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Here are what I am judging to be the Best Free Learning and Training Programming Diggs in the last 30 days. These cover many areas, including Ruby On Rails; Programming Advice; Web Programming with HTML CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Ajax, and Apache; Grid Design; Google Gears; and Firefox Extensions.
- Ruby on Rails Rake Tutorial In this article we're going to discover why Rake was created, and how it can help our Rails applications. By the end you should be able to write your own tasks, and learn how to get piss drunk using rake in no less then three steps.
- More…Top Ten of Programming Advice NOT to Follow A top programmer examines a number of the top items of programming advice commonly given, and makes a great case for why they should NOT be followed. Some interesting food for thought for any programmer.
- More… Essential HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP etc., via Marc Andreessen There are a ton of free cheatsheets, quick references, and downloadable resources for programming languages and related technologies online -- in this post I've tried to organize and list some of the best for web development.
- More…CSS layouts "for those who want to start a css-driven website quick" I placed a comment with a link to CSSeasy.com in another story and you're all digging it up so I thought it would be good to write a story about this simple site for people who want to start a css-driven website quick or for those people who want to start learning CSS by trial and error.
- More…26 Best ways to implement AJAX, CSS and Javascript based Tabs Recently I was surfing the web for the best AJAX and CSS based tabs, menus for one of my project. In the process,I found some really good resources from fellow developers and thought to share the same with you all.
- More…PHP Abstract Episode 1 - PHP Secuity Tips Join Guest Host Eli White as he talks about practical tips you can use to help make your application more secure.
- More…Let's Build a Grid - Webdesign So much web design work relies on establishing a grid and the constraints on that grid: ad sizes, display size, browser display area minus chrome, and so forth. Grids are, quite literally, everywhere. But learning how to effectively utilize grids-- without becoming a slave to them-- can make the difference between a competent layout and a great lay
- More…Google Gears (BETA): Enabling Offline Web Applications "Google Gears (BETA) is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using following JavaScript APIs:"
- More…Six ways to write more comprehensible code As a developer, time is your most valuable resource. These six tips on how to write maintainable code are guaranteed to save you time and frustration: one minute spent writing comments can save you an hour of anguish.
- More…LifeHacker: How to build a Firefox extension Ever since we started releasing home-brewed Firefox extensions here at Lifehacker, several readers have asked: How difficult is it to build a Firefox extension? For someone with a bit of programming experience, the answer is not that difficult. Today I've got a quick start list of resources for the curious programmers who want to give it a try
- More…Optimize PHP and Accelerate Apache As the load on an application increases, the bottlenecks in the underlying infrastructure become more apparent in the form of slow response to user requests. This article discusses many of the server configuration items that can make or break an application's performance and focuses on steps you can take to optimize Apache and PHP.
- More…How to Write a Video Player in Less Than 1000 Lines Of Code (ffmpeg and SDL tutorial) More…
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"What's inside? What's concealed just around that bend in the tunnel?" are the inevitable questions that hikers and others ask when they stumble across these slumbering relics.
Those can be dangerous questions.
Crumbling walls and ceilings that threaten to collapse at the slightest touch; hidden, vertical shafts; poisonous gases; or wildlife lurking inside are just some of the dangers that prevent the non-suicidal from exploring.
Still, the question remains: What's inside?
Two Aerospace Engineering seniors from the University of Arizona have asked that question about a mine near Congress, Arizona — and they're about to find the answer without risking their lives.
They've built an 18-inch-long, radio-controlled rover to do the looking for them. It's equipped with a powerful searchlight to explore the mine's dark recesses and a pan-and-tilt video camera to send images back to their laptop computer.
 The mine rover captures a video image of the photographer taking its photo. The photographer's image has been sent from the rover camera (black object just to the right of the light at the front of the rover) to the computer screen. |
"Jessica Dooley and I made the ground rover to tour a mine on her grandmother's property," said Keith Brock. "The mine shaft is too small and too dangerous for us to explore ourselves, so we thought we could make a rover to do it for us. We want to see if there is anything cool inside."
From Concept to Prototype in Three Weeks
Dooley and Brock are veterans of UA's Aerial Robotics Club, which builds robotic airplanes that fly themselves and send back video images of remote targets. With that kind of background, designing and building a ground rover didn't take long — about three weeks, including the time needed to write the software in Visual Basic.
This just-for-fun project is in addition to their full-time engineering studies. Dooley also has a 20-hour-a-week, work-study program at Raytheon and works on research in UA's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, designing parachutes that will be used to land probes on distant moons and planets. Meanwhile, Brock is on leave from his internship at Raytheon to work on an active-flow-control project in an Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering research lab. That project focuses on finding ways to control aircraft without using moving control surfaces or wing warping.
