Linkblog - 2.3.2013 - 26.8.2013

Here's what I've found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

PyPy.js Update: A Proof-of-Concept JIT. Braintwister. Python using PyPy on JavaScript via asm.js. With active JIT.

How To Create Your Own Chrome Extensions. I should read this more closely. I would already like to add one thing or another to Chrome.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Because it's always claimed that it's not as bad as all that, how about a comment from a real expert on the topic? "This is really bad. The surveillance state is closer than most of us think." via Schneier on Security: NSA Surveillance and Mission Creep.

What I considered worth reading during the week and did not want to link separately, collected here and uncommented.

Forge - Slightly Magic. Really practical software for Magic beginners like me. You can assemble decks, use ready-made decks, get randomized decks - and then play them against an AI. The AI isn't the strongest, but hey, I'm far from that too. It's all in Java and actually runs on Windows, OSX, and Linux alike. Nice to give your own deck a test run, especially if you don't have Magic players nearby (or they don't feel like testing your crazy creation). Oh, and it's open source too.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Pornwall: British porn filter also blocks other content. The upcoming model for Europe? What exactly distinguishes us from the various censoring and filtering dictatorships? Oh yes, we can vote every few years for who fools and lies to us.

Verfassungsschutz-Chef: Keine Hinweise auf Spähaktionen - it's probably too much to ask of the domestic intelligence agency if they would read the daily press. You can easily overlook the clues. So much happens in the world, new royal children, Formula 1, football - who should notice a Mr. Snowden among all that. You know, the one with the documents about NSA surveillance activities in Europe and especially in Germany. The one that the USA would like to have extradited because he made these clues, which are not available to the domestic intelligence agency, public.

heuermh/leap-motion-processing. Very interesting, because I can play with my LeapMotion controller using Processing - the overhead to get something done is much lower than going for native programs. Additionally, it is cross-platform.

mrzl/LeapMotionP5. And another Processing library for Leap Motion. This one seems to be more complete, with gestures and such. Worth checking out.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

What I consider worth reading during the week and did not want to link separately, collected here and uncommented.

washort/parsley. Had I mentioned this before? Doesn't matter. A PEG implementation in Python. Builds parsers for languages based on quite readable language descriptions (similar to the good old BNF).

Visiting Santorini - Hugos House of Photo Horror. Yep, vacation photos. In case anyone wondered why it was even quieter here in the last 3 weeks than it usually is in my blog. And yes, again uploaded to Koken, and not directly into the blog. It's really much simpler and faster in terms of workflow.

Review: The 2013 Ricoh GR digital V – Ming Thein | Photographer. Sounds very promising. Right now, the Coolpix A is the star, but this one also sounds pretty good. I'm still considering whether I should get a real compact camera instead of the MFT with the 14mm lens - just because it's smaller. A Ricoh would suit me well, especially since I still use the GRD II and am familiar with the user interface.

lihaoyi/macropy · GitHub. I've been a fan of syntactic macros since my Lisp days. Sure, metaprogramming in Python takes you a step forward, but real macros are just something special. So I should definitely check this out.

Getting Started with Android Studio | Android Developers. Oh, Google sees the light and offers an alternative to Eclipse as an IDE for Android programming. And then IntelliJ of all things, which I already work with. Nice!

Updated Cocoa Contrib. Wow - CCL now has completely new (and significantly expanded) capabilities for OSX GUI programming. This is growing slowly.

Here's what I found interesting this week, collected and uncommented:

davazp/jscl · GitHub. Wow, impressive. A Common Lisp that runs as a REPL in the browser. What's exciting about it is how complete it is - after a (defun anton (a b) (+ a b)) I directly did a (disassemble #'anton) without any problems and it gave me the generated JavaScript code. Other constructs from the CL world also work smoothly. Definitely worth keeping an eye on, could become exciting (e.g. a JSCL on Node.js?).

Here's what I considered worth reading over the course of the week and didn't want to link separately, collected and uncommented.

What I consider worth reading over the course of the week and did not want to link separately, collected here and uncommented.

Chathead Basics « Piwaï.info. If you're wondering how these Chatheads in the Facebook Messenger work, here's the explanation. There is a special permission that allows you to draw over other windows.

What I considered worth reading during the week and did not want to link separately, collected here and uncommented.

3D Printing with Nylon 618 filament in Tie-Dye colours. Very cool. I think that's something I could try when my printer is here. Just pre-color the filament and then print with it.

LiveCode Community Edition Overview | RunRev. Yep, it's out. GPL3 version of LiveCode. And yes, all target systems are included - OSX, Windows, Linux, Android and iOS. And they've streamlined it too, the DMG is significantly smaller than the one from the last release (ok, many of the missing things are things that belong to the commercial parts, but still). And it really looks nice, sure, the language is wild, but hey, it's a much better GUI Builder than anything currently delivered with Android tools.

lein-droid Wiki. I'm playing around with alternatives to raw Android Java programming again, and this could be an interesting candidate as you can play with Clojure.

Here's what I found worth reading this week, collected and uncommented:

Tiny Tiny RSS Tutorial – Part 1: Installation & Configuration › Michael Sonntag. And for those who want to take a look at Tiny Tiny RSS, here is a nice description of the installation and usage, including integration into a blog and Android app.

