Dr. Payne speaks on Coding and Cyber as the New Literacy at TEDx 2018.

Imagine a world with a literacy rate of only 3%.

What if, out of every 100 people, only 3 could read and write?

Right now, in America, there are over 320 million people, yet fewer than 9 million of us, less than 3%, can read and write code – the language of technology.

So, what is code? Coding, or programming, is just telling a computer what to do – code is the same thing as software. Or, if you’re younger than 30, code is what apps are made of. Code is what runs a computer, and computers are everywhere today, in all the coolest gadgets, from 3D printers to drones, from self-driving cars to smartphones, fitbits to roomba’s and more. Software, code is a part of every piece of technology you’ll use at home and at work for the rest of your life.

Almost every job that you want, or that you want your kids to have, is touched by computer software – imagine the advantage you can have if you learn to speak the language of code.

As many as 70 million jobs could disappear in the next 10 years due to automation. On the other hand, there are over 6 million job openings unfilled in the US right now. Over a million of those are good-paying technology jobs, with no qualified applicants. No literate applicants.

And you don’t have to go very far to find these jobs – there are literally thousands of coding and cyber-related jobs right here in Atlanta.

Why are you so valuable if you’re a coder? Because we’re problem solvers who can use technology. Are there problems in the world? A few, right? The world needs problem solvers! Your goal in life should be to solve more problems than you create! Coding gives you the power to solve problems using technology, and the world highly rewards problem solvers…

You might have seen a graphic like this one, from code.org: 

https://code.org/images/cs-stats/Slide5_CS_Education.png

A college graduate earns over half a million dollars more in a lifetime than a high-school graduate. A computer science graduate earns over a million dollars more than a high-school graduate. There’s another stack of gold coins that belongs to the right of this – a cybersecurity professional may be able to earn another half million more than the average IT worker.

And the gap is growing wider. That small stack of coins is a grim picture of what technology illiteracy can look like. But this chart is also an illustration of how important coding is to your future, to your children’s future.

In 1910, fewer than 18% of teenagers went to high school, and in 2010, fewer than 18% of teenagers went to a high school that taught coding.

It only took us 30 years to correct that first problem. As farming jobs disappeared in the early 1900’s, the US invested heavily in secondary education, and by 1940, 3/4 of teenagers went to high school. We need to do the same this century for technology education – by 2025, we need more than 3 out of 4 teenagers to go to a high school that teaches coding and cybersecurity.

As parents, as teachers, as citizens, we can’t wait until 2040.

I’m a computer science professor and a cybersecurity expert. I’ve been teaching coding since 1998. I write books, I record videos, I travel, I speak in high schools, elementary schools, middle schools, conferences. But it’s not enough. How many of you have taken a computer programming class? … see,there are some – that’s good, but it’s not enough. I need your help.

All of you. You can learn to code.

Henry Ford once said “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”

But, if you think you can’t code, you just haven’t tried yet. If you’re in this audience today, or if you’re watching online – you can learn to code starting now.

Some of you may already feel your defenses kicking in – what if I’m not good at it, what if I don’t like it?  What if I just don’t want to be a coder for the next 20 years? My answer might surprise you…

Coding is not the goal. Coding is the gateway.

Coding is not the goal. Coding is the gateway.

In the same way we learn English not just to become authors or journalists, but to be able to communicate with others. And Math doesn’t just help us become accountants or engineers, it helps us solve problems, manage our finances, and make complex decisions.

People who learn to code can become entrepreneurs, innovators who create new platforms to connect people in new ways. You can become an animator, filmmaker, or you could be like two of my former students who’ve worked at both Riot Games and Blizzard Entertainment, building games like League of Legends and World of Warcraft. You can go into IT or cybersecurity, robotics, artificial intelligence or into any other job with extra skills, extra literacy, that can buffer you from some of the rapid changes that are coming.

My mom – and I am so lucky to have my mom here in the audience today! Thank you, mom – I love you – My mom bought me my first computer, a Commodore 64, in 1983 – I believe we have a picture – look how happy I am, and thinking about that computer still makes me smile 35 years later.

I started coding as a teenager, but I have a lot of students who take their first programming class as young adults. They didn’t know that instead of just playing Minecraft all these years, they could have been coding in it!

Let me give you three reasons to start coding now:

#1) Code for you.

