SQL, the popular programming language used to manage data in a relational database, is used in a ton of apps. Khan Academy’s introductory course to SQL will get you started writing SQL in an interactive editor.
READ MORE: Learn SQL with Khan Academy’s New Interactive Course | LifeHacker
Watch the video!!
//players.brightcove.net/1130468786001/82aa0c71-8d04-464e-a66f-d6f007663844_default/index.html?videoId=4224007635001
When a young woman in New Delhi, India, was brutally gang-raped on a bus in December 2012, making international headlines, Ram Devineni wasn’t going to stay silent. The filmmaker and artist marched in the streets alongside other protesters, calling for swift justice and systemic change to the all-too-common violence against women that plagues the country.
When he asked a Delhi police officer what he thought about the young woman’s assault, the officer told him, “No good girl walks home alone at night,” implying that she either provoked the rape or, worse, deserved it. His words reflected the misguided, patriarchal view that permeates much of Indian society, silencing women even further with social stigma.
“I realized at that moment that this was not a legal issue, but a cultural problem,” Devineni tells Mashable. “As a filmmaker and as an artist, I wanted to really address this in a cultural context.”
That’s why, two years later, he created and directed the transmedia comic book Priya’s Shakti — a story about the titular Priya, a gang-rape survivor-turned-superhero who partners with a Hindu goddess to fight sexual violence and challenge the patriarchy.
Co-written by Vikas K. Menon with artwork by Dan Goldman, the comic book is the first of its kind to use augmented reality and image recognition, using various media to tell the story of fighting back against sexual assault.
If you’re still trying to wrap your head around what the “Internet of Things” is, this data visualization makes things easy to understand and is fun to explore.
The visualization, from the team at Information is Beautiful, does a great job of explaining what the Internet of Things is, what it can and will affect, who the major players are, and even provides some eye-opening statistics regarding the direction we’re all headed with technology. Additionally, it mentions some of the challenges facing our “always connected” world. You can check it out at the link.
The Internet of Things | Information is Beautiful
via Learn About the Internet of Things with This Interactive Visualization | LifeHacker
Chris Milk uses cutting edge technology to produce astonishing films that delight and enchant. But for Milk, the human story is the driving force behind everything he does. In this short, charming talk, he shows some of his collaborations with musicians including Kanye West and Arcade Fire, and describes his latest, mind-bending experiments with virtual reality.
via Chris Milk: How virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine | Talk Video | TED.com
Kory Westerhold and his cofounder, Yahoo Design Director Aaron Martin, give co.Design an exclusive look at their beautiful new bible app. READ MORE: Ex-Apple Designer Rethinks The Bible For A Mobile World | Co.Design | business + design.
Versal is a service that allows teachers to build and publish interactive online courses, homework assignments and tutorials. The company launched its service out of beta [March 4, 2015], but maybe more importantly, it also announced a partnership with Wolfram Research. Thanks to this deal with Wolfram Research — which includes Stephen Wolfram joining the Versal board of directors — Versal now allows teachers to embed content from Wolfram into their courses.
READ MORE: Versal Helps Teachers Create Interactive Online Lessons, Partners With Wolfram Alpha | TechCrunch
Previously, we featured this comparison chart that helps you pick a phone or laptop based on your needs. Now, the site has been to include tablets as well, making it even easier to find the right smart device.
As with the other versions, you can filter your options based on storage, screen size, and resolution. It also seems the developer took some of our readers’ suggestions after last time. Not only does the tablet version now come with OS and camera filters, but the OS filter has been applied to the smartphone comparison chart as well.
READ MORE: This Interactive Chart Picks the Right Tablet for You | LifeHacker
PURISTS WILL SCOFF, but we could be nearing a future where new technologies make art museums come to life. Not hyperbolically, in the sense that virtual reality displays and touchscreen tablets let you interact with art in new ways (we’re already seeing that in spades, thanks to smart renovations at places like the Cleveland Museum of Art and the new Cooper Hewitt.)
This is more literal. In this near-future, works of art might actually register facial expressions. They might blink, or look right at you. READ MORE: Projection Mapping Brings an Ancient Greek Statue to Life | WIRED.
I’ve heard of geocaching before but never thought about this activity associated with books. This would be so much fun…would love to try!! Adventure and discovery, mysteries and problem-solving, stories and books, gadgets and tech, plus new environments…now if I had a to-go mug filled with tea…my idea of perfection. I also think geocaching would be a fun date activity.
Geocaching is a real-world treasure hunt. When this was written, there were over 2.5 million geocaches or “caches” and 6 million geocachers around the world. Each cache is listed on a website. A player uses a GPS device either a handheld GPS unit or a smartphone to read and decipher the clues and then find the actual treasure. It may take a long hikes in the woods or a simple walk around the corner, depending on where you are and what you want to do. For someone like me, who prefers to sit with her head in a book, it can be a welcome little bit of exercise between chapters. Once found, you sign a log, record it on the computer, and move on to the next one.
READ MORE: Why Geocaching Is The Perfect Sport for Readers | BOOK RIOT
The challenge: You have two minutes to educate a Stupid Robot by describing the picture below as precisely as possible. The catch: you can only list one word of any given length from 4-10 letters, and the robot will reject words it already knows. Therefore, you must be accurate, creative, and specific all at once.
An image from the British Library’s collections on http://www.metadatagames.org
If, like me, you found this challenge oddly entertaining, you might enjoy Metadata Games, a set of interactive tagging games designed to help libraries and museums crowdsource useful metadata for their collections.
READ MORE: Crowdsourced Metadata Games: A Primer | Information Space
infophile 