In their "spare time," they're also designing a helicopter autopilot for the Aerial Robotics Club.
So how did they fit the mine rover project into their already overloaded schedules? "When you're really passionate about something, you just stay up late," Dooley said.
Getting Into the Technical Details
The rover is about 1.5 square feet in area and seven inches tall. It can be controlled with a joystick, computer mouse or cursor tracking. The cursor tracking or "mouse tracking" is linked to the rover's video camera. Move the cursor to a point on the image sent back from the video camera, and the video camera will center over that part of the image where the cursor lies. "If you have a moving object, you can follow it with the mouse and the camera will automatically stay centered on it," Brock said.
 With the hatch off, the rover electronics can be seen to include: • Lithium polymer batteries (red block at the bottom and yellow blocks on the sides) • Servos that drive the wheels (black boxes next to the red battery) • A 900 MHz wireless modem (center, under white label) • A servo-driver board (top left green board) that allows the remote computer to send signals to the servos. • A DC-to-DC converter (small board at top center) that has outputs for several voltages to power the rover's various electronic components. |
The rover communicates with the computer outside the mine through a 900 MHz radio modem that MaxStream donated to the project. It has a seven-mile range line-of-sight and a half-mile range in dense urban areas. Although they haven't tried it yet, Dooley and Brock believe this will give them sufficient power to communicate with the rover around corners in the mine.
But they still plan to tie a cord to the rover, just in case they need to drag it out or if it dives into a hidden, vertical shaft.
Two servos designed for quarter-scale model airplanes drive the rear wheels, which originally were intended for radio-controlled, off-road, model cars. The servos have a 19 inch-pound rating and will push the rover to a maximum speed of 1.6 mph, although it will rarely move that fast while exploring mines.
Brock and Dooley originally wanted to use tank-treads instead of wheels, but couldn't find a suitable system. "We're still working to upgrade this because the rover can't spin on itself now and because we're afraid that it might get high-centered on rocks or other bumps in the mine floor," Brock said.
The rover's large wheels are centered on the body and the students originally designed it so that it could turn over and still be driven. "But then we wanted a big, pan-and-tilt camera," Brock said. "So now it can't turn over. But we could remove that camera and use a really small pinhole camera like those found in security systems. That would be smaller in height and we could drive right-side-up or upside-down."
Combining Standard Components With Plenty of Know-How
The rover is built entirely from off-the-shelf components, most of which were not intended for use in this kind of project. But a considerable amount of expertise in robotics was needed to assemble them into a functioning rover. With the donated radio modem and other parts that Brock and Dooley had lying around in their well-stocked junk box, they were able to build the robot for about $200. They estimate that building it from scratch with all-new parts would cost about $1,000.
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Depending on what they find inside the mine, they may add extra features in the future, such as a winch or robotic arm to drag out artifacts. They also might equip the robot with a grinding tool so that it could scrape away the surface oxidation on rocks to expose fresh rock underneath, much as the Mars rovers are doing now on the Red Planet.
This kind of robot also could have many other uses, Brock noted. It could become a mobile base for model rockets. "You could mount the rocket, then drive it out and launch it," he said. Or you could equip it with chemical or biological sensors to investigate suspicious packages or vehicles.
Dooley also said a Palm Pilot might be in the robot's future. "Palm Pilots are pretty powerful now," she said. "You can do a lot with them, and it would be cool to walk out there with just the rover and a Palm pilot."
A structural engineering solution devised by UA civil engineers has allowed the Coolidge School District to add elevated bleacher seating to its Roundhouse Gymnasium at minimal cost and disruption to school activities.
The technology involves strengthening ceiling beams with Fiber Reinforced Polymers (FRPs) that are similar to fiberglass and Kevlar.
QuakeWarp, Inc., a company formed by UA Civil Engineering Professor Mohammad Ehsani, has employed FRPs in the past to strengthen concrete beams and columns, reinforce masonry walls, and retrofit large pipes.
The process has been used in California to help masonry structures resist earthquakes, and in Arizona to strengthen floors in local hospitals and to line pipes for the Central Arizona Project.
New Bleachers Create A Problem
In Coolidge, Ariz., the school district wanted to create elevated bleacher seating above the locker rooms that are next to the gym floor. This would allow them to move sports fans off the gym floor and to provide them with a better view.
Unfortunately, placing this kind of load on top of the locker rooms wasn't anticipated when the gym was built in the 1960s. School officials found that the second floor wouldn't support the bleachers and spectators without being reinforced.
One possible solution involved placing vertical columns under the floor, but this would have severely restricted space in the locker rooms. Another solution would have added additional horizontal beams below the floor, but these would have been costly and difficult to install.
