links.lmorchard.com

August 2013

170 bookmarks saved in August 2013

Using Vim for writing Prose | Terminally Incoherent

http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/2013/06/17/using-vim-for-writing-prose
Vim is a great text editor for writing code. Anyone who claims otherwise is either an Emacs user (and you should be OK with that, because Emacs is pretty neat) or a “casual” code wrangler who sometimes dabbles in programming but knows very little of it. via Pocket
#favorites #ifttt #pocket
archive.org #24124

BearDuino: Hacking Teddy Ruxpin with Arduino | Ars Technica

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/bearduino-hacking-teddy-ruxpin-with-arduino/
The BearDuino is a hardware-hacked Teddy Ruxpin—the infamous animatronic talking story-time teddy bear unleashed in all its uncanniness on the world in the 1980s—that has been turned into a kit for use with an Arduino microcontroller, ready for would-be makers to use for good or evil.
#arduino #diy #hacks #imported:pinboard #retro #teddyruxpin
archive.org #32167

BearDuino: Hacking Teddy Ruxpin with Arduino | Ars Technica

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/07/bearduino-hacking-teddy-ruxpin-with-arduino
The BearDuino is a hardware-hacked Teddy Ruxpin—the infamous animatronic talking story-time teddy bear unleashed in all its uncanniness on the world in the 1980s—that has been turned into a kit for use with an Arduino microcontroller, ready for would-be makers to use for good or evil.
#arduino #diy #hacks #retro #teddyruxpin
archive.org #24122

Why the Star Trek Into Darkness Blu-ray is going to rip you off

http://io9.com/why-the-star-trek-into-darkness-blu-ray-is-going-to-rip-1222160195
The official Blu-ray has seven mini-featurettes. Seems kind of bare bones for such a major summer release, eh? Indeed it does, because Paramount has divvied up all the other features — including the commentary tracks with the cast and director J.J. Abrams, and several additional featurettes — have been given exclusive to the Target release, the Best Buy release, and the iTunes download. Meaning 1) if you buy the normal version you're getting less than half the special features created for the home video release, and 2) if you want all of them you're going to need to purchase at least three separate versions.
#bluray #imported:pinboard #paramount #scifi #startrek #to:fb
archive.org #24121

Should JavaScript devs build real things? | Technology Treason

http://ajfisher.me/2013/08/21/should-javascript-devs-build-real-things/
If you’re a web developer and you’re looking at playing with hardware, don’t shy away from the electronics. There are no magic bits of hardware that will give you full control of the physical world in a box – though there are plenty of attempts at this. Develop your knowledge the same way you do with the web – by reading, tinkering, playing with code and breaking stuff. Go join a hackerspace, get some learning materials, visit electronics shops, pull things apart and learn how they work.
#drones #hardware #imported:pinboard #javascript #tessel
archive.org #32168

Should JavaScript devs build real things? | Technology Treason

http://ajfisher.me/2013/08/21/should-javascript-devs-build-real-things
If you’re a web developer and you’re looking at playing with hardware, don’t shy away from the electronics. There are no magic bits of hardware that will give you full control of the physical world in a box – though there are plenty of attempts at this. Develop your knowledge the same way you do with the web – by reading, tinkering, playing with code and breaking stuff. Go join a hackerspace, get some learning materials, visit electronics shops, pull things apart and learn how they work.
#drones #hardware #javascript #tessel
archive.org #24115

Taming Macbook Pro’s Trackpad in Ubuntu 12.10 Linux « Chris Reilly

http://www.chris-reilly.org/blog/technotes/macbook-trackpad-in-ubuntu/
I’ve been working much more in Ubuntu Linux lately on my 2011 Macbook Pro, and the lack of integration for the trackpad has really been driving me crazy. The default synaptics driver does an ok job, but when it comes to things like gestures, the details make all the difference.
#drivers #imported:pinboard #macbook #tips #ubuntu
archive.org #32170

