coding

It's no secret that there's a lack of women in the tech industry. But the former deputy public advocate of New York City, Reshma Saujani, wants to do something about it.

Saujani launched a new initiative called Girls Who Code this month backed by tech heavyweights Twitter, eBay, Google, and General Electric. The program aims to encourage high school girls to study computer science and engineering.

"Together with leading educators, engineers, and entrepreneurs, Girls Who Code has developed a new model for computer science education, pairing intensive instruction in robotics, web design, and mobile development with high-touch … Read more

Before today no one thought it was possible to successfully break a 923-bit code. And even if it was possible, scientists estimated it would take thousands of years.

However, over 148 days and a couple of hours, using 21 computers, the code was cracked.

Working together, Fujitsu Laboratories, the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and Kyushu University in Japan announced today that they broke the world record for cryptanalysis using next-generation cryptography.

"Despite numerous efforts to use and spread this cryptography at the development stage, it wasn't until this new way of approaching the problem was … Read more

Rock the Vote is credited with creating the first telephone voter registration system. Now it has introduced the first shirt-activated voter registration system.

The Scan to Vote T-shirt is part of a larger campaign aimed at signing up 1.5 million new voters before election day rolls around this fall. The shirts are available for $28 through Threads 4 Thought.

Scan the QR code printed on the shirt and you end up at the Scan to Vote Web site and can walk through the process of registering to vote online.… Read more

In today's show, Facebook shareholders are fuming, Windows Phones need updating and Prime subscribers are streaming:

Facebook and several banks have been slapped with a lawsuit, accused of hiding some details about revenue estimates days before the stock went public. The charge is this: Facebook spoke with select analysts about additional information on revenue expectations than what was disclosed in amended filings. Smaller investors are upset they were left out of the loop, and say they lost money because they didn't know the full picture. But even if Facebook did give extra info to analysts, it's not … Read more

QR codes are a fun way to share information and they're starting to appear in all sorts of places. QR codes often contain Web links, that when scanned, automatically take you to the Web site.

As QR codes become more prevalent, however, it might be a good idea to start checking the QR codes, before allowing your browser to load unknown links.

To address potentially malicious QR codes, Symantec has released a QR code scanner that will check links before loading them in your browser. Scanning a QR code with Norton Snap (iOS | Android) will check the link, then … Read more

The Internet continues to escape from its virtual confines. Clothing hangers hook into Facebook. Twitter comes printed on toilet paper. And now, Wikipedia has its own town.

Monmouth in South Wales has a population of less than 9,000, but plenty of tourists come to see the local castle and walk the historic streets. Those tourists will be able to plug into Wikipedia articles about the town through special QR code plaques placed in strategic locations.… Read more

In today's show, the postman always scans twice, a new Kindle could let you read in the dark, and catch all the Pokémon hiding in your living room:

We're keeping a close eye on Facebook as it prepares to go public on the Nasdaq this week. Values for its initial public offering are in the $34 to $38 range. At the high end, it would make Facebook worth more than $100 billion. But we will find out Thursday what the actual initial stock price will be.

But will it keep that high value for long? A poll shows … Read more

Is Digg's turbulent run on the Web about to come to an end?

The social news site that was once the talk of Silicon Valley has given up its engineering team to Washington Post Company-owned SocialCode, Digg CEO Matt Williams announced this morning. SocialCode is a social advertising agency designed to improve marketing techniques on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

"At Digg, we have been studying social media since its inception," Williams said in a blog post. "From Digg Social Reader to Digg Ads, we established a new paradigm for content and advertising on the web. … Read more

Evernote for Mac is just one part of an excellent, access-from-anywhere note-taking system. In addition to the Evernote desktop client, you can create and get to your notes from a variety of mobile devices (including apps for the iPhone and iPad) and any Web browser on any computer. A free Evernote account links all your notes together.

Evernote is a mature and popular application, with an impressively streamlined interface that shares similarities across its multiple platforms and gives you many different ways to create notes and collections of notes called notebooks. Your notes can be text, images, or Web clippings, … Read more