In Review: Late June, Early July

• This Isle Lounge looks like it would be fun, if you had a nice large outdoor space [NOTCOT].
• Like Miis, you can make your own Simpsons avatar [NOTCOT].
• A really nice 'wine purse', for carrying wine about. There are so many of these, and yet, so few reasons to actually employ them, unless you have a large group of oenophile friends [NOTCOT].
• Stephen O'Grady on Distributed SCM, and why this trend hasn't permeated beyond open source projects [redmonk].
• Although this was announced some time ago, it seems that RedHat has actually released the Excadel plugins as open source; it'll be interesting to see if this increases their adoption, or the adoption of JBoss frameworks like Seam [InfoQ].
• The Wheel Clock is really quite nice [NOTCOT]
• Steve Yegge's Rhino on Rails. Tuesday was a pretty crazy day, as after reading this, I got into a series of discussions with the InfoQ editorial team and Steve Yegge about whether or not to cover this, then wrote the article and had it ready for the morning. It can be a surprising amount of work [InfoQ, Steve Yegge, John Lam]. This effort also turned up TrimPath.
  
• ThinkGeek's "I'm In UR Blank...", for lolcat fans everywhere. [NOTCOT]
• Building Ubuntu backports; I've been using Feisty Fawn at the Feedroom.
• Some initial discusson how to use the 'iPhone SDK' by designing for Safari on the iPhone.
• The periodic table of storing produce sounds handy, although I've yet to print it.
• The vegetarian directory for toronto has already come in handy: it let me know that Jean's Vegetarian Kitchen had opened in our neighbourhood. Yummy! I've been once, and will definitely be returning.
• Rails tips on adding your own config, flexible application configuration, validating dates, and using ActiveRecord::Validations on non-persistent classes.
• A tail utility for Windows may come in handy.
• Green tea should ideally be brewed in water before boiling. Yet, very few kettles come with this kind of temperature control. I always wondered what asian cultures used, but couldn't find much. Turns out, i should have been looking for electric dispensing pots, not kettles.
• Lessig's next ten years.
  

Week in Review: June 10-16

Another busy week. I started at The Feedroom, which has been interesting so far. We'll see how I feel in a few months, but so far, so good. I'll be more comfortable when I have a better understanding of the domain in which we operate, and a stronger sense of the needs and requirements of the software we'll be building.

Looking through my Google Reader shared links, del.ico.us and a few others, I've saved the following:

• W3C's (ancient) description of lost-update came up in the context of Atom Publishing Protocol (APP); if you haven't looked at this before, and you do web applications and web services, you probably should.
  
• The Easy Glider looks like it'd have a lot of the potential value of the Segway, but with a radically lower cost that would make it a lot more attainable. Sure, the technology behind it is simpler, less impressive, but is that really the point? But then, isn't that where the bicycle excels?
• The Trail-Gator looks like a nice way to keep your kids 'in line' when you need to and let them explore when you don't. At least, if you and your children both cycle.
  
• The Capsule Turntable Room is stylish outdoor furniture which would look really nice in the right setting. S'probably expensive.
• This belt is really interesting. It's price is not. I could get a half-decent lens for that price.
• Acabion GTBO is yet another of those car/motorcycle hybrids that get a lot of interesting press but nobody actually buys.
• The Humanscale Daybed looks like a nice place to relax and use the laptop.
• Marc Andressen lists Killer OS X applications for 2007 and an extensive list of cheatsheets: handy.
  
• Every year or two, I feel like I want a smoker. So then I look them up, read about the Weber Bullet, determine where to buy supplies, and ... then do nothing for another two years.
• Archy looks like an interesting way to list and select Maven archetypes.
  
• I'd almost forgotten xiao xiao's stick figure combat; I was cleaning off the server downstairs and found one of these videos.
• The Whirlpool Factory Clearance Centre in Mississauga might have the blender ring we seem to have lost.
  

In Review: May 27th - June 2nd

• Information
  
  • diveintomark describes the Overton Window,
    a tool for those who wish to sway public opinion.
  
  
  • Why the US is losing its war on Cocaine (Bruce Sterling/Wired/Independent)
  
  
  • Cost of Fuel per Mile:
    cross-referencing mileage with fuel prices is a good idea.


• Software Development
  
  • Lolcode: In Ur Nutshelz; Can has Quik Reference?
  
  
  • Warehouse
    subversion browser, by Active Reload, makers of Morpheus and Lighthouse issue tracking.
  
  
  • Lighthouse issue tracking, also by Active Reload.
  
  
  • Radar describes how to find information about people online.
    
  
  
  • John R. came up with an interesting way to show his career
    history: as a timeline.
  
  
  • Raganwald quotes Bowkett:
    "If you take a job with a company that asks you questions any idiot could answer, sooner or later
    they’re going to put you on a project with some idiot who answered them."
  
  
  • WS-* is taking flak for ignoring the architecture of the web
    again.
  
  
  • Icebreaker Questions for Interviews, via Ragawald.
  
  
  • Google Gears commentary from
    Infectious Greed
    and Carnage4Life
  
  
  • New Mac image editor: Pixelmator
  
  
  • dpreview.com is hiring;
    not willing to move to London, but a fun mix of dev and photo, perhaps.
    


