Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

July 06, 2015

originally posted July 6, 2008. Reposted July 6, 2015.
Long live cheesecake!!

Day 188.

I've never made a cheesecake before; I always thought it sounded complicated. I'm a pretty picky cheesecake eater, I hate it to be dried out, and I don't want the cheesey part to be too thick. I like a bit of crust in every bite. I had a reader ask quite a while ago if I thought cheesecake could be made in
Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

July 03, 2015
google+_collections_image_page

Google+ recently unveiled a new feature, called Collections, that allows users to start categorizing their posts, photos and videos by topic. Collections differ from Pages or Communities, in that you are the only person modifying the content, and the posts will appear in your profile stream for followers. This feature is currently available for Android and the Web only, with iOS to follow later, according to Google.
To get you started, Google has created a GIF (seen above) that displays how to create your first collection (from the Android perspective). The steps on the Web are just as simple: click on Home menu in the upper left-hand corner, choose Collections, then click the Create a collection button. Fill out the name, set the visibility permission, then click Create. When the collection page loads, click Customize to change the header image and page accent color.
Now that you have a collection of your own, here are five tips for using this new feature:
  • Since you cannot change the visibility setting for a collection, you may want to consider choosing a specific circle of people you can edit later.
  • You are automatically following the collections of people in your circles. Head to the Collections area on Google+ to manage which collections you follow.
  • Previous posts can be moved into new collections you have created by clicking the arrow to the right of the share icon. Only public posts can be moved to public collections.
  • If you have several posts you want to move to a collection, do them all at once so Google groups them and prevents you from spamming your followers.
  • You can share an entire collection by visiting that collection's page and copying the URL, or by clicking the share button (arrow) to post it on your stream.
Now you're set to start making and organizing your collections on Google+. Have another tip for this new feature? Share it in the comments below.
source

Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

July 03, 2015
Best_Sites_to_Learn_Programming

If you are ready to take the plunge, here are some of the best websites that offer courses in a variety of programming languages for free. I have also added a list of companion ebooks that will give you a more in-depth understanding of the language and they don’t cost anything either.

Online CoursesProgramming Books (Free)
JavaScriptCode Academy, Learn Street, Khan Academy, Code Combat, Code AvengersEloquent JavaScript, JavaScript Guide, Speaking JavaScript, JS The Right Way, Oh My JS
HTML & CSSCode Academy, Don’t Fear The Internet, Tutsplus,Learn Layout, A to Z CSS,Dash, Web Accessibility,The Hello WorldMozilla, Dive into HTML5, 20 Things I Learned, HTML Dog,HTML & CSS, HTML5 for Designers, DOM Enlightenment
jQueryCode Academy, Tutsplus,Code SchooljQuery Fundamentals, Learn jQuery
PythonGuru99.com   Code Academy, Google,Learn Street, Python Tutor,IHeartPYPython for You and Me,  Dive into Python, Learn Python the Hard Way, Think Python,Python for Fun, Tango with Django, Django
Ruby & Ruby on RailsCode Academy,TryRubyCode Learn,Railscasts, Rubymonk,Learn StreetWhy’s (Poignant) Guide to Ruby, Learn Ruby the Hard Way, Learn to Program, Learn Rails by Example
PHPCode AcademyPHP Programming, Practical PHP
Google Apps ScriptGetting Started, Office Hours, Google Scripts Examples,Learning Apps Script
WordPressTreehouse, WordPress TV
Linux & Shell ScriptingStanford.edu, Explain ShellConquer the Command Line
Node.jsNodetuts, Node SchoolThe Node Beginner Book,Mixu’s Node book, Node Up and Running, Mastering Node.js
Git (version control)Code School, Git Immersion, GitHub TrainingPro Git, Learn Git
Objective-C (iOS & Mac)Code School, Stanford, iTunesU
Chrome Dev ToolsCode School, Dev Tools Secret, Chrome Dev Tools Tutorial,Udacity
Go LanguageGolang.org, GopherCastsProgramming in Go, Go by Example, Learning Go
JavaLearn Java, Coding BatProgramming in Java, O’Reilly Learning Java, Think Java,Java & CS, Java for Python Devs
Android App DevelopmentUdacity (Google Developers), Coursera, The New Boston, Google University, App Development Essentials, Code Learn
D3 (data visualization)Data Visualization for the Web, Dashing D3, D3 Tips & Tricks
Everything ElseUdacity, edX.org, Coursera, Udemy$, Lynda$, Pluralsight$,Treehouse$, Open Consortium, One Month Rails$
Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

