Koda

Do you use salted passwords? Or are you currently asking yourself if you have heard the term before?

If so, do yourself (and your identity) a favor and take a look at SteveX’s “Common Password Salting,” a nice, succinct writeup on the technique: why it’s important, and how to use it. Essentially, password salting allows you to create unique passwords for your many user accounts, while retaining a useful mnemonic. It’s excellent security practice, memorization tool, and a generally a handy technique to have around.

Have a look at Scrapbook, a Firefox extension that will completely change the way you feel about offline browsing. This gem of an extension is a save page function on steroids, truly an archival tool for the masses. Stop leaving the web behind as you browse it.

If there was one book I would recommend to someone interested in learning a programming language, why ’s (poignant) guide to Ruby would be it. Why’s seemingly infinite creativity and excellent writing make this book a treat to read, and the beautifully clean layout and why’s comic art are icing on the cake.

When I first discovered it two days ago, I knew immediately that why ’s (poignant) guide to Ruby was unlike any programming literature I’d read before. In fact, the book takes every opportunity available to poke fun at books I had previously read on the subject.

Admittedly - there is very little that this book does not take the opportunity to poke fun at - and in doing so, keeps what can be an unnecessarily dry topic truly entertaining and funny. You can tell a good programming book by it’s examples - and why has an endless supply of them. Thoughout the book you’ll encounter the esteemed teddy_bear_fee, chunky bacon, and so much many more.

One thing you’ll notice right away about why’s writing style is his eclectic and meandering approach to describing concepts. I’m sure this is a something most will either love or hate - and I think it’s a great idea. Through the sidebar topics and (at times lengthy) discourse, why introduces a whole spread of the philosophies surrounding open source, free content, his political/social opinions, you name it. I’m pretty sure it’ll come down to whether you agree with him or not, but I think that by covering these aspects to coding, why makes the (poignant) guide more than just a programming manual, but a peek into the eyes and culture of a representative of a programming community.

One thing I especially liked about what I’ve read is why’s emphasis on learning the language as a language, learning to speak it naturally instead of simply memorizing the rules. When it comes down to it, programming languages are not unlike any others: you have to learn to express yourself with them. Why’s (poignant) guide shows you how to do just that - poignantly.

From the book:

My conscience won’t let me call Ruby a computer language. That would imply that the language works primarily on the computer’s terms. That the language is designed to accommodate the computer, first and foremost. That therefore, we, the coders, are foreigners, seeking citizenship in the computer’s locale. It’s the computer’s language and we are translators for the world.

But what do you call the language when your brain begins to think in that language? When you start to use the language’s own words and colloquialisms to express yourself—Say, the computer can’t do that. How can it be the computer’s language? It is ours, we speak it natively!

We can no longer truthfully call it a computer language. It is coderspeak. It is the language of our thoughts.

Best. Programming Book. Ever.

I have to admit that I’ve always been a Python guy - but this book has really got me looking forward to learning Ruby.

So, surely by now we’ve all heard about the new and fancy Firefox 1.5… and how much it will totally rock your socks. It’s clear that a lot of good work has gone into this one.

Where do I start? There’s the new: SVG, Canvas, and CSS3 Column support, as well as better caching under the hood. On Linux, the GUI has become much peppier, with the tab bar and window resizing now redrawing quickly. DHTML seems to have been given a bit of attention too, as I can only recall how painfully slow moo.fx moved on Firefox 1.0 (click on the green buttons) even on my P4 2.8… I was pleasantly surprised to see it moving wonderfully smooth in this new version. Oh, and Firefox is not vulnerable to the recently discovered “Extremely Critical” Internet Explorer Vulnerability (discaimer: Firefox *will* crash from the exploit, but is not subject to the IE bug that allows remote code to be run)

Now, what if I were to tell you that you could even further the aforementioned rocking-your-socksage in this version? Here’s a few must-have extensions to start you out.

I’ve been using the wonderful Tab Preview for a few weeks… and it’s become so ingrained in my browsing style that I’ve stopped thinking about it. And yet, the 1.5-enabled thumbnailing frenzy doesn’t stop there! Do yourself a favor and pick up Viamatic foXpose. This deceptively simple Firefox extension will take all of your currently open tabs and tile them in your browsing space - perfect for finding that elusive page you made a mental note to get back to.

If you’re like me, and have always found Firefox’s sidebar interface a little bit clunky, you’ll be overjoyed when you first try out All-In-One Sidebar. This little wonder not only reorganizes all of Firefox’s existing sidebars into a pretty buttonbar at the left, but hooks into the Firefox UI and turns the dialogs for Downloads, Themes, Extensions, Page Info, and the Source Viewer (whew!) into sidebars as well. There’s more - All-In-One Sidebar doesn’t simply copy the interfaces verbatim, but improves upon them. For instance, text boxes in the sidebar have a handy “X” button, allowing you to clear their contents with a click. Each sidebar has it’s own Tools menu that provides extra functions. Possibly the best part about this extension is that every element of it’s organization and behavior is customizable.

Found a website that shuts you out for using Firefox? There are many user agent switcher interfaces available for Firefox. Named simply enough, User Agent Switcher is my personal favorite. It does all that should be expected from it’s name, and has a clean, customizable interface. There are several ways to access User Agent Switcher’s interface, which comes with three default modes: Internet Explorer 6, Netscape 4.8, and Opera 8. More can be added, if you please.

Looking good! That’s all I have for now - be sure to browse the whole collection on Mozilla’s webpage. Many more goodies can be found there.

Enjoy, and remember - Spread Firefox!

Tired of finding Homeworld in your Starcraft case, and two audio cds in your Homeworld case? I am. True ninja are never without cases for their CDs.

This is seriously the coolest thing I’ve seen for a long time. Not only can you demonstrate your supreme coolness to all your friends, but you can be a ninja at the same time by mastering this excercise in the fine art of Japanese paper folding.

Go check out this HowTo, and attain that precious one step closer to geek nirvana.