• Toronto / Local
  
  
  • Brickworks Farmer's Market sounds appealing; it's close.
  
  
  • BO Creative Steel:
    Custom Wrought Iron, Stainless Steel, etc; Scarborough.
  
  
  • Toronto's farmer's markets,
    from NOW magazine.
  
  
  • The Liebeskind Crystal
    at the ROM is open.


• Stuff
  
  • Yin and Yang outdoor chairs; stylish and fun.
  
  
  • WiFi Cellular Blackberry
  
  
  • The Modbook Mac Tablet
    looks interesting, although any way to make a Mac more expensive might be too much.
  
  
  • New Samsung TV
    gets great review from CNet.
  
  
  • Cute Soap Leaves via NOTCOT.
  
  
  • There was some talk of Apple discontinuing the Mac Mini;
    I hope that doesn't happen.
  
  
  • Fun 'Robot' Art from broken electronics via NOTCOT.
  
  
  • Palm's Foleo
    is mildly interesting, but it may be too little, too late.
  
  
  • This bikini vase is very cute, and eye-catching.
  
  
  • Great take-g wooden toys.

In Review: May 20-26, 2007

Again, the week in review:

• Computing, Development and the Internet
  
• Google: Efficient Power Supplies: A Google whitepaper on why power supplies are inefficient, what they're doing about it, and the possibility that we'll all eventually benefit from it.
• Rails made web frameworks so 'cool' that even Perl's got one: Catalyst [Jamie].
• Telus, like most carriers, locks down the features of their phones. Fortunately, I'm not the only one who doesn't want to live within those constraints, so I simply have to follow in the footsteps of others to use MP3 ringtones, shut off the loud camera noise and install J2ME applications [howard forums].
• BlogPulse is a nice way to research blog trending.
• Lessons from Usenet, and the internet form of the Tragedy of the Commons [Chuqui 3.0].
• OpenDNS on Google and Dell's browser error handling; is it ethical? Is Google "doing evil"?
• UMLGraph is an interesting idea, but I'd like it to be more directed. Graphs are most meaningful when they're trying to communciate something specific. I don't find UML to be the best form for documentation/reference.
• You may know most of all of these Eclipse shortcuts, but it doesn't hurt to do a quick review. If you learn something here, it may pay off.
• Coding Horror stands up for Javascript, the Lingua Franca of the Web.
• Flickr Backup seems to allow you to get a backup of the images you've promoted to Flickr. Not a bad idea in the case of catastrophic archive failure.
• I keep meaning to use WikiTravel, but I never do.
• Transmission seems to have done a good job of getting Torrents on Pierrette's macbook.
• A little bit more about the art of interface design and the uncanny valley which uses the Polar Express as an example.
  
• Stuff
• Reyka Vodka: Icelandic vodka made from glacial water and distilled using geothermal energy. Of course, unless you live in Iceland, this is probably shipped direct-to-you on plane using jet fuel, so unless you already drink imported vodka, you might be better off buying locally [NOTCOT].
• I'm interested in digital photo frames that can connect to Flickr, but I'm still not sold on either battery-operated or corded forms; I guess it has to be one or the other, but I don't have to like either tradeoff.
• Amusing "Dear Cell Phone User" cards you can deliver to loud conversers. Then again, I use my cellphone in public, so perhaps I'll get one of these instead.
• National Geographic Adventure Paper sounds good, but some reviewers seem to have troubles with the waterproofing, and the cost is very steep.
• The 'Open Design Club' sounds like an interesting idea. Always interesting to see 'open' move beyond 'open source'.
• PYG Design's "Snug" (under Furniture) looks both cute and useful. Basically, a blanket with "tentacles" that allow you to get your hands or head outside at strategic points. Allows you to be enclosed and warm, but still interact with your environment.
• This Miyake watch is stylish, but, then, I don't wear the watches I have much, so perhaps I should just given up on watches.
• I'm not sold on ultra-mobile PCs, but, frankly, it's depressing watching the once-great Palm suffer, so I hope they manage to do something really interesting.
• An amusing take on the potential meltdown of Web 2.0 [Sterling].
• myownsketch.com allows you to sketch on top of a photo from flickr; diverting mashup.
• A good rant by "Uncle Bob" on XML languages and BPEL.
• Visually interesting "inside-out" glassware protects your beverage from the heat of your hand.
• If Dell really brings something like this monitor to production, it'll be fascinating, but color me skeptical.
• Interesting and detailed coverage of the high-iso claims of recent point-and-shoot cameras. [dpreview.com]
  
• Other
• An atlas of the Universe: I know the universe is vast, but this helps to drive home how vast. Neat [Bruce Sterling].
• This Freakonomics post is an interesting read that touches on economics and behavior with a nice ending.
• An amusing, if slightly off-putting, story about ... well ... I'll let you read it.
  
• Reading the blogosphere's take on breaking up is voyeuristic, but interesting.
• NOW's 2006 guide to brunch spots seems handy.

As before, I'm surprised by the volume of this; I know I read a lot of material on the internet, but when I look at it in aggregate, it seems like more than I'd expect, considering I must save a good chunk less than what I consume.