jerakeen.org / links

Possible contrib.humanize addition - Django developers | Google Groups

2010-01-06T13:49:10Z

To summarise: if I were you, I would give up now.

Luke Plant on English. Good advice.

The Grant-Pattishall Award

2009-11-06T16:41:19Z

The Grant-Pattishall Award is given yearly to the individual who breaks flickr.com in the most spectacular way.

Play framework

2009-10-26T11:10:07Z

Something to look at next time I want to hack on a project - this is a Java framework that looks very heavily inspired by Rails et al, looks nice for dev.

On Palm, Competition, and iTunes Sync

2009-10-05T11:44:15Z

Craig Hunter tries to complain about Palm’s approach to music sync.

You see, Palm doesn’t need the iTunes app to sync the Pre. [..] They can sync the Pre to a customer’s iTunes music library with a public, open, and documented approach that has been used by third-party developers and device makers for years. This capability was created by none other than Apple itself

I don’t think this is true. I can find no documentation of the iTunes music library format. It’s mentioned in a KB article, yes, but only alongside other iLife applications. It’s a way for Apple to decouple their iLife apps and have, say, iPhoto play music while doing slideshows.

He’s really saying “don’t use this unsupported made-up API, use THIS unsupported made-up API that happens to have been more reliable in the past”. But presenting it like it’s the Proper Way of doing things is deceptive.

It's not the scale, it's the reliability

2009-10-04T11:58:26Z

Scaling is basically an engineering problem, which can be solved with the right architecture and algorithms. Reliability is more like security: it’s a weakest-link problem and requires constant vigilance in all areas, including engineering, testing, operations, and deployment

I’m going to bookmark this and read it every week.

Automatically Add to iTunes New feature in... · Ben Ward's Scattered Mind

2009-09-29T09:01:20Z

Oooh:

the new folder structure comes with this other new folder, Automatically Add to iTunes. It’s a folder with a pre-configured folder action, such that any media file you drop in there will be instantly added to iTunes

Actually using this feature would entail quite a radical change to the way I manage music in my house. But maybe itunes 9 and its sharing features justify this change..

photosets.getPhotos comment count

2009-09-23T16:46:26Z

Paul speaks Truth.

..while adding more “extras” would reduce the number of API calls needed for a specific application, it doesn’t reduce the load on flickr’s back end systems. We’ve found it actually increases the load, as developers are more likely to request extra data they don’t need, and one heavy API request ties up more of our system resources than multiple lighter API requests.

Also, developer time. But that’s more obvious. What I like is the point that, yes, it’s annoying making n+1 calls, but putting that into one call is still going to end up as n+1 database calls at some point. Joins are Bad. Keep them explicit.

On ping times

2009-09-23T09:36:42Z

I want to drive home the point that Earth is a very large place, and no matter where you are located, most of the world’s population isn’t anywhere near you - and no amount of technology will fix problems caused by the laws of physics

OAuth and HTTP caching

2009-09-23T09:29:21Z

Every single piece of infrastructure that people are using on the Web today was developed after the authenticate headers were designed. If people have designed a scripting host in such a fashion that the information does not make it through, that is clearly either a deliberate decision on their part or the system is so clueless that you probably don’t want to use it for any security related application in any case.

The Economics of 3D Movies

2009-09-23T08:47:15Z

From the comments:

are adults going to buy tickets to Transformers 17 times? In other words, are adults a market that has enough spare time and cash to make it worth anyone’s while to pursue? And do they buy enough low-cost high-price food?

Realistically, unless we are willing to shell out the same amount of money for a movie as we are for a ballet or play, we’re probably not a market that’s worth a whole heck of a lot. As long as 3-D is putting young bums on the seats, then it’s doing its job.

Also, I like

The inability to pirate 3D is only temporary—it works fine as information, and if there were real demand for it, there would also be real demand for a 3D-capable output device [..] and then it’s just as easy to pirate as 2D. .. There’s not much market penetration in 3D output devices because hardly anyone cares, but that also sums up the market for 3D effects in theaters.

If people really wanted to watch things in 3D, we’d have had 3D TV decades ago. The technology isn’t hard.

git-osx-installer

2009-09-22T16:22:28Z

MacOS git binary installers.

The iPhone Development Story: One Year Later

2009-09-18T14:50:19Z

I’m a Mac developer, so ultimately I compare iPhone development to Mac development. Comparisons to other phones are interesting from an abstract point of view but ultimately make no difference to me. The question is not, “Which phone shall I develop for?” It’s, “Shall I develop for a phone at all?” Answer: no

I understand and agree with the argument, but me, I want to develop for mobile. I like the mobile platform. I just still can’t decide if I want to throw in with Android or stay in the nice fuzzy world of the iPhone.

Listen

2009-09-17T14:31:49Z

Huh, where did this come from? Google Labs Android app for finding, downloading and listening to podcasts. Given that 90% of all my music listening is now either through Spotify or podcasts, this is a Good Thing.

Autograph Signature Capture

2009-09-02T15:23:32Z

10.6-only software that lets you sign things using the trackpad. Yay technology.

Upgrading to Snow Leopard

2009-09-01T06:44:34Z

Useful list of things you need to do to get rails happy on Snow Leopard, particularly getting mysql to work and updating macports. Includes a very nice script for finding local gems with native parts and telling you to reinstall them.