Learn Network Programming

But why learn network programming? At the time of this writing, I’ve been taking a course in Networks and we’ve already programmed quite a simple terminal based instant messaging client in C. You can join and login to a network, create buddies, and have conversations with them. If I was given more time, I would’ve implemented a gui but since we were given a one week period to work on it I didn’t have as much freedom as I had hoped for. I did use the following guide to understand network programming and I don’t think I could have found a faster and easier way to learn than this.

Beej’s Guide to Network Programming

How to install Ubuntu using VirtualBox

Today, we are going to teach you how to use VirtualBox to install Ubuntu using Windows. (This could easily be done on Linux, or a Mac too.) This is a great option for those of you who want to get a programming environment and those who want to avoid dual-booting your computer since it involves a great risk if done wrong. Virtualizing an OS is an easy task and it only takes a few steps. It should take a new user about five minutes to get going. So let’s get started.

What you need to virtualize Ubuntu on VirtualBox

Step 1: Create a new Virtual Machine

Step 2: Choose a name for your installation

Step 3: Allocate memory for your OS

Step 4: Create the virtual hard disk

Step 5: Selecting the Hard Disk Storage Type

Step 5: Virtual Disk Location and Size

Step 6: Welcome to the first run wizard!

Step 7: Select Installation Media

Step 8: Select the Ubuntu installation

Step 9: Congratulations, you did it.

Now get going and get some programming!

Useful resources

• How to write and Compile a C++ Program in Linux
• Hello World in C++
• Basic Linux Terminal Commands
• Start Programming in C++

Table of contents for Learn how to create a website series

1. Learn how to create a website using a Template
2. Understanding the Basic Structure of a Website
3. Choosing a template for your website
4. Editing the CSS Template to Make a Website

Getting ready to edit your template to make a website

In this part of our series you will start editing your template to make your website. Don’t worry, I’ll guide you every step of the way so you don’t get lost.

What do you need?

1. The BigSpaceLove template found on Free-CSS-Templates
2. A browser to open your website. (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox…)
3. A text editor to edit your website. Preferably one that supports syntax highlighting. Programmer’s Notepad is free and is what I’ll be using.

Start editing the template

Open up index.html using your text editor. If you remember the basic structure of a website we taught you can notice that it is the same way the html file is structured.

• The header contains “Website Title” and “Subheader, website description H2″ in this case
• The body is separated into a left section containing the content the and a right section containing the menu.
• The footer contains information about the person who created the template.

You will notice these sections are denoted with the following tag in the HTML document:

The <div> </div> tag

You can think of the div tag as a section within your HTML document. They will usually be named after the sections described above.

Making and viewing changes to your website

To make a change, simply save the index.html file at any time. Then open it using any browser. Once the page is open, you can refresh it thereafter whenever you make a change to the html file.

Changing the title of your website

Let’s change the title of our website. Currently it says Big Space. Look for the following code in the html file.

<title>Big Space</title>

It should be enclosed within the section. This section is used for placing information about the website such as meta tags, links to the css stylesheet, and the title of the site.

Let’s change the title to whatever you want. I’ll name it the following:

<title>Let's talk Binary!</title>

Now view the changes you have made using the steps I provided earlier. See what happened? The title of our website changed, this isn’t visible on the page itself but in your browser.

Editing the Header Section

Now let’s go ahead and change the “Website Title”. Look for the following.

<h1><a href="#">Website Title</a></h1>
<h2>Subheader, website description H2</h2>

I’ll be changing it to the following.

<h1><a href="index.html">Let's Talk Binary!</a></h1>
<h2>Eliminating the barrier between code and people</h2>

If you noticed, I change “#” to “index.html” above. “Let’s Talk Binary!” is encapsulated with the <a> </a> tag making it a link. Whenever you click on it, it will take you to the index.html page which is the current page your on.
It is also encapsulated with the <h1> </h1> tags, making it a header.

The <a> <h1> tag

The <a> seen is used to create a link to another document with the source being “index.html” in our case.

The <h1> tag defines headings. The values range from 1 to 6. 1 being the largest.

Now save and view changes. Isn’t this easier than you thought?

Go to the next page to learn how to edit the menu

Now, go on to the next page to learn how to edit the menu.

Table of contents for Learn how to create a website series

1. Learn how to create a website using a Template
2. Understanding the Basic Structure of a Website
3. Choosing a template for your website
4. Editing the CSS Template to Make a Website

What is a website made out of anyways?

If you take a good look at a couple of websites, you might notice their structures share a couple of things in common. (If you are wondering why you need to know this, you’ll learn why really soon.) Each website usually contains the following basic elements:

• A header usually contains the logo of a website along with a brief description. Sometimes you may find a menu there as well.
• The main body or content which may take up most of the website which contains the content of the website.
• A sidebar which usually contains the navigation of your website.
• A footer which usually contains copyright and licensing information.

