10 things you need to know about coding camps (TechRepublic)

          By Erin Carson                          July 14, 2014, 

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There are lots of coding bootcamps out there trying to take advantage of the huge demand for software developers. Can they help you improve your job prospects? Here's what you should know. 

 iStock//alphaspirit

The debate surrounding the best way to prepare for a programming job -- or getting a better job -- frequently involves some mention of coding camps. These programs aim to teach coding skills to those willing to commit the time and money to learning in an intense, condensed format.

The argument for these camps generally revolves around lower cost and and time investment than going to a university for a computer science degree - a CS degree experience without any fluff or freshman comp requirement. The argument against includes doubts as to whether a student could be ready for a full time development job after a few weeks of training. One point that's not up for dispute, though, is there aren't enough developers to meet the market's demand.

Not all code camps are alike, and they're not what Code Fellows' Will Little called a "magic pill" for securing a high-paying job in development. Effectiveness depends on a number of variables.

"Just like a CS degree is not the same from every university, just because you attended a coding camp, there's no automatic assumption that you actually know good coding skills," said Dice president Shravan Goli.

Along those line, Little said: "It takes a lot of work to become a professional in most fields, but software development in particular. It requires a lot of experience and a lot of time working out your ability to write software effectively."

Whether you're out to learn the basics or add a new skill, here are 10 things you need to know about coding camps.

1. Some are free, most are not

Course Report, a directory for coding bootcamps, conducted a survey of 43 coding camps in the US in 2014, and found that the average cost of tuition was $9,900. It is possible to find free camps but Goli said to really consider, "What is it really getting you? Is the quality of the teaching as good?" It takes further vetting to determine if the camp really meets with your professional goals.

2. Different schools, different funding models

Part of the reason why the tuition prices can range from free to more than $10,000 is because the funding models can vary. A camp might be free because it has strong donors or sponsors, Goli said. Check out who those people are and what their motivations might be, Goli said. On the flip side, he doesn't think students should really be paying a lot of money for these camps. "There are a lot of places where you can get high quality camps these days that don't charge a lot. I would look for those.," he said.

3. Find a camp with industry relationships

Goli advised to look out for a camp with existing relationships with employers. Going a step further, Goli said some camps are facilitated in a way that allows for students to work on projects for real companies. "One thing is adding this ability and knowledge to your resume, but one thing you want to think about as you're attending these coding camps is which one of these has the opportunity to work on real world projects?" Goli said. Look first at the camps that can create a bridge between you and a potential employer.

4. They last from 9 to 12 weeks

Consider the length of time you're willing and able to make to a coding camp, as well as what you might need based on your current skill level. Course Report found that average length of a coding camp is between 9 and 12 weeks.

5. Ruby is the hottest topic

While coding camps offer training in different languages and platforms, Course Report did show that 57% of courses taught in coding camps are based on Ruby. If you're looking to learn how to develop mobile apps, or write JavaScript (13%) or Python (8%), or others, you can still find camps for those too.

6. Some camps offer job placement rebates

Depending on the coding camp you pick, you might be able to get some money back if you find a job quickly, or don't find a job quickly. Dev Bootcamp will give students $5,000 back if they find jobs through the program. Code Fellows, on the other hand, will give students a full refund if they can't land a gig within 9 months of completing one of their 8-week development accelerators - a more intense version of the camp for people with prior experience, according to their website. In San Fransisco, App Academy charges 18% of your first year salary if you find a job.

7. Prior experience helps

If you have zero background in coding, that doesn't mean you should be intimidated of enrolling in a coding camp. It just means you should check your expectations of getting a six-figure job after a few months training. Code Fellow's Will Little recommends taking advantage of the tools that exist online as getting yourself as far as you can on your own.

"What we've heard time and time again from our alumni and hiring partners that are hiring our students is that going through these programs are cutting off somewhere between one and two years of learning on your own time," Little said.

Start building, start sharing code. That way, it's easier to take on an "apprentice mindset," he said, and get more out of the experience of having an in-person mentor when you've hit the point where you need one.

8. You're going to work, a lot

Part of the idea behind coding camps - sometimes referred to as boot camps, is that there's no wasted time. Camps can divide up the required time in and out of class. The Mobile Makers Academy in Chicago lists there being 10 hours per week spent in class, with an additional 20-30 spent outside of class. As Fullstack Academy's Nimit Maru pointed out, coding camps tend to favor hands-on projects versus the theoretical.