It’s not just about the money, although you’ll make a lot… If you go on to learn about cybersecurity, you can protect yourself from cyber criminals and online predators. If you learn how to build web and mobile apps, you can create your own business model like Uber or AirBnB.

You can start by finding a technology that you enjoy. Go to a library and use a 3D printer to print something cool. Buy a programmable drone for under $100.

A lot of people like to start coding with a block-based programming language like Scratch or Blockly – this is the Tickle app, that uses a block-based programming language to tell drones and robots what to do.

The commands look like lego bricks – you pick the blocks that you want the drone to run, and the blocks snap together in the order you decide. When you’re the programmer, you get to choose how things work!

Let’s run this block of code on this actual drone and see what the code does…

Find the apps that are fun or fascinating to you, and try those things first. Even before you understand every line of code, run it, change it, move things around. Learn to code, for yourself first.

#2) Do it for others.

Bring value to your future employer, provide for your family, impact your community. When you learn to protect yourself online, you can better protect your kids and family members from online threats. You can build apps to help people in your hometown: One of my students this semester is building an app for the City of Dahlonega that allows residents to report problems like potholes in the road and street lights that are out. In addition to giving the exact GPS location of problems, it tracks when and how many people have reported an issue, and the problems that get reported by more people get higher priority in being repaired.

You can build a future for your family, and make your neighborhood a better, safer place – that’s the kind of lasting impact you can make when you learn to use technology to solve problems.

#3) Do it for the world.

Charity Water is a global clean water initiative that revolutionized transparency in both the dire need for clean water in poorer countries and in the ability to track where your donation is being used, down to the precise GPS coordinates of the drinking well you sponsor. A web application, code, is helping bring much-needed attention, and relief to people that need it the most.

At my house, my wife is able to track the remaining 3,800 tigers left in the wild through a similar app from an animal rescue organization. The thought of big cats becoming extinct before our kids grow up is heartbreaking to her. If there’s something that breaks your heart, or something that makes you really mad, coding can help you harness the power of technology to reach thousands or even millions of people who care about the same cause, and create a positive chain reaction to make people aware, and get them involved.

If you’re passionate about protecting your country, every branch of the US military now recognizes cyber as a domain equal to land, sea, air and space.

Today, billions of people go online every day, sharing skills and resources, creating new businesses, new charities, new games, new apps, new ways of seeing the world.

4 Billion of the world’s 7-1/2  Billion people have access to the Internet: spies and soldiers, terrorists and activists, hackers, doctors, musicians and bloggers are logging on every day, and it’s all possible because of code.

People say the world is changing – the world has already changed. Don’t get left behind. Step out of your comfort zone, and become literate in the language of technology.

Learn to code. What you do with it from there… is limitless.

Watch the full video of Dr. Payne’s TEDx Talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoEqyswsFvs 

I just learned that both of my new courses, Real-World Ethical Hacking: Hands-on Cybersecurity  and Learn Java the Easy Way: Build Desktop & Android Mobile Apps  are rated in the top 10% of all courses on Udemy! These courses join my best-selling Teach Your Kids to Code (Python)  to give you a complete path from beginning coder to advanced coder to ethical hacker!

To celebrate, you can enroll in all three courses (or share with a friend, so you can learn together) for just $10 each! Just enroll using the coupon code CYBERHERO10 !

• https://www.udemy.com/real-world-ethical-hacking/?couponCode=CYBERHERO10 – Includes FREE Kali Linux, Metasploit, and links to free, legal copies of Windows 10 and more!
• https://www.udemy.com/java-the-easy-way/?couponCode=CYBERHERO10 – Includes FREE Java, Eclipse, and Android Studio download and installational videos!
• https://www.udemy.com/teach-your-kids-to-code/?couponCode=CYBERHERO10 – Includes FREE Python 3.6 download and setup instructions, step-by-step!

Here are some recent 5-star reviews from students:

★★★★★  “Greatest course on Java for the beginner student I have ever seen on Udemy and/or other platforms. Instructor is quick to respond to my questions. Will be looking for any and all course he crafts in the future.”

★★★★★ “This is a great introduction to ethical hacking, as well as working with different hacking tools in order to protect your own network.”

You’ll learn through short, step-by-step videos:

• Protect yourself from viruses, ransomware, and other attacks by learning the tricks the bad guys use, and how to stop them.
• Quickly master the hottest new job skills in Windows, Linux and Android hacking & cybersecurity– with over 1 Million job openings 
• Set up your own safe, FREE virtual network and VM (virtual machine) lab for Ethical Hacking on your desktop or laptop (PC, Mac, and Linux).
• Learn to fix vulnerabilities, and how to stop 99% of attacks by doing just four things.

