Saturday, April 27, 2013

More Javascript, and then some

Now, on my quest for learning Javascript, and auxiliaries such as jQuery etcetera, I've come across a veritable foundry.

It's a website dedicated to the teaching of such languages and it is done so through an interactive online IDE which guides you as well as lets you practice along.

In the 'Learn' section are various languages. They include:
  • Web fundamentals
  • PHP
  • jQuery
  • Javascript
  • Python and
  • Ruby
Then there's 'Projects' and 'API's which lets you culminate your acquired knowledge into practical uses.

Each subject is broken down into chapters and keeps track of completion and so on. Which happens to be best part as learning on your own is hard enough, especially if you were to try and keep track of where you are instead of learning as much as you can.

On that note however, it is somewhat finnicky when trying to move backwards through the lessons to review something as there's no back button. You just have to drop down the lessons list and click the appropriate chapter.

Overall it's a boon for people who wish to learn new skills since their is very little to sacrifice. Just time and effort. Once you get upto speed then you can invest in heavy, expensive tomes or courses knowing what avenues exist and what your interests are. Tally ho.  
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Saturday, April 13, 2013

Critical Mass - further exploration

Pending more refinement, or less as the case may be, in extending my discourse on the topic of critical mass, I've tried to visually depict my theses.
The topic of course is critical mass. It is hypothesized as the accumulating of enough core knowledge of any subject in order to enable spontaneous use or otherwise maintain the viability and cohesive integrity of that store.
 Now to further elucidate my thoughts I have come up with these rough diagrams to represent the phases through which it might occur.

Phase I

This phase is the resting phase or initial phase. It could be either at the onset of a course of action to attain the requisite knowledge or a general state of being which is not inclined to any such acquisition.
Usually any less than a dedicated, sustained, and planned course of action will relegate a person to merely existing at this state without reaching the higher phases. At this stage a substantially massive level of exertion is needed to create impetus.
Phase I

Phase II

In this phase, the applied study of underlying knowledge and reiterative processes starts to cement the building blocks of that particular subject. At this level it is usually easier to maintain equilibrium with the knowledge already gained with a comparatively lower amount of atrophy.
Phase II

Phase III

At this phase the body of knowledge has all but become an acquired function, akin to motor skills which have become embedded in the brain and controlled subconsciously e.g. walking or riding a bike.  This is the phase, where most commonly, subjects are able to create emergent ideas and knowledge, based on the ones already acquired. This might give rise to creation of addendums to existing fields, or even possibly creating entirely new ones.
Phase III

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Monday, April 8, 2013

Word Power Made Easy - Review

Word Power Made EasyWord Power Made Easy by Norman  Lewis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


An excellent book on improving your vocabulary.  'Word Power made easy' was broken up into categories based on what you might require. Each category revolved around a central theme which helped to hold everything together when learning.
Apart from introducing new words, defining them and using them with other inter-connected words, there were also useful information on the origins of words, the greek, latin, or other, roots, prefixes and suffixes which went a long way to learning and using the words.
This was a great book and I will definitely purchase a new copy since I don't have the old copy with me.



View all my reviews

Friday, April 5, 2013

Stranded posts

A few years ago I had decided to separate my blogging into two or more different venues based on topic. Now due to limited time and through the course of eventualities I ended up using this one as the main blog with all topics condensed into the same blog. Just today I came across an article about pre-interview tips and remembered that I had written something of the same nature. And to further coincidence one of the tips was the very same I had proposed - about the benefits of working out. Here's the article:

5 ways to look relaxed during a job interview

And here's my blog article from way back when: 

Pre-Interview tips

Now harking back to that blog reminds me that something clean, simple and focused is more visually evocative. I am somewhat equivocal about pursuing disparate blogs, unless I divide this blog by tabs or other means. Time will tell.
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