So Paragon Structural Design, Inc., of Phoenix, Ariz., which was in charge of structural engineering on the project, contacted Ehsani about using FRPs to do the job. Mark Larsen, president of Paragon, was familiar with the process as an alumnus of UA Civil Engineering.
Problem Sends Ehsani Into the Lab
 A retrofitted test beam nears failure in UA's Structural Engineering Laboratory. |
Larsen's question sent Ehsani into the lab to test glue laminated (glulam) wooden beams similar to those used in the Roundhouse gym. Ehsani worked on this research with civil engineering master's student Nathan Palmer, who was very familiar with the Roundhouse, having played on the Coolidge basketball team just a few years before.
Ehsani and Palmer tested wooden beams similar to those used in the Coolidge gym, and used strain gauges to measure forces. The gauges were mounted on an unmodified beam and on a second beam reinforced with FRP materials. They found that the reinforced beam was 67 percent stronger than the unmodified one.
With this data in hand, work began on the Roundhouse gym.
Carbon-fiber plates were epoxied to the top and bottom of the wooden ceiling beams to increase their strength in both tension and compression. Carbon fabric was then wrapped around the beams to anchor the carbon plates and to provide increased shear strength by confining the laminated wood.
Adding the carbon-fiber plates to the tops of the beams was a problem because the beams were flush with the floor above and not accessible.
Novel Idea Solves the Problem
 This cross-sectional drawing of a glulam beam shows how the carbon-fiber plates (solid lines) and carbon sheeting (hatched lines) were added to the glulam beams. |
Ehsani and Palmer solved this problem by cutting 1/8-inch-wide slots 1 5/8ths inches deep into the beam near the top. The slots were slightly offset to prevent weakening the beam. Then 1.5-inch-wide strips of carbon plate were coated on both sides with thixotropic epoxy and pushed into the grooves.
A 40-mil-thick layer of thixotropic epoxy was then applied to the beams, and carbon fabric, which had been saturated with epoxy resin, was wrapped around three faces of the beam.
The beams were retrofitted in less than two weeks — while the locker rooms remained in use — at a cost of $8.50 per square foot.
"This was a very inexpensive solution," Ehsani said. "Sometimes floor tiles used as floor covering can be more expensive."
The Roundhouse floors, which originally were designed for loads up to 40 pounds per square foot, can now handle loads up to 60 pounds per square foot.
Pioneering the Technology Pays Off
"The greatest pleasure for one's professional career is to have dreamt of some solution and pioneered the field and then be lucky enough to be alive to see that it gets used." Ehsani said. "It's just a real joy when I drive by some building and I see that we actually strengthened it with something that came out of our lab."
Ehsani and UA Civil Engineering Professor Hamid Saadatmanesh pioneered the use of FRPs in construction beginning with a 1986 exploratory research grant from NSF.
"For the first six or seven years, people thought this was a really crazy idea," Ehsani said. "We were funded under an exploratory research grant because the idea of using FRPs to retrofit and strengthen structures was considered very far out at that time."
But Ehsani and Saadatmanesh proved the skeptics wrong and that first grant led to a patent on the process. When the researchers wanted to take the results from their lab to the field for further testing, Ehsani formed QuakeWarp for liability reasons.
Working at the interface of research and application has proven beneficial both to research and teaching, Ehsani said.
"I wouldn't have delved into this mini research project on glulam beam strengthening, for instance, if it were not for this project in Coolidge High School," he said. "This is something we had not looked at before. And we tested it and found out that it works and now we are publishing papers on it and have solved the problem for the client."
By working closely with practicing engineers, Ehsani said he has gained a deeper understanding of factors that are important in industry, but may not be important in the lab.
"Oftentimes for contractors, the aesthetics — the smell, how much dust is generated and similar issues — are critical," he said. "So is the ability to quickly complete the job and move out. In the lab, these things often aren't important. But they've now become critical factors in our research and they're real-world engineering concepts that I include when teaching my classes."
"It's been very gratifying to me to see the fruits of our research being applied and benefiting people," he added. "It's much better than just having your research end up in a publication that's sitting on somebody's shelf."
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While she's not tossing greenbacks in the air, Poulton is offering something that's almost as good, or maybe even better, than free cash — careers in mining engineering.
And there's no catch to it — just skyrocketing demand.
Consider that last year UA graduated five mining engineers. Most of them received at least four job offers, which often included incentive packages. The average starting salary was $55,000 a year, without overtime or bonuses. One recent graduate received an offer as high as $80,000 a year. That was with a bachelor's degree and very little experience.
Poulton, head of UA's Mining and Geological Engineering (MGE) Department, says despite the cyclical nature of the resources industry the demand for mining engineers is high for two reasons.
