Holidaymakers have been warned to watch their words after two friends were refused entry to the US on security grounds after a tweet.

Before his trip, Leigh Van Bryan wrote that he was going to “destroy America”.

He insisted he was referring to simply having a good time – but was sent home.

Trade association Abta told the BBC that the case highlighted that holidaymakers should never do anything to raise “concern or suspicion in any way”.

The US Department for Homeland Security picked up Mr Bryan’s messages ahead of his holiday in Los Angeles.

The 26-year-old bar manager wrote a message to a friend on the micro-blogging service, saying: “Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America.”

The Irish national told the Sun Newspaper that he and his friend Emily Bunting were apprehended on arrival at Los Angeles International Airport before being sent home.

“The Homeland Security agents were treating me like some kind of terrorist,” Mr Bryan said.

“I kept saying they had got the wrong meaning from my tweet.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16810312

Finally the world catches up with what it means to really understand the basic technology of the internet. By knowing how the internet and its applications are developed and implemented individuals will gain a deeper understanding of its potential. By understanding the distinctions between platforms, applications, frameworks and layers everyday people will be able to recognise and harness the opportunities afforded by the internet and its development.

(CNN) — This week, New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg tweeted his intent to learn computer code by the end of the year. He joined about 300,000 other people who have signed up at CodeYear to receive free interactive programming lessons each week from the Codecademy, a web-based tutorial. I am greatly relieved.

It’s time Americans begin treating computer code the way we do the alphabet or arithmetic. Code is the stuff that makes computer programs work — the list of commands that tells a word processor, a website, a video game, or an airplane navigation system what to do. That’s all software is: lines of code, written by people.

We are socializing, working, consuming, and living in a world increasingly defined by programs. Learning to code is the best way to understand what all those programs do, or even to recognize that they are there in the first place.

Just a couple of years ago, I was getting blank stares or worse when I would suggest to colleagues and audiences that they learn code, or else. “Program or be programmed,” became my mantra: If you are not a true user of digital technology, then you are likely being used by digital technology. My suggestion that people learn to program was meant more as a starting point in a bigger argument.

Class of 2011 scores higher-paying jobs

Sussex owner of missing iPad uses photo to help trace it

Tom Clarke has appealed for the man in the photograph to help him trace his iPad

An IT consultant is attempting to track down his missing iPad by using photos taken on it.

Tom Clarke, 26, from Hove, in Sussex, either lost or had his iPad stolen while shopping in a Tesco store.

Several days later photos taken on the device – showing a man in a woolly hat – were automatically streamed to his mobile phone through Apple’s iCloud software.

Mr Clarke has appealed for the person in the photo to help him trace it.

He said: “All I want is for Sussex Police to be able find the guy in the woolly hat because he knows who has got my iPad.”

Mr Clarke said he had gone shopping in a Tesco store on 18 December in Holmbush Shopping Centre, in Shoreham, using his iPad as a shopping list.

When he returned home he realised it was missing.

On 24 December several photos taken of the man, a dog and some luggage were automatically sent to his phone.

<a href=”http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-16536953“> more here</a>