"It's so much of a squeezed timeframe," Goli said, "They don't have time to goof around. They're very much focused on what is the most valuable set of coding skills that you would have to develop related to a particular language or a particular technology space."

9. There's no industry regulation

To this point, coding camps aren't regulated. In part what that means is that there's no standardization for curriculum, and the statistical information available is largely self-reported. Before you settle on a camp, dig around and look at the types of jobs students are getting, average salaries, and how long it's taking them to get those jobs, Little said.

"Those statistics really tell the story in terms of what you can expect," he said.

10. Just because you sign up doesn't mean you get in

Many coding camps require applications and interviews to fill a limited number of spots in their programs. Hacker School, for example, conducts two rounds of Skype interviews with applicants.

Erin Carson is a Staff Writer for TechRepublic. She covers the impact of social media in business and the ways technology is transforming the future of work.

Desktop PCs and the Windows desktop: Endangered species? (ZDNet)

Summary: The PC industry worldwide sold 136 million desktop PCs last year, along with 160 million traditional notebooks driven by keyboards and touchpads. Those big numbers explain why Microsoft is feverishly improving the desktop experience for "the next iteration of Windows."

By Ed Bott for The Ed Bott Report | July 15, 2014 

At the Build Developer Conference earlier this year, Microsoft officially announced plans to return the Start menu to “the next iteration of Windows,” along with a new option to run Metro/Modern-style apps in their own windows on the Windows desktop.

Microsoft Executive Vice President Terry Myerson made the announcement at the Build Day 1 keynote on April 2, 2014. You can watch the clip on YouTube, with Myerson's remarks coming a little more than two hours in to the morning’s proceedings.

This screenshot is taken from the demo (prerecorded, not live) that played on the screen behind him:

Update: In remarks at the Worldwide Partner Conference the day after this article was published, Microsoft Windows Marketing head Tony Prophet used this same screenshot to describe upcoming changes that will make Windows more attractive for keyboard-and-mouse users.

And this week rumor sites are abuzz over the appearance of a newer version of that Start menu, as seen in a screenshot supposedly taken from a recent (leaked) build of Windows. It could appear as early as this fall.

Assuming that screenshot is legit (and there’s no reason to believe it’s not), then we have a yawner of a story: Microsoft is continuing to develop Windows on a new, more aggressive schedule, with another update probably scheduled for this October and a major new release for delivery sometime in 2015.

Why the renewed focus on desktop users? I can think of 136 million reasons.

That 136 million figure is how many desktop PCs businesses and consumers bought in 2013,according to the latest Gartner numbers. That’s not a bad showing for a technology segment that is supposedly on life support. And the number of desktop PCs sold is likely to go up slightly in 2014, thanks to an improved economy and a business PC refresh cycle driven by April’s end-of-support milestone for Windows XP.

And you could probably add another 160 million reasons to that total, one for each of the traditional notebooks sold worldwide in 2013. That total is separate from the 21 million devices sold last year that Gartner classifies as Premium Ultramobiles, a group that includes lightweight Windows hybrids like the Surface Pro line as well as lightweight conventional notebooks like Apple's MacBook Air.

Although touchscreens are becoming more common, most of those traditional notebooks are still driven primarily by keyboards and trackpads or mice. And that will also be true for the 250 million (combined) desktop PCs and traditional notebooks that will probably be sold in 2015.

Back in late summer 2011, before the public reveal of Windows 8, then-Windows boss Steven Sinofsky wrote a meticulous explanation of the process that led to the design of the Windows 8 desktop.

Windows 8 brings together all the power and flexibility you have in your PC today with the ability to immerse yourself in a Metro style experience. You don’t have to compromise! You carry one device that does everything you want and need.  You can connect that device to peripherals you want to use. You can use devices designed to dock to large screen displays and other peripherals.  You can use convertible devices that can be both immersive tablets and flexible laptops.

