Programming is more than for just techies – knowing even a little bit of scripting can be really useful in both your personal and professional lives. You can learn to automate the mundane every day tasks at home, or become a streamlined worker at your job by making the long complex tasks simpler and easier to understand.

However it can be daunting to learn a language, especially if you have no previous experience, which is where Codeacademy comes in – as the co-founder, Mike Bloomberg, recently said in an interview:

As the cofounder of Codecademy, which teaches people how to code online, I spend my days working with our hundreds of thousands of users to get them to learn to code in an effective manner online. In 2012, we launched a new program, Code Year, to get more people to realize the importance of programming.

I’ve already signed up for Code Year and my goal is to be able code by mid-2012. Starting with Javascript [the language taught on Code Year) seems like a good idea too, as I spend a large portion of my life on the net.

Programming is one of the few disciplines taught today in schools that virtually guarantees students a job upon graduation. Beyond that, it’s one of the few fields where students are creators–they’re building games, websites, applications, and more.

So will you be making 2012 the year of code? Head over to Code Year and get started now.

On the whole there are some very simple things you just can’t do on a Mac [easily] like cut a file and paste in a folder (you have to drag the file into the folder, or copy then delete the original) – this is something you can quickly get used to. However there are some that just don’t make any sense like not being able to play a video in fullscreen or work in an app in full screen on one monitor whilst being allowed to work on a second monitor.

I was quite excited when Apple announced the availability of full screen apps for Lion, because not only do you end up with more screen real estate (Terminal is awesome in full screen) to work in but it means that you can get the same distraction free work environment, that previously you may have had to pay for, with all your current [supported] apps.

I’ve also been using multi-monitor setups for quite some time now, and on my previous machines (that were Windows based) I have found this to be a very efficient enviroment for me.

However, for some reason when you have multiple monitors connected to your Mac, running OS X 10.7 (I’m running 10.7.1), and you switch to full screen mode whilst watching a video or whilst having a pages document open, or using a web browser then you will be greeted with a hideous grey background and loss of functionality on your secondary display. What gives!?

This is apparently a widely know issue and I’m sure it has been reported to apple, I have personally submitted the feedback to Apple.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon, and I will update here when it, until then I must try and work the way that Apple wants me to!

Thus endeth the rant.

Though I have been very close to jumping on the tablet band-wagon several times, but there are some things that have been making it difficult to take the plunge:

• Price – it’s true that since the initial market explosion a year ago prices have dropped somewhat, I still find it very hard to justify spending at least £399 for a base Wi-Fi only model.
• Lack of apps - there are still not as many tablet optimised apps as I would hope – this is particularly true on Android tabs then on the iPad. Of the apps that are designed for tablets a lot of them are games, and with all others only a few are of outstanding quality. Is that the sort of market you want to buy into?
•  Can I justify the purchase- of course they are not meant to be “serious” work machines, no matter what some of the ads may advertise them to be. It’s just not efficient. However thankfully this is being addressed with the release of keyboard docks and such.
• Waiting game - I guess this could equally apply to most tech products. I’m finding it difficult to buy a tablet now, especially with such new innovations just around the corner. I know I am more likely to go for a Android tablet, and with the new quad-core Nvidia Kal-el tablets just around the corner doesn’t it make sense to wait?
• Better competition – I guess this is linked to the point above. If I were to buy a tablet today there are only two real options that I would look to get  – the Apple iPad 2 or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Having said all of that, it is still very hard to resist the purchase when you’ve had a chance to play with either of two tablets I mention above. In the end I am quite likely to purchase a tablet in the next six month. Unless of course someone wants to send me a free one for review?

Do you have a tablet? Or are you looking to buy one in the near future? Let me know in the comments below.

One such feature is the ability to display information on the lock screen. Particularly useful if you carry a macbook. I’ve customised mine to show my contact information, just incase I lose my beloved MacBook Pro and any good smaritan wants to return it back to me.

To do this, open up system preferences, go into Security & Privacy and check the box against “Show a message when the screen is locked:”

If you spend a lot of time writing on your Mac, but find yourself continually distracted by formatting options and the myriad buttons that clutter the workspace then WriteRoom may well be the answer to your prayers.

Of course, this is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea – for me it was exactly what I needed.

