Monthly Archives: October 2009

links for 2009-10-17

  • Here is why
  • Your spam solution will not work, here is why.
  • Photologue is a reusable Django application that provides powerful image management and manipulation functionality as well as a complete photo gallery solution. The 2.x release adds more effects, including reflections and transparent watermarks. It also introduces the ImageModel abstract base class allowing developers to easily integrated the Photologue core functionality into their own models. Photologue embraces the Django admin and smoothly integrates with photo thumbnails and effect previews.
  • Stockphoto is a photogallery application written using the Django web application framework. It is designed to integrate into existing dynamic websites built with Django, to be easy to install, and to have few prerequisites, both in terms of third-party modules and in terms of expectations about site layout. It attempts to make maximum use of built-in Django facilities (authentication, admin pages, generic views) as much as possible in order to provide the simplest possible photogallery application while providing a reasonably full set of features.

    There are quite probably better photogallery applications out there, but the best one I looked at also had a lot of requirements and was complex to install. Stockphoto has limited ambitions: it is not supposed to be a Flickr replacement, but just an easy way to add a photogallery section to a website.

  • A photo gallery application plug-in for the Django web framework with flickr integration.
    Features
    * Djangollery allows define photos uploading local files
    * Djangollery allows define photos from Flickr public images
    * Djangollery allows define galleries
    * Djangollery is easy to use
    * Djangollery comes with elegant default template.

    Requirements
    * Django 1.1
    * Python PIL library

  • ContentFlow is a flexible CoverflowTM / ImageFlow like flow written in javascript, which can handle any kind of content. It supports all new and old major and not so major browsers. It's distributed under the MIT License.

    With ContentFlow it is now possible to have any number of flows within one web-page. Each separately configurable, satisfying different visual needs.

    * It's easy to implement and to extend.
    * It can auto generate reflections (clientside)!
    * You can add and remove content items on the fly
    * You are free to define your own methods for displaying content and interacting with it.
    * You can control all aspects of the flow without loosing the ease of use.

    ContentFlow can handle different kinds of control, like keyboard and mouse, and can be used with and without a reflection.

  • Supports:

    * photos
    * auto-thumbnailing
    * galleries
    * zip upload
    * tagging
    * various storage backends including Amazon S3
    * internationalization

    This project makes use of several existing Django modules and packages them up for you as a Django project.

  • Python Photographer's Log is a blog and gallery app for photographers who need a clean environment for displaying their images. It is written in Python using the Django web framework.

links for 2009-10-14

  • FreeCAD will be a general purpose 3D CAD modeler. The development is completely Open Source (GPL & LGPL License). FreeCAD is aimed directly at mechanical engineering and product design but also fits in a wider range of uses around engineering, such as architecture or other engineering specialties.

    FreeCAD features tools similar to Catia, SolidWorks or Solid Edge, and therefore also falls into the category of MCAD, PLM, CAx and CAE. It will be a feature based parametric modeler with a modular software architecture which makes it easy to provide additional functionality without modifying the core system.

  • Rotates images and is gpl – so perhaps good fodder.
  • Context Free, but written in JS and canvas.
  • Processing.js is an open programming language for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions for the web without using Flash or Java applets. Processing.js uses Javascript to draw shapes and manipulate images on the HTML5 Canvas element. The code is light-weight, simple to learn and makes an ideal tool for visualizing data, creating user-interfaces and developing web-based games.

    Processing.js runs in FireFox, Safari, Opera, Chrome and will also work with Internet Explorer, using Explorer Canvas.

    The Processing language was created by Ben Fry and Casey Reas. It evolved from ideas explored in the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT Media Lab and was originally intended to be used in a Java run-time environment. In the Summer of 2008, John Resig ported the 2D context of Processing to Javascript for use in web pages. Much like the native language, Processing.js is a community driven project, and continues to grow as browser technology advances.

  • Short version: Microsoft (who now owns Danger, the makers of the Sidekick) decided to migrate data from one storage network to another. That migration failed, and corrupted the data. Okay, annoying, so restore from the backup, right?

    Wrong. No backups. None. Zero. El zilcho.

    So millions of Sidekick users awake this past weekend to find that all of their data are gone — or, in the best scenario, the only data they have are the most recent stuff on the Sidekick itself, and if they let the device power down, they'll lose that, too.