Not all websites follow this traditional structure. It all depends on what type of website you need to suit your needs.

So what is under the hood?

So, what makes a website a website? Under the hood websites are made up of different coding languages that serve different purposes. I’ll only describe the basic ones you need to be aware of and will be working with.

Don’t worry, you don’t need to know anything. I’ll help you every step of the way.

HTML

HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. It consists of HTML tags that are used to mark up content and usually have a starting and ending tag. If you have worked with website development in the past, edited a profile on a social site such as MySpace you probably already are familiar with the basics of HTML. An example of HTML is below.

<html>
<head>
<title>This is the title of a website</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a header</h1>
<p>This is a paragraph</p>
 
 
</body>
</html>

Note: If you really wanted to, you could create an html document say, index.html, copy the above code into that document, save it, run it on firefox, and view your website!

Cascading Style Sheets

CSS are Cascading Style Sheets. They can be embedded withing your website or be found in an external file (.css) that is linked to your website. You can think of them as style sheets. If you want to define or alter an attribute of an element of your website such as a font, image, link color, or any other element, you define it in the CSS document, and it would apply to all such elements on your site. I’ll show you an example later.

XHTML

XHTML stands for Extensible HyperText Markup Language. It is more of a standard for writing in HTML. So if you see a website or layout saying its XHTML Compliant, well now you know why.

Ok, now what?

Scared yet? Don’t worry. It will all make sense later. So what’s next? In the next tutorial I’ll help you find a template to start our website, then we’ll start editing it. Stay tuned for the next tutorial. If you have any comments or suggestions feel free to post them below.

Table of contents for Learn how to create a website series

1. Learn how to create a website using a Template
2. Understanding the Basic Structure of a Website
3. Choosing a template for your website
4. Editing the CSS Template to Make a Website

Getting started on your first website

Ever wanted to create a website but had no idea where to get started? No worries, I’ll guide you through the simple process and it will require no prior experience. Is it really that easy? After you complete my series of tutorials, it sure will be. We’ll be using the template BigSpaceLove found on Free-CSS-Templates to create a simple personal website similar to my personal website.

You don’t need to know anything. I’ll even make sure you understand the fundamentals so you can continue learning more on your own afterwards. So no, you don’t need to know how to design a web page, or even how to code one.

This series will teach you how to make a similar website pictured above

Why would I need a website anyways?

First of all, a website might serve a great variety of purposes such as the following:

• You may post your resume, CV, or portfolio online to attract potential employers
• Might want to share a hobby
• Promote a product you are selling or endorsing
• Start a community
• Simply to learn!

In reality, the possibilities are endless. It’s actually quite a good skill to have and it can pay off. While I was in highschool I managed to create websites and get paid pretty darn well for it since people think its more complicated than it looks.

If you are looking to simply learn, this is a great place to start. This will be a great hands on experience as you will be seeing progress rather quickly. It will also enable you to understand the fundamentals of the creation of a website.

Next tutorial shortly coming up

Stay tuned and before you know it, you’ll have your very own personal website. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to post them below. I’ll try to tailor this tutorial for beginners so if there is anything you want me to cover please leave a comment or suggestion.

Linux 101 Hacks

An excerpt from the book…

There are a total of 101 hacks in this book that will help you build a strong foundation in Linux. All the hacks in this book are explained with appropriate Linux commands examples that are easy to follow.

You can visit the author’s blog over at The Geek Stuff. Some of his hacks are on his blog as well. So happy hacking!

I’ll check it out so I’ll tell you guys later how it went! So don’t let this deal slip!

Remember to subscribe to my feed for daily updates!

Setting up Synergy

First, download and install Synergy.

On your host computer, the computer you want to use keyboard/mouse, follow these instructions.
1. Open up Synergy.
2. Click on Advanced.
2a. Choose a Screen Name and Port number. I chose Diego as my screen name, and left Port Number as is.
2b. Click ok.
3. Click on Share this computer’s keyboard and mouse (server)
4. Click on Configure.
5. Create two screens. I created Diego and DiegoLaptop(name of client).
6. Create 2 links so your mouse can travel to and from your screens. I left the percentages as 100%.

Secondly, on the client computer, simply download, install Synergy, and open Synergy.

1. Click on Advanced.
2. Choose a screen name, I chose DiegoLaptop.
2a. I confirmed the port number was the same as the server.
2b. Click ok.
3. Click on Use another computer’s shared keyboard and mouse (client).
3a. Put in the name of your host, I put in Diego.

Lastly, simply Start both programs by click on the corresponding Start button on both computers!

You can share your keyboard/mouse between more computers, but I simply showed you how to do it between two.

Impressions of Synergy

I believe Synergy is a great utility. It allows me to share my keyboard/mouse effortlessly! It did take me awhile to figure out how to configure it, since there was no instructions on how to do so online.

So what are you waiting for? Why don’t you try it out and tell us how it went? If you still have trouble, post your comments below.