Interesting Links 10.19.07

A beautiful mind – Schizophrenia is potentially a very creative tool which, as yet, has not been understood or recognised and is mistreated and so its powerful symptoms manifest as confusion and destruction.
Schizophrenics gain by practice, not meds – A U.S. study suggested cognitive gains in schizophrenic patients treated with newer antipsychotic medications are due to practice effects, not the drugs.
How schizophrenia develops: Major clues discovered – Schizophrenia may occur, in part, because of a problem in an intermittent on/off switch for a gene involved in making a key chemical messenger in the brain, scientists have found in a study of human brain tissue.
Brain cell growth diminishes long before old age strikes – While other research groups have made similar observations in the brains of rodents, this is the first time the decrease in new cell growth, known as neurogenesis, has been noted in a primate, the biological order that also includes apes and humans.
Light shone within brains of mice reveals secrets of sleep-wake cycle – By flickering a special light inside the brains of sleeping mice to wake them up, Stanford researchers have shown that they can induce behavior in a living mammal by directly controlling specific neural cells.

It’s been a crazy week between papers, quizzes, work, running 5 sessions of my independent research…Needless to say, I haven’t had an opportunity to post any of the links before now. The first group is entirely psych related links (mostly Schizophrenia), and it’s very interesting stuff that is worth the read. The article that I thought was particularly interesting/sad was the one regarding individuals with Schizophrenia showing progress based on practice effects, not the wonderful meds everyone thought were so effective. That would really suck if that’s true (which it seems like it probably is).

250+ Tools and Resources For Coding the Web – Weâ€™re all living on the web, and we all seem to be starting our own websites, so itâ€™s time we all learned the languages that make it run.
CSS Vertical Bar Graphs – Eric Meyer has been keeping a secret since 2005 about CSS Vertical Bar Graphs. Well, not really, but it is good that he has come out with a nifty demo on how to do this.
A List Apart: Findings From the Web Design Survey – In April 2007, A List Apart and An Event Apart conducted a survey of people who make websites. Close to 33,000 web professionals answered the surveyâ€™s 37 questions, providing the first data ever collected on the business of web design and development as practiced in the U.S. and worldwide.
21 Facts About The Internet You Should Know – You probably use it every day but how well do you know your Internet?
Verizon Wireless: If you donâ€™t opt out, we get to share your CPNI call data – Over the weekend, a small storm erupted over new legal language that Verizon Wireless is passing quietly on to its subscribers. It appears as though the cellular provider is changing its terms of service to give the company the right to share sensitive calling data with third parties.
BitLet – the BitTorrent Applet – download a torrent without using a desktop application. perfect when you’re at work…

The second group is the normal miscellaneous tech links. The ALA Web Design Survey is worth the read if you’re a web designer. If you are a Verizon subscriber be sure and read the article linked above. Verizon sucks my ass. There I said it. I can definitely see BitLet being very useful. I could have used it a few times in the past…

Interesting Links 10.9.07

Interactive design: the next step for the CSS guru? – But RIAs are becoming more open and more standards based, so I think interactive design is a natural next step for the CSS ninjas out there.
20 Proxy sites to browse the net anonymously – There are several reasons why you want to browse the internet anonymously.
10 Terrific Troubleshooting Tricks and Tools – The bad news: PCs have been around for 30 years, and they still find in new and unusual ways to break.
Things Other People Accomplished When They Were Your Age – pretty self explanatory.
Microsoft Windows Home Server OEM – Microsoft Windows Home Server OEM is now on sale at Newegg.com
How the RIAA tasted victory: a perfect storm which might not be repeated – In the aftermath of the case, it’s important to look at why the jury came to the decision it did, and why other cases may not play out the same way.

This is definitely an eclectic collection of links. I won’t talk about all the links. I’ll just say that Windows Home Server is one of the best things to come from Microsoft in nearly 10 years (since Windows XP). If you have ever downloaded any music *cough* illegally you will definitely want to read the article about how/why the RIAA won this particular trial. It could be very important for you in the future.

