UMCB CMSC alumnus Golois Mouelet is recruiting for software developers for RDA Corporation at 5pm-6:30pm on Tuesday, April 9th in troom 331 of the Commons.  He would like to meet with seniors and juniors.

RDA is launching a new software development center in Hunt Valley MD. They are looking for software developers who would like to expand their skills while learning from industry experts, and work on a variety of leading edge solutions (e.g. Web, Portal, Cloud, Mobile, and more) in a collaborative environment. They seek candidates with a strong desire to learn, a passion for technology, and a commitment to quality. Ideally, you will have a minimum of one year of development experience and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, but if you are excited about software development, have a go-getter personality, and skills you can demonstrate, they would like to meet you.

See this flier for more information: RDA information and recruiting

UMCB CMSC alumnus Golois Mouelet is recruiting for software developers for RDA Corporation at 5pm-6:30pm on Tuesday, April 9th in troom 331 of the Commons.  He would like to meet with seniors and juniors.

RDA is launching a new software development center in Hunt Valley MD. They are looking for software developers who would like to expand their skills while learning from industry experts, and work on a variety of leading edge solutions (e.g. Web, Portal, Cloud, Mobile, and more) in a collaborative environment. They seek candidates with a strong desire to learn, a passion for technology, and a commitment to quality. Ideally, you will have a minimum of one year of development experience and a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, but if you are excited about software development, have a go-getter personality, and skills you can demonstrate, they would like to meet you.

See this flier for more information: RDA information and recruiting

The Teacher Spotlight is back! For those of you who haven’t read a Spotlight, each month we interview one of the Treehouse Teachers so you can get to know them a little better offscreen, and have a sneak peek into what makes them tick.

This month the spotlight is on Ruby and Rails mastermind, co-host of the Treehouse Show and The Ruby Show, and of course who can forget the infamous smile of… Treehouse teacher Jason Seifer!

The Interview:

When did you first start gaining an interest in web development? Did anyone inspire you?

I first got into web development in high school. I had a bunch of data that I wanted to work with and I didn’t know how else to sort through it, filter, search, etc. I wound up using early versions of PHP (php3!) and MySQL and wrote a search engine that was a parody of Altavista, which was the most popular search engine at the time.

What language did you first start with? Which is your preferred language now?

I first started programming using Basic when I was very young (about 6 years old). I made silly little stick figure animations that cleared the screen and did other fun and unimportant things. My dad was an accountant and he wrote his own bookkeeping software so he taught me a little bit about how to program.
My first computer was a TRS-80 which I worked with for several years until my parents got a Compaq Presario which was a whopping 66 Mhz. I remember being pretty psyched when we got an overdrive processor which brought us to something like 88 Mhz. I was the one who got to install it and my parents were a bit nervous that I would have to take apart the whole computer. I acted surprised after I took the entire computer apart and pretended not to know what the old processor was. I’ve always been a bit of a prankster.

After basic, I dabbled in Perl, PHP, Pascal, and a few others. These days I prefer to use Ruby or JavaScript, but there are so many languages out there these days. Erlang has an extremely interesting approach to programming if you can get over the syntax. I’ll probably look in to Objective C and iOS programming next.

What are some new web technologies (bleeding edge) that you’re excited about?

I think the live streaming in Rails 4.0 is going to be pretty awesome once people really start to figure out the best ways to use it. Real time Ruby on Rails is going to be a pretty cool way of programming. Right now the best option for real time is Web Sockets but I think there will be quite a bit that we can do with Rails live streaming and the JavaScript EventSource.

On the other end of the spectrum, I’m excited that we are seeing a time that we are closer to being able to stop supporting legacy browsers that don’t support the latest technologies. We’re still a ways off but I think that, as a whole, that will drive the web forward more than anything else.

When you have a big project ahead of you, how do you stay in the zone when coding?

I don’t! I was introduced to the Pomodoro Technique by Corey Haines and that completely changed the way I work. The basic premise is that you work for 25 minutes then you have a 5 minute break. Repeat as necessary until you’ve worked all day. You’d be very surprised what you accomplish by the end of the day. It’s also a bit liberating to know that you can get your social media and email addiction out of the way in 5 minute increments throughout the day.

What’s your favorite thing about hosting the Treehouse Show? Has the fame gone to your head at all?