Which brings us back to the improvements we’re making to the desktop experience: we believe in the Windows desktop. It powers the experiences today that make a Windows 7 PC the most popular device in the world. So, even if we believe that over time many scenarios will be well-served by Metro style apps, for the foreseeable future, the desktop is going to continue to play a key role in many people’s lives. So we are going to improve it. We’re having a good dialog about what folks might think about our design choices but also wanted to put these choices in a broader context of the unmatched utility of the desktop.

It's a fascinating essay to read three years later, after decidedly mixed reviews for Windows 8 in its first two years.

One phrase in that introductory post leaps out at me today: "Essentially," Sinofsky wrote, "you can think of the Windows desktop as just another app." That's indeed what happened, and perhaps the root of Windows 8's identity crisis. On a tablet, the desktop is just another app, and in fact one you're not likely to use often. But on desktop PCs and traditional clamshell notebooks, the desktop isn't an app, it's a destination, and anything that takes you away from it is a potential distraction.

As I argued six months after Windows 8 was released, that original Windows 8 design was bothbold and arrogant.

I believe Microsoft’s motives were sincere, but their decision was mistaken. In the desire to take a bold and determined step into the future, Windows 8 eliminates some of the touchstones of the Windows 7 desktop interface, while still leaving most of that desktop intact.

That decision alienated many desktop users and created a wedge issue that has distracted from the many impressive accomplishments in Windows 8.

[...]

Microsoft had the ability to include at least some options in Windows 8 so that upgraders could get the many benefits of the new Windows while still keeping those familiar touchstones. They chose not to. That decision is widely perceived as arrogant. As a result, people who should be happily using an upgrade that’s filled with genuine goodness are clinging bitterly to the previous version. And they're telling their friends.

With the Windows 8.1 update, Microsoft added a slew of features designed to improve the desktop experience for keyboard-and-mouse users. A key part of that update is an increased use of "device type detection," which tailors the Start and desktop experiences differently for different types of devices.

Using that detection logic in Windows 9 to tailor different experiences for different users could go a long way toward winning back Metro haters (especially with an option to choose a pure desktop role for a PC regardless of its manufacturer-defined role).

And make no mistake about it, that's Job #1 for "the next iteration of Windows," whatever it's called. I think desktop computing on Windows and Macs will hang on much longer than anyone expects.

Several years ago, with Windows 7 just around the corner, I looked at the historical intervals between Windows releases and noted that "the most stable and successful releases of Windows arrived roughly 1000 days after their trouble-plagued predecessors." If Windows 9 follows that timetable in the wake of the trouble-plagued Windows 8 release, it will ship on or about July 23, 2015.

Consider this my entry in the Windows 9 release date prediction poll. (You'll get the chance to add your prediction soon.)

Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications.

Off the Grid in a Florida Suburb, Fighting Municipal Code (BusinessWeek)

By Theodore Ross July 10, 2014

Two 55-gallon cisterns collect all the Florida rainwater Speronis needs for drinking, bathing, and flushing waste. The city told her it was illegal to disconnect from municipal pipes

In Cape Coral, Fla., a city of snowbird retirees and strip malls off the Caloosahatchee River, there’s a part of town that never quite recovered from the real estate bust. Foreclosure notices spill from the mailboxes of homes lining the city’s shallow canals and gather in trash drifts by the front doors. Weeds run riot in the yards of properties built for no money down in the flush days and then abandoned when they went underwater.

Even amid the eerie detritus, the small ranch-style duplex that Robin Speronis moved into in January 2013 is a little unusual. For one thing, Speronis, an energetic 54-year-old widow with cropped blonde hair and stark blue eyes, never had the city turn on the power or water. She set two 55-gallon plastic cisterns on either side of the entranceway and attached gutter downspouts to collect rainwater. She perched a small solar charger on a windowsill with wires snaking inside to a battery that in turn powers a few lights and a laptop. Wireless Internet is siphoned from a nearby Tire Kingdom. Inside, a propane lantern hangs from an unused light fixture in the dining area. Speronis is living off the grid—no power from the city, rainwater her only source for bathing, drinking, and sewage—in the middle of her tumbledown subdivision. It has caused a national furor.

Speronis first took an interest in detaching from the system during the years she spent caring for her husband, Zenny, who suffered from a neurodegenerative disorder. As his condition worsened, she turned to homeopathic treatments and other unconventional regimens: raw foods, colloidal silver, an avoidance of refrigeration and air conditioning, a focus on the promotion of regular bowel movements. It was a struggle to explain to the people around her, but she provided for Zenny without doctors, pharmaceuticals, or any medical assistance until his death at 84 in 2010. She self-published a book about “freeing” him from the health-care system and “home deathing him naturally.”