Manning Is Guilty and So Is the Army That Sent Him Overseas - The Daily Beast

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/22/manning-is-guilty-and-so-is-the-army-that-sent-him-overseas.html
Manning is no hero but the army knew he was unfit and sent him anyway. How we ended up with a known security risk guarding classified secrets. Brian Van Reet explains. Bradley Manning is not Edward Snowden and he is most definitely not a hero. Let’s get that straight, for starters. via Pocket
#favorites #ifttt #imported:pinboard #pocket
archive.org #24103

Poletown East, Detroit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poletown_East,_Detroit
Poletown East is a neighborhood area of Detroit, Michigan bordering the enclave city of Hamtramck. The area was named after the Polish immigrants who originally lived in the area. A portion of residential area known as Poletown became the Hamtramck auto assembly plant in 1981 with those residents relocated by the city of Detroit which claimed eminent domain in order to make way for an automobile plant
#detroit #imported:pinboard #poletown
archive.org #24101

How to trap a whistleblower - Salon.com

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/16/how_to_trap_a_whistleblower/
Drake’s story puts the lie to the notion that internal channels serve as anything other than a trap for unwitting whistleblowers. What is so revealing is that if Snowden had gone through internal channels, the outcome would have been worse: the United States would have charged him with espionage and he’d be in jail for, in essence, spying on his own country on behalf of the public. It should not require martyrdom for a free citizen to challenge government abuses of power. It should not require choosing one’s conscience over one’s career, citizenship, or freedom.
#espionage #government #imported:pinboard #manning #nsa #politics #snowden #to:fb #whistleblowers
archive.org #32175

How to trap a whistleblower - Salon.com

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/16/how_to_trap_a_whistleblower
Drake’s story puts the lie to the notion that internal channels serve as anything other than a trap for unwitting whistleblowers. What is so revealing is that if Snowden had gone through internal channels, the outcome would have been worse: the United States would have charged him with espionage and he’d be in jail for, in essence, spying on his own country on behalf of the public. It should not require martyrdom for a free citizen to challenge government abuses of power. It should not require choosing one’s conscience over one’s career, citizenship, or freedom.
#espionage #government #manning #nsa #politics #snowden #to:fb #whistleblowers
archive.org #24098

Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac and Windows

http://www.squared5.com/
MPEG Streamclip is a powerful free video converter, player, editor for Mac and Windows. It can play many movie files, not only MPEGs; it can convert MPEG files between muxed/demuxed formats for authoring; it can encode movies to many formats, including iPod; it can cut, trim and join movies. MPEG Streamclip can also download videos from YouTube and Google by entering the page URL.
#imported:pinboard #presentations #tools #video
archive.org #32179

Squared 5 - MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac and Windows

http://www.squared5.com
MPEG Streamclip is a powerful free video converter, player, editor for Mac and Windows. It can play many movie files, not only MPEGs; it can convert MPEG files between muxed/demuxed formats for authoring; it can encode movies to many formats, including iPod; it can cut, trim and join movies. MPEG Streamclip can also download videos from YouTube and Google by entering the page URL.
#presentations #tools #video
archive.org #24088

showterm

http://showterm.io
Termshows are purely text based. This makes them ideal for demoing instructions (as the user can copy-paste), making fail-safe "live-coding" sessions (plain text is very scalable), and sharing all your l33t terminal hacks.
#presentations #screencasts #tools
archive.org #24086

The Third Core's Revenge | Restricted Data

http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/08/16/the-third-cores-revenge/
By the end of August 1945, there had been a total of three plutonium cores created in the entire world. Everyone knows about the first two. The first was put into the Gadget and detonated at Trinity in July 1945. The second was put into the Fat Man and detonated over Nagasaki in August 1945. The third, however, has been largely overlooked. The third core was the one that was destined to be the Third Shot dropped on Japan, had there been a Third Shot. Instead, it has a different story — but it was still not a peaceful one.
#atomic #history #imported:pinboard #nuclear #physics
archive.org #32183

