Firmware/Software

Google has a new website, Made with Code, to inspire girls to code. Chelsea Clinton, Girls Inc., Girl Scouts of the USA, Mindy Kaling, MIT Media Lab, National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), Seventeen and TechCrunch are all supporters of this effort. It looks to be free. I tried the bracelet lesson and Shapeways (3D Printing company) will make your bracelet for you for free so that's cool.

A number of companies joining forces to offer scholarships for online degrees at Udacity. These nanodegrees are in web development, IOS development, and data analysis. Udacity estimates it will take 6-12 month to complete the program after you pass the entrance exam to prove you have the prerequisites. In theory, graduates should have a job when they graduate. At first, I thought nanodegrees were related to nanotechnology but it appears to be related to the degree which might be more like a certificate.

Processing 2 is a programming language, development environment, and online community that promotes software literacy. The tools are open source and free. The language is based on BASIC and Logo, uses a visual context, is used in education, and has been supported by the NSF. There are some very neat graphical examples with the code used to generate the images or animations.

Mathematica has posted a video lecture from on of their workshops describing how to create the Space Invaders video game using the Dynamic function.

Mathematica now has hadooplink which is a package that lets you write MapReduce programs in Mathematica and run them on your Hadoop cluster.

NASA JPL has posted a number of cool apps for Android and iPhone. The three app I played with include Be a Martian, Earth Now, and Space Images.

The ASME posted a list of the 9 Android apps for engineers. Apps include 3D file viewer, unit converter, and the Autodesk ForceEffect Motion app (mechanical motion simulator).

Google Ventures posted a video by UX Researh partner Michael Margolis describing how to run monthly studies. Michael describes how to identify if user understand how to use a website feature and how to make it more efficient. He also describes how to design surveys that capture relevant information from users.

Engadget has posted a list of people to follow on Twitter for Android related topics. The list includes people, podcasts, writers, websites, and Google.

There are a number of website that will teach you had to code for free. Two of them include:

• Google Code University
• Codecademy

PC Magazine has posted a review of the top 50 Android Apps.

PC Magazine has posted a review of the Top 100 iPad Apps.

PC Magazine has a feature article on The Best free software of 2011. I use many of the software packages listed and it is very useful in finding quality software for most any application.