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Speronis had worked as a real estate agent and a massage therapist, but most of her savings went to making her husband comfortable in his last days. This included the earlier purchase in 2009 of a $495,000 waterside home on a palm-lined street in Cape Coral. Speronis knew she didn’t have the money to make the mortgage payments, so she engaged in what she called a “strategic default.” Using her knowledge of the real estate industry to delay foreclosure, she stayed afloat by selling off her possessions.

“Nothing was hard. Every time I did something it was easier than I thought it was going to be.”

After the lender finally took the house in April 2012, Speronis underwent a radical ascetic conversion. She surveyed what remained of her things and asked, “Do I really need this? Is this of value to me?” She got rid of everything, from her BMW convertible to her wedding album, and attempted to establish a fully self-reliant existence. In June of that year, she bought an RV and moved onto a rented property in a nearby wooded area. She stayed for seven months, teaching herself to live without most modern conveniences. “I had never even gone camping,” she says now, “but nothing was hard. Every time I did something it was easier than I thought it was going to be. I thought, ‘I can do this. I can do this myself.’ ” Eventually the land flooded in the Florida rains, and Speronis stopped paying her rent. She was evicted and returned to Cape Coral—but not to the grid.

In a new home off Del Prado Boulevard, which she bought from a friend, Speronis removed and sold the oven, refrigerator, and air conditioning units, even the ducts. The house was already off the electrical grid. An earlier resident had been stealing municipal power, and the city had cut the lines and removed the meters. Speronis subsisted primarily on a year’s supply of dried and canned food she’d bought while she had the RV. She drank and bathed in rainwater, filling a four-gallon, solar-heated camp shower. Her only connection to city services was the sewer: She flushed waste down the toilet, again with rainwater. “I can go weeks or a month without spending a penny,” she says.

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In true American fashion, Speronis began writing about her experiences as a pioneer of the subdivision. She started a blog called Off the Grid Living in Southwest Florida—One Woman’s Story. One day last November, Liza Fernandez, a reporter for WFTX, the local Fox (FOX) affiliate, decided to do a story on her. Near the end of the broadcast, Fernandez noted that Speronis’s rudimentary setup violated “most codes and ordinances” in Cape Coral and that “anyone caught living in such a home could be forcibly removed.”

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Speronis appeared unfazed, even a little excited at a challenge to her lifestyle. “If my father in heaven wants me to be the test case for something,” she said, firmly, “I’ll be the test case for something.” Town officials were watching.

 

“The desire to ‘get off the grid’ is anchored deep in the American psyche,” says Nick Rosen, author of Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America. From Daniel Boone’s sturdy self-reliance on the Western frontier to Henry David Thoreau’s individualist morality at Walden Pond, to be alone and disconnected is to be an idealized version of an American. An instinctive yearning to slip the chains of society has certainly been felt by anyone who’s ever gotten a big utility bill, but, as Rosen notes, “It’s very unusual to do it in a city.”

Estimates of the national off-the-grid population are vague, hovering between 180,000 and 250,000, almost entirely in rural settings where public utilities—and government oversight—are in short supply. Climate-change concerns spur many, as does an interest in a simpler, low-tech lifestyle. Disaster preppers and militiamen see it as a hedge against impending social collapse.

Not everyone who wants to go off the grid can. Assembling the right equipment and supplies can cost tens of thousands of dollars, but money isn’t the only limiting factor. Sometimes the grid just won’t let you go. Lawsuits with homeowner associations are commonplace, as are disputes with local government. James and Frances Babb, residents of Clarkson Valley, Mo., for example, have been battling authorities for years over permits to install solar panels that the city has refused to grant, citing construction and fire safety issues.

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The day after the Fox segment on Speronis aired, an officer from the Cape Coral code compliance division knocked on her door, rousing her two dogs, Suzie, a chihuahua, and Faith, a mixed breed. Speronis didn’t answer. The officer, taking note of the water barrels and severed power lines, stuck a placard on the door declaring the property unfit for human habitation. “Any person entering this property without official authorization,” it read, “is subject to removal and/or arrest.”

