Archive 5.6.2011 - 27.6.2011

Bistro. This is now a web framework for F#, inspired by Django (among others). Unfortunately not as lean as Scalatra or other micro-frameworks, but perhaps still worth a look.

scalatra/scalatra. This is something like Sinatra, but not for Ruby but for Scala. It has direct support for Scalatest and also offers some nice features and DSLs to quickly and simply get to the result - could be interesting especially for creating web services in Scala.

Trip to Enschede

Ein verrosteter, grauer Kleinwagen mit einem großen, schwarzen Kunststoffkopf steht in der grünen Wiese. Vier bronzene Statuen mit Fackeln auf einem Gebäude Dach Grüne Skulpturen von Menschen auf einem Dachgebäude Ein Mann in Beige und Weiß gießt Wasser in eine Bronze-Statue. Eine Sonnenstandanzeige mit einer Nadel an einer steinernen Fassade.

Yes, I know, Enschede doesn't sound great. It's not huge and somehow quite sleepy and quiet (there are coffee shops there, though not as many as in Amsterdam). But it's more than enough for a cozy afternoon - and the last time I was there was probably about 20 years ago. We liked it.

Send in Münster

Feuerwerkskörper explodieren am dunklen Nachthimmel Eine Gruppe von Menschen vor einem beleuchteten Festzelt in der Ferne. Nachtaufnahme einer Festwiese mit beleuchteten Karussell und Ständen. Viele leuchtende Feuerwerkskörper explodieren am Nachthimmel. Drei Feuerwerkskörper explodieren in der Dunkelheit am Himmel Viele Feuerwerkskörper explodieren in der Nacht. Ein Wirbel aus roten und weißen Feuerwerkskörpern leuchtet am Himmel. Viele Feuerwerkskörper explodieren in der Dunkelheit am Himmel. Ein Feuerwerk mit roten und goldenen Funken in der Nacht Verschiedene Feuerwerkskörper explodieren und leuchten am dunklen Himmel. Viele Feuerwerkskörper explodieren in der Dunkelheit über einer Stadt. Ein Feuerwerk mit vielen bunten Böller am Himmel Feuerwerk in der Dunkelheit über ein Dachgebäude Viele farbige Feuerwerkskörper explodieren am Nachthimmel. Eine Frau lächelt, vor einem beleuchteten Vergnügungspark im Hintergrund. Mann spricht vor einer Wand voller Stofftiere und Spielzeug Eine hoch augelagerte, neonbeleuchtete Achterbahn ist bei Nacht sichtbar Eine beleuchtete Jahrmärktszene mit einer großen Disco-Beschilderung und vielen Lichtern. Ein Karussell mit verschiedenen Autos und Figuren im Dunkeln

We were there in the evening - on Fridays there's always fireworks, this time we remembered to go in time. And I was pleasantly surprised how well the NEX-3 performed while photographing the fireworks (manual exposure and focus set, the screen is really helpful for roughly assessing the correct exposure time). I also made a small film to try that out.

The Larch Environment. Worth a look - a visual programming environment for Python. Interesting detail: objects are not just displayed textually, but also graphically represented via a dedicated mechanism - sounds a bit like output-recording from CLIM. Additionally, the whole thing is structured more like an interactive document - comparable to various mathematical systems (e.g., Mathematica or Maxima). Unfortunately, it's not based on the standard Python environment, but on Jython - so JVM as the runtime underneath.

I should check this out - it allows you to run AppEngine programs on your own servers that are based on Django (the AppEngine APIs are emulated using Django means). Certainly better than using the AppEngine Dev-Server directly.

DocumentClouds VisualSearch.js. Interesting JavaScript library that implements a quite powerful search field - you can search for normal texts or for facets of the data (i.e. specific fields such as title or author) with automatic completion for these fields. This is particularly interesting for document search in semi-structured data sets and the presentation in the browser is nicely done. Good compromise for search fields into which you do not just want to put simple text searches like Google, but possibly also restrictions on metadata, without the user having to know all the options for metadata by heart in their exact syntax.

