₦airaland Forum

advocate666: If god does actually exist, it resembles nothing to anything any of the world religion has shown us so far.

Last Sunday, I incurred the wrath of my driver when I told him to take me to a church so that I can worship the King of Kings. He protested that he would not come and I thought he was joking.

He did not come. “It is only old men who are about to die who go to church. They are tired of the world and want God to forgive them and welcome them into His kingdom. Many people in South Africa don’t go to church.

Most of the churches in South Africa are owned by Nigerians. They are industries. They use it to make money ne”, he rapped. Another encounter. The driver that brought me from Nelspruit to Rustenburg took to his heels when I alighted from the bus and said; “thank you, Jesus”. “You don’t like Jesus?”, I asked in awe. “No, no, no. People use that name to cheat and deceive. I don’t believe in it”. I gaped in shock. “We don’t go to church here.

Only old men and women go to church. You know what is right and you do it. That is better. If you go to church, you will be contributing to another person to make him fat. Look, my friend.

There is no truth in the world. Once somebody says true to God, you are being cheated”. Throughout the six-hour journey, there was no mighty church building. All the buildings are industries.

But in Nigeria, all the warehouses have been bought over by churches. What an irony! We pray all the time in Nigeria and yet Nigeria is sliding backwards. South Africa is marching forward. Our leaders sit at the front rows in churches and give fat offerings and tithes. Unlike in the days of old from the Bible, no pastor or Man of God can look a corrupt leader in the face and tell him the truth.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2013/01/only-old-men-go-to-church/

Stalwert: , wat's your take on the video? Are you a cindy?

Stalwert: In my humble opinion 99%

8 Tried & True Tips For Learning How To Code

January 22, 2013
By Erez Zukerman

Skilled programmers have been in high demand for years now, and it doesn’t look like that demand is about to go down anytime soon. But even if you don’t intend to make a living as a professional programmer, learn how to code proficiently is going to come in handy in any computer-related job – even as a manager. But if you’re reading this, I probably shouldn’t have to tell you why becoming a coder is a good idea. You already know, and I guess you know something else, too – it isn’t easy.

Mastering the art of programming takes thousands (yes, thousands) of hours. Still, if you spend those hours well, you’ll get there sooner (and have more fun along the way). Here are a few ideas for you to consider and maybe try out on your path to becoming a coder.

Solve a Real Problem

Theory is boring. So are theoretical problems, usually. If you’re only learn how to code to make some money, well, I’m not sure how well that’s going to work out. But if you have an actual passion for building things, go build them. So the first question you should probably ask yourself is “why do I want to learn this?” If that answer is “to make something“, well, go make that thing. The good news are that the first step doesn’t require you to know how to code anything: You just have to write down (and preferably, sketch in) what would that thing look like. What’s the application that you’re missing? What tool doesn’t exist, but you really need?

What’s nice about this approach (also known as “scratching your own itch”) is that your project doesn’t have to be grandiose. You can start out with something really small, just create a simple utility. But no matter what it is, you should care about it. The first thing I ever wrote in Ruby was a personal project I’ve kept on using for years, and have never released to the world. Still, I’m very proud of how it came out, and much of what I know about Ruby (not Rails) came from that project.

Start With High-Level Information


Yes, I’ve singled out a specific book here. No, O’Reilly didn’t pay me (or MakeUseOf) anything. It’s just that good. I almost never make it through a book about programming, but Code Simplicity kept me fascinated all the way through. It’s a book about the art of programming, with almost no code in it. You don’t have to know a programming language to understand it. It covers things like the basic reason to even program anything (to help people!), when should you introduce new features into your application, when to optimize your code (and what’s premature optimization), and a lot of other good stuff.

Once you finish this book (or another book like it, if you find one), you’ll be at a much better spot to judge your future studies.
Carefully Pick Your Technology

Should you go code your first project in straight-up ANSI C? Unless you have a very specific reason, the answer to that is “probably not”. Good coders know how to code, rather than a specific language – they can learn any language they need for a given project in a short amount of time. But doing this for the first time isn’t so easy, because it’s not the language you have to master, but the general programming concepts (program logic and flow control, variable types and scoping, objects, and all of that good stuff). So, you should definitely spend some time thinking about what language or technology you want to code in.

This comes after picking your project, because once you know what you’re trying to make, you will be limited to a narrower subset of possible technologies. You’re not going to code a native iPhone app in Ruby on Rails, for example. But if you’re coding for the Web, there are about a zillion different languages you could use, each with many different frameworks. PHP, Python, Ruby, Go, and the list goes on.

Spend time researching each of the alternatives – what sort of community does it have? How easy is it to get support? Are there good free development tools for it? James covered this topic in another article, called Which Programming Language Should You Learn For Software Development?.