Speronis’s “test case for something” quickly escalated. Fox continued to run segments on her, gleefully accusing the city of retaliating against her after seeing its report. City representatives offered a series of unconvincing denials, first saying they believed the home was vacant, then citing an open compliance violation—mulch blocking the municipal right-of-way—and finally a “citizen complaint.” Records, however, show the complaint had come from a city employee who had watched the show and alerted his colleagues.

Cape Coral argued that it had nothing against Speronis going off grid, only with how she’d done so. “There are an awful lot of alternatives out there that meet code,” says Frank Cassidy, the city’s code compliance division manager. “The problem is that she is not using those methods.” He ticked off a litany of municipal resources for cisterns, composting toilets, retrofit grants, equipment, housing assistance, and programs to sell excess solar power to the grid. “The city has the health, welfare, and safety of all its citizens to consider,” says Rana Erbrick, the city council member for Speronis’s district. “But there also comes a point where you gotta do what you gotta do to protect the integrity of the system.”

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Statements like that inflamed the citizens of Cape Coral, many of whom were rooting for their local nonconformist. Strangers began to stop her on the street or honk in support as they drove past her yard. While the city had certain aspects of the law behind it, all local residents saw was a widow living alone in a poor part of town getting steamrollered by the government. Speronis’s battle caught the eye of the national media, from the environmentalists of Treehugger, a popular website, to the libertarians of Glenn Beck’s The Blaze. Producers from Doomsday Preppers, a reality show on the National Geographic Channel that “explores the lives of otherwise ordinary Americans who are preparing for the end of the world as we know it,” contacted her but chose not to film her. “Guess I wasn’t crazy enough,” Speronis says.

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Speronis turned out to have a knack for publicity. She found a real estate litigator named Todd Allen to take her case pro bono. Allen had made a name for himself in 2011 when he showed up at a Bank of America (BAC) branch with a sheriff’s deputy, two movers, and a gaggle of TV cameras and tried to foreclose on it. (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart interviewed him.) The Rutherford Institute, a right-wing libertarian organization in Virginia, took up her cause as well, offering to serve as legal consultants and pay court costs. “It’s like these cases where people want a couple of chickens in their yards and the cities say that’s illegal,” says John Whitehead, the organization’s founder. “I believe in freedom of property. Why would any government agency be concerned?”

Speronis cut a defiant figure in TV and radio interviews. “Cape Coral needs to be afraid of me,” she said. “I’m not afraid of them.”

The arrival of national forces seemed to harden Cape Coral’s resolve. In January the city amended the original violations, citing Speronis for 36 code and ordinance infractions, from an improperly installed electrical system to insufficiently heated water. At a hearing that month, a special magistrate dismissed 33 of them, largely because the city lacked evidence. Code officers had never been to the property, thereby making it difficult to argue, for example, that the house had faulty wiring when no one had inspected it. The magistrate did find Speronis in violation of regulations that required city water to flow through her pipes, even if she had an alternate water supply—the rainwater. It was, literally, against the law to disconnect from the water system. “Reasonableness and code requirements,” the special magistrate declared, “don’t always go hand-in-hand.”

Speronis was given three months to bring the house up to code or risk fines, foreclosure, and even imprisonment. Allen vowed to appeal and also began work on a case against Cape Coral for malicious prosecution.

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City representatives periodically proclaimed their interest in an amicable resolution. “Our primary objective is voluntary compliance through education,” says Cassidy, the compliance manager. “Every house has a story, and we try to find that story to guide them to compliance. We don’t like hearings or escalating remedies.”

“Reasonableness and code requirements don’t always go hand-in-hand,” the special magistrate declared.

But Speronis had confirmed at the magistrate’s hearing that she was flushing waste into the sewer with rainwater without paying to use the system, and the city moved against her. A few days after the hearing, city officials showed up at her house, dug up the front yard, and capped her access to the sewer. Then they filed a complaint against her with the Florida Department of Health, alleging that she was creating a health hazard by spreading her waste on the lawn. The charge was untrue. Speronis used a camp toilet with detachable bags that she tossed into the city garbage system—which was a code violation, but not one the city had alleged. The state health department investigated, cleared Speronis, and said the city had committed its own violation and created a “sanitary nuisance” by capping the line.