The Third Core's Revenge | Restricted Data

http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/08/16/the-third-cores-revenge
By the end of August 1945, there had been a total of three plutonium cores created in the entire world. Everyone knows about the first two. The first was put into the Gadget and detonated at Trinity in July 1945. The second was put into the Fat Man and detonated over Nagasaki in August 1945. The third, however, has been largely overlooked. The third core was the one that was destined to be the Third Shot dropped on Japan, had there been a Third Shot. Instead, it has a different story — but it was still not a peaceful one.
#atomic #history #nuclear #physics
archive.org #24080

An introduction to the Crafty game engine - Build New Games

http://buildnewgames.com/introduction-to-crafty/
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how Crafty makes it easy to make simple, 2D games and I’ll walk you through the process of making a very simple game from start to finish. By the end of the tutorial, you’ll know how to start making your own games from scratch using Crafty and you’ll have our example game built and running in your own development environment which will give you a great jumping-off point for future projects.
#development #games #html5 #imported:pinboard #webdev
archive.org #32189

An introduction to the Crafty game engine - Build New Games

http://buildnewgames.com/introduction-to-crafty
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how Crafty makes it easy to make simple, 2D games and I’ll walk you through the process of making a very simple game from start to finish. By the end of the tutorial, you’ll know how to start making your own games from scratch using Crafty and you’ll have our example game built and running in your own development environment which will give you a great jumping-off point for future projects.
#development #games #html5 #webdev
archive.org #24062

Case Study: Auto-Resizing HTML5 Games - HTML5 Rocks

http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/casestudies/gopherwoord-studios-resizing-html5-games/
In the summer of 2010, we created Sand Trap, a game that we entered in a competition on HTML5 games for mobile phones. But most mobile phones either displayed only part of the game or made the game too small—making it completely unplayable. So we took it upon ourselves to make the game fluidly adjust to match any resolution. After a bit of re-programming and using ideas outlined in this article, we had a game that scaled across any modern browser, whether it ran in a desktop or a mobile device.
#css #gaming #html #html5 #imported:pinboard #js #webdev
archive.org #32191

Case Study: Auto-Resizing HTML5 Games - HTML5 Rocks

http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/casestudies/gopherwoord-studios-resizing-html5-games
In the summer of 2010, we created Sand Trap, a game that we entered in a competition on HTML5 games for mobile phones. But most mobile phones either displayed only part of the game or made the game too small—making it completely unplayable. So we took it upon ourselves to make the game fluidly adjust to match any resolution. After a bit of re-programming and using ideas outlined in this article, we had a game that scaled across any modern browser, whether it ran in a desktop or a mobile device.
#css #gaming #html #html5 #js #webdev
archive.org #24056

Yet Another Arduino 110v Power Controller

http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-Another-Arduino-110v-Power-Controller?ALLSTEPS=
This Instructable shows you how to build a four-gang outlet box in which each outlet is controlled via an Arduino (or any other TTL level signals). It differs from the other relay boxes in that it uses no circuit boards and has very few parts (one chip and 4 relays).
#arduino #diy #electronics #hacks
archive.org #24055

Loper OS » MicroWriter Redux.

http://www.loper-os.org/?p=1066
I have decided to publish some of my “archaeological” work from last year on Cy Endfield’s MicroWriter. The original objective was to produce a cycle-accurate emulator. I do not currently have the free time to complete this project, so I will post my results here for anyone who might care to pick up the torch. Click on some of the images to see the full-resolution version.
#hacks #hardware #imported:pinboard #keyboards #microwriter
archive.org #24053