My favorite thing about hosting the Treehouse Show is being able to interact with Nick Pettit’s fauxhawk on a weekly basis. It is perfectly coiffed and taller in person than you may guess from viewing it on the web.

I wouldn’t say that the fame has gone to my head at all. I’m still just like everyone else– I wake up, get dressed, and have my pilot fly me from my private island to the helipad on the top of Treehouse HQ in order to avoid the web paparazzi.

Tell us something about yourself you don’t think anyone would ever assume!

When the beta of Netscape Navigator 2.0 came out, I sent them a bug report documenting that pop-up windows could open other pop-up windows. They ignored it. I nearly saved the world from pop-ups.

Wrap Up

We hope you enjoyed this month’s Spotlight interview with Jason, and remember to tune in on Tuesdays to catch Jason and Nick in a new episode of the Treehouse Show.

We’ll see you next month for another interview and another opportunity to get to know a Treehouse teacher offscreen.

The post Teacher Spotlight: Jason Seifer appeared first on Treehouse Blog.

Here is UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski's talk at the 2013 TED conference. He is, as usual, very inspirational. We are truly lucky to have him leading our university.

"If a student has a sense of self, it’s amazing how their dreams and values can make all the difference in the world."

Look for his mention of computer science and women in IT near the end.

Stanley Black & Decker, an S&P 500 company, is a diversified global provider of hand tools, power tools, accessories, mechanical access solutions, electronic security solutions, engineered fastening systems and more.  With over $8B in global sales, Stanley Black & Decker is viewed as a world leader in the marketplace.  We currently have an opening for a dynamic individual to join our team as an Operations/Manufacturing Intern for the Summer of 2013 at our Hampstead, MD location.

The Operations/Manufacturing Intern will:

·       Participate in key manufacturing processes to drive operational excellence and improved efficiencies.

·       Work closely with functional business groups to ensure efficiency and effectiveness of solutions deployed in support of business goals and objectives.

·       Take part in projects and ensure that the functionality is developed in a way that complies with business requirements and established methodologies and practices.

·       Monitor and report to management on the status of project efforts, anticipating/identifying issues that inhibit the attainment of project goals and implementing corrective actions.

·       Identify opportunities for improvement and make constructive suggestions for change.

Required Qualifications:

·       Must be able to work 30-40 hours a week

·       Pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in manufacturing engineering, mechanical engineering or other related disciplines at the Junior or Senior level

·       3.0 or higher GPA

·       Facilitating, interpersonal and negotiation skills

·       Experience using various computer applications including Microsoft Excel, Access and other applications included in the Microsoft Office Suite

·       Basic knowledge of operations, supply chain and finance

Stanley Black & Decker is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity Employer and encourage applications from women, veterans and minorities.

Moving WordPress is a task that many people find daunting. The advice on the Codex, while comprehensive, gives you a myriad of options and doesn’t describe the process simply and in one place.

When I had to move a WordPress installation for the first time, I spent hours searching online for information on the various aspects of the process, and eventually wrote myself a checklist — which I still use.

So to save you the hassle, here’s a step-by-step guide to moving a WordPress website. I’ll cover three different scenarios, which in my experience are the most common:

• Moving a website from a subdirectory of a domain to the root directory (for example, if you’ve been using a subdirectory for development while not affecting an existing website that’s in the root);
• Moving a website from a local installation to a remote installation; and
• Moving a website between domains or hosts.

Before You Start

Before you start any of these methods, make a backup of your website:

• Your theme files;
• Your uploads;
• The plugins you’ve used, so you won’t have to spend time downloading them again if things go wrong; and
• Your database.

You can back up the database using one of a number of tools:

• phpMyAdmin;
• Sequel Pro for OS X;
• Terminal commands;
• A MySQL desktop client; or
• A backup plugin such as WP-DB-Backup, which will provide you a copy of your database by email or download.

In this article I’ll show you how to back up your database using phpMyAdmin, as this is provided by most hosting providers and has a relatively easy-to-use interface.

If I’m going to be editing the database (which needs to be done when uploading a website or moving it between hosts or servers), I start by making a duplicate of the database and adding “old” to its name. This is the backup, and I’ll be editing the original database.

