CommuterJoy » Logbook

Need to learn how to do this.

Another one in the series of words that I didn't know but use the concept on a regular basis.

Ah, this explains why an abstract Zend_Model class doesn't exist in the way I imagined it would having poked around with AppEngine & Django.

Tufte thread about map icons.

Nice simpe explanation of 2nd, 3rd and 4th dimensional geospatial use cases.

'Outerthought is a small yet industrious software engineering company specialized in Java-based open source development with a focus on knowledge-centric content applications and ReST-based web application development." - as recommended by some people at work.

'Email is like Tetris. New email falls from the top and fills up the rows. You try to empty them. Eventually, it fills up and you lose."

The text of the FOTB08, as recommended by cisnky.

“Tools are not the idea. Tools are tools.”

I often find myself being impressed by the technical solution of projects, and it's wrong to say that's not true of other mediums - I like the production on some Girls Aloud singles, the cinematography of .. Flying Daggers mind blowing but the end product of both pretty vacuous, sometimes that's enough to satisfy.

Free mini PNG flags

'... a new model of economic production in which the creative energy of large numbers of people is coordinated"

Notes from Leadbeater, Internet & Society (presentation to British Library Strategy Seminar)

First, want meaningful opportunities to participate, contributors, at least to be offered the option to do so, more of the time. Add their bit even if the core of what they are adding to has been created by someone else.

Second, they want to find economically viable ways to share, easily. Think and work laterally.

Third, they want organisationally viable ways to collaborate, not abstract but ways to get things done – share videos, play games, create software, campaign, find friends.

Real significance = creating new and more public, open ways to share and develop knowledge.

Strategy needs to derive from a broader argument about what society will need to make the most of the Net (and so what organisations can do).

Ruby functional UI test automator

Interesting, especially colour mixing. What other simple Photoshop-like features could be modelled by a more dynamic CSS language?

A Python html/xml parser.

Spontaneous order

Playing with Google App Engine this afternoon. It's got a one-click install local development environment, one-click deployment (!), Python is fun to use, the documentation actually reflects how the thing works, and it's currently got a small but beautifully formed set of service API's (user, datastore, memcache). For small weekend projects this beats any DIY hosting arrangements. The only downer is that code.google.com keeps routing me to the Japanese documentation rather than UK.