You can use the Coupon Code CYBERHERO10 in any of my courses this month!

★★★★★ Join over 25,000 students from 150 countries in my top-ranked and best-selling courses!

Forward this to friends, colleagues, and family members who could become coders and cyber heroes! The $10 price won’t last forever, but once you enroll, it’s yours to keep. And, if you refer a friend and they win the $25 Amazon Gift Card, I’ll give you one, too! Enroll now with the coupon code CYBERHERO10!

I look forward to seeing you in class!

Sincerely,

​

Dr. Bryson Payne, Computer Science Professor and Author
Teach Your Kids to Code (2015)
Learn Java the Easy Way (2017)
Real-World Ethical Hacking  (2018)

Enroll Online:  Ethical Hacking  |  Python  |  Java

 
Buy both books on Amazon today!

The University of North Georgia is designated by the NSA as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education (CAE-CDE).

The University of North Georgia (UNG) recently earned designation as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CDE).

The designation is from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the National Security Agency (NSA) who jointly sponsor the National Centers of Academic Excellence (CAE) program. Universities are designated based on their robust degree programs and close alignment to specific cybersecurity-related knowledge units, pilule validated by subject matter experts in the field. CAE graduates help protect national security information systems, prescription commercial networks, and critical information infrastructure in the private and public sectors.

In January, UNG launched the Center for Cyber Operations Education to plan, coordinate and support cyber education in the university’s 30-county service region.

“Our institution is well on its way to becoming a national leader in cybersecurity education,” said Dr. Bonita Jacobs, president of UNG. “Being recognized alongside other elite universities heightens our academic reputation and validates that our cyber education initiatives meet the highest national standards.”

Read the full story at http://ung.edu/news/articles/2016/05/ung-cited-as-a-national-leader-in-cyber-security-education.php

Join over 3,000 students learning Java the quick, fun, and easy way with my new course at https://www.udemy.com/learn-java-like-a-kid/?couponCode=10REASONS

You can celebrate the new year by joining over 6,000 students in my brand new Java programming course, “Learn Java Like a Kid: Build Three Desktop and Mobile Apps!” on Udemy – and, thanks to the Udemy New Year’s Promotion, you can enroll for just $10 by using the coupon code 10REASONS!

I would love to have you as a student in “Learn Java Like a Kid”, the perfect next course to add to your programming skills, and you get 90% off at just $10 through January 31, 2016 with this special offer from Udemy!

Over 12 hours of video in short, 2-10 minute lessons you can watch at your own pace, with full source code downloads so you can get started right away

A screenshot from the interactive, multi-touch Android app, BubbleDraw, you’ll learn to program in my new Java course!

You’ll build three complete desktop apps (Guessing Game, Secret Message Encoder, and BubbleDraw), and then develop the same apps for Android mobile devices to extend your Java programming skills (see a screenshot, left)! Learn Java by building quick, easy, fun apps you’ll actually enjoy and be able to share with your friends!

The course went live on New Year’s Eve, was featured in Udemy’s $10 New Year’s promotion, and gained over 2,900 students in the first four days, a new personal record!

Master a powerful new skill in 2016: Programming in Java, one of the highest-paying and most popular programming languages in the world today. Join me in “Learn Java Like a Kid” – you’ll be glad you did!

Happy New Year, and I hope you make the most of 2016!

p.s. The Udemy promotion ended Monday, January 11, but I’m leaving the coupon code 10REASONS active for at least another 1,000 students or through January 31, whichever comes first, to give you every reason to sign up to learn Java the fun, quick and easy way. Enroll today!

Register for my FREE O’Reilly Webcast, TOMORROW (Thu, 8/13) from 1-2ET (10-11PT).

There’s still time! Register now for my FREE O’Reilly Webinar, “Teach Your Kids to Code: Basic concepts with Turtle graphics in Python”, LIVE tomorrow, Thursday, August 13, 2015, from 10-11am Pacific Time (1-2pm Eastern).

You can register for free at http://www.oreilly.com/pub/e/3422 – I’ll be demonstrating how you can teach (and learn) basic programming concepts likes variables, loops and functions using Turtle graphics in Python, with examples straight from my book and Udemy course, with a few bonuses added in.