Tiny Tiny RSS is my current favorite RSS feed reader after the Google Reader debacle, after I also looked into Feedly and others. The problem: I want to access the same database on my desktop and mobile device. And cross-platform. But unfortunately, all RSS readers are now going in different directions. Some go with Feedly, others with Feedbin, and yet others throw in the towel (like the Goodnews programmer). So I need something I can somewhat trust - and what could be closer than self-hosted open source software? Tiny-Tiny-RSS even has an official Android app, which is also open source (but can also be purchased as a paid version to support it). For iOS, I'll use the mobile interface for now, as I don't have an active iOS device in use at the moment, and on the desktop, I use the web environment, which is surprisingly usable. Let's see how it all works after some longer operation, but it looks good for now.

Black and White - Hugos House of Photo Horror. I've been playing around with Koken again and I still like it quite a bit. I have housed my black and white collection there as a test album first and now as a permanent fixture, because updates are much easier there than in my main blog. At the moment I'm still thinking about how to cleverly integrate this into my main blog, but for now it will happen via links.

Jeffrey’s “Export to Google Drive” Lightroom Plugin. Hmm, let's see - I'm currently using Picasa to reach G+, but GDrive might also be an option. Especially since I can also get the pictures back directly as I uploaded them. In the end, it's the question of which way is faster.

twotoasters/AndrOAuth · GitHub. Check it out, Koken uses OAuth for API security and this has been quite tricky on Android so far. The linked project should make it much easier.

Sim-on-a-Stick. If you want to try OpenSim, this is probably the easiest way with ready-to-use installations for a USB stick.

Netzpolitische Hundstage in der SPD | Lummaland. Reading command. Because the man is right. And the cowards in the SPD should be ashamed. Majority in the Bundesrat but not enough guts to at least get a decent opposition policy, instead resigned cuddle course with Merkel? Ridiculous. And Embarrassing. And definitely not a way for a successful election campaign. And that the entry comes from the NRW SPD, which previously opened its mouth so wide, is ridiculous.

LiveCode Markdown converter. Don't ask. Just playing around.

OX Documents: Online-Office-Suite als Open Source - Golem.de. Another candidate worth taking a look at - especially since the OX App Suite can almost completely replace Google Apps. However, I would then have to handle spam filtering myself (or simply route it through Google and have it sent directly to me, as there was an option for that). It somewhat conflicts with what Owncloud does, so I'll have to see which of the two services is actually more interesting for me. But maybe file syncing will also come to OX App Suite soon.

Robot-Will/Stino · GitHub. Since I like to use Sublime Text 2, I should check this out - it allows you to program Arduino under ST2. However, I don't know how well it works with Digisparks, which have different programmers and compilers.

EverythingServerUbuntu - Ryzom - Ryzom Core Development Site. I should take a closer look at this - at the moment I'm playing a bit of Ryzom, just for relaxation on the weekend, and that has been open source for some time now - you can set up your own server with your own little world. It's not connected to the main system as far as I can see (which is a shame, it would be funny to jump with an avatar from there into my own little world), but still maybe something to play around with. Even if it's probably more complex than OpenSim to build something like Lilliput inside it.

This time only as a link to my photo site (built with Koken), instead of directly here: Vienna Calling. At the moment, I'm still undecided, it could be that I also select a few pictures and upload them here, so that it stays a bit more colorful here. There are still a few questions that I have with the Koken themes and a few inconsistencies. Maybe I will deal with the themes myself and adapt them more to my requirements, but for now it works quite well - the workflow of Lightroom is hardly to be surpassed.

Newsblur is one of the candidates to replace Google Reader that can also be self-hosted. However, it has somewhat broader requirements. Still worth a look? But first, let's wait and see what happens in the reader app market, because without an Android and OSX app that syncs with it, it's not very interesting for me.

Connecting Arduino to Mathematica on Mac OS X with SerialIO using the SerialIO package under OSX. Sounds interesting for data collection and preparation from sensors.

embedXcode - Home. If you don't like the Arduino-IDE and prefer a larger IDE and work on a Mac, someone has integrated the Arduino toolchain into XCode.

Pushing the Limits of Self-Programming Artificial Intelligence | Primary Objects. Some people really have very strange hobbies.

Disinformation: Wall in Captivity - taz.de. So I don't forget and can look it up later, linked here again. Background information on the current demolition action at the East Side Gallery - and somewhat more detailed than previously in the press or from the official authorities in Berlin.

Getting Started with nRF24L01+ on Arduino | maniacbug. Wireless connections for Arduinos that do not directly involve TCP and the Internet - just simple data transfer via 2.4GHz radio. Bookmarked for later.

GT.M. And since I'm at it, here's the third open source Mumps implementation. This one was once commercial and became free in 2000. So it has quite a few years under its belt and is not some hobby project by some enthusiasts, but is indeed commercially operated (e.g. for licenses on systems other than Linux and OpenVMS). If you read through the description, they've thrown the whole collection of buzzwords at the tool. Ok, for a language that simply maps its database as global variables into the programs, STM is so to speak already built-in. Even if that might be a bit of a cheat.