First, consumption of natural resources is at an all-time high. Production can't keep pace and new mines can't open fast enough to satisfy the market.
China, and to a lesser extent, India, are responsible for the huge demand. The Chinese have greatly increased their consumption of coal, iron ore, cement, steel, scrap copper, mined copper and other resources that support basic infrastructure development and manufacturing.
"I spent a month in China in March and I have never seen such a frenzied pace of growth, " Poulton said. "The bridge building, the road building and the power infrastructure development are running at an incredible pace. Some estimates are that this high level of consumption could continue for the next 10 to 20 years."
Second, the mining industry is graying. Sixty percent of SME (Society of Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration) engineers are past 50. Meanwhile, only four percent of the membership is under 30.
The same graying is occurring among USGS scientists, mining engineering professors, petroleum engineers and heavy-construction engineers. Large numbers of mining engineering graduates are needed just to replace those who are retiring.
Profession Faces a Crisis
"Mining engineering is in a crisis," Poulton said. "But, as in any crisis, there's also opportunity. It's a great time to get into the field because not only do students have their pick of really interesting jobs in just about any location, but — because of this big retirement bubble — recent graduates are being groomed on the fast track for management positions — much faster than we've seen in the past."
UA students have an added advantage in this market. The mining industry looks first to those programs, such as UA's MGE department, that have a long history of producing mining executives.
The Princeton Review Gourman Report has rated UA's mining engineering program second in the nation. The department has one of the world's strongest research programs in mining technology and it owns the San Xavier Mine, where students get hands-on experience in hard-rock mining.
So with the high salaries, multiple job offers and excellent prospects for advancement, why aren't more students enrolled in mining engineering? Last academic year, only about 110 students graduated with mining engineering degrees nationwide.
It's Not a 19th Century Throwback
"It's an image problem," Poulton said. "Many people mistakenly think that mining engineering is some kind of throwback to the 19th century — low tech and environmentally destructive. It's like describing electrical engineering in terms of vacuum tubes."
Actually, "mining engineering" is a misnomer these days, Poulton added. "Mineral resource engineering" or "resource engineering" better describe the profession because mining engineers often support activities that have nothing to do with mines. Many of them work in the construction industry, building subway tunnels or excavating skyscraper foundations and bridge pilings.
"There are opportunities for our graduates in the financial sector, the environmental sector, and a broad range of industries," Poulton said. "The MGE Department is not just about mining, it is about the way the future is built.”
In fact, UA's mining engineering program is developing a new three-track curriculum that reflects the broad range of jobs that mining engineers tackle.
First is the traditional mining operations track, which is still in high demand. Second is a geomechanics track to meet the increased demand for heavy-construction engineers. Third is a sustainable resources track that involves courses in health, safety, and the environment.
Counter to the 19th-century, low-tech stereotype, mining is more like rocket science these days, Poulton explained. It's heavily computer-based and automated. In some underground mines, all the operations are controlled from the surface and robots are the only ones working underground.
"Today's mining engineers not only have to be well versed in earth sciences, environmental design and human factors, but they also have to be technology specialists," Poulton said. "They have to understand wireless technology, GPS, all sorts of information technology, sensors and control optimization. It's really a much different industry than it was even 20 years ago."
Fighting the Stereotypes
Many students also don't consider mining careers because of bias in the media and in some pre-college curricula, Poulton said.
"I have reviewed textbooks from a number of publishers, and the content on mining tends to be, limited and very out of date," Poulton said."You often don't see positive images of mining in the media either," she added. "If there's a violation of a water or air permit, it's front-page news. But you never hear the positive things that go on with mining or the vital contributions it makes to the economy and national defense.
"Also, there are some absolutely stunning examples of reclamation that never make it into the media or the textbooks. And today's mining companies are working closely with communities to ensure that they will have healthy economies once the mineral deposit has been depleted and the mining company moves on."
Another problem is that there's no obvious path from high school into mining engineering programs, Poulton said. "Quite often engineering students are recruited from an affiliated high school science discipline. Chemical engineering students frequently are those who had a strong interest in high-school chemistry. Mechanical and electrical engineers come out of the physics classes. But a lot of high schools don't offer earth science courses. So there's no natural transition for students to go from high school into mining engineering."
Poulton and others in UA's MGE Department are working hard to get the word out about the breadth of career opportunities for mining engineers and to increase enrollment.
"Mining engineering programs across the country need to graduate three to six times more students than they do today just to meet the current and future demand for mining engineers," Poulton said.
"These workforce issues go far beyond the health of individual companies," she added. "Congress is very concerned about the shortage of mining engineers and the effect of that shortage on the economy and national security."
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