Turtle graphics have been teaching kids basic coding concepts since the late 1960’s. The Turtle module in Python carries the turtle tradition into the 21st century and makes turtle programming easy and accessible on Windows, Mac, Linux and more.

Turtle graphics in Python are a great way to introduce kids to coding, staring with short programs of just five to ten lines of code that draw beautiful, colorful shapes that kids can create and modify as they learn. I’ll be sharing some of the turtle basics I began teaching my own sons when they were two and four years old, all the way through fully interactive elements I teach in freshman-level college courses.

In this webcast, you will learn:

• How to code turtle graphics in Python
• How to engage children from pre-K through college with short, interactive, visual programs for every age level
• How to build on more advanced programming concepts using turtle graphics as a foundation

Register at http://www.oreilly.com/pub/e/3422, then tune in LIVE tomorrow from 1-2 Eastern (10-11 am Pacific)! Happy coding!

Join over 1,100 students and growing in my Udemy course, “Teach Your Kids to Code”!

We launched “Teach Your Kids to Code” as a Udemy online course in mid-July, and over 1,100 students have enrolled in less than a month! If you’re one of my students, thank you for taking the course – if you haven’t signed up yet, you can still use the coupon code FRIENDS27 to get $30 off and start coding today for just $27 (the original coupon code has expired, but FRIENDS27 will work from now on). Over six hours of total content, in short, easy two-to-six-minute videos will have kids and adults age 5 to 95 coding in minutes!

This week is also my FREE O’Reilly Media Webcast, “Teach Your Kids to Code: Basic concepts with Turtle graphics in Python” on Thursday, August 13 from 1-2pm ET (10-11am PT). You can register for free at http://www.oreilly.com/pub/e/3422 – I’ll be demonstrating how you can teach (and learn) basic programming concepts likes variables, loops and functions using Turtle graphics in Python, with examples straight from my book and Udemy course, with a few bonuses added in.

The book is back up in the Top 5 Children’s Programming Books on Amazon this week – we’ve stayed in and around the top 10 since its release in May, but the O’Reilly webcast buzz has pushed us as high as #3 the last few days.

Alex just filmed a video (the 100th lesson in the Udemy course) with me this past week, right before he and Max started back to school. Max says he’s willing to do a video next month, so we’ll keep adding to the Udemy course and keep spreading the word about teaching kids to code!

It’s an awesome time in the Payne household! Hope you and your family are doing well, and happy coding!

** Use the Coupon Code KIDSCODE27 to save $30 NOW! **

Teach your kids (and yourself) to code fun, colorful apps and games in Python, the powerful programming language used at tech companies and in colleges worldwide. Learn coding step-by-step from Computer Science Professor Dr. Bryson Payne, author of the Amazon #1 New Release and Top 10 Best Seller in Children’s Programming Books, Teach Your Kids to Code (2015, No Starch Press).

Give Your Kids a Huge Advantage in a High-Tech World

• Quickly master new problem-solving skills in Python with colorful, fun examples
• Teach younger kids to code using Turtle graphics, with text-based games and apps for older learners
• Develop a new creative outlet, building playable games and creating beautiful graphics
• Learn the basics of coding, from variables to loops and functions, with interactive, visually engaging apps

This is the kind of course you can enjoy with your kids!

Packed with fun examples, colorful graphics, and easy-to-follow plain English instruction, Teach Your Kids to Code is the course parents and kids, teachers and students can enjoy together, as they build one of the top job skills of the 21st century! Python is a great first language for beginners, but it’s powerful enough to be used in companies from Google to IBM.

I designed this programming course to be easily understood by absolute beginners, with example code I used with my own pre-schoolers all the way through the apps I teach to college freshmen.

Quick, two- to eight-minute lessons will get you coding your own apps from scratch in minutes. Over 80 lectures and 6 hours of content will give you the practice you need to master the powerful new skill of coding.

Everything you need to get started right away

Complete with working code downloads and high-definition videos, you’ll be able to work alongside a professor with 17 years’ teaching experience and over 30 years of programming knowledge. You’ll also receive a certificate of completion upon finishing the course.

No Risk: Preview videos from Sections 1, 2, and 4 now for FREE, and enjoy a 30-day money-back guarantee after you enroll – zero risk, unlimited payoff!

