Stuff I Like: This Rocketship Will Crash

[ http://www.miraclejones.blogspot.com/ ].

Entertaining fiction not quite of this world. You might want to use [ this ] link to get straight to the short stories. The writer also publishes books, apparently.

Miracle Jones.

Of Interest: Prey

Electronics are a hot commodity among sticky-fingered miscreants.

Prey is an application that aims to solve the problem of locating and recovering a lost asset; Prey  across works on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS, too.

[ http://preyproject.com ]

They've also taken advantage of the "freemium" pricing concept - you can create an account on their site for free, and store up to 10 reports (location, time, and more) for each of three devices.

Stuff I like: Kickstarter

This thing is an absolute goldmine of good ideas and people who exemplify this:

The idea is simple: Give entrepreneurs a venue to crowdsource capital. In return, the "backers" (not investors) will (usually) receive something from the entrepreneur. This means that the entrepreneurs retain control over their creations, would-be investors get something in return (a product pre-order, essentially)

Of particular interest are things like the Pebble Smartwatch (from the makers of the InPulse), the PrintrBot (just a really neat 3D printer), and the ScanBox (turns your smartphone into a document scanner).

And those are just things I'm interested in: design- and technology-related products. Kickstarter also has startups for art, films, fashion, games, photography, and more.

You occasionally need to trawl for the little gems... but sometimes you can't help but take notice - the Pebble, for instance, was well beyond funded in less than twenty-four hours. They made the news - they wanted a meager $100,000 in initial funding - and they've been pledged more than $10,000,000 (more like $9,000,000 after Amazon and Kickstarter take their cuts for enabling the project).

This, of course, means they need to deliver a bunch of product - but it means they suddenly have a bunch of buzz and initial profit... to jump-start a business or create something valuable.

Of Interest: Head.js @ headjs.com

Head.js is a neat concept.
In my foray into website design, I started out with HTML5 Boilerplate (more on that later). The "acceptable" ways to optimize page load times - not a huge issue for me right now, but I think it's best to develop good habits - include some strange things.

Strange as in "put all scripts right before the tag" and "minify everything" and "concatenate all external everything into single files". These are good things to do on production code, I guess, but they also have their own drawbacks. The main idea is to reduce HTTP requests and keep as much as possible cached for the end-user. If you have, say, [ Cycle ], and don't properly organize the code on your page, you can end up with some strange flashes of unstyled content (or FOUCs, for short). Those are no bueno and are killer for the end-user.

So you might consider loading all your scripts towards the top of your HTML file... but doing so (normally) stops anything else from loading. This extends what the user perceives as load time, and is thus unacceptable.

Enter head.js. The idea is that you can "load scripts in parallel but execute in order". Essentially, you can decrease load times by loading more than one script at a time while the page is loading, too - this decreases the "flashes" or wait times between pages and prevents scripts from "blocking" rendering processes.

It means that my already-slim handcrafted pages are slimmer and faster and better than before.

Or they will be once I finish implementing head.js across the board, anyway.

You can find head.js [ here ]. Neat stuff.

Stuff I Like: CSS Prefixer @ appspot.com

[ http://cssprefixer.appspot.com/ ] is so useful for me right now.

Mainly because I'm still getting into this whole "web design" thing.

It takes your CSS input, adds in any of the missing prefixes (fixing cross-browser CSS3 compatibility).

Unrelated: I'm learning how to jQuery.

Stuff I Like: Going Quantum

For the record, I should admit that if you don't like gritty electronic music, this isn't for you. I enjoy it, though:

Their channel is available [ here ].

Stuff I Like: Pixlr @ Pixlr.com

[ http://pixlr.com/ ].

Basically, one of the best alternatives I've found to editing photos. I've had the good fortune of learning Photoshop CS3, 4, and 5 at school - I don't have the liberty of running a personal copy, and I find that GIMP offers a different approach - fully featured, but dense and difficult (for me) to intuit.

Pixlr is a great alternative and a slick one, at that - especially for something (so far as I can tell) free.

Check it out.

I bet this would come in handy for chromebooks (or other glorified internet browsing devices).

(similar in some respects to picnik)

Of Interest: Rooting your Samsung Captivate [2.3.5]

I somehow bricked my phone today - it freaked me out (more than a little bit), so I ended up taking it to the AT&T service shop, where they restored it to working order, free of charge.

I then bricked it again. (This is where facepalms are appropriate...)

I then miraculously unbricked it.

In the same vein as my previous rooting (I rooted the phone within twenty-four hours of first receiving it), I set out to figure out how to do this. I also want to install a custom ROM, but that comes later.

