Page 22 of 23 of the Unsolicited Advice Archives

1. Relational database design explained — sort of

   Click through for a larger version. The text: It helps ensure data consistency and integrity. This may not seem important at first. But it becomes critical when you want to query or sort that data. For example, we have three books by Toni Morrison in the database. if we stored

2. Why ActionScript 3.0 should be your first programming language

   Last week, a Twitter friend asked about learning programming and where to start. I suggested ActionScript 3.0, but 140 characters isn't enough to explain why. That's what blog posts are for. ActionScript sounds like a weird choice, right? It's client-side, not server-side. You can't connect to a database or

3. The HTML5 video progress event: Redux

   In my first post on HTML5 video and its progress event, I wrote: Only Firefox provides a means to calculate the amount of the video that has been loaded. The progress event object includes total and loaded properties that reflect the total size of the video file, and the amount

4. The HTML5 video progress event

   UPDATE: Thanks to zcorpan's comments, I have posted a follow-up entry that should clarify the current status of the video element and its properties. The progress event is fired as the browser loads more of the media file. It may not be fired reliably, however. Chrome, for example, will not

5. Increment and decrement, prefix and postfix

   I created this example of the increment (++) and decrement (--) operators in action because I needed to see how they work in combination. I tested this example in Firefox, Safari, and later versions of Internet Explorer, but it probably works in Opera and Chrome as well.

6. Twitter, privacy, and informational self-determination

   UPDATE: Tweetdeck does, in fact, tell you whether someone's updates are protected if you click on the user name and view his or her profile. It does not however do this at a glance. If you're not listening from the CBC's Search Engine podcast, shame on you. It's a

7. Thoughts on Barack Obama and Choosing Blackness

   I use "black" and refer to blackness and black culture in a variety of ways in this post. In some contexts, I mean "descended from Africans and living in the United States." In others I mean "descended from Africans enslaved in the United States." I tried to be clear, but

8. When “American” is not enough

   Thoughts on race, culture, and identity in a globalized world where those things are fluid.

9. Plurk.com: "Karma" and Community

   I’ve been splitting time between Twitter and Plurk lately and having discussions about online communities, incentives, and rewards. One of Plurk’s signature features is “Karma,” a rewards system that awards or removes points based on how users interact with the Plurk community. Plurking daily builds karma. Taking a