Don’t Spend Lots of Time Learning Big Chunks of Data


I once spent a few weeks watching a video course about PHP. I think it was 30 hours of video or something crazy like that. Do I know PHP now? Heck, no. I mean, I can read some of the code, but I’d say those hours were a sheer waste of time. Trying to cram so much knowledge sequentially without coding just doesn’t work. For me, carefully coding a pre-made example project is nearly as bad, because it misses a huge part of learning. I do my best learning when I’m trying to make something I care about (see above) and randomly run into problems. Solve a problem you feel something about, and you’ve learned something new. Stare at the screen for 30 hours and….well.

Do Spend Time Setting Up Your Environment


Just like there are many programming languages, there’s a lot of development environments out there for every language. Some people use a text editor like Vim (which I recommended in The Top 7 Reasons To Give The Vim Text Editor A Chance) or Notepad++ (which we’ve shown you how to “soup up” here). Picking an editor that’s right for you is a very personal process, and it’s just the start. You’re next going to have to customize it with keyboard shortcuts, color schemes, plugins, and more.

And that’s just a small part of the work – setting up a development environment requires installing the language you want to work with, many code libraries, a versioning system (like Git, which James explained here), and more. In other words, you’ve got hours of work ahead of you setting up the environment. And you know what? That’s okay.

Just make yourself a cup of coffee or ten, and go through it. Have fun. Learn to know your tool, just like any craftsman knows his tools. Learn the keyboard shortcuts. Get that highlighting just right. The more comfortable you feel with your tools, the better you’d be able to pay attention to your code. So, this is one area I wouldn’t skimp on.

Don’t Rush Yourself – Deadlines Are Your Enemy

Whatever you do, remember – you’re here to learn. You’re not under a deadline. When the temptation arises to use a dirty hack in your code just to get it to work, don’t! Take the time and invest the care to find out how to do it the right way. A sloppy first project is better than no project, but you’ll learn much more from a project you’ve designed and built with great care every step of the way.

Have patience, and sweat the details (when it comes to coding techniques and ways to get stuff done in code).

Ask Questions


We have MakeUseOf Answers for your questions, and there’s also the fantastic Stack Overflow which you can see in the screenshot above. There are many other language-specific forums online, but no matter the venue you pick, don’t be afraid to ask questions. If people aren’t nice, figure out what you did wrong and learn to ask better questions (a subject for an article in itself, really).

Failing that, go find another community. But no matter what, ask your questions, and listen to the answers. Thanking people for the time they took to help you is also a good idea.

Use Spaced Repetition To Retain Information


This final tip is a short one – go read all about the Janki Method. It’s an absolutely brilliant way to built an arsenal of always-current programming knowledge and retain it indefinitely, not in your computer, but in your brain where you need it. Seriously, go read that post.
Final Thoughts

Learning is a very personal thing, so maybe not all of these tips are going to work out for you. Then again, maybe you have a few other tried and true ones you’d like to share.

Most important (for me), I’d like to know if you’re going to be using any of these tips in your quest to become a programmer. Will you? Let me know below.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-tried-and-true-tips-for-learning-how-to-code/

Logicboy03: Okay, I'm sorry.....we cool?

Logicboy03: You started it by understating number 6. Dont lecture me, please.

6) You believe that people will suffer in the afterlife, no matter how good they are for not following your religion

How i number 6 not psychopathic? Good people will suffer for being in the wrong religion?






Yawn....Do you base your decision solely on religion?

Logicboy03: Wrong.


6) Many people will forcefully try to convert or dicsriminate on others because they think that these others are destined to burn forever in the afterlife. Furthermore, only a psychopath will honestly believe that everlasting suffering is indeed a wise/just punishment for not following a religion.

Discrimination based on religion is acceptable to you? Every religion is minority in global terms. How can someone choose friends based on the criteria of religion alone? Would you then believe that a murdering religious person is better than a good non religious person?

Respectable scientific theories are phrased as formal systems, usually in terms of equations. But most of us don’t think in equations, we think in words and/or pictures. This is true not only for non-specialists interested in science, but for scientists themselves; we’re not happy to just write down the equations, we want sensible ways to think about them. Inevitably, we “translate” the equations into natural-language words. But these translations aren’t the original theory; they are more like an analogy. And analogies tend to break under pressure.