Moving A Website From A Subdirectory To The Root

This is by far the simplest of the three moves I’m going to cover, because you don’t actually have to move anything — or nearly anything. This method will work on a standard installation of WordPress, and will work with most frameworks, or if you’re using a parent and child theme structure.

Beware! This method will not work for:

• Multi-site installations; or
• Sites using Genesis as a framework (or so I’m told, I haven’t tested it myself — if you can get it to work please leave a comment below).

The great thing about this method is that it only takes from three to ten minutes depending on your setup — no time at all in the scheme of things.

1. Remove the Existing Website

If there is an existing website in the root directory, remove it. It may be another WordPress installation or it may be a static website.

If it’s a WordPress website, make a backup as detailed above, and then delete all of the WordPress files in the root.

• If you have access to Softaculous or another installation service via your hosting control panel, use that to uninstall WordPress.
• If not, use phpMyAdmin to drop (delete) the database from the existing website. See the next section for details of how to do this.
• After dropping the database, remove all WordPress files. This normally means any files or folders beginning with wp-.
• Beware — don’t remove the existing site until you have made a backup!

2. Turn Off Permalinks

Turn off pretty permalinks in the “Permalinks” screen, which you’ll find in the “Settings” menu. Do this by selecting the “Default” option and clicking “Save Changes.”

Larger version.

3. Change Your Website Address

In “Settings” → “General,” change the address of your website but not the address of WordPress. For example if you’ve been working on the website at example.com/development, change the settings as follows:

• WordPress address (URL): http://example.com/development
• Site Address (URL): http://example.com

Save by clicking on the “Save Changes” button and move on to the next steps before trying to access your website.

4. Copy and Edit Two Files

Using FTP/SFTP or cPanel file manager, copy (don’t move) the following files from your WordPress directory to the root directory:

• index.php
• .htaccess, if you have one. If there isn’t an .htaccess file (and turning off pretty permalinks means you’re less likely to have one), don’t worry about creating one.

Edit the index.php file that you’ve moved. You could do this by:

• Editing it in situ after the move, by using FTP/SFTP or cPanel file manager;
• Downloading it from the subdirectory, editing it and then uploading it to the root directory — instead of making a copy.

The edit you need to make is very simple, to one line at the end of the file. You simply change this:

require ('./wp-blog-header.php)

..to this:

require ('./subdirectoryname/wp-blog-header.php)

So if you’ve been developing in example.com/development, just change the line to:

require ('./development/wp-blog-header.php)

Save the new index.php file.

5. Turn Permalinks Back On and Test

Back in the WordPress admin, turn pretty permalinks on again, with whatever setting you need for your website.

Visit the root domain of your website in the browser and it will display the website that’s stored in the subdirectory, but the URL will show the root URL rather than the subdirectory URL. And that’s it!

Uploading A WordPress Website From A Local To A Remote Installation

This is one of the most common instances of moving WordPress. If you’re working on a local website for development and need to upload it either to go live or because you need to show a client or other team members your work, you’re going to need to upload your WordPress website. This is more complicated than moving from a subdirectory to the root directory, and involves moving three things:

• WordPress itself — you’ll need to install this in the new location;
• The database — which you can move using phpMyAdmin;
• Your theme files, uploads and plugins.

1. Turn Off Permalinks

Turn off pretty permalinks in the “Permalinks” screen, which you’ll find in the “Settings” menu. Do this by selecting the “Default” option and clicking “Save Changes.”

2. Backup the Database

Make a copy of the database and give it a new name (for example, by adding “old” to its name).

3. Install WordPress In the New Location and Upload Content

Using your preferred method, install WordPress on the server you want to move your website to.

Using FTP or SFTP, copy the files from your local “wp-content” directory to the remote “wp-content” directory, using the same folder structure as in your local install.

Go and have a cup of coffee. These files could take a while to upload.

4. Edit the Database

Open the original database file from your local installation and edit it. Using your preferred text editor, replace the old, local URL for the website with the new, remote URL.

So for example, if your local URL is http://localhost/example, you would change it to http://example.com.

Using the “replace” command in your text editor will speed this up — there could be thousands of instances. Save your new database.

5. Drop the Existing Remote Database

Note: This step only applies if you’ve used a script such as Softaculous or Fantastico to install WordPress, as they automatically create a new database. If you’ve installed WordPress manually, you can ignore this bit.