Early Praise for Teach Your Kids to Code

“Dr. Bryson Payne is a computer scientist and professor of the highest caliber, and with Teach Your Kids to Code, he brings the power of computers within easy reach for learners young and old.”—Dr. Antonio Sanz Montemayor, Informatics Professor, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain

“The concepts in Teach Your Kids to Code can help any young person enhance their college prospects and expand their career opportunities.”—Dr. Raj Sunderraman, Department Chair of Computer Science, Georgia State University

“Dr. Payne set us on the path that led us to our dream jobs! With Teach Your Kids to Code, he’s providing parents and teachers everywhere the chance to do the same for the next generation of creative problem-solvers.”—Shah and Susan Rahman, Riot Games

What is the target audience?

• Perfect for homeschooling parents or K-12 parents and teachers who want to give their students a HUGE advantage by learning to read and write code.
• Apps and games suitable for kids from Pre-K through College Freshmen.
• Kids can follow the course by themselves from 3rd grade through college age, but you can introduce children as early as preschool. (I started coding with my kids when they were 2 and 4 years old.)
• Includes examples from chapters 1-7 of the book, Teach Your Kids to Code, by Dr. Bryson Payne.
• This course does NOT include animation or game programming in Pygame.
• This course is NOT for experienced Python coders, unless you want to learn to make beautiful Turtle graphics & games, or code with your kids.

Try the free preview at https://www.udemy.com/teach-your-kids-to-code/. Enroll today and get $30 off with the coupon code KIDSCODE27!

Teach Your Kids to Code: Python Programming for All Ages! by Dr. Bryson Payne on Udemy.com

Teach Your Kids to Code debuted at the #1 spot in Children’s Programming Books on Amazon for most of its first week of retail sales – currently hanging in the top 10.

Teach Your Kids to Code debuted at the #1 spot in Children’s Programming Books on Amazon this past week, and as a #1 Hot New Release in both Python and in Beginner’s Programming Books! I owe a sincere debt of gratitude to everyone who pre-ordered Teach Your Kids to Code and to those who purchased it on Amazon this week!

I also have to thank Christopher Mims of the Wall Street Journal for mentioning the book in his outstanding article from earlier in the week, “Why Coding Is Your Child’s Key to Unlocking the Future” (WSJ, 4/27/2015), as well as GeekDad.com author and reviewer James Floyd Kelly, for posting a glowing review for New Book Tuesday on GeekDad.com – James listed 10 things he liked about the book!

We’re still bouncing around in the top 10 Children’s Programming Books as of this writing, so if you haven’t picked up a copy and prefer the convenience of Amazon, please do so soon – or, grab one at Barnes & Noble if you like.

If the big online retailers don’t appeal to you, swing by a brick-and-mortar Barnes & Noble to pick up a copy on display this month. You can also still save 30% off the cover price by going directly to the publisher’s web site at http://www.nostarch.com/teachkids – enter the code COOLKIDS at checkout.

Thank you to all my readers, and to all the parents, teachers, and kids who’ll be coding this summer with Teach Your Kids to Code. Remember to tweet your favorite graphical or screenshot creations to me at @brysonpayne from code you’ve written using the book, and I’ll retweet it to 5,000+ followers to show off the cool apps you’re building!

If you like the book and your kids love coding, please post a review on Amazon, B&N, or tweet/message me directly!

Thank you all again, and happy coding!

Update 5/11/2015: In our second week of retail sales, we’re still hovering in the top 10 Children’s Programming Books on Amazon, have several reviews and a solid 4.7+ stars. Keep those pics, comments and screenshots coming via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (@brysonpayne) to let me know how the young person in your life, or how you personally, like coding with Teach Your Kids to Code, and happy coding!

Check out Meme Smasher by my student, Dan McWilliams, in the App Store!

Wow! I’ve got 62 students in two sections of Mobile App Development this semester at UNG, the most popular computer science elective we’ve ever offered! We’re programming apps in Android and iOS, and having a blast! It’s so popular, we’ve added a new Minor in Mobile App Development that starts this Fall 2014 – CSCI 1301/1302 (Java I/II) plus CSCI 3660 (Mobile App Dev), CSCI 3000 (Web Programming), and any CS 3000/4000 elective course, and you’ve got a Minor in Mobile App Development!

I’ve even had students submit their apps to the App Store and Google Play, while the semester’s still going – check out Dan McWilliams’ RNGuess (a random number guessing game we built as a project in CSCI 3660) for Android in Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.danielmcwilliams.rnguess and his THREE awesome apps, RNGuess, Slippy Car, and Meme Smasher for iOS in the App Store at https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/daniel-mcwilliams/id812807320 , and I’ll post updates as other students submit their apps.