Chuck E. Cheese's, Silicon Valley Startup: The Origins of the Best Pizza Chain Ever - Alexis C. Madrigal - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/chuck-e-cheeses-silicon-valley-startup-the-origins-of-the-best-pizza-chain-ever/277869/
This great American franchise, and by extension, childhood itself, almost never existed. You may not know this, but Chuck E. Cheese's -- yes, the pizza place -- has its origins as firmly planted in the soil of Silicon Valley as Apple, HP, or Intel. via Pocket
#favorites #ifttt #imported:pinboard #pocket
archive.org #32196

Chuck E. Cheese's, Silicon Valley Startup: The Origins of the Best Pizza Chain Ever - Alexis C. Madrigal - The Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/chuck-e-cheeses-silicon-valley-startup-the-origins-of-the-best-pizza-chain-ever/277869
This great American franchise, and by extension, childhood itself, almost never existed. You may not know this, but Chuck E. Cheese's -- yes, the pizza place -- has its origins as firmly planted in the soil of Silicon Valley as Apple, HP, or Intel. via Pocket
#favorites #ifttt #pocket
archive.org #24047

Stellar Track (Game)

http://www.giantbomb.com/stellar-track/3030-20288/
Stellar Track was a conversion of a college mainframe Star Trek game released by Sears in 1981. It is a suitably primitive game where you have to run scans to locate enemies and starbases on a 6 x 6 galactic map. You run scans to find the enemies then must warp to their quadrant to confront them with either phasers or photon torpedoes. You use the joystick to determine the numerals of where you intend you to travel to.
#atari #gaming #imported:pinboard #odd #startrek
archive.org #32200

Stellar Track (Game)

http://www.giantbomb.com/stellar-track/3030-20288
Stellar Track was a conversion of a college mainframe Star Trek game released by Sears in 1981. It is a suitably primitive game where you have to run scans to locate enemies and starbases on a 6 x 6 galactic map. You run scans to find the enemies then must warp to their quadrant to confront them with either phasers or photon torpedoes. You use the joystick to determine the numerals of where you intend you to travel to.
#atari #gaming #odd #startrek
archive.org #24035

The Weekend Interview with Kevyn Orr: How Detroit Can Rise Again - WSJ.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324635904578642140694511474.html
What do northwest Washington, D.C., South Beach Miami and upper Manhattan have in common? Less than 50 years ago, the now vibrant communities didn't look much different from most of Detroit, says emergency manager Kevyn Orr—whom Gov. Rick Snyder tapped in March to revive the broken Motor City. via Pocket
#favorites #ifttt #imported:pinboard #pocket
archive.org #24026

codeartisan: Using HTML as the Media Type for your API

http://codeartisan.blogspot.de/2012/07/using-html-as-media-type-for-your-api.html
There is an ongoing (and interesting) discussion on the API-craft mailing list revolving around designing new media types for enabling hypermedia APIs primarily for programmatic consumption. As some folks may know, I like to use HTML as the media type for my hypermedia APIs. via Pocket
#favorites #ifttt #imported:pinboard #pocket
archive.org #24019

A Chronological Presentation of Fucks I Give., My sister asked if the events of “The Labyrinth"...

http://glamdamnit.tumblr.com/post/55713093884/my-sister-asked-if-the-events-of-the-labyrinth
Sarah is Hebrew name. So, it is common, and has been in use for thousands and thousands of years. It does not take long (for him) to find a dark haired girl named Sarah, who has a younger sibling, and who feels that she is treated unfairly by her step mother. In a fit of rage he kidnaps this other child and spirits it away to the fairy world. Perhaps this new Sarah dies in the quest to find the child, perhaps she wins her sibling back and flees.
#bowie #henson #imported:pinboard #labyrinth #stories #to:fb
archive.org #24009

Why Go Out? — Human Parts — Medium

https://medium.com/human-parts/f5c7d9d06be6
For many years I have asked myself, Why do you spend time with other people? but I never really attempted to come up with an answer. I always believed I was asking myself a rhetorical question, but this week I thought I would try and find an answer, because a question you ask yourself a thousand times eventually deserves to be answered.
#imported:pinboard #people #social #to:fb
archive.org #24008