The Curious Coder

One of the first things any new developer should learn is how to use a version control system, and the most popular of these today is Git and the most popular home for Git is GitHub. Using GitHub requires the installation of Git on the computer where you're doing your development. That's easy enough. You can readily find the download page for Windows or Mac and install it as you would any other piece of software. So far, so good. And then, you are introduced to the command line. Most new developers are unfamiliar with the command line (check out my series on The Command Line and You) and are baffled by its inconsistent command names, abbreviated option parameters. Throw in SSH or sudo and you quickly discover why GUIs (Graphic User Interfaces) were invented. It seems strange that our operating systems are collections of icons, window and menus, but we still have to use the command line, with virtually the same set of instructions it was born with, to use something that...

.NET Announcing ML.NET 0.11 – Machine Learning for .NET. This, along with Blazor, is at the top of my Curiosity ToDo List. I work a lot in C#, and it's nice to see the tools and libraries for machine learning that were almost exclusive to Python making their way to the .NET world. JavaScript WebGazer - an interesting project that attempts to use your webcam to do eye tracking with JavaScript. I, of course, was curious, but on the one laptop I've tried so far, I didn't have much luck. between 20 and 50% accuracy. But, I'll keep an eye on it... Introduction to Hoisting in JavaScript - And explanation of one of the most confusing aspects of JavaScript for new programmers. Building Angular and React Applications Together With Nx - Dogs and cats sleeping together! You Can Do That? Use Chrome  (the browser) as an IDE - I was aware of most of these features, but I never was curious enough to use my browser as an Integrated Development Environment. Super c...

An Absurd Illustration from https://absurd.design/ World Wide Web World Wide Web Turns 30 JavaScript Get JavaScript Grammar for Free  - New book with some interesting JavaScript Visualizations. You can secure a free copy if you act quickly! How to use the apply(), call() and bind() methods in JavaScript  - A nice introduction into those mysterious methods in JavaScript that let you do things with JavaScript that you weren't sure you could do. React Dynamic Document Head with React Helmet - We all know how to make the body of our React Web Apps change with the state, but what about the information in the head? Could me useful! Gadgets Motorola Razr Foldable Phone Software Features Leaked - I had a Razr phone, and then later a Droid Razr (which even with the higher battery capacity version was very thin for its time). Now, in the age of foldable displays, the Razr is (hopefully) making a comeback in the form of an Adroid Flip Phone. This one may ...

Learning The Value of Inconvenient Design - A very interesting article about how making things easier has unintended consequences. What I found curious was the portion that describes an experiment were 2 groups of people were asked to assign a value to a storage box from Ikea. One group was just given the box, assembled, while the other had to put it together themselves. Turns out the DIYer gave it a higher value because there was a greater sense of ownership. I see a parallel in writing code. Watching videos and cutting and pasting code makes it easier, but you get more value out of following along with that video or retyping the code instead of just pasting it. Something to think about. WASM Blazor 0.9.0 Released - Being a .NET guy, I'm really curious about Blazor, a tool that allows you to write your client-side code using C#. Just wish I had more time to play with it... Exploring Blazor with Visual Studio 2019 - Okay, I just won't sleep this weekend. WASP - ...

The Power to Create and Destroy So, in Part One we learned how to get around the file system using the command line using  cd  to move from one folder to another, and pwd  to find out where we were. This in itself is very useful, but the real power comes from creating new files and folders, then copying, moving and deleting them. Let's start by creating a new folder to play around in. First, change directory to your Desktop folder with the following command: cd ~/ Desktop   note : the screenschots are using Git Bash on a Windows PC, but the same commands will work on a Mac Terminal.

An Absurd Illustration from https://absurd.design/ Learning Learning to Learn - Fantastic article about learning with some great tips and strategies. Not only applies to coding, but just about anything you might want to learn. History The World Wide Web at 30 feels a lot like the early days -  Interesting article touching on some of the history of the World Wide Web. CSS CSS Triangles, Multiple Way - Everyone knows that a web page is made up of rectangles. Sometimes you can round the corners and even make a circle, but triangles? Check it out! Building Robust Layouts With Container Units - An alternative to CSS Grid systems.  DOTNET Creating the simplest possible ASP.NET Core form with a POST method - Interesting look into how Razor Pages work. HTML Periodic Table of HTML Infographic - Yep, that's just what it sounds like. That chart hanging in every high school chemistry lab is back, this time with useful classifications of HTML t...

I'm teaching a group of students in a Coding Bootcamp, and one of the first things we're learning about his how to get around a Command Line Interface -- in this class, we have a mix of Mac and PC users, so the former is using Terminal, while the latter is using Git Bash. I'm "seasoned" enough to have worked on DOS computers, where the first thing you saw when you turned on the computer was the blinking cursor next to the C:\> Prompt, very much like what you see in the Windows Command Line (cmd.exe) today. From there, you issued commands to navigate your file structure and launch programs. We didn't know anything else. You had to know your way around the command line to get anything done, like copying files to a floppy disk or launching WordPerfect. Then along came Windows (okay, MacIntosh, then Windows) and for a while there, the Command Line was relegated to an "It's there in case you need it" role. Hidden away, as the computer operat...

Smart Stuff How to Use Alexa to Prep for a Job Interview - Alexa is full of cool skills. This one seems pretty interesting! Just Fun Be a fake hacker - just like in the movies! CSS Button Interfaces - What is a button? And when should you use it? The 5 Critical Elements That can Make or Break Your One-Page Website’s Design  - In-depth examination of how to make that one page design work. Debugging 10 Chrome Developer Tool Features You Might Have Missed - Yep, there are a few in here that I was not aware of. Pays to be curious! Frameworks Sliding In and Out of Vue - Getting the most out of the coolest JavaScript library on the block. You can do that? Hosting a Blazor Application on Firebase - I like Firebase, and am extremely curious about Blazor, so naturally I want to share this cool mashup with all of you.

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