Web 2.0 Changed how I use the Web

Here is a short list (with a brief description) of Web 2.0 sites I visit on a daily basis:

Box.net – simple and generous free file storage, easily share files as well.
CallWave – voicemail the way it should be, similar to the iPhone’s so-called visual voicemail, but CallWave has been around for years.
Jaiku – similar to Twitter, but also lets you pull it outside feeds. I use Jaiku as a life blog instead.
Jott – Jott has a wide variety of functions, but you can send yourself reminders, send email to other people, post to your blog, post to your Twitter page, post to Jaiku, etc
Toodledo – simple to-do lists without extra fluff that gets in your way. Sure, it’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it also integrates into Google Calendar
Twitter– the original and the still the reigning champion for micro blogging. Does one thing (micro blogging) and does it very well, also has a better API better than any competitor.
Flickr – this almost doesn’t even need a description: easy, free, unlimited storage photo sharing/storage.
Google Calendar – I still prefer to use 30boxes, but the integration between Google Calendar and Gmail is pretty hard to beat.
Google Mail – I use Gmail, but not because I love it. Gmail is pretty much the best of the worst in my opinion.
Google Reader – Again, I prefer to read my RSS feeds elsewhere, but Google Reader’s integration with Gmail is though to beat.
Last.fm – track the music you listen to, see what friends are listening to, find new music, listen to a radio station custom made based on your music preferences
Netvibes – ful customizable webpage that lets you read all your RSS feeds in a single page, also several powerful addons to do other things like check mail, weather, Twitter.
Digg – Digg is one of those things that I hate to love. It’s a great site to find information, but I’d highly recommend not even looking at the comments for each posting…they are useless.
Streamy – I recently got into the private beta for this, and it’s great…just like Digg, but without most of the immature people (so far)

You get the point…Web 2.0 has pretty much changed the entire way I use the web today. Hate it or love it, Web 2.0 has been nothing short of dramatic.

Interesting Links: 8.12.07

The absolute bare minimum every programmer should know about regular expressions: Regular expressions are strings formatted using a special pattern notation that allow you to describe and parse text. Many programmers (even some good ones) disregard regular expressions as line noise, and itâ€™s a damned shame because they come in handy so often.
Power replacements for built-in Windows utilities: Power users need power utilities, and Windows’ default system programs barely get the job done. Over time third-party developers have stepped up and built superior replacements to programs like Notepad, Paint, Windows Explorer and the Command Prompt.
Introduction to Cygwin, part I – Introduction and setup: Cygwin is a Windows command line on steroids which runs tons of well-known, age-old, useful Linux Unix commands.
Introduction to Cygwin, part II – More useful commands: This installment will continue the Cygwinnery with some more useful commands at the trusty green shell prompt.
Introduction to Cygwin, Part III – Scripts, packages and more: This third and final installment will tackle adding packages to your Cygwin installation, creating scripts from a set of commands, and a few Cygwin and Unix resources.
CSS Layouts: The Fixed. The Fluid. The Elastic. : Which Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) layout is best? Is one more accessible than the other? More usable? What are the drawbacks and how are they dealt with?
New elements in HTML 5: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) 5 introduces new elements to HTML for the first time since the last millennium.

It’s been another one of those weeks where way too much is going on during the week so I collect bookmarks to read and post about individually, but we know that doesn’t happen. So here is a week in review:

Regular expression can seem scary, but they can be very useful in the right situation.
If the default system applications in Windows can’t do something that you’d like to do then look for alternatives. You will find a plethora of great alternatives (and they are usually free too).
Cygwin is an interesting thing, and I won’t lie: I still don’t think I have quite got my head around when/why I’d use it. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve tried to do a “ls” at the Windows ~~crapline~~ command line.
CSS layouts can be an easy thing to code, but the initial planning to decide which type of layout to use is always the biggest challenge. This is a great summary of the trade offs for each type of layout.
HTML 5 is still a ways off in the future, I realize that, but I am still intrigued by the possibilities that it ~~might~~ will bring when it’s ready. Mark my words, Microsoft will join the development effort eventually.