Microsoft even understood this, and included a copy of their BASIC programming language interpreter on Windows versions up to 98. But, you can still start for free and it’s easier than you think!

1. Pick a language.

While we won’t start an argument over the best language, some ok suggestions are:

• Shell – on Windows this is Windows PowerShell. On Mac and Linux, this is Bash (the born-again shell). Programs in shell languages are known as ‘shell scripts.’
• Python – open source and free for every platform. It’s easy, fun, and used in some of the highest-level applications, like Blender 3D and bitTorrent clients.
• Javascript. It runs in your web browser. It’s everywhere on the web.
• Basic – still found in places like Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Frontpage, and Visio. It’s easy to learn; that’s why they named it “Basic.”

2. Gather some documentation. One of the most famous is the “Dummies” series which I’m sure some of you have seen before. There is a “For Dummies” book for probably every programming language out there. Search Google for name-of-language plus ‘tutorial’. A common name for your first program in any language is “Hello World!” which prints output to the screen. Search for that to find beginner’s level programs.

3. Be a quiet, self-starting learner. If you go into a programmer’s chat room hangout and interrupt their discussion of high-level computer science stuff to ask something like “How do I print?” the only answer they’ll give you is what you were told in step #2. Beginner’s level manuals are very easy to follow. Have some confidence in yourself!

4. Take your time. The best pace for the beginner is a few pages of the book per day. Don’t jump around in the book – it’s written with the easiest concepts presented first, with later concepts building on previous ones. One step at a time.

5. Take a read through a forum or message board devoted to your language. Simply typing the name of your language plus ‘forum’ into Google should produce tons of links. Look though some of the questions people ask and the answers given – almost every question a beginner can have has been answered dozens of times.

6. Don’t give up! It’s like learning a real language, except this is a computing language. It’s OK to put it aside if you get too busy, but try to pick it up again later. The more you keep your hand in, the better you’ll memorize it.

7. Have fun and don’t get too serious. Remember that this is a hobby, so it’s supposed to be fun. Any silly little thing you want to do, go ahead and do it. Much of what you’ll start out doing will be command-line things like inputting data to get output. Don’t let that stop you from making your own tic-tac-toe game or just a program that prints random characters on the screen really fast like a screensaver. Everybody needs to start somewhere.

8. Now you can join forums and chats and ask questions. And be sure to answer as many as you ask! By the time you’re out of the intermediate levels, you’re likely to become a valuable member of the programming community. There are plenty of websites out there devoted to hobbyist programmers – you don’t have to be the next Bill Gates or Linus Torvalds to enjoy programming as a hobby.

Search Commands is an Office 2007 add-in that enables you to quickly search for those commands. Let’s see how to add and use this feature in Office 2007.

One way to install Search Commands add-on is to join the Office Labs Analytics program when you install Office 2007. When you do this a new command called “Search Commands” is added to the Ribbon.

You can also choose to install the add-on later. For this, you first need to download Search Commands Add-on from OfficeLabs website and then install it on your computer.

After the installation is complete, you will see that a new tab with the name “Search Commands” added to your Office 2007 applications.

Now that the Search Command is added to the Office 2007 Ribbon, let’s see a few examples to work with it.

Example 1: Want to add lists in your Word 2007 document.

Type “list” in the “Search” box and all commands related to it will be displayed on the search bar.

Browse through and select the command you are looking for.

Example 2: Can Word 2007 really save documents as PDF file.

Yes, it can. Just type “save as pdf” in the Search box, and the command that will enable you to do it will be displayed for you.

Example 3: List the commands related to creating a master slide in PowerPoint 2007.

Type “master” and have all commands related to working with master slides displayed on the Ribbon.

Example 4: Don’t know how to go about working with slides in PowerPoint 2007.

Just type “slide” in the Search box on the Search Command tab and gain easy access to all 60 commands related to slides.

Example 5: Easily access commands related to using Formulas in Excel worksheets.

You can see that more 350 commands have been detected. You can use the “Previous and Next” buttons on the Search bar to scroll through all these commands and access the command that you want to use.

Search Commands is a nice Office 2007 add-on that significantly simplifies the task of using Office 2007 Ribbon. With this add-on in place, you don’t have to waste your time looking for commands anymore.