City officials began to leak information on Speronis’s troubled past to the press. Speronis had a 2009 felony conviction stemming from the theft of a real estate client’s home deposit money. She attributes this to a banking error caused by the stress of caring for her sick husband, but she pleaded guilty, gave up her real estate license, and was placed on probation. More damning for her image was a 2007 animal cruelty conviction for failing to provide her dogs with adequate food and water. Speronis says the animal welfare people didn’t understand her natural methods.

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The dogs, which Speronis describes as “my children,” became a pressure point the city could exploit. Animal control tried on eight occasions to take the pets, but Speronis hid them with one of her neighbors—a group that tends to view her as a benign eccentric. Speronis made friends with a group of retired men who met early each morning at a nearby Burger King, where employees allowed Speronis to use the bathroom without purchasing anything. The men all concede that Speronis “liked the fight” and the publicity. But they also objected to the city’s harsh tactics. “She ought to be able to do what she wants to do,” says one of them, Robert Goodridge.

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Speronis’s house in Cape Coral, where supporters honk as they drive past

When animal control failed to find the dogs, the city contacted the Florida Department of Corrections, arguing that Speronis’s failure to cooperate constituted a probation violation. She permitted an inspection by her probation officer, who found both dogs to be in adequate health and declined to act.

And then there was the issue of who owned the house. Speronis maintains that a friend had essentially given it to her—the sale was recorded with the county for $10—because it was vacant and in disrepair and he didn’t like her living in the woods. The friend, a semiretired landscaper named Ronald Mayo, emerged to dispute that, telling police that Speronis had forged his name and a notary seal on the title transfer documents. “She was a friend, and I was letting her stay there,” Mayo says. “I gave her a small piece of paper to go to the county to represent me with the property. Next thing I know, she sold the AC units.”

Speronis denies this account. “Men like Ron, they don’t understand me,” she says. “They think I’m doing this because I can’t make ends meet. But it’s fun. I want to do it.”

In late March, Speronis met me at her front door dressed in faded blue jeans and a bright yellow blouse. She looked thin. Most of her food stores had been depleted, save for a few sacks of oatmeal and some canned beans. The “survival seed” garden she had attempted on the front lawn had failed and was now a dusty wreck. She interspersed Zen pronouncements about dispelling “negative energy” in the house and “having beauty around me” with the slightly manic broadsides of a libertarian true believer. “I’m here to make a point—to bring justice,” she said. “You can’t just declare someone outside of the system and kick them out of their house.”

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A little more than a week later, officials from the code compliance division, building department, and animal control along with several police officers descended on Speronis’s house with an inspection warrant. As with the sewer-capping incident, much of what they were looking for arose from details Speronis provided at the magistrate’s hearing: the solar panel, the lantern, a camp stove in the kitchen, the camp shower, and other off-the-grid fixes. The officials found 37 new code violations.

During the inspection, Speronis says, she berated one of the police officers: “I’m that much of a threat? A 54-year-old widow living by herself? How can you sleep at night?”

“Better than your dogs,” the officer responded.

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“The most hazardous issues were the use of the stove and the propane lantern inside, as well as the recharging of the battery,” says Cassidy. “If she ends up blowing herself up or catching fire in that house, then it’s not, ‘why are you picking on this woman?’ It’s ‘why didn’t you do something about it?’ ”

Animal control took both dogs to the county shelter for examination. They returned the chihuahua, Suzie, but kept the older dog, 14-year-old Faith, and leaked photos to local media outlets that showed her without any fur on her hindquarters. “I don’t care how this lady lives,” says Glenn Johnson, operations manager at the county animal welfare department. “She has to take care of her animals by law. She can’t just do what she wants.”

Speronis contends that Faith lost her coat years earlier in the care of an incompetent veterinarian. “It’s evil,” she says, breaking into tears. “It’s like when they capped my sewer. I was upset because the intention was not public safety or welfare, but to do harm.”

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In April, Speronis fired Allen, her attorney, when he suggested that some of the city’s complaints about the house and the dogs had merit. “I subscribe to the way she wants to live, and the government is trying to restrict her in ways that don’t make sense,” he says. “But I’m concerned that she is trying to fight the fight just to fight it.”

