Microsoft and Nokia will be running free development workshops for the former’s Windows Phone OS, starting from next weekend. If you’re digging WP7 and call Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Auckland your usual habitat, then you might want to check them out. Yes, it’s about as short notice as you can get, with the first event scheduled for February 16-17, but MS and Nokia plan to hand out one or more Nokia Lumia handsets, which sweetens the deal significantly. More »
Gamification. The word sends shivers of revulsion down my spine. Yet, as I stare at the list of claimable accolades for Visual Studio Achievements, a “motivational” extension for Visual Studio 2010 that allows coders to garner points by completing certain excessive programming tasks, I can’t help but wish I owned a copy of Microsoft’s latest IDE. More »
If learning to code is one of your New Year’s resolutions, then Code Year is a program for you. The initiative, provided by previously mentioned webapp Codeacademy, will email you free interactive programming lessons each week. More »
Scrabble-lover and hacker Tom Rees knows that the key to dominating at the popular word game hinges on knowing all the possible two-letter words. The problem? It’s not necessarily easy to memorise all 124 possible two-letter words. Here’s how Rees hacked scrabble with the judicious application of mnemonics and technology. More »
Windows/Mac/Linux: When learning a programming language for the first time, it can be difficult to see how lines of code translate to visual elements. Free educational webapp Greenfoot provides a structured sandbox where programming students create ‘actors’ that live in ‘worlds’ to build simulations, games, and and other visual programs. More »
Need to know the Unicode character code for a specific character? Shapecatcher lets you draw a picture of it and then finds all the Unicode characters that match and tells you their hex codes. More »
Mac: Our favorite programming text editor for Mac costs $US40, so we’re always excited when a good and free option comes along. Tincta is just that, offering several great developer-friendly features like code syntax highlighting, line numbering, autocomplete brackets, and much more. More »
Google Chrome is the best web browser around right now, and part of Chrome’s appeal is its excellent extensions. The good news: It’s not that hard to get started making your own Chrome extensions. More »
Although there are a number of great ways to learn online, most of them cost a bit of money. Treehouse not only offers design and development lessons of exceptional quality — both in production and content — but offers them entirely for free. More »
