If you want to do visual programming, check out the Processing languange (http://processing.org) as well as Hackety-Hack (http://hackety-hack.com), which is a Ruby Environment for kids of any age to learn how to program.
Hackety-Hack.com also has a StackOverflow-like Question/Answer page for people new to programming to get assistance.
Programming is fun and rewarding, but it's also one of the most challenging mental exercises you can submit yourself to. Be prepared to feel discouraged once and a while but don't let it sink in. Anyone with drive can learn to program!
One of the things Whisper had was a method of encrypting SMS messages so they still fit in an SMS message, perhaps Twitter is hoping to take advantage of that?
I can't imagine Twitter developing a product that prevents them from being able to look at Tweets going through their system.
This is why I think this is such a strange move on Whisper Systems part. Their products are all about privacy. Twitter wouldn't have a business model if they gave their users proper privacy.
Well, I can see a company about to sink (RIM) and leaving a big empty space for a smart move here. If twitter can take that space and provide enterprises and people along a way to exchange encrypted messages painlessly, that'll be perfect.
Social media is said to play an increasing role in revolutions and social movements; there's clearly something to do. Perhaps even, let's be audacious, some money to make.
Note: I don't actually think RIM is quite dead yet.
Think Egypt, Syria, China: countries where large-scale keyword filtering and MITM attacks are common, and the infrastructure is owned by the opponent.
What's needed in those cases isn't peer-to-peer encryption, but peer-to-service (and service-to-peer) encryption: tweets encrypted on the device, sent, and decrypted on Twitter's servers; timelines sent encrypted, and decrypted client-side.
Twitter still gets plaintext, but intermediaries can't trace/target pseudonymous users (or filter content).
This could be a real edge for Twitter in countries (China) where they're losing ground to monitored/censored clones (Weibo).
tl;dr: They're probably building Tor, not Skype/BBM.
As someone who teaches beginning Ruby and Rails workshops. I often find the limiting factor in getting to where students want to go is comfort with Ruby itself, Rails automates so many of the early details that knowing a little bit more about what Ruby is doing can be phenomenally enabling.
By all means learn both at once, but stay just a little ahead in your Ruby skills.
The Ruby Koans is great for solidifying Ruby concepts glossed over in Rails.
I agree with all these. I would however recommend getting Agile Web Development With Rails directly from Pragmatic Press as you can be certain you're using the most up-to-date edition (4th with Rails 3.1) and can purchase solely the ebook if you want to save some money and/or trees.
- Standing station (technically sit-stand but I never sit). - Imprint Runner floor mat
- Macbook Pro 8GB, 2.5GHz Core i7, SSD
- 25inch Asus Monitor
- Das Keyboard Ultimate (recently switch to silent after complaints from coworkers)
- Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse (a good mouse is a weighted mouse)
- Reasonably crappy Sennheiser headphones
- Vim and iTerm in full screen, occasionally switch to X/XMonad+urxvt when I start missing proper window managers.
It's constant, almost everyone experiences it. Best thing to do is look at some really old code you wrote and realize how far you've come. After that, write more code, read more code, write more code. Programmers all want to be better, this drive helps us become so, but it also drastically diminishes our ability to be content with our current situation. If you really want to see how far you've come. Find someone who reminds you of yourself and mentor them. It's much easier to perceive change in others than change in ourselves. Watching mentees progress reminds you of when you underwent the very same realization and helps you become more aware of liminal points in your programming journey.
> Best thing to do is look at some really old code you wrote and realize how far you've come.
When I do that, I tend to get surprised how good it looks contrary to my expectations of coming far since then.
And sometimes when I look at the code of some famous project I like, I may get surprised how bad it looks.
Maybe this is the difference between "rock star" programmers and your average perfectionists out there - the former just get the job done, while the latter spend too much time making their code look beautiful.