When you fire up WriteRoom, you’re a greeted by nothing but a full screen black canvas with a blinking green cursor — it’s a thing of beauty. Moving the cursor to the bottom edge of the screen reveals the name of the document and the word count. Moving the cursor to the top edge reveals the menu bar, and pressing the esc key toggles the full screen mode on or off.

There are other options such as live spellchecking and the ability to change the background and text colour (I personally really enjoy the default style).

There isn’t much more to the app, but then again, there isn’t suppose to be – it’s suppose to be a simple canvas to allow writers to put their thoughts down quickly without any distractions.

I would highly recommend this software, but I know many will find the $24.99 price tag too steep for such limited functionality. Alternatively you could try Bean (insert link for Bean) which is completely free and also offers full screen distraction free writing.

Download and Buy WriteRoom

I’ve been lucky enough to never have a laptop or phone stolen. When I came across Prey, I knew instantly that it was worth installing on all my devices that travel with me frequently.

Prey is a free, and lightweight utility that helps you track your stolen laptop and/or phone. Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s free – it has a full feature set.

Once installed it remains dormant until it receives a remote signal (via SMS or via the control panel on the web). You can then instruct Prey take a screenshot of the what your thief is doing, lock down your device, take a picture using the camera and pinpoint the location using GPS and WiFi.

There is no reason why every laptop, macbook and android device shouldn’t have this installed.

Prey is available free for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. Download it now free from http://preyproject.com/

For best viewing play in full HD and note the countdown to popular handset launches in the top left hand corner.

I’ve tried this with my Nexus one and it works like a charm. Have a go for yourself.

No doubt you would’ve heard a lot of hype about the iPad, especially in the past couple of weeks. With the US release date set for today, and the UK release in a couple of weeks, expect to hear a lot more.

Whether you’ll be running off to the stores to pick one up for yourself or maybe you’ll be standing outside the stores laughing in the faces of those that decide to waste their hard earned cash on it or maybe you’re just on the fence; I’ve complied for you, all in one place, a list of the opinions from around the web.

The roundup:

• BoingBoing offers up two contrasting reviews Apple’s iPad is a touch of genius and Why I won’t buy an iPad (and think you shouldn’t, either).
• Engadget’s iPad review
• The Wall Street Journal says Laptop Killer? Pretty Close
• Gizmodo offers up iPad’s first hands on, but perhaps more helpfully the iPad mega meta review (see image below for a round up)

Gizmodo's iPad review matrix

Lastly check out the very interesting article from Digital Inspiration, looking at the new inner circle of Steve Jobs.

Are you planning on buying an iPad? Let me know in the comments

Image by smemon87

Here are 7 extensions that I simply can’t live without and a theme, because you always need a nice environment to work in.

1. RSS Subscription extension

This extensions automatically detects the RSS feeds on any site that has them, and puts the little orange button to allow you to quickly subscribe to the feed with your favourite reader.

2. One number

Do you have the constant need to know if there is an email in your Gmail inbox, or an unread article in your Google reader, or maybe a wave waiting for you. With OneNumber you can monitor Gmail, Google Reader, Google Wave, and Google Voice all from one place.

3. Visual tabs

Sometimes, when I’m in midst of research or even when browsing just to kill some time, I end with a so many tabs that it’s impossible to read the title of the tab. Visual tabs provides with a nice looking cover-flow style navigation to help you move from tab-to-tab.

4. Fresh Start – Cross browser session manager

Description from the extension gallery: “Manage your browsing session easily with FreshStart! If you have different sets of websites that matter to you at work, at home or at different times, or if you have multiple users on your Chrome, you should give this a try!”

5. Dropbox

If you work of several computers, with the need to be able to share the same files across them all, then you may already be familiar with Dropbox (if not, you can check it out here). With this handy extension, you can access all your dropbox files and folders with the click of a button.

6. Del.icio.us

I’m a big fan or Del.icio.us or Delicious (whichever way you prefer), with this handy extensions you can any page of interest to your Delicious account.

7. Facebook for Google Chrome

If like me, and the other millions of people worldwide, you have the need to stay up-t0-date (or post) constant updates on facebook, then no doubt you will love this extension. However, it doesn’t have the chat feature included which means it’s not perfect.

7.5. Late night by Google

Obviously what may be a great theme to me, might be hated by everyone else – still, I believe this to be quite a cool looking theme. It’s easy on the eyes, looks stylish and doesn’t compromise the browsers functionality.

Are there any extensions you can’t live without, let me know in the comments below.