This semester, we’re programming native apps in both Java, using Eclipse with Android ADT [http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html], on the Android platform, and in Objective-C using Xcode 5 [https://developer.apple.com/] on the iOS platform. Both are free to download, install and use (although you have to have a Mac to use Xcode), have a wealth of online tutorials, and are the tools that professionals use to develop apps every day.

I can’t wait to see everything these 60+ students will create as we go through their term projects – updates to come!

Update: William Stowers is updating the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forests app – click here for the Android version

©Facebook – used with permission https://www.facebookbrand.com/

The tools to build the next billion-user app (like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, GMail, etc.) are more easily within reach than ever before – in fact, perhaps they’re within reach for the first time, ever. Just ten years ago (2003), there was no Facebook (it first went online in 2004), no Twitter (2006), no YouTube (2005), and, no GMail (2004).

Never before in history has a person with an idea been able to connect with over a billion people in under a decade. And, the barriers to this goal are getting lower all the time – the tools necessary to connect a billion people are all within reach of anyone willing to learn: HTML, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, CSS, a domain name, some web hosting.  The students in my CSCI 3000 Web Programming course this semester have built their own web apps in their own hosted domains for a little over $50, plus a lot of sweat, study, and determination.

The apps above (Facebook: 1.4 Billion users; Twitter: 0.55 Billion users; YouTube: 1.1 Billion users/month; GMail: 0.45 Billion users) have several things in common – perhaps above all, they CONNECT people. The epitomes of social media are social because they gain value as more people connect with the service. They allow multiple modes of interaction for convenience and stickiness (desktop, mobile, email; facebook and twitter even support SMS), allowing us to incorporate them into our daily lives wherever we are.

In one of our final projects for CSCI 3000, we’re going to add the ability for our sites/apps to interact with the user – we’ve just added outbound email in lab 10 (http://ttdtd.com/apps/lab10/). Now it’s time to handle inbound emails – like replying to a Facebook message just by hitting reply in the email notification. We’ll learn how to set up Vanity URL’s (like facebook.com/yourname) to connect more personally with users. We’ll even see how to apply a simple hack to allow two-way SMS (text message) interaction. Cool? Of course!

Non-programmers, you can use sites like Codecademy.com and references like w3schools.com to gain the necessary skills to use this tutorial. Or, maybe even better, email me and I’ll connect you with one of my students to do the work for/with you, at the right hourly rate : ).

Mega-Tutorial on PHP/MySQL-to-Email-to-SMS-to-PHP/MySQL

Here are the files you’ll need for this mega-tutorial: /apps/emailPHPsms.zip
And, if you’re in my CSCI 3000 course, you can use this mega-project in your term projects, and learn how to build “the next big thing” in the process. You can invent something game-changing with the skills you’ve acquired this semester in PHP/HTML/CSS/MySQL/JavaScript/server-config/mobile/etc.; now is as good a time as any, if not better, because innovation is happening at a faster pace than ever before – it took 11 years to sell the first 4 million television sets (1939-1950) [ref.], 3 daysto sell 4 million of the iPhone 4S, one day to sell 4 million iPhone 5S!!! (and 3 days to sell 9 million) [ref.]; and, none of the web innovations mentioned in the opening paragraphs above started out with massive funding, just an idea, some server space, and some creative programming and user interface work.

The treasure trove of tutorial files

/apps/emailPHPsms.zip

There are seven files in this tutorial – just seven files needed, along with some setup on your HostGator (or any other Apache server) accounts, to build a fully functional PHP-to-Email-to-SMS/text messaging-to-daily reminder web site with user-friendly URLs for user profiles (http://bodyreminder.com/Bryson for a demo). For my CSCI 3000 class at the University of North Georgia, each piece of functionality counts toward Project 5 (extra credit for SMS and automated “cron” reminders).

PHP-to-Email-to-PHP and PHP-to-SMS-to-PHP files:

index.php 

reminder.php 

tasks.sql

Place index.php in the web root for your site/project (you’ll also need a config.php file that stores your MySQL database host, database name, username, and password information), place reminder.php in your server root (“/” in FTP, /home/username in HostGator), and run the SQL script tasks.sql to create the table needed for everything that follows in your phpMyAdmin or other MySQL interface. Important: You’ll need to set the permissions for reminder.php to 755 so that this script can be executed when emails come in.