    You can't say I didn't warn you.

Ikea Hack – Raised TV Panel

Ikea Benno On Grundtal Legs

I mounted the Benno TV Bench with Panel on Grundtal Legs. We didn’t want to block a vent during the winter, and we also like the look of a tv floating higher in the air. I also removed the Benno’s apron so the leather cube poufs would fit underneath.

The 17″ Grundtal legs are done in a W so they fit the shallower Benno, and they are screwed to a piece of ply attached to the Benno’s supports. It is very stable so far and I’m quite satisfied.

Yes, I was going to build this all myself, but $140 for the Benno plus $50 for the legs is just wicked easy.

links for 2009-10-10

  • This page showcases all the fonts that Font Squirrel offers for use with @font-face CSS embedding. Though we try very hard to verify compliance with license agreements, please read them yourself before using. Font Squirrel makes no guarantee that our interpretation of each license is correct (since most have no @font-face clause). Please tell us if we are stepping on your toes.
  • Without much conscious thought, most of us have built identities across the web. We've filled in profiles, uploaded photos, videos, reviews and bookmarks. The Ident Engine uses semantic web API’s to bring together these web footprints.
    Demos
    Identity Discovery

    Uses Google's Social Graph API with data from profiles to build the list of identities.
    Profile Discovery

    Creates a collection of profiles from across the web using identity search
    Combined Profile

    Combines the profile collection together to find the most complete description of an individual
    Lifestream

    Builds a lifestream by combining identity search with calls to API endpoints.
    Photo Picker

    Presents all the profile photo's of an individual to create a simple photo picker UI.

links for 2009-10-08

  • Hello Health is the innovative new primary care practice platform that helps doctors communicate, document, and transact with their patients in person and online. A Hello Health practice cuts in half the overhead found in a traditional doctor’s practice simply because the platform streamlines processes and eliminates the need for receptionists, administration and nursing staff.
  • Fotopedia is breathing new life into photos by building a photo encyclopedia that lets photographers and photo enthusiasts collaborate and enrich images to be useful for the whole world wide web.
    Fotopedia and its community are building:

    * an encyclopedia for humanity;
    * the largest photo distribution network, which will provide an effective avenue for photographers to promote and monetize their premium content;
    * a consumer-friendly interface that makes it easy for anyone to create a page about subjects that matter to them – from butterflies to the Taj Mahal.

Why the Business Hates the Software Developers

Inspired by “Why I Hate Frameworks” “Why I Hate Frameworks”

So I wanted a custom spice rack, one that would really help my restaurant, but I didn’t want to build it myself.  I’m no carpenter.  I hired one though.
“Can you build me a spice rack? Here’s what I need – “
“Just a sec,” he interrupted. “I’m going to start building some hammers while you talk.”
“Don’t you already have some hammers?”
“Sure, but those were for past projects.  There’s better ways to build hammers these days.”
“Here – I have a hammer already.  It got left behind by the guy who hung the pictures in the restaurant.  Use this.”
“SIR! I don’t think that using a framing hammer is going to help us develop this spicerack.  Please!”

links for 2009-10-03

  • Chicago Boss is fully asynchronous, using one single process to handle hundreds or thousands of simultaneous requests, and thus it solves the classic c10k problem. All other web frameworks will break down and cry if you ask them to process more than a few dozen simultaneous requests on a single machine. Chicago Boss is built with Erlang, the same platform used by banks and telecoms to achieve unprecendented scalability and (no exaggeration) 99.9999999% reliability.

How could you hack open subtitles?

The Miro open subtitles project just got funded at kickstarter.

The promise is an open source of subtitles for video. Now the subtitles won’t be restricted to the people who made the video. They are anticipating use for the hearing impaired and for translations.  Why am I excited?

The project is also designed to make this decentralized, so that it can be implemented by other video players, and so that users can subscribe to multiple sites of subtitles.  That’s the interesting bit!

I’m seeing subtitles as commentary, subtitles with contrasting dialogue, snarky notes about continuity issues and product placement, or political connections…  Imagine the amazing ShiftSpace web experience 1, or Google’s Sidewiki, but for video.

It’s just cream that the project was funded by tiny donations from lots of strangers 2.

  1. I know Mushon through Eyebeam and Add-Art   (back)
  2. I’m one of them   (back)