The JavaScript Programming Language Videos

I love learning about programming languages. Every language has something unique about it that makes me think: “That’s a nice feature”. While just getting acquainted with a language doesn’t mean that you know how to write code using it, it’s still nice to see what’s out there.

JavaScript is a very misunderstood language. Being “the language of browsers” by perception makes us (wrongfully) think it’s a lesser language than C++ or Java. It also makes JavaScript a very popular language these days, as almost all interactive website include some JavaScript code.

If you want to learn about JavaScript, here are very educating four videos of Douglas Crockford of Yahoo!, including the interesting history of the language:
The JavaScript Programming Language 1/4
The JavaScript Programming Language 2/4
The JavaScript Programming Language 3/4
The JavaScript Programming Language 4/4

The Waterfryer – Has Water (and a Fish) Under Your Frying Oil

Finally, another stupid “gadget” that’s worth mentioning here. It’s actually an interesting idea, but the demonstration is horrible. So what is the Waterfryer? It’s a deep fryer that has water under the oil. The result of having the water there is that, since water and oil don’t mix, the oil stays clean because all the food crumbs fall into the water. The water stays clean, and to demonstrate this there’s a fish living there right under the very hot oil. I guess you have to see it to understand. Check out this video. (via Digg)

Don’t call anyone when the daylight-savings time changeover is close

Why, you ask? Why shouldn’t I make phone calls very close to when the clock leaps one hour forward (or backward)? Ah, well, you’ll have to ask innocent student Cody Webb, who naively called his school at that time, very close to the time a bomb threat call was made to the same school. Since the school failed to adjust their clocks correctly, he got the blame and spent 12 days in jail. Unfortunately, this prevents me from labeling this post as “Funny”.

Anyway, next time the question “what are the chances?” springs to mind remember poor, innocent, non-bomb-threatener Cody Webb. (via Digg)

Sao Paulo, Brazil: The City Without Advertising

In Sao Paulo, Brazil, the advertisers did not adhere to the city’s rules on outdoor advertising. In return, the city banned outdoor advertising entirely. So what does an 11-million citizens city look like without advertising? You can read a little more about it here or go directly to this set of pictures.

We hear about city-advertisers disputes a lot here in Israel, too. I wonder if an Israeli city will ever ban outdoor advertising. Probably when municipal corruption is gone and pigs fly. (via Digg).