German government: "Data protection authorities not responsible for NSA scandal". Well, that makes it easy, if as an affected party you simply declare the responsible supervisory authority as not responsible. Classic interior minister logic.
Freebase. Knowledge database number 2 - here people, places, events and all kinds of other things are collected and provided as a structured database with query via service. Just like DBPedia, I found this through the Quepy project.
wiki.dbpedia.org : About. Also interesting - here Wikipedia is searched and evaluated for structured information. So, in a way, a Wikipedia for machines is created from the Wikipedia for humans. The whole thing is then pre-packaged with a query language and a suitable web service.
Quepy: A Python framework to transform natural language questions to queries.. Cool - you can feed English questions into it and the system forms a structured query from them and then provides answers from Freebase or DBPedia. Quepy is the part that formulates the query from the natural language. So to speak, something like Wolfram Alpha if you only look at the knowledge queries.
Tweak Mode for Processing. This makes the sketch interactive while it is running - in one window the code runs with output, in the other window is the code. Drag with the mouse on numerical constants and the values change up or down and the output updates automatically accordingly. Nice idea.
You are Missing the Point of Promises. A bit old, but an interesting overview of what promises are and what they should be, how they lead out of the hell of callbacks and what the rather theoretical model behind it all has to offer. And where you can find it in JavaScript libraries and in which libraries it is rather neglected.
part-cw/lambdanative. Interesting - a cross-platform programming environment targeting Android, iOS, OSX, Linux, Windows, and BSD. Based on Gambit-C, a pretty good (and already quite long available, so also "mature") Scheme compiler.
"3 windows builds have been performed on win95. There is an as yet unidentified runtime error running the 2.6.9 images on win7. More information here will be forthcoming shortly." - [[Gcl-devel]] GCL 2.6.8 and 2.6.9 are released. Apart from the fact that I thought it was already long dead (a "few" years have passed since the release), it's funny that someone still makes builds for Windows under Windows 95 today ...
Anaconda. Hmm, had I already? No idea. It is a Python installation that comes with a stack of scientific modules (NumPy, Matplotlib, PyLab and the like) and also delivers a number of useful modules. Plus IPython with the usual tools - so notebooks and QTConsole - and a command line tool for package management. The nice thing: the installation goes into its own path, so it does not necessarily affect another Python installation.
Meet RegExpBuilder: Verbal Expressions rich, older cousin - The Changelog. I'm an old Snobol and Icon fan - and one of the features of both languages was the quite readable sublanguage for text patterns. What is usually done today with then rather compact to cryptic regular expressions. So I'm happy to come across a project that compiles the much more readable expression forms as usual in Icon into regular expressions. Ok, the goal-oriented execution in Snobol and Icon and the inherent backtracking is of course missing, so it's only syntactic. Still nice.
Trusted Computing: Federal government warns against Windows 8. As long as Microsoft does not also remove the article from the network, like the same article in the Zeit. TLDR: TCP offers more and more control over computers to people who are not the owners - and increasingly restricts the rights of the owner to protect themselves from it. Which is why the BSI warns the government (the title is somewhat misleading) against using systems that use TCP in newer versions. Whereas the NSA is very enthusiastic about the new possibilities. Which gives the whole thing even more background in the current Prism discussion.
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).
I have uploaded new pictures to Google+ and/or Flickr. Here they are - unsorted and uncommented. This is the black and white version.
I have uploaded new pictures to Google+ and/or Flickr. Here they are - unsorted and uncommented.
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.