Journey North: Monarch Butterfly - what actually happens in the pupa from which an insect emerges? Was a question that always fascinated me as a child - the caterpillar digests itself and forms the nutrient solution for the formation of the butterfly from individual cells.

A Visit to the Zoo

Ein Orang-Affe liegt im Gras neben einer Wasserfläche. Ein Fuchs beißt an eine Ananas auf dem Boden. Ein Bär geht auf einer Steinplatte im Zoo vorwärts. Ein Tiger geht über einen grünen Steinweg in einem Garten. Ein weißer Schwan hält eine Pfütze mit Schildkröten fest. Ein Brahmapflußnashorn steht auf einer Sandgrundfläche vor einem Gebäude. Ein Wildschwein steht in einer natürlichen Umgebung mit Erde und Pflanzen. Zwei Ringmarmosetten schlafen friedlich auf dem Rasen Ein sitzender Lemur mit auffälligem Fell auf einem Baumstamm. Ein schwarzer und weißer Pinguin schwimmt in einem Becken. Eine Frau in einem Netzspielplatz, am Geländer Ein Orang-Auf sitzt in einem natürlichen Umfeld mit Pflanzen. Eine Orang-Auschtigen-Familie ruht sich in einem Zoo Eine Orang-Aus-Familie ruht und spielt im Dschungel Ein Orang-Tamier liegt entspannt in langen Gräsern. Zwei Orang-Affen, ein junges und ein adultes Tier, stehen auf einem Baumstumpf Eine braune Feldzaunkönigin steht auf einem Sandweg. Ein Papagei mit leuchtendem Rot und Blau auf einem Baumstamm.

Juliana didn't know our zoo yet, so we went there today (it's very close to our apartment). A cozy afternoon. Many changes in the zoo that I hadn't seen yet either.

The Online Photographer: The Pentax Q System. Pentax jumps into the pool of small system cameras, but adds a twist: just as they once responded to the half-frame format with an 110 cassette system camera, they now deliver a compact system camera. Mini chip with interchangeable optics - and according to the lineup of lenses that will be available at launch, it's a bit more geared towards a fun camera. However, the 110 Pentax was also, on the one hand, a fun camera, but on the other hand, quite serious for some purposes - because at Pentax, even the fun is well crafted. Therefore, the Q-System could well be interesting for one or the other.

SourceTree | Mercurial and Git GUI for Mac OS X. That looks really good - although 45 euros is not exactly cheap. However, it can handle Git, Mercurial, and Subversion, so maybe I should take a look at it (there is a free trial version). Update: Short test by me and I really like it - you can integrate external diff tools (Changes is unfortunately only supported as a diff, not directly as a merge) and always have the same interface, regardless of which server is behind it. This takes away some of the pain of Git. Version tools are included internally, so you don't even need to have the command line versions installed. Looks really interesting.

GitHub for Mac. I'm a convinced Bitbucket user because of Mercurial, but this thing looks really good, you could easily switch to git just because of the interface. I'm often a mouse pusher and optics clicker underneath it all.

traits.js - Traits for Javascript. Interesting experiment for JavaScript - Traits offer better composition than classic classes and more structure than JavaScript's prototype-based OO - and here the features of Traits are well mapped to the existing JavaScript features (e.g., objects are mapped via closures). The disadvantage, as with all such language extensions, is that you can usually work with them yourself, but other libraries do not use them and thus the advantage in projects that heavily rely on third-party libraries is rather minimal.

Technical Discovery: Speeding up Python NumPy, Cython, and Weave. Interesting for number crunchers who don't necessarily want to switch to PyPy, but want to stay in the normal CPython world. Provides a quick comparison of NumPy, Weave, and Cython.

Circus Ponies NoteBook for iPad - Take Great Notes. Hmm, Circus Ponies NoteBook is one of the most powerful notebooks (with built-in outliner) on the Mac - but the reviews for the iPad version are not so great. And there is no decent sync - I really wonder why productivity app manufacturers don't just initially integrate the Dropbox library, because without usable sync, the apps are not really usable.