In phpMyAdmin, drop (delete) the database that was installed in the remote website when you installed WordPress:

• Select the database you’re working with.
• Click on the “Structure” tab.
• Below the list of tables, click “Check All.”
• In the drop-down menu which says “With selected,” select “Drop”:

  
  Larger version.

• You will see a warning message checking that you want to drop all tables. Click “Yes.”
• Finally you will see a message telling you that your query has been implemented:

  
  Larger version.

6. Upload the New Database

While you are still in phpMyAdmin, upload the database you’ve edited:

• Click the “Import” tab.
• Click the “Choose file” button.
• Select the database you saved in step 4 and click “Choose” or “OK.”
• Click the “Go” button.
• After a while (depending on the size of your database), you will see a message telling you the upload has successfully finished:

  

7. Clear Your Browser’s Cache

This avoids any problems you may have if the browser has cached content from the old version of the remote database.

8. Log Into the WordPress Admin For the Remote Website and Update Permalinks

Your log-in details will be the same as for your local website. If you specified different log-in details when installing remotely, these will have been overridden by the imported database.

Visit the “Permalinks” screen and turn pretty permalinks back on.

You’re done!

Moving A WordPress Website Between Hosts

This process is almost exactly the same as that for uploading a website from a local installation. The only difference is that you need to download the files and database from the existing website.

Follow the above process, with changes to step 2:

2. Download and Backup the Old Database and Files

In phpMyAdmin for the old website, select the correct database and click on the “Export” tab. Download the database by clicking the “Go” button. The database will download to your machine.

Move the database out of your downloads folder to somewhere useful and make a copy of it. You’ll be working with this database in Step 4.

Using FTP or SFTP, download the contents of wp-content from your old website. You will upload this to the new website in step 3.

Now return to the original process.

Summary

Moving WordPress doesn’t need to be complicated. As long as you follow the steps above in the right order, your data will be safe and your website will work in its new location. Important points to remember are:

• Always back up your website before you start.
• If moving WordPress within a domain, you don’t need to move the whole thing, just make some changes to the settings and move and edit the index.php file.
• When uploading your database to a new location, make sure you upload the version that you’ve edited with the new URL, not the backup version with the old URL. Otherwise, at the very least, internal links will break and it’s possible you’ll see the white screen of death when you try to install your website.

If at any stage you go wrong, undo what you’ve done and start again with your backup. You did make a backup, right?

Resources

The WordPress Codex includes resources that will help you apply this method whatever your hosting setup:

• Moving WordPress
• Giving WordPress Its Own Directory
• Installing WordPress

For help with phpMyAdmin, see phpMyAdmin’s documentation.

There are also plugins which will help you move WordPress if you don’t want to do it all manually. I haven’t tested all of these, so I can’t vouch for their reliability or ease of use. If you do use one, do so with care.

• WordPress Move
• Backup and Move Plugin
• WP-DB-Backup

(cp)

© Rachel McCollin for Smashing Magazine, 2013.

At 87 years old, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher passed away this morning on April 8th, 2013. She suffered from several strokes since her retirement in 2002, which caused her death.

Not only is Thatcher the only female Prime Minister, but she served for three terms  – the longest time in office since before the 19th century.

Leading the Conservative Party, Thatcher privatized many industries and ended government subsidies to pay off the country’s massive debt. According to The Economist,

Her enthusiasm for privatization launched a global revolution and her willingness to stand up to tyranny helped to bring an end to the Soviet Union.

Thatcher worked closely with Reagan and supported Gorbachev’s rise to power, but argued against the reunification of East and West Germany. 

While social media is lamenting over Thatcher’s death, its also mourning the passing of another icon: Cher.

A website called “Is Thatcher Dead Yet?” changed its home page from a big NO to a big YES as of today. It also provides a Spotify playlist, a search result to finding parties on Facebook, and a link to the official Twitter hashtag, “#nowthatchersdead.”

Unfortunately, many are confused and reading the trend as “now that Cher’s dead,” which completely brings the focus away from the actual point of the hashtag. But it seems that more people are correcting the misleading link than lamenting Cher.

Here’s the philosophical question of the day: who would get more media attention if they died on the same day… Margaret Thatcher, or Cher?