On May 14, Speronis was arrested on a misdemeanor animal cruelty charge. The city attorney persuaded a judge to hold her without bail under a 2011 law intended to keep violent probation violators behind bars. Known as the Widman Act, it was named after a police officer shot and killed by a probationer with a felony warrant. It was being applied in this case against a woman who may or may not have given her dog a skin condition.

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Speronis languished in jail for more than a month, including a week in solitary confinement, after she refused to be tested for tuberculosis. “They have no right to take my blood,” she said during a phone call from custody. “The health-care system wants to control my body, and that’s evil.” She turned down the services of a public defender and declined to accept a plea bargain that would not have included prison time. “I want a jury trial,” she said. She also told me she preferred isolation to the “drama” of the general population. “I have a 10-by-14 cell and my own shower that I can use twice a week. There’s peace and quiet.” She used the time alone to begin writing another book about her experiences. “It’s amazing what happens when you stand up for your principles, your values. I have no regrets.”

It can be hard to take such pronouncements from Speronis at face value. While she is likable, articulate, and vulnerable, her blend of cheerful defiance and messianic libertarianism can read either as inspirational or delusional. Maybe the nature of the fight was bound to produce a protagonist with flaws: Those who crave disconnection the most may often carry the most baggage, and only a zealot will fight the government indefinitely.

On June 16 the city abruptly dropped the animal cruelty charges, saying it lacked proof. Speronis was released from jail and given back her dog. She returned to the house, vowing not to make any changes. “They can fine me all they want,” she says. “I’m not going to let them dictate the way I live.” On July 4, Roger Desjarlais, the manager of Lee County, which encompasses Cape Coral, e-mailed Speronis an apology of sorts: “I’m hopeful you will not judge the entire Lee County organization based on your experience with our Animal Services department. … We hope that you, Faith and Suzie are doing well.” That said, the conflict with the city will surely continue. For now, Speronis is home, off the grid, and outside the law.

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Ross is a Bloomberg Businessweek contributor

Space station shipment takes food, stink-free gym outfits, to astronauts (FoxNews)

Published July 14, 2014 Associated Press

The Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket launches with the Cygnus spacecraft onboard, Sunday, July 13, 2014.(AP Photo/NASA, Bill Ingalls)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. –  A commercial cargo ship rocketed toward the International Space Station on Sunday, carrying food, science samples and new odor-resistant gym clothes for the resident crew.

Orbital Sciences Corp. launched its Cygnus capsule from the Virginia coast, its third space station delivery for NASA.

"It's like Christmas in July," said Frank Culbertson, an executive vice president at Orbital Sciences and former astronaut.

Daylight and clouds limited visibility, but observers from North Carolina to New Jersey still had a shot at seeing the rising Antares rocket. It resembled a bright light in the early afternoon sky.

Its destination, the space station, was soaring 260 miles above Australia when the Cygnus took flight. The unmanned capsule should arrive there Wednesday.

This newest Cygnus contains more than 3,000 pounds of supplies, much of it food. Also on board: mini-satellites, science samples, equipment and experimental exercise clothes. NASA said the new type of clothing is resistant to bacteria and odor buildup. So the astronauts won't smell as much during their two hours of daily workout in orbit and they'll require fewer clothing changes.

NASA is paying for the delivery service. The space agency hired two companies — the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences and California's SpaceX — to keep the space station well stocked once the shuttle program ended. The international partners also make shipments; the European Space Agency, for example, will launch its final supply ship in 1½ weeks from French Guiana.

This particular Cygnus delivery was delayed a few months by various problems, including additional engine inspections and, most recently, bad weather at the Wallops Island launch site. The delays added to the tension for NASA's human exploration chief, Bill Gerstenmaier. He said he breathed a sigh of relief at liftoff given all the critical equipment on board, not to mention all the meals.

The Cygnus will remain at the space station for about a month. It will be filled with trash and cut loose for a fiery re-entry. Unlike the SpaceX Dragon capsule, the Cygnus is not built to return safely to Earth.

Saturday, meanwhile, marked the 5,000th day of continuous human habitation at the 260-mile-high outpost. Six men currently are on board, representing the United States, Russia and Germany.

"Humans are explorers!" German astronaut Alexander Gerst said via Twitter.