contemporary artifacts

Category: software

  • NumPad Window Tiling for Openbox

    Using Openbox as my window manager lately has allowed for the sort of precise and reliable custom configuration that I’ve been missing after years languishing on Gnome/Unity. My latest triumph, with help from here, is a really quick and efficient poor-man’s method for tiling windows using the number pad keys. This configuration simply allows you…

  • IAmThe servier engineering lead at foursquare. Ask Me Anything. : IAmA

    IAmThe servier engineering lead at foursquare. Ask Me Anything. : IAmA

  • “…well it’s not really him, but other architects in Microsoft are not much hairy….However…”

    “…well it’s not really him, but other architects in Microsoft are not much hairy….However if we’ll normalize their hair we can get very good chances for Haskell….Want to be famous and make significant history? Grow a beard!” – Computer languages and facial hair – take two – Just code – Tamir Khason

  • Compare and Contrast: Eco versus Stephenson on Operating Systems

    In 1994, Umberto Eco wrote an essay in which he compared the Macintosh to the Catholic Church and DOS to the Protestants. “Indeed,” he says “the Macintosh is counter-reformist and has been influenced by the ratio studiorum of the Jesuits.” DOS, he says, is Calvinistic, as it “allows free interpretation of scripture, demands difficult personal…

  • Visual Wordnet

    This looks fun. Kyle Scholz has created a Visual Wordnet based on his Force Directed Graph engine written in JavaScript. Force Directed Graphs are self-organizing, visually appealing tools for representing relational data. The look is organic, because algorithms simulate the way charged particles arrange in space. They work great in user interfaces because the user…

  • Technorati testing microformats search and “Pingerati”

    Tools to aggregate content published in a decentralized manner are king. Filed under: Blogging, Web servicesOver at the Technorati Weblog, Tantek Çelik has announced two new products, Microformats Search and Pingerati. In case you’re not familiar, microformats are small bits of XML that can be used to describe things like events, product reviews, or contacts…

  • Reblog 2.0 Beta 1 released

    It took a little bit of poking around in the forum archives, and finally setting REBLOG_REFEED_ROOT_PATH in my config.xml, but my refeed install now seems to be working. A fresh update to Reblog 2.0 has been released. Be first on your block to install it from http://reblog.org/#download.This release includes a raft of enhancements, including better…

  • time-based taglines

    This Yahoo Research project is the sort of tool they use to teach time travelers and aliens like Mike Myers and Mila Jovovich about history. This begs the question: if Yahoo Research is working on products for time travelers and aliens, is that getting too far out ahead of the market? a time-based data visualization…