Author: Bourakis

Το καλάμι του startupper!

Θα ήθελα να θίξω ένα περιστατικό που με προβλημάτησε ιδιαίτερα και με ενόχλησε εως ενα βαθμό. Εκτός απο τη κύρια μου απασχόληση, εργάζομαι ως part-time lecturer σε Βρετανικά κολλέγια στην Θεσσαλονίκη. Έχω φοιτητές οι οποίοι πραγματικά έχουν ταλέντο, αλλά επειδή δεν γνωρίζουν τον έξω κόσμο, προσπαθώ να βρίσκω τρόπο να τους φέρνω σε επαφή με αξιόλογους ανθρώπους οι οποίοι ενδεχομένως να αποτελέσουν πηγή έμπνευσης για τη συνέχεια της σταδιοδρομίας τους. Για αυτό τον λόγο προσκαλώ κατα καιρούς δραστήριους ανθρώπους για να μοιραστούν την εμπειρία τους με τους φοιτητές μου.

Τα τελευταία χρόνια έχω διακρίνει φοιτητές, οι οποίοι ασχολούνται με game development και έχουν αναπτύξει ενδιαφέρουσες υλοποιήσεις παιχνιδιών. Σε ενα απο τα tech events της Θεσσαλονίκης έτυχε να συναντήσω δυο απο τους founders μιας επιτυχημένης start-up που αναπτύσσει παιχνίδια.Η αλήθεια είναι οτι μου εκανε εντύπωση η ηλίθια έπαρση του ενός οταν τους είπα οτι κάνουν φοβερή δουλειά και το χειρότερο είναι που τον πρότεινα να έρθει όποτε (και εαν) του επιτρέπουν οι υποχρεώσεις του να μιλήσει στους φοιτητές μου.

Το ύφος του ήταν σαν να του τηλεφώνησαν απο τη wind στις 3 το μεσημέρι για να του πουλήσουν συνδρομή. Η άρνηση ήταν άμεση και χωρίς ίχνος ευγένειας. Το μετάνιωσα αμέσως και εκείνη τη στιγμή διαπίστωσα οτι οι παπάρες (ευτυχώς λίγοι) υπάρχουν στην start-up scene. Κατά τη γνώμη μου υπάρχουν δυο είδη επιτυχημένων startupper. Εκείνων που τους έκατσε το timing, και εκείνων που διάβασαν το timing. Οι πρώτοι είναι οι “καταλάθος” επιτυχημένοι, χωρίς όραμα και όρεξη για ενα καλύτερο community. Οι δεύτεροι είναι η ελπίδα μας, καθώς είναι αυτοί που όσο busy και αν είναι, όταν τους καλέσεις θα δεχθούν με χαρά όσο κουραστικό και αν είναι κάτι τέτοιο. Γιατί πολύ απλά γνωρίζουν πως αυτό αποτελλεί επένδυση τόσο για τους ίδιους, όσο και για το μέλλον της startup scene.

Ο λόγος που ξόδεψα τόσα keystrokes, δεν είναι για αυτόν τον παπάρα, αλλά για να τονίσω τη σημαντικότητα όλων των επιτυχημένων startupper, καθώς και η επιρροή τους στο community. Μπορεί οι ίδιοι να μην το καταλαβαίνουν πόσο σημαντικό είναι, αλλά εγώ που το βλέπω και το ζω μέσω της εκπαίδευσης, σας διαβεβαιώ οτι είναι πολύ σημαντικό να επισκέπτεστε Εκπαιδευτικά ιδρύματα μια στο τόσο και να συνομιλείτε με φοιτητές. Δεν θα χάσετε!

Υ.Γ.: Για αυτό προσοχή, όποιος μου ξανα αρνηθεί πρόσκληση, θα είναι η επόμενη άναρτηση στο συγκεκριμένο blog  χε χε χε (almost kidding!) :p

How to choose the best mechanical keyboard

 

Mechanical keyboards, or keyboards with full, individual switches under every key, have exploded in popularity recently, although the technology inside is as old as the keyboard itself. There’s really no substitute for that solid, clicking sensation under your fingers as you type, and the satisfying sound each key makes when you press it. However, choosing the best mechanical keyboard can be tricky, since there are dozens of models, different switch types, and more popping up every day. Here’s how to tell them all apart and pick the right one for you

 

Read more: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-choose-the-best-mechanical-keyboard-and-why-you-511140347

Coffee vs. Beer: Which Drink Makes You More Creative?

Mikael Cho is the co-founder of ooomf, a network that connects short-term software projects with handpicked developers and designers. Mikael writes about psychology, startups, and product marketing over on the ooomf blog.

I didn’t know what I was going to write about today.

When this happens, normally I grab a coffee to help get the ideas flowing, but for the last few days in Montreal, no one’s been allowed to drink the water due to a bacteria leakage, which also means, no coffee.

So instead, I grabbed the next best thing to help me get going – a beer.

This got me wondering about coffee and beer and which one would actually help me be more creative and get work done. Hopefully, this will help you decide when it’s best to have that triple shot espresso or ice cold brew.

 

Read more: Coffee vs. Beer: Which Drink Makes You More Creative?.

Google reveals Spanner, the database tech that can span the planet

The Spanner technology sees Google craft a globally distributed database to underpin its massive software platforms with the help of atomic clocks, GPS systems and some of its most lauded computer scientists.

