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This article addresses whether or not learning new programming languages is worth the time and energy. According to the article, learning new languages (1) expands your ability to use several different approaches to solve problems, (2) might teach you techniques that carry over to old languages, (3) exposes you to new communities, (4) provides additional marketable skills, and (5) stimulates your mind. At the end, one user stipulates that he only learns a language when it "has enough maturity, has a good developer base, and offers significantly different outcomes from the others I know."

This is a completely pointless website that kind of made me laugh. I'm one of those people of 50% of the time uses "Google" as a verb ("Just Google it") and who 50% of the time still asks an actual human being the question first but inevitably gets: "Well, did you Google it?" So...this isn't an article. But still kind of funny. Digital technology is certainly changing our language: Just Google it, Wiki it, I friended her the other day, when I was Pinning, I wish I had a "Like" button right now!, and so on...

A writer for Facebook (wow, that seems like such a weird way of putting it) explains the rationale behind the site's language and features such as the "Like" button. We can connect this to the patterns in Designing Social Interfaces.

Dennis Allen posted this item in the blog "The Tenants of Colson Hall" a few weeks ago. Originally, the seller was auctioning this item for $399.95 and then for $599.95 and finally for $999.95. No one bought the item, but I think it would make for an interesting discussion related to Kenny Goldsmith's Uncreative Writing. I'm wondering if the intent was serious (similar to the retyping of On the Road) or if it was meant to be comical? Either way, it would make for an interesting discussion on the materiality of language.

This is the hypertextual poem by Stephanie Strickland called "The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot," to which Hayles refers in her article "Electronic Literature: What Is It?" Hayles's idea that we must recognize "the specificity of new media without abandoning the rich resources of traditional modes of understanding language, signification, and embodied interactions with texts" is absolutely at work in this poem.

Careful who you de-friend! I was interested in any news around the changing of language based on our use of technology - things like using "Google" or "Wiki" as verbs, for example - and thought of "friending." When I Googled this and looked at News, there were several stories to this effect!

Codecademy is the easiest way to learn how to code. It's interactive, fun, and you can do it with your friends.

I have messed around with this, and I think I came near graduating the free class that they offer. It was useful, but I didn't find that it got me too far into javascript. I did find that I liked the points and badges. Did you see the pay option alternative site (I think linked off Code Academy somewhere ... or it comes up when you search Google for Code Academy) where you can learn various coding languages as you play games? One of them teaches you CSS or Javascript as you fight zombies. If you didn't have to pay ... I would totally get into that. :)