July 02, 2015
Future_ Facebook_ Telepathy_wearable_man_using_demo

Facebook is currently throwing everything at instant messaging, but founder Mark Zuckerberg has a far bigger ambition: telepathy.
In a question and answer session on his Facebook page, one person asked what the future of Facebook could look like.
He said he thinks that one day people will be able to send emotional experiences to each other, which would be "the ultimate communication technology.
"One day, I believe we'll be able to send full rich thoughts to each other directly using technology.
"You'll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too if you'd like."
He added: "We used to just share in text, and now we post mainly with photos. In the future video will be even more important than photos.
"After that, immersive experiences like VR will become the norm. And after that, we'll have the power to share our full sensory and emotional experience with people whenever we'd like."
He said devices worn "all the time" would allow us to "improve our experience and communication".
The comment has since been deleted, but it is unclear why.
He was also asked about Facebook's real name policy - which has seen drag queens and Native Americans among others being kicked off the network for not using their birth names.
But he insisted the policy was not as strict as had been made out.
He said: "Real name does not mean your legal name. Your real name is whatever you go by and what your friends call you.
"If your friends all call you by a nickname and you want to use that name on Facebook, you should be able to do that. In this way, we should be able to support everyone using their own real names, including everyone in the transgender community."
source


Read more »
Tweet Share Share Share Share Share

July 02, 2015
light_speed_flow_max

Light plays a vital role in our everyday lives and technologies based on light are all around us. So we might expect that our understanding of light is pretty settled. But scientists have just uncovered a new fundamental property of light that gives new insight into the 150-year-old classical theory of electromagnetism and which could lead to applications manipulating light at the nanoscale.
It is unusual for a pure-theory physics paper to make it into the journal Science. So when one does, it’s worth a closer look. In the new study, researchers bring together one of physics' most venerable set of equations – those of James Clerk’s Maxwell’s famous theory of light – with one of the hot topics in modern solid-state physics: the quantum spin Hall effect and topological insulators.
To understand what the fuss is about, let’s first consider the behaviour of electrons in the quantum spin Hall effect. Electrons possess an intrinsic spin as if they were tiny spinning-tops, constantly rotating about their axis. This spin is a quantum-mechanical property, however, and special rules apply – the electron has only two options open to it: it can either spin clockwise or anticlockwise (conventionally called spin-up or spin-down), but the magnitude of the spin is always fixed.
In certain materials, the spin of the electron can have a big effect on the way electrons move. This effect is called “spin-orbit coupling” and we can get an idea of how it works with a footballing analogy. By hitting a freekick with spin, a footballer can make the ball deviate to the left or the right as it travels through the air. The direction of the movement depends on which way the ball is spinning.
football_rotation_two_players_playing


Spin-orbit coupling causes electrons to experience an analogous spin-dependent deflection as they travel, although the effect arises not from the Magnus effect as in the case for the football, but from electric fields within the material.
A normal electrical current consists of an equal mixture of moving spin-up and spin-down electrons. Due to the spin-orbit effect, spin-up electrons will be deflected one way, while spin-down electrons will be deflected the other. Eventually the deflected electrons will reach the edges of the material and be able to travel no further. The spin-orbit coupling thus leads to an accumulation of electrons with different spins on opposite sides of the sample.
This effect is known as the classical spin Hall effect, and quantum mechanics adds a dramatic twist on top. The quantum-mechanical wave nature of the travelling electrons organises them into neat channels along the edges of the sample. In the bulk of the material, there is no net spin. But at each edge, there form exactly two electron-carrying channels, one for spin-up electrons and one for spin-down. These edge channels possess a further remarkable property: the electrons that move in them are impervious to the disorder and imperfections that usually cause resistance and energy loss.
This precise ordering of the electrons into spin-separated, perfectly conducting channels is known as the quantum spin Hall effect, which is a classic example of a “topological insulator”– a material that is an electrical insulator on the inside but that can conduct electricity on its surface. Such materials represent a fundamentally distinct organisation of matter and promise much in the way of spintronic applications. Read heads of hard drives based on this technology are currently used in industry.
Beginning to see the light
Now, the new study suggests that the seeds of this seemingly exotic quantum spin Hall effect are actually all around us. And it is not to electrons that we should look to find them, but rather to light itself.
In modern physics, matter can be described either as a wave or a particle. In Maxwell’s theory, light is an electromagnetic wave. This means it travels as a synchronised oscillation of electric and magnetic fields. By considering the way in which these fields rotate as the wave propagates, the researchers were able to define a property of the wave, the “transverse spin”, that plays the role of the electron spin in the quantum spin Hall effect.
In a homogeneous medium, like air, this spin is exactly zero. However, at the interface between two media (air and gold, for example), the character of the waves change dramatically and a transverse spin develops. Furthermore, the direction of this spin is precisely locked to the direction of travel of the light wave at the interface. Thus, when viewed in the correct way, we see that the basic topological ingredients of the quantum spin Hall effect that we know for electrons are shared by light waves.
This is important because there has been an array of high-profile experiments demonstrating coupling between the spin of light and its direction of propagation at surfaces. This new work gives a integrative interpretation of these experiments as revealing light’s intrinsic quantum spin Hall effect. It also points to a certain universality in the behaviour of waves at surfaces, be they quantum-mechanical electron waves or Maxwell’s classical waves of light.
Harnessing the spin-orbit effect will open new possibilities for controlling light at the nanoscale. Optical connections, for example, are seen as a way of increasing computer performance, and in this context, the spin-orbit effect could be used to rapidly reroute optical signals based on their spin. With applications proposed in optical communications, metrology, and quantum information processing, it will be interesting to see how the impact of this new twist on an old theory unfolds.
source 
Read more »
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Powered by Blogger.