothership (CM) circling above. It was the first use of integrated circuits [chips]. It's cycle time was 1 Mhz, 11 instructions. It had 1K of 16 bit words of erasable (RAM) core memory and 12K of read-only memory (ROM). The ROM held the "Colossus 249" flight control software. There were no disks or tapes in the flight system.

How to build one in your basement, with many useful references.

Visualizing Data: The Data Journalism Handbook

The Data Journalism Handbook

"The Data Journalism Handbook is a free, open-source reference for anyone interested in the field of data journalism. It features contributions from over 70 of the leading global voices of authority and has now been released, remarkably only 6 months after its conception. It is a joint initiative between the European Journalism Centre and the Open Knowledge Foundation and is published by O’Reilly Media."

Everything You Never Knew About CSS Floats

What do floats really do anyway? How do they affect the box model of the elements involved? How do floated elements differ from inline elements? What are the specific rules governing the position of floated elements? How does the clear property work and what is it for?

Find out in this article from Design Shack.

Internet security: Keys to the Cloud Castle

Dropbox's service is more than adequate for most purposes, but it is not an appropriate place for CIT students to store RSA keys.

Read why in this May 2011 post on a blog at The Economist.

Survey of Software Developers, re: Tools

InfoGraphic: A survey of former Berkeley students now in the software industry concerning programming languages, etc.

Note that the leading development platform is cloud computing.

How is Publishing Changing in the Digital Age?

Interview w/ Clay Shirky, Professor of Interactive Telecommunications, NYU.

Excerpt:

"Publishing is not evolving. Publishing is going away. Because the word “publishing” means a cadre of professionals who are taking on the incredible difficulty and complexity and expense of making something public. That’s not a job anymore. That’s a button. There’s a button that says “publish,” and when you press it, it’s done."

"In ye olden times of 1997, it was difficult and expensive to make things public, and it was easy and cheap to keep things private. Privacy was the default setting. We had a class of people called publishers because it took special professional skill to make words and images visible to the public. Now it doesn’t take professional skills. It doesn’t take any skills. It takes a Wordpress install."

Do you agree with this definition of publishing? Which professional skills do you think are "no longer required"?

H.L. Mencken said “freedom of the press is limited to those who own one”. How would you update this?

What do Facebook and Budweiser have in Common?

Neither has a woman on their Board of Directors:

• Antisocial Social Media Stocks – Are Women In The Boardroom?
  
• Does Your Company Lack This Valuable Asset?