internet

  • April 10, 2009

    What I Learned in College

    College Life

    Over at Nettuts, they’ve posted an article titled, “Should You Attend University for Web Development”. Reading the article, I found it pretty interesting that a lot of people feel college isn’t necessary for web development and that their schools are behind the times when it comes to web development. I’m not going to defend my school and say it’s totally up-to-date, because it’s not. I do feel however, that that’s the nature of the beast when dealing with web development and computer science in general. As I wind down in the Masters program, set to graduate in May, I can tell you these two things after six year of college: the CS program should not be about the what but the how, and college is just as much a social thing as it is an academic thing.

    First, let’s focus on the academics. Computing, no matter what your focus, is an ever changing field. It would be impossible for every school to stay on top of every technology is out there. I’m not being an apologist, I am speaking the truth. The idea should not be, “I’m learning C#,” or “I’m learning PHP.” It should be, “I’m learning how to program, using PHP.” I learned what Object Oriented Programming is and I can apply that to any language. I’ve learned the semantics of an imperative and a declarative language. I learned algorithms, and should be able to implement them as long as I know how certain language behaves, and I’ve learned how to teach myself that. Heck, my school doesn’t even have a web development major, and I consider myself a damn good web developer.

    Beyond that, you learn the social skills you should have whether your profession be computer scientist, web developer, engineer, etc. There is a huge focus in our program on team building and communication. Human interaction isn’t something Google can teach you (yet). In our Masters program (in Software Engineering) we learn about process, eliciting requirements, etc. While you can learn some of this stuff with experience, hearing about it in a classroom certainly expedites the process.

    But college isn’t just about academics. I will attribute a good amount of my social skills, professionalism, and 90% of my connections to going to college. I got involved in extracurriculars, networked, and made some amazing friends that challenged my way of thinking and got me to try new things. Again, that isn’t something you’re going to find on Google.

    College should not just be about teaching you X. It should teach you how to learn. You should get some leassons in being social. It should give you some experiences you can’t get anywhere else. Those who say, “I don’t need to go to college to be X,”  aren’t looking at the big picture and will never be the best at what they do.

  • March 31, 2009

    The Basics of Twitter

    twitter

    Now that I’ve convinced you to join Twitter, I wanted to talk about the basics of how to use it- terminology, features, etc. Are you ready? Ok.

    First of all, each time you add something to Twitter, it’s called an update or more commonly, a “tweet.” You tweet what you’re doing. Cute, I know. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s take a look at the more social aspects of tweeting.

    • Friend or Follow? You’re friends on Twitter are generally referred to as people that are either following you (getting your updates) or people you follow (you get their updates). Your followers will get your updates in their Friend Feed. Updates of people you follow will show up in yours. If you choose to make your updates private, only people that follow you (after being verified by you) will see your updates. Otherwise, they will also show up in the public timeline (or public feed), and they will be searchable.
    • @replies (recently renamed @mentions)- You can reply to someone’s tweet by starting a tweet with @username (at username). So, if you were to reply to me, it would be, “@jcasabona Great post about Twitter!” A mention is simply a tweet with at @reply somewhere else in the tweet. So, “Hanging out with @jcasabona” would be a mention. These specifically target a single user. That means even people that don’t follow you will see your @replies to them and vise versa.
    • DM– DM is short for “direct message” and it’s a way of privately messaging someone. Where @replies will show up in your updates, DMs do not.
    • RT– RT is short for retweet and it is when someone else reposts one of your tweets. So if I had a tweet that said, “Yankees Win!,” someone else could retweet it by writing, “RT @jcasabona Yankees Win!” It’s a way of giving credit where credit is due when you find something cool on Twitter.
    • #– This is a hash tag, and it  just might be my favorite part of Twitter. You would put the hash tag in front of terms you want to be easy to search for at search.twitter.com. For example, I could tweet, “Going to the game #yankees.” This would add my update to everyone else’s who  has added the hash tag for #yankees. By using hash tags, it’s easier to find trends and aggregate updates. Plus, most 3rd party Twitter apps automatically make hash tags links to Twitter’s search page. They are using for people tweeting about specific events or news items, or fun little games on Twitter. For example, every Friday is #followfriday and you add people you think others should follow.

