jessemiller's HamlPy - I need to check this out, an implementation of HAML (basically a shorthand notation for HTML) with integration for Django. This could be interesting for the many small internal templates, as they are created by programmers and not designers. However, I would first have to see how well (or how poorly) I can integrate JavaScript with it. But definitely interesting - HTML is not really Diff/Merge-friendly and simply annoying to write and read.
Archive June 2010
Welcome | Ibis Reader â„¢ - a web-based ePub reader with syncing of reading positions (well, not really sync - they just store everything in the cloud and the reader is simply their web interface). For those who can't use iOS 4 (because, for example, iOS 4 makes an iPhone 3G a very slow iPhone 3G) and don't want to use Amazon Kindle (for which they would have to send their books to the Amazon servers), it's an alternative. Additionally, it also supports Android phones.
Write-Ahead Logging - in SQLite! From version 3.7. This is very interesting because it makes a use case easier - multicore-using applications that want to work with an embedded database. SQLite becomes even more the Swiss Army knife of data storage (and if you take this into account when programming, switching to PostgreSQL for larger installations where the embedded database no longer makes sense is easily solvable).
Inconsolata - I stumbled upon this font via my iPad (in iSSH) and find it very pleasant. Especially with today's higher screen resolutions, a monospace font can certainly pay attention to details - and this one does it well.
iPad or Bust! - Blog - The Omni Group - OmniOutliner for the iPad? That would be great. Although for many things I now simply use Taskpaper because of the easy syncing. I still hope that more apps will use Dropbox as a file storage, but so far that's still quite scarce.
Nicholas Piël » ZeroMQ an introduction - a brief overview of how asynchronous messaging with ZeroMQ and Python looks and how the different messaging scenarios can be represented. I should take a closer look, because it's something like a deconstructed framework for messaging - so only the building blocks to be able to build your own, optimally tailored to the problem, messaging system.
Ben Goldacre: Predictions are fine, but there are better ways to protect a population - Italy has always been a bit odd (I mean, they have a press clown as president and this strange Catholic mini-state with a ruler who claims absolute authority). And this mini-state has a long tradition of suing (and convicting) scientists. It probably shouldn't surprise anyone if seismologists are now being put on trial for manslaughter because they didn't predict an earthquake. And this is part of the EU ...
iOS 4 walkthrough | TiPb - hopefully you can finally enable and disable Spellcheck (which works quite well on the iPad) and Autocorrect (which still has this pathetic "space accepts the suggestion" behavior) separately in iOS 4. Because you actually want to have Spellcheck, but as long as Apple retains this stupid Autocorrect and ties the Spellcheck to it, you can forget about it completely.
PyFilesystem 0.3 released - looks interesting, filesystems in and with Python. You can write FUSE filesystems in Python or simply access Amazon S3 or FTP with the same code.
About Greenfoot - a graphical programming environment for games and other interactive content in Java. By the BlueJ creators.
Chimply generates your images - provides a nice selection of Ajax activity indicators. Of those I have tested, one of the most interesting examples.
PyPy Status Blog: A JIT for Regular Expression Matching - this is the reason why I firmly believe that the future of Python is PyPy (or something similar) and why I want something like PyPy. An environment where all language elements are reduced to a common base, where I can work at all levels of abstraction - if necessary even at the level of code generation. This offers significantly more pleasant optimization options than the CPython model, where higher performance beyond a certain point is only achievable through C extensions. However, I also come from Lisp, where it is quite common to work with a language family from high-level language elements down to code generation. My Xerox Lisp machine had a TCP/IP stack written in a subset of Interlisp - this is quite comparable to the situation of PyPy and RPython.
nutshell — Lettuce v0.1.2 (barium release) documentation - lettuce is cucumber for Python. cucumber is BDD for Ruby. BDD is behaviour driven development - first you write BDD stories, then you write the code and a small Python module that connects the story with the code. This automatically generates the test code. It looks a bit silly at first glance, but has the advantage that test cases actually orient themselves towards specified behavior and are not simply abstractly programmed into the woods. In combination with testcase-pro-bugreport, this provides a quite usable test environment.
SSH on the iPhone at last | The 23x blog - "termcapinfo xterm ti@:te@" in the .screenrc for support of scroll gestures is the most important part of the article (and on the iPad, ssh is also quite fun - a decent server machine and you can comfortably script in the armchair with the iPad, maybe even a Bluetooth keyboard ...)