OmniOutliner for iPad. Wow! Why didn't I notice? There's now an OmniOutliner for the iPad! OmniOutliner is my preferred outliner on the Mac, among other things because it can be configured in many ways very similar to the Frontier Outliner (especially splitting a point with a simple Enter is something that surprisingly is not supported directly by many outliners - but essential for me when I want to write texts in the outliner). Unfortunately, only cumbersome iDisk import/export instead of a usable Dropbox sync.

Leos Home Page. Leo is an outliner and data organizer - that's nothing special at first. But this one is written in Python and portable (everywhere there is PyQT, at least in version 4.9, older ones also had Tkinter as a surface library). Can also be used as an IDE for Python.

Brennender Berg – Wikipedia. Highlight of Saarland. Some have Roman settlements, large ports, huge moors or gigantic ship lifts - in Saarland, a mountain has been burning for 250 years. That's something too.

Mozilla Firefox Add-on Builder and SDK - for creating extensions with HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. The Builder is a web-based IDE and the SDK provides a whole stack of APIs for programming extensions.

Firmware 04 für Sony NEX Kameras - if you have one of these cameras, go ahead, download and install. The art filters are at best funny (funny in the Hipstamatik sense), but what really rocks is the focus peak. The edges with the strongest contrast are then optically marked in the image, which enables really trouble-free manual focusing. This might not be important for AF lenses - but for those who, like me, want to use manual lenses via adapter, it's simply brilliant. After installation, I already played around with the Zeiss 50mm 1.4, which works really well. It gets really exciting when I then put the NEX-3 behind my Contax macro equipment.

Python/Harmattan - MeeGo wiki. Very interesting in connection with the N9: a complete (and they really mean it - almost all parts of the system are accessible) API for MeeGo in Python. With this, you can program the entire phone completely in Python and also publish the applications created in this way in the Ovi Store (Nokia's variant of the AppStore). Nokia already had something similar with Symbian in the form of Python S60 and the tablets under the predecessor of MeeGo, so good Python support has almost become a tradition with them.

Nokia N9 first hands-on!. Ok, it's a MeeGo phone and after Nokia's cooperation announcement with Microsoft no one really knows where MeeGo (Nokia's Linux-based phone system) will go, but the N9 is absolutely cool. And MeeGo has underneath the Linux system that was developed with the N770/N800/N810 tablets and the N900/N950 phones (N950 is the developer version).

gcc python plugin and static analyser for CPython sources. In a very strange way cool. I mean, seriously: who looks at gcc and thinks spontaneously "oh, there I should embed a Python interpreter"? Yes, I know, the answer is "the author of this plugin". Strange things some people do ...

Dirty lens article. Afraid of scratching the front lens of your camera or worried about a bit of dust or fingerprints? Read the article, check out the example pictures. Or also this article here ("scratches"? I'd rather call that "destroyed"). And next time, just keep taking photos, because often it turns out better than you fear.

Publishers file lawsuit against Tagesschau-App. Wow, the guys from the executive floors of the digitally failed publishers are really going off the deep end now. Now, the Tagesschau-App for iOS is allegedly partly to blame for the failure of their absurd and half-baked business models on the internet. How about, for once, publishers move their ass into the digital world and actually participate, instead of constantly complaining? But that would be work, better to whine and try to impose their pathetic remaining ideas on users through legal action. I, for one, find it politically scandalous that these incompetent pseudo-managers always manage to get their way through their lobby with politics and far too often get their way - and we fee-payers have our services cut because all that blows through the publishers' heads is empty wind over barren deserts.

The story of the Gömböc. About strange geometric objects and self-righting turtles. There are so many things in the world ...

LR/Blog – Export directly from Lightroom 2 to your Blog!. I didn't have this for some reason, but now I do. With this, you can export photos directly into the WordPress media library to use them in posts. Could help me in cases where I don't want to take the detour via Flickr.

A What Is Inside A Cat. A very interesting document that describes the implementation of Wraith Scheme in great detail, specifically also the implementation of parallel processes.