Google is definitely leading the charge, and with NexusOne, Buzz, Wave, Universal Translator, and Chrome OS, I think Google is still very much in the game, contrary to what detractors say of it being slowly left behind. Not to be outdone, Apple and Microsoft also came up with releases of their own. So let’s look at 5 of these:

Google Chrome Operating System

Google unveiled the Chrome Operating System in July 2009, a secure, easy, and faster operating system targeting people who use computers primarily for web browsing. The project was open-sourced for developers in November last year as “Chromium OS” for them to engage in the development of this new operating system. This essentially different model of computing is presently in its “Alpha” working state and not yet ready for consumers.

Like traditional operating systems, Google Chrome OS has no desktop applications, presenting a sleek and minimal interface. The Alpha release shows an interface merely comprising a launch button at the top corner of the screen that initiates an application page. Most of the user applications reside in the browser over the internet; as a consequence, users are set free from the hassle of managing, installing or updating programs. Moreover, as your desktop has no files or applications, this simply implies that no virus or malware can infect your computer making the user computing experience that much more secure.

The most distinguishing feature of Chrome OS is its speed. Chrome device connects users to the internet almost instantly as the device is booted, without loading unnecessary programs. Chrome OS is intended to run on 86x & ARM chips. Currently, an assiduous team of engineers are working on the OEMs to launch this lightweight operating system on netbooks in the second half of 2010.

Nexus One

Released in the US this January, Google’s smartphone is somewhat of a novelty with its sleek design, ultra-thinness of 11.5 mm and curved edges with a 480 x 800 OLED capacity latest multi-touch screen allowing users to be more virtuosic. With a 5 megapixel autofocus camera from 6cm to infinity, LED flash and 2X digital Zoom aided with low light feature, the new Nexus phone is as light as 130 grams, the equivalent of holding 10 ordinary pencils at a time.

Nexus features dual microphones for noise cancellation, a voice keyboard and the ability to transcribe voice to text in any text field on the phone. The phone also charges when it is connected to a computer’s USB port or when inserted in an optional desktop or car dock. Charging via the car charger makes Nexus One a navigation device that can provide users with directions for traveling.

The graphical features of Nexus are cool. The wallpapers are interactive, and respond to the user’s touch. Other features include 3D scrolling of apps, and a new way of checking out photographs utilizing Cooliris technology. This stunning Android handset is much better than any other Android handset so far. Moreover, as Android is open source, developers have freedom of apps creation ultimately benefiting the users. Users can also view pictures in their Picasa web album by automatic synchronization of Nexus with Picasa. Nexus One is sold in the unlocked GSM version, making it effortlessly accessible from any online store from Google. It’s being introduced throughout the world in stages; good thing is the price won’t blow a big hole in most my pocket….

Google Buzz

Announced on February 9th this year, Google Buzz presents the clever and handy way to share, at least from Google’s perspective. Since the past couple of years, Google have been profoundly voicing their idea of a “social web” to facilitate social networks and sharing, and Buzz is yet another social feature in a crowded field that allows users to connect more intimately, follow each other, and share things of mutual interest.

The most defining feature of Google Buzz is its integration with Gmail, this implies that users are set free from the intricacies of setting up a new contact book from scratch but it also provides the exposure Google wants out of Buzz.

Though Buzz is another milestone in socializing web users, many users have criticized its friendly nature towards strangers. The privacy concerns about this new application have been heavily debated. This meant Buzz has undergone revisions for as many as 3 times after its release, since the beginning of this year.

Apple iPhone 4G

Its design inspired by the MacBook Air, the iPhone 4G is anything but a rumor. The concept of Apple’s iPhone 4G is to house anything conceivable and imaginable for a phone (and more), and perhaps iPhone 4G aims at offering every feature that the current iPhone models are deprived of, like a simple copy-paste facility.

Initial pictures of the Apple’s 4G phone showed a OLED touch screen on a fashionable titanium and glass casing with a front camera for iChat. Other features include 3.2 Megapixel Camera Video, Removable Battery, 32 Gb memory, and a superior processor for intelligent multi-tasking. Ultimately, the iPhone 4G can be viewed as an all-in-one multimedia device, and no longer a phone.

This promising device is rumored to have a very high speed internet connection. The iPhone 4G is expected as early as May this year, but don’t hold your breath. Apple targeted May as they expected Google to launch Nexus One around the same time world-wide; however let us all just keep our hands in our pockets for the time being

By the way, check out this Unofficial Guide to the iPhone.

Microsoft Office 2010

Microsoft planned to officially launch Microsoft office 2010 in May 2010, declaring that Office 2010 is all set for mass consumers and business community. On March 6th, (this year) Microsoft also announced a program offering free upgrade for licensed customers of Office 2007, who purchase this version between March and September this year.

