GeekScribes

As wonderful as it may seem, the Internet is a fascinating tool to which everyone (well almost) has adopted a keen interest of the benefits it provides. However the more time you spend surfing on it, the more likely you are getting addicted to it. Over the last few news a new phenomenon has increasing at an alarming rate. Scientists call it the Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) and it has been the subject of new research and debate.

The concern is so big that in the U.S, they have a launched an addiction recovery program to help sufferers of IAD to better manage their life in a more ‘harmonious’ way. You might think this only concern to those who ‘Google’ everyday. Wrong guys!! Internet-based video games falls into this category. The program known as reSTART is meticulously planned over 45 days and it has already received it’s first patient, a 19 year old who cannot deprive himself of World of Warcraft.

So how do you know if you are an IAD sufferer? reSTART has outlined 9 symptoms by which are qualified for admittance:

Have a strong desire to use the Internet

Decreasing or withdrawal of internet leads to symptoms like malaise, relentlessness, lack of concentration and so on.

Increasing usage of Internet results into satisfaction

Difficulty to stop the usage despite you are aware it’s harmful

Unable to control the duration of time of internet use

Social, recreational and other personal interests decreases

Solace is found in using the Internet so as to flee from the outside pressures

Extent of use is denied to friends, teachers or schoolmates

Everyday routines and social functions (academic, workability) are impaired

The treatment? Well basically it cuts off the web and online gaming and focuses more on social skills. The patients are constantly followed by a recreation coach, a therapist, exercise and yoga instructors and more. Besides each patient have a schedule to follow which includes physical exercises (sports and fitness), chores, vocational training, a 3 hour back to nature period, a regular life quest and of course he/she is given a personal time everyday from 8.30 PM to 10.00 PM after which the lights are out!

Of course, such program does not come cheap!! You’ll have to pay a hefty $14,500 to get admitted. Considering what it offers it’s worth it’s price but it should be the last resort to cure yourself. In many cases Internet addiction is self corrective. It has been proven that heavy Internet users temporary endures this illness as gradually they decrease their time on the computer. The point it’s up to you guys how you use it!

I hope it’s not too late for you. Feel free to voice out your opinions about it!!

By now, all Mauritius should be aware that there is Swine Flu – AH1N1 in Mauritius, and that there have been more than 5 deaths. I might be blogging this article a bit late, but I wanted to keep a record for myself, and everybody else about how this crisis was handled. I shouldn’t say “was” I think, since the worse may still have yet to come. But anyway, let’s be optimist for a tiny fraction of a second, and keep the “was” there.

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Ok guys and girls, this is lesson 6 and I hope we can at least get to lesson 100!

Today we will have a look at functions in PHP. First, what’s a function? It’s simply a sort of container for code. Whenever you call the function, the code inside gets executed. Also, functions can accept parameters, which are values that the function needs to work. If you remember a bit of your maths, “cos x” is a function, and x is the parameter or argument. Usually the result you get by doing the cosine operation is the return value. Just remember those terms for later.

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Last time we saw how to work with the different kinds of loops: the While, Do While, For and Foreach loops. Today, we are going to see two keywords, “break” and “continue” that you may use to operate on loops and Switch blocks. You can consider this to be a continuation of the Loops lesson.

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Loooooops!

In this lesson, we will have a look at the foreach function in php.

First, what is a loop? I’d say something that repeats or involves a repetition can be considered a loop. In programming, you use a loop to have a bunch of codes run for a number you set. If there were no loops, you’d have to write that piece of code x times if you wanted to run it for x times, which is crazy! Read on to know the solution!

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Ok, even some developers who already understand php a little are always confused about arrays and don’t really know how to use them. In this lessons, we will try to cover the basic uses of Arrays in PHP.

When you declare a variable, it can only hold one value. Like the example below:

<?php

$my_variable = "This is some text";

?>

As you can see, it can only store “This is some text”, or a single value. But what if you have to store multiple values which have some relationship between them? Let’s take an example from the previous lesson, remember our guy named John? We declared his age. Let’s say we want to add his name, location etc. We can do it like this:

$persons_age = ’16′;
$persons_name = ‘John’;
$persons_location = ‘California’;

But with the use of arrays, you can store all of that information in one variable. Like below:

<?php

$persons = array('John','16','California');

?>

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Today we will have a look at what Conditional Statements are.

Conditional Statements allow you to perform different kinds of actions based on a given condition. It can either return true or false.

A little Non-Programming example to give you an idea of Conditional Statement Below:

Let’s consider a guy named John, is 16 years old and wants to go to a casino. Unfortunately, casinos doesn’t allow Minors.

So basicaly, the condition is:

If John is less than 18 years old, then don’t let him inside the casino, else, let him in.

Now there are two words that are always used in PHP Conditional Statement. They are “IF” and “ELSE”. Before going on, you should know we are using caps here for emphasis. When using these keywords in code, they are lowercase! PHP is case-sensitive. “IF” and “if” are different things for PHP. Use “if” in code.

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