Tag Archives: miscellany

Tech Links – May 29

Three open-source Python shells.

Don’t catch Exceptions. I must have known why I always do rescue => boom to catch exceptions. The reason is that Ruby makes that shorthand for rescue StandardError => boom. Nifty.

libgrader: find quality gems for your next project. It knows about two of my favorites gems: pericope and titleize. (Unlike awesome-ruby.)

Sequel: the database toolkit for Ruby. (Here’s an introductory screencast at RubyTapas.) I keep thinking I should do something with sqlite. Well, really I think I should do something with a database, but I’d rather put it on Drobox than try to figure out how to have a mysql server out on the internet and not regret it.

The reason? Once you’ve used a join you’ll never be content using a spreadsheet for a database. Here’s a quick introduction to joins.

Mac audio graphing tool FuzzMeasure updated. I didn’t remember that it had a name of its own. I thought it was just SuperMegaUltraGroovy. Anyway, every time I look at this I think to myself about the software I wrote in the mid-90s and all the cool graphs I’d like to have implemented.

Tech Links

LinuxUser (UK): Create a NAS box from spare parts.

Ars: Intel’s Broadwell mini-PC. I love the form factor. But then, I’ve owned three Mac Minis.

I keep thinking I should learn the R language. Of course, I used to think that about GnuPlot.

HowToForge: Installing Git and Using GitHub on Ubuntu.

GSoC: SciRuby. There’s a program I’d love to rewrite 20 years later using a high-level language to do the Fast Fourier Transforms. I’m not sure what I’d use for the GUI.

Web UpD8: Install the official Telegram client for Linux.

 

 

 

 

Tab Sweep

I’ve always found CSS all but impossible to debug, so I use as little of it as possible. Here’s a tool that can help: csscss.

I’m so out of touch with media formats, I was still using ffmpeg instead of avconv. If you’re a clueless n00b like me, there are tools that just do it for you. One of them is FF Multi Converter.

This is just insanely cool. Watch the video and make a HyperLapse.

For the past several years, I’ve been developing and using (and developing some more) my own digital photography workflow and it kind of stinks. I’m intrigued by the idea of replacing it with something like Darktable. (Kudus: iLoveUbuntu.)

Years ago, I wrote part of what became Smaart. The part I liked best was the audio spectrogram feature. Today, I see there’s Spek, but it appears not to have the feature I was so pleased with myself for putting in Smaart. It makes me wonder if I could actually, for the first time in 2 decades, make a useful contribution to an FOSS project.

And finally, as a treat, watch this interview with Margaret Thatcher that Ann Althouse posted: