Human Workers, Managed by an Algorithm Global workforce: Remote digital workers earned $0.32 each for producing these self-portraits. Stephanie Hamilton is part of something larger than herself. She’s part of a computer program. The 38-year-old resident of Kingston, Jamaica, recently began performing small tasks assigned to her by an algorithm running on a computer in Berkeley, California. That software, developed by a startup called MobileWorks, represents the latest trend in crowdsourcing: organizing foreign workers on a mass scale to do routine jobs that computers aren’t yet good at, like checking spreadsheets or reading receipts. By assigning such tasks to people in emerging economies, MobileWorks hopes to get good work for low prices. The best-known crowd marketplace is Mechanical Turk, which Amazon launched in 2005. Amazon’s marketplace was a revolutionary idea. “If you put something on Mechanical Turk, it’s easy to get cheated,” says Luis Von Ahn, a crowdsourcing expert at Carnegie Mellon University. “Ugh!”
Free Books A lot of people keep asking about a good list of programming books. Hence, we are building this list to save your time and to spread the knowledge. Some of these books will definitely help us to evolve our coding skills and thought processes for developing better solutions. We will do our best to keep updating this list, hope you find this list useful, here we go. Meta-List Graphics Programming Language Agnostic: NerdDinner Walkthrough Assembly Language: Bash Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide See .NET below Django Djangobook.com Emacs The Emacs manual Thanks Emacser (October 17, 2010) Forth Git Haskell Dive Into HTML5 Java JavaScript Linux Advanced Linux Programming Lisp Lua Programming In Lua (for v5 but still largely relevant) Maven Mercurial NoSQL CouchDB: The Definitive Guide Objective-C The Objective-C Programming Language Parrot / Perl 6 Perl 6 (Work in progress) Perl PowerShell Mastering PowerShell Prolog PostgreSQL Practical PostgreSQL Python Learn REBOL Thanks Nick (October 19, 2010) Ruby Scala Scheme Smalltalk Subversion Vim
osm2po - openstreetmap converter and routing engine for java Coroflot — Design Jobs & Portfolios 30 Must See Web Generator for Lazy Webmasters Here’s a list of 70 hand-picked, easy to use, and free web generators that will save you tons of time and energy. I have grouped these tools into 10 categories: Color Palettes, Robots.txt, Website Screenshots, Favicons, Web Backgrounds, Webpage Elements (buttons, tabs, etc), Memes, Forms, Logos, and Dummy Texts. The best part about these tools is that they are completely free (some need you to signup though). Category #1: Color Palettes Generator Functions/Details: To generate color palettes based on image input.Allow users to compare, review, and select color combination at ease. Palette Generator Palette Generator – click image to visit online. Pictaculous Pictaculous – click image to visit online. Kuler Kuler – click image to visit online. Kuler is a cloud-based application for making color themes using an iPhone or your browser. Other Alternatives A few other not-to-miss color tools are Color Hunter, Colour Lovers, CSS Drive Colors Palette Generator, Color Scheme Designer, as well as Colrd.
Design Principles: The Philosophy of UX The Beginner’s Guide to Outsourcing Effectively My journey with outsourcing began in college. I wish I could say that I accomplished something. I wish I could say that my decision to outsource made me money, or even just saved me time. Yet, I can’t. I did everything wrong. I saved up $800 for outsourcing tasks (which was also my net worth at the time). Looking back, I really didn’t have the right reasons to outsource in the first place. When I was outsourcing my tasks, I walked around campus arrogantly. In those days, I outsourced tasks like, “Determine the market size of Israel-based startups by writing a 30-page paper supporting your findings.” There’s two lessons in the story above: First, fail fast and move on. Why Outsourcing is Important The thesis of this book doesn’t center around getting organized and concentrating better. If you want to become a more focused person, the answer doesn’t arrive through doing uninteresting tasks in a half-assed manner. When should you outsource? ShareThis Critical Steps of Outsourcing Effectively
The 25 Best High-Tech Pranks Everyone loves a good laugh, and in the age of electronics, high-tech hijinks are just waiting to be pulled off. So snuggle up to your screen and get ready to unleash all sorts of shenanigans as we present the 25 best high-tech pranks known to man. Our apologies in advance to your friends and co-workers. 1. We start with one sure to throw off even the most advanced Windows user. 2. While we’re on the topic of system startups, the Windows Startup folder is a fantastic place for fun. 3. A classic computer prank never goes out of style. 4. There are few things funnier than forcing a friend to insult himself — and Microsoft has made it easy to do just that. 5. While you’re in the Word or Outlook settings, another good place to tamper is the dictionary. 6. A small investment will have a big payoff with the ThinkGeek Annoy-a-Tron. 7. 8. 9. Since you’re already under the desk, try out another switcheroo: the speaker swap. 10. 11. 12. Another great mouse prank awaits you in the Control Panel.
Sweep the Sleaze by Oliver Reichenstein Promising to make you look wired and magically promote your content in social networks, the Like, Retweet, and +1 buttons occupy a good spot on pretty much every page of the World Wide Web. Because of this, almost every major site and world brand is providing free advertising for Twitter and Facebook. But do these buttons work? It’s hard to say. What we know for sure is that these magic buttons promote their own brands — and that they tend to make you look a little desperate. No need to remind me of Twitter The user doesn’t come out of nowhere. Whoever uses social networks to find content, usually begins the web journey there and goes back naturally. Some people probably do use those buttons. “We removed FB buttons and traffic from Facebook increased. If you provide excellent content, social media users will take the time to read and talk about it in their networks. What’s the harm? What does it mean that every Mashable article has thousands of retweets and likes?
Freelance Jobs: Freelance Jobs Directory: Freelancers Self-Employment, Consulting, Contract Work Jobs: Self-Employed Health Insurance 70 Things Every Computer Geek Should Know. | Arrow Webzine The term ‘geek’, once used to label a circus freak, has morphed in meaning over the years. What was once an unusual profession transferred into a word indicating social awkwardness. As time has gone on, the word has yet again morphed to indicate a new type of individual: someone who is obsessive over one (or more) particular subjects, whether it be science, photography, electronics, computers, media, or any other field. A geek is one who isn’t satisfied knowing only the surface facts, but instead has a visceral desire to learn everything possible about a particular subject. How to become a real computer Geek? Little known to most, there are many benefits to being a computer geek. You may get the answer here: The Meaning of Technical Acronyms 1. One of the best list of default passwords. 1A. 2. If you rolled your eyes here, that is a good thing. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
Collaborative Fund CrossLoop - Affordable Computer Help & Support, Remote Access & Free Screen Sharing