Enter copious amounts of trawling the internet (and also being scared of breaking something while the phone is in "DOWNLOAD MODE: DO NOT TURN OFF TARGET!").

I stumbled upon this treasure and have since been happily plugging away at getting everything done:

[ http://androidforums.com/captivate-all-things-root/483646-guide-root-official-2-3-5-guide.html ].

There is something to be said about tenacity and perseverance and just how much smarter some people are than I.

I'm somewhat interested in upgrading phones, but this wondrous piece of technology will do for now.

Be advised...

[ http://m512.tk ] is no longer under my control. If you or someone you have shared this site with typically access CCWK through that address, I apologize for the inconvenience and ask that you use [ http://ccwk.co.cc ] for the time being.

I'm working on getting another free domain name, though.

EDIT: [ http://x512.tk ] is the new address.

MC

Stuff I like: TmarTn's Youtube Channel

[ http://www.youtube.com/user/TmarTn ] is someone I just discovered - I'm quite late to this party (and I haven't been posting during the time I've been working on everything for school. That being said, TmarTn is an excellent tutor when it comes to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3's multiplayer.

I'll admit that I'm absolutely terribad when it comes to the FPS sorts of games - the advice I got from friends is to watch pro gameplay (a la Major League Gaming's MW3 Gamebattles); I don't get much out of search and destroy, though.

I'm looking for ways to up my game. Do y'all have any tricks to share?

Python is haaaard.

Well, not really.

[ Python ] is a language I decided I'd sit down and learn for a project I've taken upon myself to write.

So far I'm two mostly-working modules in and it's not terribly difficult to understand what I'm doing.

A relevant citation is what python returns when the user types import this:



The Zen of Python, by Tim Peters


Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.
Flat is better than nested.
Sparse is better than dense.
Readability counts.
Special cases aren't special enough to break the rules.
Although practicality beats purity.
Errors should never pass silently.
Unless explicitly silenced.
In the face of ambiguity, refuse the temptation to guess.
There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.
Although that way may not be obvious at first unless you're Dutch.
Now is better than never.
Although never is often better than *right* now.
If the implementation is hard to explain, it's a bad idea.
If the implementation is easy to explain, it may be a good idea.
Namespaces are one honking great idea -- let's do more of those!


I've tried to keep what I'm doing to be just that: easy to explain and read and understand. I have not, however, made it easy to write or optimize (mainly because I'm not the most competent programmer out there).

The language encourages ease-of-learning and ease-of-use, something which I think is important enough to shirk Java and C as a whole.

Stuff I Like: Watchismo

[ http://www.watchismo.com ]

I could spend way too much time here just looking at all the neat watches they've got for sale.

Pricewise, you're still paying for "designer"-tier work, and it's probably a safe bet that (unless otherwise specified) these are not the chronographs you take on diving trips.

I'm also digging these: [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ]... (I mentioned Yanko Design & watches earlier.)

Not that I have a reason to wear a watch these days. More on that later.

Important: The United States' Constitution

If you're not a resident of the US of A, you're welcome to stop reading here.

[ http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.html ]

I'd like to present (what I think is) the most important part:

I. Freedom of Speech, Religion, Press; Right to Peaceably Assemble & Petition the Gov't
II. Right of the People to Bear Arms.
III. Prohibits State-mandated housing of soldiers outside of Wartime.
IV. Prohibits unreasonable search and seizure. Establishes requirement for probable cause.
V. Rights dealing with criminal charges: Grand Jury, Double Jeopardy, Due Process, Eminent Domain, May not Self-Incriminate.
VI. Rights dealing with Trials: Fair and Speedy, Jury of Peers, Notification of Accusation, Right to Confront Accuser, Right to Obtain Witnesses, Right to Retain Counsel.
VII. Right to Trial by Jury in Civil Cases
VIII. Prohibits Cruel/Unusual Punishment, Excessive Bail/Fines
IX. Rights not expressly defined by Constitution are still the People's
X. Anything Power that isn't given to the Federal Gov't is either the State's or the People's, if it's not given to the State's.

 It is critically important that you know your rights. Orwell wrote an iconic phrase: "Ignorance Is Strength". Truer words have seldom been spoken; the ignorance of the masses is all the elite require to stay in power.

Educate yourselves.

Be Privacy Conscious:

[ https://www.torproject.org/ ] and [ http://hotspotshield.com/ ] are two things you should consider.