With the aid of atomic clocks, GPS receivers and some of the most esteemed figures in computer science, Google has crafted a planet-spanning distributed database.

 

Read more:  http://www.zdnet.com/google-reveals-spanner-the-database-tech-that-can-span-the-planet-7000004421/

read even more:  http://research.google.com/archive/spanner.html

download the paper if you dare:  http://research.google.com/archive/spanner.html

Facebook Just Fired A Huge Shot At Cisco

Facebook has announced a new product that should have Cisco shaking in its boots (and we’re not talking about its Snapchat-killer Slingshot).

On Wednesday, Facebook introduced Wedge, making good on its promise from last year to push into the $23 billion Ethernet switch market, currently dominated by Cisco.

How To Install and Secure phpMyAdmin on Ubuntu 14.04

While many users need the functionality of a database management system like MySQL, they may not feel comfortable interacting with the system solely from the MySQL prompt.

phpMyAdmin was created so that users can interact with MySQL through a web interface. In this guide, we’ll discuss how to install and secure phpMyAdmin so that you can safely use it to manage your databases on Ubuntu 14.04.

More…

OSTraining: Lifetime Training To Become An Expert Web Developer | TNW Deals

Whether you want to learn OS Development now, or maybe not for a few more years – how can you say no to a lifetime of hacking and open source development training?

This kind of value does not come around often. With a laundry list of successful companies, top ranked universities and government agencies using this in-depth resource, you would be crazy not to get on board.

More…

mySQL Timestamp convert to RSS PubDate

mySQL Timestamp convert to RSS PubDate:

<?php
$year = substr($timestamp, 0, 4);
$month = substr($timestamp, 4, 2);
$day = substr($timestamp, 6, 2);
$hour = substr($timestamp, 8, 2);
$min = substr($timestamp, 10, 2);
$sec = substr($timestamp, 12, 2);
$pubdate = date(‘D, d M Y H:i:s O’, mktime($hour, $min, $sec, $month, $day, $year));
?>

even better way:

<?php $pubdate = date(‘D, d M Y H:i:s O’, strtotime($timestamp)); ?>

 

via mySQL Timestamp convert to RSS PubDate – PHP Code Snippet.

How to Use PHP Improved MySQLi extension (and Why You Should)

PHP supports MySQL using a PHP extension. Thousands or millions projects have been written worldwide using PHP and MySQL. PHP team announced plans to deprecate MySQL extension in mid 2011. Old MySQL extension officially deprecated since PHP 5.5.0 in late 2012 and it will be removed in the future. The alternatives since PHP 5 and later are MySQLi (“i” stands from “improved”) and PDO (PHP Data Objects).

Everyone can understand that is not so easy to immediately migrate old projects. However, the old extension must not be used anymore in new development.

Old extension didn’t support Prepared Statements. Both MySQLi and PDO are object oriented and do support Prepared Statements (also support Transactions, Stored Procedures and more). Prepared Statements are very important for web application security, as they protect from SQL injection. Using Prepared Statements you do not have to escape strings before insert them in Database. Moreover, PDO offers support for many databases (not only MySQL).

So, the question is “Which Should I Use? MySQLi or PDO?”. A short answer would be “whatever you like”. Personally, I prefer MySQLi. I could select PDO if “multiple database support” was included in project requirements (however, in this case php ADODB could also be an alternative).

Below I describe the common use of MySQLi in php development with MySQL database (it can be also used with MariaDB, an enhanced, drop-in replacement for MySQL).

How to Use PHP Improved MySQLi extension (and Why You Should).

RESTful services with jQuery, PHP and the Slim Framework | Christophe Coenraets

I have been looking for a lightweight framework to build a RESTful API in PHP. There are a number of good options out there: Slim, Epiphany, Tonic, Recess, and Frapi to name a few. They all seem like good frameworks. In the end, I chose Slim for this project for two main reasons:

  1. It’s very lightweight and focused on REST and nothing else.
  2. It supports all the HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE), which was a key requirement for my application.

RESTful services with jQuery, PHP and the Slim Framework | Christophe Coenraets.

GitHub Opens Octicons Icon Font to All

Way back in 2012, social coding community GitHub launched its own icon font called Octicons, leveraging what it called at the time “CSS3 techniques like rounded corners, gradients, and @font-face across all pages of the site.”

This was designed to be as much about aesthetics for the emerging retina-screened products as it was about site performance, and was used across many of GitHub’s sites, including its hackable text editor Atom. Now, GitHub has announced it’s making them available for anyone and everyone to download and use. You can read more about Octicons here.

 

GitHub Opens Octicons Icon Font to All.

CoffeeScript

CoffeeScript is a little language that compiles into JavaScript. Underneath that awkward Java-esque patina, JavaScript has always had a gorgeous heart. CoffeeScript is an attempt to expose the good parts of JavaScript in a simple way.

The golden rule of CoffeeScript is: “It’s just JavaScript”. The code compiles one-to-one into the equivalent JS, and there is no interpretation at runtime. You can use any existing JavaScript library seamlessly from CoffeeScript (and vice-versa). The compiled output is readable and pretty-printed, will work in every JavaScript runtime, and tends to run as fast or faster than the equivalent handwritten JavaScript.

CoffeeScript.