Sean Carrol

Sean Carroll is a Senior Research Associate in the Department of Physics at the California Institute of Technology. His research interests include theoretical aspects of cosmology, field theory, and gravitation.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2008/10/06/does-space-expand/#.UPvMCFclB1g

Anony:

So sorry, but, I need to understand your problem. How do you define broke? What does hungry truly mean? Can you define broke and relate it to being kicked out?
A good definition of hungry could mean starving for Jesus who is the bread of life

NRI PRIEST: Oga mr. gullible, let me quickly remind you that Anambra has a better school system,health system,better road network and governance more than Edo. How many industries has your Oshio brought to Edo. He is wasting tax payers money to beautify Benin to please the Omo n' Oba while the rest of the stae rot in neglet. Anambra is relatively a new state still and you lots are not financially better of than us. Everythin Obi has done he did it with Anambra money. NO BORROWING!!!!

thehomer: No, I'm saying that according to the concept of the multiverse, they exist within universes so within a universe, you have space and time but not in the void between them.

HARDDON: Others like going to bed at 4am.

At the gist of all this is avoiding distractions. But you could just lock the door, what’s so special about the night?

Ballmer's Peak
But even programmers should be sleeping at night. We are not some race of super humans. Even programmers feel more alert during the day.

Why then do we perform our most mentally complex work work when the brain wants to sleep and we do simpler tasks when our brain is at its sharpest and brightest?

Because being tired makes us better coders.

tbaba1234: I did



Your analogy does not follow. A person that calls himself obama can easily be identified, a person that calls himself an atheist out of rebellion can not...

It is a thing of the heart not an outward characteristic.

Many Atheists i would argue, belong to this category....

Like i said earlier, we convince ourselves many times of what we want to believe. A person could start as a rebel and as a result of that rebellion disbelieve in God totally. Sometimes it is a progression to atheism from rebellion.

Many atheists are products of that process.

tbaba1234: I gave you a case study of this kind. Now It does not mean all atheists fall into this category. The key word here 'some'.

Knowledge and guidance are two different things. Many times, we convince ourselves of what we want to believe. We have biases that define how we see things and how we want to see things.

From my experience, people build resentment towards God and atheism gives them a way out. They convince themselves of it. That is why some people can present only emotional arguments for their unbelief.

Those that rebel still term themselves atheists; we can not see the hearts ... can we?

Point: There are atheists who rebel, it might not be the entire population.

tbaba1234: 2. Get the background: This is the most important discussion in my opinion. Most atheists are atheists because of a tragedy in their lives or a frustration with their previous faith. It is not about some form of reason or logic... Some just want to do what they want without feeling guilty.

Purist: For Anony, atheism was virtually all about bashing Christians and asking annoying questions, à la Socrates' method (curious that he paints his "atheism" with a notoriously common stereotype). Dude even went as far as attending Christian fellowships just to bash people. Amazing!

For Anony, choosing to respect an individual's religious belief somehow translated to indirectly acknowledging the same God he claimed didn't exist. Wonderful logic. It is no wonder then that, as a supposed atheist who supposedly was fond of asking questions, he found LaVeyan Satanism appealing.

I also wonder why after reading 'Ivan The Fool', all he 'saw' thereafter was Christ. Why does something tell me that a former Zoroastrian would equally have 'seen' Zoroaster, and a former Islamist would very well have 'seen' Mohammed?

For me, I wouldn't go as far as to say that Anony was never a true atheist, as I'd be quite guilty of committing the No True Scotsman fallacy. My opinion, however, is that Anony was just a young (possibly aggressive) dickhead and an absolute douchebag who was battling within himself with the exuberance of youth, as evidenced by:

(a) his constant eagerness to go all the way to people's worship center to bash them such that he had turned them into his 'victims', and
(b) his eventual adherence to something as ridiculously sick as LaVeyan Satanism

The young Anony eventually found more solace in his abandoned religion, as it was the only thing that could reasonably afford him the luxury of forgiveness and by extension, riddance of guilt whenever he acted out the sick thoughts that dominated his mind. It is therefore not much surprise that he firmly associates atheism (which happened to coincide with this wanton period of his life) with all manner of ills (murder, rape, stealing, etc). Gentlemen, all Anony sought while supposedly being an atheist was simply something to rationalize his deeds, to make him feel good, no matter what he did, no matter how twisted. All of these, he now finds in Christianity.

Praise the Lord!

mazaje: Anony is just lying when he says he was an atheist and I am VERY serious about that. . .His atheism was all about having ideas like rapingg women and feeling no guilt, not been responsible and not accountable for anything because only him mattered to him self etc. . .I was reading a post on psychology today. . . a study was conducted and it showed that in the broad strokes, ideology makes very little difference in the moral decisions most people make. . .People mostly go with their instincts in most cases. . .If his story is true which it is not, then he is just a depraved individual. . .

babseg: What is funny about this? Even in advanced countries they have Dog pounds that will arrest dogs roaming the street aimlessly

Demdem: u do have a point no doubt.