They allow you to remain anonymous while you browse the internet, albeit at a slight cost to your connection speed (you are bouncing off of other computers, after all).

I encourage other users to be aware of exactly how the internet works - my [ privacy policy ] notifies you that the folks I've partnered with as advertisers may track your activity. Facebook does, [ too ].

I've probably mentioned this sort of thing before - but knowledge is more than half of the fight.

Also relevant: SOPA and PIPA and the imminent threat they pose.

2012: More opportunity for self-improvement.

[ http://www.codecademy.com ] and [ http://www.khanacademy.org ].

Two sites. Different intents, same purpose. One teaches code, while the other teaches subjects from mathematics to art history. Both are worth investigating, for sure. Codecademy and Khan Academy both offer self-paced lessons and well-taught curriculum.

I have two large, multi-part goals that I plan to accomplish by using these two resources:
- Quit writing sloppy code (or reusing functions unnecessarily - no more "frankencode")
- Become proficient in calculus, physics, and understanding today's economy

This, I resolve to do during this new year that we have.

If you're interested, consider also:
This list of free online classes, which has links (at the bottom of the page) to universities' OpenCourseWare - free classes to help you learn just about anything.

Stuff I like: Frozen Synapse

Words can just barely describe how much I enjoy this game.

Multiplayer strategy game. Five-second increments. Random (Procedural?) map generation. Easily accessible. Simple, utilitarian user interface. This is Frozen Synapse.

Man, do I suck at this game. It's all sorts of neat and interesting, though- rockets, shotguns, machine-gunners. Snipers, too, though I haven't seen many of those available to me. The entire game is very much a predict-what-your-enemy-will-do affair, but they're practicing the same voodoo brainmagic that you are. With several different game modes and a new map every single time you pick the game up and play, it's a pretty slick apparatus for unfreezing your synapses.

I grabbed it while it was on a Steam sale the other day for a measly $3.74. Worth every unspent penny, for sure.

Low-Content: Gentlemanly Attire

Click for larger, higher-resolution version. Courtesy of Art of Manliness

Click for larger, higher-resolution version. Courtesy of Art of Manliness.

Two rather-important things for the gentleman to know these days: how to dress and how to dress.

Of Interest: Evil Week; Related: More Laptops!

[ http://lifehacker.com/evil-week/ ]

Goodness, gracious. All sorts of slightly disturbing lifehacks- but things that are important.

I'm particularly interested in [ this ] article about bypassing OS X security- because if the guide's online and I could do it- there are many people out there who could do it (and do it better).

Related: After much deliberation (and frustration when dealing with certain software that my machine struggles to keep up with), I'm looking at new workstation-class laptops.

Particularly of interest are the Lenovo W520 and Macbook Pro 15 (or 17). I'm still wary of Apple after they decided to revoke access to about $80 of iTunes purchases, but everyone I've asked about their MBPs is absolutely pleased with their laptop - sometimes fanatically so.

I'm also wondering about relevance to the current age of graphics and gaming and processing- I work with Computer-Assisted Design software like Dassault Système's SolidWorks. When I try to render anything complex on my T400 (an excellent laptop in its own right), the lag and application hangs are barely tolerable.

I can't really justify dropping ~$2,000 on a laptop that I'm only going to use for a few years, though, so I'm trying to look ahead. If I buy one of these high-end machines right after Christmas sales, I'll probably get an excellent discount.

I'm not really sure if you can compare the Quadro 2000M (NVIDIA)  and the Radeon HD 6770M (ATI/AMD), though. Both come with high-end Intel quadcore processors (i7-something). 1920x1080 resolution on a (preferably matte) 15"+ screen is required. I cannot abide small screens.

Iunno. I'm still looking around, I guess.

Crosspost: 1984 Propaganda

Recently threw these together. 1984 is a pretty well-written book about a dystopian future (that has already been realized) . Check this post out over on visceralnadir, my artblog.

Stuff I like: "Physics simulators"

In my case, this is just a fancy name for "powder games".

Check out Powder Game. Simple design, simple simulation, easy for first-time users.
Then take a gander at The Powder Toy. The newer versions are much more complex and offer many options not seen elsewhere (in such a package, anyway). Inside are the normal powder staples- explosives, liquids, plants, virii, and the like- but it also introduces special sorts of walls and electricity. It is, in fact, capable of simulating a nuclear reactor, should you have the ingenuity to build one safely. Bonus points if you don't use "Wall".

I'd recommend the Powder Game for those not interested in installing anything (or navigating a more complex interface), and The Powder Toy for anyone who likes to tinker with physics sims.