    So there you have it- the basics of using Twitter. If you have any questions, or feel I left something out, comments are open!

  • September 20, 2008

    Apps You Should Follow on Twitter

    Over the last few months I’ve been using Twitter a lot more to get updates from people and fill others in on stuff I’m working on. The best possible thing I think Twitter did was open up the API for others to integrate it. Here are a few things that have made my life easier because they use Twitter.

    • woot: woot.com is a website that offers you a deal a day. By following it on Twitter I don’t have to worry about checking the site daily- I’ll get the update as soon as the post it. Since following woot, I got an 8GB USB Drive for $20 (!) and a pretty sweet pen set for $5.
    • amazonmp3: A few weeks ago, I wrote about how great Amazon Mp3 is. By following it on Twitter, you can get their Daily Deals, which can save you a ton of money on great music. I’ve gotten Patton Oswalt, Dragonforce, and Rod Stewart for $2.99, just to name a few.
    • cnnbrk: Follow cnnbrk, get breaking news to your phone. I find their updates just right, where Fox News’s twitter service updates way too much.
    • rtm: My favorite tasks application Remember The Milk has Twitter integration that allows you to tweet tasks to RTM and get reminder tweets.
    • twanslate: twanslate allows you to send a language and a phrase you want translated into that language. How cool is that?

    Twitter has literally hundreds of other websites integrating it, other apps to use it, and plenty of hacks if you’re creative. It helps you stay updated and stay productive- wherever you are. So what do you use Twitter for?

  • August 8, 2008

    Why Amazon Mp3 Will Get People to Pay for Music Again

    Amazon Mp3

    I’m a little bit surprised I haven’t written about Amazon Mp3 before as I use it quite frequently. My main grip about services like iTunes, the Zune Marketplace, Napster, Ruckus, and nearly every other digital music outlet is that their songs are protected by some form of Digital Rights Management (DRM). You can only transfer them x number of times. You need a username and password to listen to them, or in the case of Ruckus, download for free (as a college student), but only listen to them on your computer. Yes, there was EMusic, but last time I checked their collect was not as diverse as I would have liked. But Amazon Mp3 changes all of that.

    Amazon Mp3 offers a full line of music, underground and mainstream, completely DRM-free. It doesn’t expire, there isn’t a set number of transfers, play it on any Mp3 player as much as you’d like. This is the way digital music should be. If I have a CD, I can rip that onto my computer and do with it what I want. Why shouldn’t digital music be the same. But beyond that, their deals are amazing.

    Amazon Mp3 offers two types of deals I use regularly (and use twitter to follow): Daily deals, where for a day they will sell a digital CD significantly cheaper (like $2 or 3) and Friday 5, where from Friday until Monday, they pick 5 albums to sell for $5 a pop. Plus, setup couldn’t be easier. Install their downloader, which links to your favorite music player, and when you download mp3s, they automatically get added to your music collection.

    I really feel Amazon got digital music right. Freedom, easy of use, and low cost is everything I was looking for. If any online service will get me to stop buying CDs, it’s this one.

  • August 25, 2006

    Little or No Internet

    I have moved in at school for the semester and as of right now I am not getting internet in my room. I need to run a wire up to it, and I hate running wires. I am trying to pick up WiFi but it’s not working out. I am fixing the problem ASAP!!

    UPDATE: It’s working now. More posts soon

  • July 5, 2005

    I am not this bad….

    So I read an article on Engadget stating that a clinic in China just opened for the internet addicted. Symptoms include shakes, unwillingness to work with others and insomnia. Despite what people tell you, I am not that bad…..Later!