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I remember seeing this Python tutorial site saying they changed it the background was to 'glaring' (assuming it was a white-ish color). They switched to a light purpleish-pink color. Try that. The site: http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/

Here are several studies on vaccines and autism

From Pediatrics, indicating that Autism is not caused by Mercury preservatives in vaccines

From the Lancet, indicating that there is no relation between getting the MMR vaccine (the one usually accused of causing Autism)and autism

from BMJ, another study suggesting that there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism

From JAMA: no link between Autism and the MMR vaccine in California

I could keep going on, but I leave you with this link on Google Scholar.

Knock yourself out.

For those of you unfamiliar with Aussie vernacular, here's an explanation (scroll down). This pun was a real beaut.

http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/a.pusztai/ is the site of the paper's author.

One might try out Alan Gald's fine Learning to Program site. Short on pretty. Long on usefulness.

Oh, and all the thick books in the world will never help a budding python coder more than the tutor mailing list.

I am probably not the smartest person in the world, and I have no programming experience what so ever. What I am looking for, is some easy language to either script or program. Would python provide a good starting environment? Have any of you been at my level, then learned python?

I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago. As a kid I'd played around with BBC BASIC but hadn't progressed very far and then proceeded to forget most of the little I had learned over the following decade. I eventually stumbled across Python and thought it might be interesting to have a play around and see how easily I could pick it up.

The best place to start is the non-programmers section of the Python site. I found Alan Gauld's free book here particularly useful. He teaches a complete non-programmer to programme using several languages but with the emphasis firmly on Python. The book focuses on learning to programme rather than learning a specific language and is a great place to start. Several of the other tutorials linked from the Python site are also worth a look.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy yourself as much as I did.

At least they're willing to say they they were wrong, unlike hundreds of years ago.

They are... as long as profits are not at stake.

While the scientific research community is willing to acknowledge the limits of their understanding, the corporations developing genetically engineered foodcrops maintain that their products are proven perfectly safe (implying that they have a perfect understanding of the effects of the changes they have made). This claim flies in the face of significant research. And they have no compunctions about applying political and economic pressure to independent university researchers who claim otherwise.

The grand irony in the whole mess is that, as far as Monsanto etc are concerned, it's really not about genetic engineering and whatever dubious advantages it might provide. It's really an intellectual property maneuver to establish ownership of the seed supply.

Either language would be a fine choice for a first language.

I think Python has a few small advantages. First, there are many tutorials for Python that are aimed at new programmers. Examples include:

• How to Think Like a Computer Scientist
• Python 101
• Learning to Program
• Non-Programmers Tutorial For Python
• The Python tutorial that ships with Python itself (not really for absolute beginners, but this is where I learned Python)
• Plus many others, and I haven't even mentioned printed books.

The other advantange Python has over Ruby is the interactive Python interpreter. I can't explain how fantastic this is. With many other interpreted languages (Ruby, Perl), you really should write your program in a text editor and then run it through the interpreter. This is because the commands you type don't execute until you stop entering your program. The interpreter is not interactive. So every time you want to try something, you have make the change in your text editor and then run it through the interpreter.

Python's interpreter is much nicer to work with. You type in commands, and each command executes immediately. This is very useful when you want to experiment with the language, and is ideal for beginners. I don't know why Ruby's creator didn't include this feature.

Anyway, you'll be happy no matter which language you choose. They are both very nice. You might also consider learning PHP as a first languages. It's nice to be able to view the results of your work in a web browser, and PHP is probably the quickest way to do that. Another good choice for first language is Scheme. Check out the free online book Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP). If you like video, there are also some video lectures available.

1. Have her read ESR's How to Become a Hacker.

2. After that, start her on Learning to Program.

3. From there you can cover a little review material as well as some more advanced topics in Dive Into Python.

I made the mistake of leaving "Learning Perl" and "Learn to Program in C in 21 Days" lying around the house. My wife read them and understood them for the most part, but she's not exactly whipping out kernel modules. The track mentioned above is definitely better for, as you put it, a "terrified adult".

OK, lamer question. If you had never coded anything before, what language would you start with, and why?

Wan't to quickly create a Windows app? Visual Basic (the language is ugly, though - it didn't even have array constants last time I checked) or Delphi (Object Pascal isn't perfect either, but still much better).

If you just want to learn basic programming techniques, I agree with previous poster that Python is very friendly and yet elegant, so it's probably good to start with. As far as I remember, there's even an article combining a Python tutorial with an introduction to programming.

If you are perfectionist with a background in mathematics, you might want to check OCAML. It isn't actually easy to learn, but its syntax is small and semantics very formal - people who don't like constructs that "work, but you don't want to know why and how" might prefer this language.

Not come across that one - at work right now but I'll download tonight and have a listen.

Chances are very strong, though, that the answer is "yes it is the same person". If you've done any C64 gaming, chances are you'll have heard at least something by him.

To find out more about Rob and what he wrote, go to The Complete Works of Rob Hubbard, where there are interviews and downloads. If you've not heard him before, try at least One Man and his Droid, Sanxion, Master of Magic and Commando. Probably International Karate too.

Cheers,
Ian