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2012

  • 1 min read

I wish I knew more JavaScript

I know basic Javascript. I think I will be learning more soon. I think JavaScript is the language of the (near) future. Predicting what the language of the (further) future is would be impossible, as programming languages come and go. Hopefully they get better as they evolve.

Why do I say that it is the language of the (near) future? Compared, for example to Java, or Ruby or Python, or even Erlang? Here's an article I wrote about that: how JavaScript may be the most important language for the web for the near future. Do you agree?

With that context, I was very interested to see Jon Ressig's article about how Khan Academy is thinking about teaching programming languages. You know I am a big fan of Khan Academy: see Khan Academy to the Rescue.

Here's what Jon has to say about JavaScript as a first language:

"At Khan Academy we've been investigating teaching Computer Science to students in some new and interesting ways. The most interesting aspect of which is that we're likely going to be teaching them JavaScript as their first language." (from:JavaScript as a first Language)

Read the whole article, it's pretty cool!

  • 1 min read

Happy New Year from Curaçao!

It felt like a war zone without the danger!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUdhro7G2o&w=420&h=315]

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TSA: Smokescreening

An interesting and fun to read article in Vanity Fair about the security check procedures established by the TSA:

"Taking off your shoes is next to useless. "It's like saying, Last time the terrorists wore red shirts, so now we’re going to ban red shirts," Schneier says. "If the T.S.A. focuses on shoes, terrorists will put their explosives elsewhere. €œFocusing on specific threats like shoe bombs or snow-globe bombs simply induces the bad guys to do something else. You end up spending a lot on the screening and you haven'€™t reduced the total threat." (from:Vanity Fair)

Schneier of course is Bruce Schneier who is always interesting to read. He writes about security and computers. I have quoted him many times before on this blog.