Copyright reform: Justice Minister fills third basket - Golem.de - um, hello Mrs. Minister, you are a politician and from the FDP. Could you please stick to the prejudices of bloggers and demonstrate complete ignorance of technology? Something like your obvious recognition of the link as a fundamental means of the internet, something like that, I don't want to see again, ok? And anyway, why do you make a few of the opinions of bloggers and creatives your own at the same time? Doesn't that violate copyright? And anyway, how do you come to openly name the weak point of the cultural flat rate right away? Shouldn't that first be determined through 50 committees? Can't you, like other politicians, simply reject the whole thing as communism? Ok, with the strange suggestion that providers should automatically (without analyzing or collecting data) notify users when they do something forbidden, you try to pull it out a bit again, that has something of typical politician thinking. But the impression still doesn't quite disappear that you actually know what you're talking about. But that just doesn't work. That fully violates all the rules of politics.
iFolder - I just came across this. Open Source from Novell that builds functionality similar to Dropbox. Only that you operate your own server (a Linux box, ready-made packages for Open Suse). The whole thing is built with Mono, clients for Linux, Windows and Mac. I haven't tried it yet (Dropbox works too well for me to feel a great urge for changes), but I think before the next renewal with Dropbox I could take a look at it. Hosting a Suse box somewhere (or getting the server to run on Ubuntu or Debian) shouldn't be the biggest problem and I'm already hitting the limits of the 50G option from Dropbox. What I haven't found is access to older versions of files - but I haven't looked through the quite extensive manuals yet.
Innovation looks different: Rechristianization - taz.de - Jauch instead of Will? And for this crap I pay fees? Anne Will was finally someone with a profile at ARD, who could even motivate a TV muffin like me to turn on the TV.
SPD says no to CDU in NRW: The real crazies - taz.de - the political posturing and stupid remarks from politicians are really getting on my nerves. All talk, no action, none of them are interested in a real solution. And so we have to continue putting up with this unbearable Rüttgers, because the SPD and the Greens consider stupid principle games against the Left more important than replacing the Union in the state government. Sure, the Left are chaotic - the Greens were too when they started out. And? Is a Rüttgers in office any better?
AdBlock for Safari - with Safari 5 you can now block ads. In this case, a Chrome extension has been ported to Safari - apparently they are quite similar (both are based on JS + HTML5 as technology).
In the eye of the law — Der Freitag - yeah, yeah, the state would never create unauthorized data collections, the state simply legalizes the nonsense it produces.
Racket Released - PLT Scheme has a new name and a new release. And is still the coolest Scheme environment.
Internettelefonie: iPhone: Telekom threatens Skype users - WirtschaftsWoche - oh yes, our great telecommunications companies. Totally customer-oriented.
HDR Test
HDR Test
Just a simple test with HDRTist, a free software for the Mac for HDR photography. Individual images were 7 JPG images in 2/3 aperture steps, taken handheld with the Panasonic GF1. What stands out: HDRTist aligns the images correctly but keeps the edge in the image file (clearly visible at the bottom and left). You should therefore crop again after the HDR processing (and due to the inevitable position changes in handheld series recordings, plan for some edge in the recording). Surprisingly, the tone mapping is very natural and in small comparisons the combination and tone mapping are much more pleasing than with commercial alternatives that I have tested.
HDRtist "HDR Software will never be the same" - Ohanaware - the software I used for the HDR test. No adjustment options beyond simple calculation strengths for the individual images. But the result pleases me and looks quite natural.
kenkeiter's ryfi - blogged for later. A Ruby server that can work with EyeFi cards and enables you to do more with photos than just store them. With this, you could build automatic syncs to your own cloud or other fun stuff.
Creaceed - Hydra - I should check this out, as it has several tone-mapping algorithms and supports pixel mapping/morphing, so you don't necessarily have to work with a tripod (though of course you have to make compromises then). Additionally, it is available as a Lightroom plugin.
HDR PhotoStudio: HDR photo software, HDR merge & editing, BEF plug-in, realistic HDR imaging - and another software that focuses on correct color representation and not this silly pseudo-HDR look.
Plac: Parsing the Command Line the Easy Way - interesting library for parsing parameters for Python tools. Much more compact than other libraries. Parameters are automatically derived from defined functions using inspect.
Python Package Index : Baker 1.1 - and yet another alternative of a more declarative command line parser.
Aeracode :: On Django And Migrations - South core libraries may move to the Django core in the near future (possibly targeting Django 1.4). I approve. Having the basis for migrations already in the Django core would not only be helpful for migrations but also for projects that require higher dynamics in the data models - my current hack with sqldiff and some self-made code is just that: a hack. It's probably time to take a closer look at South (so far only briefly looked at it, but what I've seen I liked) and consider whether I should already now put my hack on a more powerful basis.
Mamiya announces RZ33 medium format camera - well, if I had 18,000 US dollars to burn, that would certainly be a charming way to do it. Mamiya's medium format optics are of the highest quality and the RZ series is a very solid system. Okay, the RB has even more charm, but packing so much digital technology into a mechanical device is only Leica. There have been digital backs that can be attached to the RZ for quite some time, but a completely integrated system is of course even more beautiful. Interesting that Mamiya, in times when medium format is moving more towards smaller systems (their own 6x4.5 system, Pentax with its announced digital system, Hasselblad with the Fuji cooperation H1), is once again building one of the really big ones. Great. Even if I won't have 18,000 US dollars to burn in the near to medium (and probably even distant) future ...
Oppugn.us: Where The Rants Go - Zed Shaw on Flash. Fuck, yeah.