We had a preview earlier when Microsoft publicly released a Microsoft Office 2010 beta in late 2009. The beta version had many added features, primarily focusing on increased usability. Among these features, the prominent one is a social networking connector. This connector will enable users to gather Windows Live and other social networking feeds into Outlook.

Microsoft Office seems to emphasize on collaboration technologies for co-authoring documents. Applications like MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint and MS OneNote support co-authoring in one way or another. The beta version also has an in-built capability for businesses to test the browser-based Office Web Apps within their enterprises. The beta version includes editing in Word and OneNote Web app.

Other notable features include a smooth UI. The office beta version presents a backstage area which contains all the functions of the File menu showing a list of file based actions such as Save, Open, New, Print and Share. To add, Microsoft is also rumored to introduce IE9 by late this year. All in, MS Office 2010 makes it to the list of most anticipated releases of 2010…

So what has happened is that surfers who click on more than 5 news articles will be routed to a payment or sign up page, under the most recent update to the First Click Free program. All participating websites under this program can choose to disallow people from accessing their sites and (yet) have their sites indexed in Google. I’ve written before about accessing protected pages from Google; but this method may soon no longer work, as you may well guess.

All this follows on the well publicized spat between Rupert Murdoch and Google, leading to Murdoch threatening to pull out all his news from Google and only allowing its rival Bing to index his sites, but if you look a little deeper, this isn’t just limited to a Murdoch vs Google issue.

At the heart or core of the issue is the ever declining revenue from online advertising over the past several years, a downward slide which newspaper publishers have argued makes it untenable for them to continue providing content for free. The BBC has a nice wrap up of the situation, describing it as, “Nobody has quite figured out a business model for a world where consumers don’t want their morning or evening news, but want the Now O’clock News – the “on-demand and to my taste” news.”

I think restricting content to a subscription model goes against the spirit of the Internet especially that lain down over the past couple of years by Web 2.0; there seems to be an inevitability to this trend because companies are only just waking up to the fact that Internet traffic is not as easy to monetize as they initially thought!

Case in point would be Geocities, which recently closed down. An old website of mine there, was one of the casualties.

Similar to the Tata Nano, but MUCH cheaper, this single seater car boasts of 258 miles to the gallon with a tank capacity of 1.7 gallons. This means a car can run for about 440 miles or 708 kilometers on a full tank. Not bad.

It runs at speeds of 62-74 miles per hour, or about 100-120 km/hour, which is also decent. All that for a projected price of $600 (the Nano currently costs about $2100). It is cheap enough to buy it in China, and then bring it back with you to your own country if you can’t get it anywhere else.

Yup, this car is real.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Not much else is known about this car, as Volkswagen has been keeping news of this car hushed up till today, but I’d be looking forward to when it does come out, and if this trend of super cheap cars gains more mainstream acceptance, than hey, that can only be a good thing. The only downside to this car, is you can’t take it to go out on a date with someone else, plus you wouldn’t want to bump it into anything!

The Internet has always held an attraction for many because of 2 basic things, which are net neutrality and privacy, along with being one of the last bastions of free speech left in the world. Sure, the threats are there because of the ability to be anonymous, but even if it was controlled and regulated the way Kaspersky describes, my question is, can we trust the new Internet gatekeepers to have our best interests at heart then, and after?

Kaspersky has a point, the gist of it being that security problems mostly stem from the ability of attackers to conduct attacks anonymously and anywhere. This has always been the problem. But Big Brother style control (Internet passports/Internet police) is not exactly something that most of us who regularly surf the Web would consider the ideal model is it? Restricting Internet access to a paid subscription model limited to zones and controlled by telcos or some other conglomerate is something that should concern every Web citizen (if it hasn’t yet).

Another recent development that should be of concern for bloggers who endorse products for compensation is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announcement that they are setting up endorsement rules for blogs. I’m not sure when this ruling came into effect (if it actually did), but in a nutshell, the ruling stipulates that bloggers who endorse products need to disclose whether they receive any compensation from the subjects of their endorsements. Failure to do so will result in punishments ranging from warning letters up to a fine of $11,000 per violation. Whoa!

I just wonder how the FTC is going to police the Web with the millions upon millions of sites out there (and more coming everyday). Also, how many bloggers out there are actually aware of this ruling right now? While it makes sense to push ideals of transparency and credibility in the blogging world (it probably is a little insane right now), it is another thing to make such a move stick. Will there be further announcements/news by the FTC on this (if they are really serious)? I’m keeping tabs on this.