How to make a website, part 1

I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but there’s this thing called the internet that people these days tend to use a lot. As I’ve said before, it’s extremely important nowadays to now how to develop for the web.

So what better way to learn and practice web development skills, all while making a name for yourself on the world’s biggest platform, than to create a website?

This is the first in a series of tutorials where I’ll show you, step-by-step, how to build an awesome website from scratch.

Let’s go, yo.

May the source be with you: an intro to open source software

Funny open-source cartoon with Tux
Open source software: anyone can edit it and make it even more awesome. Here’s a rundown of why.

Open source software. Sounds like another tech buzzword like agile development, MVC frameworks, waterfall models, and so on.

But really, it’s much more cool than all of those.

Simply put, open source software is software that anyone can edit. And because of that, it’s awesome. Read on to see how your favorite open source software (Firefox and Android, for example) works.

How it works

I think it’s easiest to explain open-source software with a little story. Get some popcorn – this has action, drama, and copyright infringement.

A Twitter tutorial for beginners: part 2

Hold up! Before you read this advanced Twitter tutorial, check out the Twitter tutorial for beginners. Otherwise you won’t understand all these @’s and #’s.

So in the last tutorial you learned about tweets, tweeps, @’s, and #’s. Heady stuff. But we’re about to take it one step farther. Here’s how to make Twitter – the ultra-popular social network of the future – work for you.

Writing your own Tweet

OK, so you’re following every website on the in and you’ve seen every meme created in the last decade. Now what? Well, it’s your time to shine! Publish some tweets!

A Twitter tutorial for beginners: Part 1

Twitter's new Logo, the Blue Bird
Twitter is an extremely powerful social & news network – you just have to learn how to use it.

Twitter is a great social network for catching up on the latest — oh hey, I got a new Tweet! Be back in a second.

Whoops, sorry. As I was saying, Twitter, the “other” social network, is an incredibly quick and easy way to catch up on all the news that’s fit to type in one convenient place. But, in order to fully make use of the #awesomeness that is Twitter, you’ve got to learn a bit. Luckily for you, @I have made one that @you are reading right now. #whatluck

Get stuff done with the Pomodoro technique

This will be your best friend after you read this article.

I know a lot of people don’t particularly enjoy this thing called work. And of those, most of them tend to get distracted when they’re supposed to be doing this, what do you call it, work.

Fortunately, unproductive people like you did something surprisingly productive: they made a little technique to help you be more productive.

Fall Cleaning, part 1

Some beautiful fall leaves
Feel the fresh air and cleaner computer.

The leaves are changing color, the weather is becoming cooler, and the World Series is on. Yup, it’s fall.

It’s become sort of a tradition with me to clean up my computer every fall, since just Spring Cleaning is rarely enough.

I’m here to share with you my secrets and guidelines to fall cleaning, and since most people are on Windows I’ll be showing you how to do Fall Cleaning on a Windows 7 machine.

QR Codes: like barcodes, just better

Quick Response Code
A Quick Response Code

QR Codes, or Quick Response Codes, are all the rage nowadays. You know, those black-and-white barcode-looking thingies that show up on magazines, posters, and even some t-shirts.

A QR Code is actually fairly similar to a barcode: it’s an image that encodes data like URLs, phone numbers, words, and more. You can even take a picture and sort of turn it into a QR code (the picture is uploaded to the internet and the QR code encodes the URL of the picture.) Sure you lose some aesthetic value, but hey.