SparkleShare - Sharing work made easy. Badly blogged, but this looks quite promising at first glance - a simple Git server is used. Unfortunately, it seems to be based only on SSH Git, not HTTPS, at least I don't see anything about it in the docs - HTTPS would be more universal (even if passwords would then have to be stored). What is still missing is an iOS or Android client (Android is apparently in the works), but OSX is already supported. It seems that the most activity in the open-source alternatives to Dropbox is happening here - but I'm still wondering how the server behaves with massive file additions and deletions - for example, I have the current raw photos of the last few months in my Dropbox. A "raw" Git repository grows very quickly to unimaginable sizes ... (and you probably also have to do regular packs so that changes to DNG files don't blow up the repository). One small detail on the side is still important: SparkleShare uses a public IRC server for synchronization messages - so even with self-hosting, all clients are on this server and exchange their triggers via it. Should be kept in mind, because this would be a classic attack vector (and if the IRC server fails, the self-hosted system also hangs). SparkleShare is open source, so you can certainly also plug in your own IRC server here and simply use your own packages.

Healthcare reform: Dental treatments are set to become expensive. Great idea, to give one of the medical professions with the highest incomes an extra boost. Because, it doesn't matter if you don't have any teeth in your mouth, you can still whistle La Paloma. And soup is much cheaper than solid food anyway.

SONY PRS-505 Firmware-Update + Customizing - MobileRead Forums. Important for the Russification of my old PRS 505 - after that it now works completely in Russian and with Russian eBooks. And it wasn't that complicated after I found it. The Russian menus only appear after you have gone to the Locale settings once. And don't forget the unicode font so that the menus and books can be displayed at all. And generally convert books to LRF, not to ePub - for incomprehensible reasons, ePub still shows garbage when displaying Russian books. Calibre easily converts to LRF.

Bundeswehr-Dozent: Plagiator gives back his doctorate - at least he's not being as silly as the last cases (especially Koch-Mehrin with her "but everyone already knew I copied" defense). But this idea that a revoked doctorate has no effect on a lecturer's career I find quite strange ...

The Postillon explains: What can the National Cyber Defense Center do?. Awesome. Simply awesome. Next, they'll buy a computer... (I doubt it, though, probably its purchase will be canceled for budget reasons)

Honeybees Might Have Emotions | Wired Science. Pessimistic bee is pessimistic!

Skulpt. A Python implementation in JavaScript, client-side. Also in the browser. Nice hint that you shouldn't even try to crash the server, you would only stub your own toe ... (otherwise, this is probably one of the many projects "just because it can be done")

Maxima. Nice book with many examples of how to use Maxima. Since the Schockwellenreiter just wrote about Maxima again and I liked the wxMaxima interface in his post quite a bit (and unlike some other programs, it also looks good on OSX), I will probably play around with it a bit. Especially since it is much slimmer than Sage (even if it of course can do much more, as it integrates many other math packages).

JQuery Form Wizard. Interesting small plugin that processes complex forms through steps - and the routes through the form can depend on the data chosen in a previous step. Additionally, #-hacks are used to make the form steps appear in the history (in this form, this is absolutely fine in my opinion).

josevalim/elixir is a programming language for the Erlang environment and its virtual machine, which integrates into the Erlang environment and has a similar focus as Erlang. However, Elixir provides a Ruby-like syntax and some interesting extensions as well as, of course, interoperability with Erlang code (otherwise it wouldn't make sense, because Erlang is not just the rather strange language, but above all the server structure and the libraries).

HTC Desire wont be getting an official Gingerbread update. Of course, Android is so great, but device manufacturers ruin it with their useless extensions and deliver devices with too little equipment, so that new system releases stay out. If I really switch to Android, it will probably only be one that is directly supplied by Google, then at least I don't have to deal with such nonsense like Sense (or be blocked from new system releases by its forced installation). Yes, I know, I can root and rom - but that's just as much of a non-argument for me as jailbreak on iOS devices.

Tumult Hype. Interesting - I had actually expected this much earlier, a tool for creating animated presentations using only HTML5 and JavaScript. Essentially what Macromedia Director or Asymmetrix Toolbox used to be.

Interactive Console for the C Programming Language - Google Project Hosting. Sounds interesting if you want to play around with Low-Level-APIs and sometimes want to interactively crash your system.

