Google Quick Definitions
From right inside the search bar.
I did not know Google could do that!
Try it out: just type what's Democracy into the main search bar on http://google.com
Now that's nice, eh?
I Just Make Things Work.
Hi! My Name is Horia Dragomir.
#learn2typewk, by @coreyhaines
Good typing skills are a must while coding, and mister Corey Haines knows this too well.
He pronounced next week to be Learn To Type Week and I think this could do everybody, even us seasoned typers, a lot of good.
Why would anyone want to type better and maybe faster? Well, let's look at me.
I spend most of my days coding, typing. I've been doing this for a while now, so I'm pretty good at it. Here's how good I am:
I can type real-real fast and quasi-typo free.
Well, not only can I type real-real fast and quasi-typo-free, but I can also type without looking at the keys.
OK, not only can I type real-real fast and quasi-typo-free without looking at the keys, but I can also do that while looking away from the monitor.
But wait, not only can I type real-real fast and quasi-typo-free without looking at the keys or monitor, but I can also have a simple conversation on the side.
That used to freak out people at work; when they'd ask me a question and I'd turn to them, answer the question and smile, typing all the while.
But enough about me. Go check out Corey's post.
Cellular Data Network on iOS4
Ah, the smell of a fresh OS!
Being on the shady side, I have to operate an Unlocked Jailbroken iPhone.
It's awesome, really; but there's always a catch. After upgrading to iPhone OS 4, I realized that I cannot set my "Mobile Internet" data.
What I mean is the tab for Cellular Data Network was gone, it had vanished!! There I was, offline in this omni-connected world.
After some thorough Googling, though, I found an awesome solution to my problem.
All you have to do is connect to some WiFi on your iPhone, go to http://www.unlockit.co.nz/ follow some simple instructions and enter your APN data in the nice form there.
Select the Email Profile option (the other one won't work) and wait.
Open the attachment from the email, confirm and you're done.
Enjoy you new connected iPhone!
Like Like Like
Facebook's like feature has caused such a deep shift if our social interaction that I can't even begin to comment on it.
I tip my hat to them.
Back in the day, you could like statuses or links, then you could like... anything on any webpage. That was awesome.
Today, Facebook has introduced a new feature: you can like comments too!
While I did, at times, manually type in "Horia Dragomir likes your comment," I think we're on a very slippery slope. Again.
Soon we're gonna be able to like the fact that someone liked a comment on a like.
Just you wait and see.
Coping With Twitter Information Overload
Especially now with the World Cup and all, I find it that there's a lot of twitter noise. By noise I mean a lot of tweets that don't bring much value to the table.
When I say "a lot," I mean a lot! I now literally sweep over the influx of tweets when I fire up my iPhone. Or I just tap the status bar.
Luckily, Twitter itself gave me a solution to my problem.
It's called Cadmus.
Cadmus is a wonderful app that indexes your twitter stream, analyses each and every tweet and then magically decides which ones are important, or valuable. I'm sure there's no NLP going on, so they're using the reactions each tweet yields. The fun part is that it only analyses your stream and your friend's reactions. So if you follow the right people, Cadmus is the best thing you could use.
It's like Twitter Trending Topics but on a very micro-scale: you!
Everyone's a Critic
Lately, everybody's pushed into being an entrepreneur.
Every fresh company is now called a start-up.
There are a plethora of blog posts, seminars, books and whatnot that get injected monthly into the mega-pool of info. They all cover start-ups or give invaluable advice about entrepreneurship.
If everyone's a businessman, if everyone's an entrepreneur, if everyone's reading on how to increase ROI, how to find a target and start a tribe, how to be a better leader, and all that hooey -- who is left to sweep the floor? Well, I mean code.
I'm all for this craze of working in small teams or working from home or for building a product instead of being a service provider... but not everybody is cut out for this. Most start-ups fail; remember?
Sadly, most entrepreneurs aren't really entrepreneurs. They're business owners, at best, and business is bad. Everything is a start-up -- while all I see is a big pile of rotten ideas executed in mediocre fashion.
I appreciate the wave of attention and support. I think most people involved in start-ups do. But this widespread acknowledgement also means that the once heroic gesture of starting up has become a plain, expected act. And it's just a matter of time before the notion of start-up gets coupled with the notion of sloppy.
A Sad Day for Science.
I was browsing through some geeky articles on Wikipedia and came across this list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pioneers_in_computer_science
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pioneers_in_computer_science
While I was pretty happy that I knew a lot of names from that list, I got pretty sad pretty fast when I checked out the Achievement Date column.
What that tells me is that there has been no pioneering in the nineties and noughties. Or at least, nobody bothered to write them down.
You could tell me that CS is a mature domain and that pioneering is hard or no longer required and I will smack you across the face next time I see you.
I did my bachelor in Computer Science, so I'm pretty bummed right now. I think one of the problems is that most innovations are carried out by companies nowadays, not by individuals. I don't mean the actual work, but the media-aided awareness that should follow.
So do we want superheroes or are we okay with teams?
Opera Mini On the iPhone is Just The First Step
Upfront disclaimer: I am a declared Opera fanboi.
It's amazing news that Opera Mini, software that somewhat replicates the functionality of Apple's Mobile Safari, made it to the iPhone Appstore.
Do you know why it's amazing?
It's not because Opera is flat out better than Safari. It's just different. It's faster, yeah. You have Opera Link, yeah. All the links from all the other apps open Safari so you still get to use Safari more. Plus, Safari still feels smoother with scrolling and such. Opera still has a long way to go.
The big thing, my beloved, is that the little guy stuck it to the big guy again. Opera got past the zealous approval process. With a mobile browser!
They showed us it can be done!
Now, back to work!
The Wordpress Plugin Packs
I came up with an idea for managing plugins via bundles.
I asked around, and the reddit.com community like the idea. I went ahead and implemented it.
I've made a very simple plugin that installs plugins listed in a text file. The text file itself has simple structure. It just needs to have plugin slugs, one per line. The other thing it has to do is have a .wpp extension.
For example, if you want to install this plugin ( http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-chrome-frame-for-wordpress/ ) all you need to do is add "google-chrome-frame-for-wordpress" on a new line in the text file.
For now, you have to edit the file by hand, but I'll be working on that. Also, you'll have to manually upload the file to the packs directory within the plugin folder.
So, the roadmap:
- Automatically generate plugin pack based on installed plugins.
- Allow plugin pack upload.
- Allow entering of full URL instead of just the slug.
Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see in this plugin.
Wordpress Plugin Packs
I've just done yet another Wordpress install.
While I love the platform, and I usually love the smell of new, I hate the time consuming process of installing plugins.
Wouldn't it be nice to have plugin packs?
One click install of multiple plugins. And you could even create your own custom packs.
I think I'll get cooking on this.
