GitHub as Blogging Platform Testing GitHub as Blogging Platform
Rainy Days and Secret Decoders..
My daughter likes to play post office. She likes to exchange letters with me using a toy mailbox. Its a great way for her to practice her hand writing.. and she doesn't even know it. She and I built a new mailbox to exchange messages today. Sometimes she likes to encode her messages using an en/decoder card she got somewhere along the line. It being a terribly gray and rainy day, we decided to write a program to encode/decode messages. I had already taught her to play tic-tac-toe using row-column coordinates. We computer geeks know that row/column structure to be a "matrix" in computer science terms. I've also given her a lesson or two on Logo - an educational programming language. (Please understand that she had been asking me to teach her to program - "like what you do at work, Daddy." I'm not, necessarily, trying build a super-nerd so that I can live vicariously through her nerdy accomplishments.. although worse things could happen to a person. :) Anyway...
This de/encoder simply shifts letters by one, but to make a fully working program there was quite a bit for a 6 year old to take in. I threw a lot at her and with no introduction - functions, hash maps, and variables. Forget the UI/HTML glue needed to drive it! Needless to say, most of it went over her head but conceptually, she understood that we were taking each letter and doing a lookup to return its encoded/decoded form. She helped type in the "cipher" which was just a map from letter to encoded letter. Regardless of what she may have learned, she loved the end result and has already requested a "print encoded message feature." (Only then did it feel like a program " at work". :) We'll revisit this one agains sometime soon..The end result is a simple web app - nothing more than some HTML and some Javascript. You can view/run it here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/261443/www/SecretDecoder/decoder.html
Rainy days and secret decoders.. and treasured moments.
Intermittent fasting diet for fat loss, muscle gain and health
Is Late Night Eating Better for Fat Loss and Health?
This dude says yes. I don't know, but have my late night snack is one of the habits I refused to surrender. Its just too long 'till breakfast. I just changed what I ate at night from a big bowl of cereal to greek yogurt or sugar free pudding. :)
4 Ways to Cheat Your Diet | LIVESTRONG.COM
Health is diverse and multi-faceted. As I discussed last week, there isn???t one standardized lifestyle approach. And that shouldn???t be a frustrating experience. Yes???there???s a lot of health information and much of it is bad or confusing. But here???s a truth that isn???t shared enough: Living healthy doesn???t have to be constraining, uncomfortable, and even painful. I know plenty of people who look great but hate the way they live. And many others that hate the way they look and love the way they live. Being fit is finding the middle ground where you look the way you want, enjoy the way you live, and still remain healthy. To find that holy grail you need to ask yourself, what do you want?
Logitech Revue??? With Google TV???
The price dropped (temporarily?) to $99 from $299 for the Logitech Revue. Sales have been poor, especially after numerous video streaming sites started blocking Google TV. I believe the box was plagued early on with software glitches as well. Over the air (OTA) updates have fixed some of these issues - e.g. the Netflix app has improved. The $99 price point is tempting me to try one out. I stream netflix a lot and I hate the Tivo netflix integration - very clunky. I'm also looking for a way to get my other media on the local network to the device. My first gen. AppleTV is a pain for getting video to my TV - it has a very limited set of video formats it supports. That said, I'm still searching for what video formats and home media streaming the Revue supports. I also like the idea of having the web along side the TV - the PIP web browser/video is interesting. Many times, I've hunted down my laptop or iPhone to look up something related to the show I'm watching...
What are you thoughts on the Revue? Have one? Is it worth it give the $99 price point? Let me know.
Google Plus Ready for the Facebook Masses - Games are Here!
And now G+ is ready for the Facebook masses - games are here!
Bradley Horowitz originally shared this post: Let the Games begin! We're rolled out! Many folks have been itching to get the Game's icon on their G+... By now most of you should have it! (Refresh your browsers) Should be an exciting weekend! Be advised, that like any feature during Field Trial, we may need to rollback as we monitor system load and learn... but I hope you enjoy the experience and share your feedback. http://plus.google.com/games
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTYzyIcp0mY?wmode=transparent]