Asciiflow - ASCII Flow Diagram Tool. Diagram. In ASCII art. With an interactive environment in JavaScript. In the web browser.

Black Stone Raiders

Ein Mann spielt Gitarre in einem schwach beleuchteten Club.

Already on Friday evening - but only uploaded today. We were at the concert of the Black Stone Raiders with Jean-Paul Bourelly on guitar, Darryl Jones (the bassist of the Rolling Stones) and Will Calhoun on drums. Quite a wild story, the picture is already typical for Bourelly, who really shouts around during the concert. Very loud, very strange in parts. Reminded me often of Jimmi Hendrix (Bourelly is also said to be like that). It was interesting, but I don't think that's my kind of music.

Green Space Maintenance

Ein Chorumanaushang in einer grünen Waldlichtung mit Flaggen. Nahaufnahme einer Frau mit Strickschädel, Schal und Mantel. Zwei Männer spielen Gitarre im Grünen im Park Eine Gruppe von Menschen spielt auf verschiedenen Trommeln im Wald Eine Gruppe von Menschen sitzt im Wald und spielt mit Trommeln. Eine junge Frau mit Elfenohren und grünen Zöpfen steht im Wald. Eine Gruppe von Musikern spielt vor einer alten Backsteinmauer im Freien.

In Münster, there was once again entertainment in the green spaces (actually already the second weekend this year), the first time for Juliana. We had fun again, my personal favorite was Ruben Grimm, really great music and brilliantly performed. I also made a small video of Ruben Grimm.

Florian (Author) thinks I might be interested in burrahobbit and he's right: persistent data structures (i.e., functional persistence) in Python, with time behavior comparable to normal data structures. So far, he has dictionaries and sets.

Bonn

Eine Bronzestatue steht vor einem Gebäude in der Fußgängerzone. Straßenmarkt mit Obst und Gemüse in Düsseldorf Eine belebte Innenstadtstraße mit alten, farbenprächtigen Gebäuden und Fußgängern. Eine Frau mit blonden Haaren trägt eine orange Jacke und blickt lächelnd in die Kamera. Tropfendes Wasser in einer Wasserspiele-Anlage Eine alte Burg mit einer Zwiebelspitze auf einem Hügel. Ein kleines, gelb-schwarzes Fachwerkhaus an einer Straße. Ein traditionelles, weiß-schwarzes Fachwerkhaus mit Fenster und Dach

Drove to Bonn with Juliana - visit to the Russian consulate for documents. Not completely successful, but we then also looked at Bad Godesberg and Bonn, also beautiful.

Recently on Flickr

Ein weißer Damm mit einer Schloffermaid aus Holz Nahaufnahme einer pinken Rose mit einzelnen Blütenknospen Ein Lagerhausgebäude mit Kränen und mehrere Boote in einem Hafenkanal. Eine Quiche mit Aprikosen, Cranberries und Zwiebeln auf einem Teller Eine graue Schaufel mit gelben Details auf einer Eisenbahnschiene. Gelbe Baumaschine mit hydraulischen Anschlägern an einem Bahnhofsgleis Eine gelbe Gleisbaufahrt mit einer Schaufel und einem Container steht auf einem Gleisbett. Eine junge Frau liegt entspannt auf einer roten Decke im Gras.

I have uploaded new pictures to Flickr. Here they are - unsorted and uncommented. Ok, one comment must be: my princess is here!

Cloud9 meets Bitbucket - Cloud9 IDEs Posterous. That's nice, because Mercurial is my preferred versioning tool and Cloud9 can now directly support it - and thus also access Bitbucket projects. It's getting more and more interesting.

Metaverse Ink Blog» Blog Archive » The 4,096 “bug”. Why OpenSim operators should set up their grids with region coordinates below (4096,4096) - the higher coordinates simply cause too many problems and it doesn't look like these problems can be easily and compatibly fixed. Since region coordinates are internal to the grid, it shouldn't be a problem if multiple grids lie in the same coordinate ranges.

Why aren't you using git-flow? - Jeff Kreeftmeijer. Sounds like a few sensible tools that make git a bit easier to use for standard cases. Of course, you can manage everything on your own, but why did you buy a computer in the first place ...