Next, we need to do some server config. Set up an email forward to “pipe” email to your /home/username/reminder.php script by going to the cPanel in HostGator, under Mail select Forwarders, Add Forwarder, type an email address like “reminder@” your domain, click Advanced Options, Pipe to a Program, and enter /home/username/reminder.php with your HostGator username substituted. Click the Add Forwarder button. Now anytime an email goes to reminder@yoursite.com, it’ll get processed by reminder.php – you can edit reminder.php to make it do anything, but right now it updates tasks based on the email sent there.

It’s also set up to handle SMS text messages forwarded by Google Voice (see the tutorial at http://sudocode.net/article/190/receiving-incoming-smstext-messages-from-google-voice-in-php/ for more detailed instructions).

The index.php file creates the task reminder and either emails or text messages the user, and displays the most recent 10 completed tasks. The SMS portion of the form has most US and European carriers, but more can be added from the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SMS_gateways.

Dynamic user directories, or Vanity URLs: yoursite.com/username

.htaccess

handler.php

user.php

You probably know that when you go to facebook.com/username, or twitter.com/username, youtube.com/username, etc., that facebook/twitter/youtube didn’t really create a folder on their web server just for you. They’re parsing your username out of the URL, searching their database, then showing your user profile/home whenever you use that address.

Vanity URL’s are a slick, professional, clever way to make users feel connected to the site – people even use those addresses as their “home pages” on business cards, email signatures, etc. It’s like your users are a part of your site when you enable dynamic user home pages like this, and this exercise will show you how to treat your users as well as the big guys do.

I used three files to make dynamic user directories. First, we’ll do the server config piece. Either place the .htaccess file into your site/project root OR copy the last line of the file:

ErrorDocument 404 /handler.php

and append it to your existing .htaccess file. This line redirects all 404 (page not found) errors to a script called handler.php – think about it: the page yoursite.com/myusername doesn’t actually exist, so it should normally trigger a 404 error. But, in this case, I want to be able to see if myusername exists in the site’s database, and if it does, show the user’s home page rather than a 404 error. Doing this via .htaccess is the simplest way to make this happen, and leaves the URL intact in the browser’s address bar, so they can bookmark (and share) yoursite.com/myusername. Cool, huh?

Place handler.php in the site/project root, and it’ll need access to your config.php database config file just like index.php does above. The handler file just splits out the URL, throws away everything before the slash, and looks for either /user/username or just /username. It then looks in the database for the user, and if it finds it, it calls the user.php file. Otherwise, you still get the familiar old 404 error, but with a link to the main page.

The user.php file is just a modified version of the index.php home page, customized for a single user. It takes the global $user variable passed from handler.php and uses that username to pre-fill the form and pull all that user’s tasks from the database. Easy enough?

Cron jobs – automating daily/hourly reminders

send_reminders.php

The final step is adding the ability to set recurring reminders in the future. To do this, you again need one piece of server config. In your HostGator cPanel, go to Advanced, Cron jobs, and set a cron job to fire every day (or every hour, if you wish), and set the command to /home/username/send_reminders.php, substituting your HostGator username in the path. Put send_reminders.php in your server root, just like reminder.php in the first section above, and change its file permissions to 755 to make it executable. The first line in both these scripts tells the script where to find the php interpreter to execute the code, if you were wondering what  #!/usr/bin/php -q meant.

Pursue and extend

I’ve left the buildout of send_reminders.php as an exercise (I had to leave something to be built by you  ), but it will work similarly to the index.php and user.php files, except that this script gets executed every day or every hour based on your preference, and should query the database for all recurring reminders that need to be sent for that time period, then loop through those results and send email or SMS reminders.

To accomplish the full vision, you’ll need either extra fields in your table, or preferably a new table for repeating tasks. You’ll need to modify the index.php and user.php forms to allow folks to set recurring reminders (remind me every day or every week on the following days: M/T/W/Th/F/S/Su, and maybe even remind me at specific times), and update send_reminders.php to handle the recurring reminders, generate new tasks and send the reminders.

Let me know what you think!

All in all, this app (see a functional demo at http://bodyreminder.com ) has the foundations of a highly social app with some of the hallmark conveniences of Facebook, Twitter, etc. Email me at professorpayne [at] gmail.com or comment below if you put together a good concept using these source files. I’d love to hear about it!