“Shit people post on twitter” is a 10h experiment I wrote that uses the twitpic api and twitter api to pull all the photos that are posted on twitter LIVE.
It’s very entertaining and often NSFW, always fun. In fact I do sit in front of it for a while without really noticing time flying by.
Enjoy watching twitter photos posted live
arno.org has a great article on how to reduce the CPU usage in your air apps. The meat of it is essentially not using ENTER_FRAME (duh), and more interestingly dropping the framerate to once every 10 seconds (0.1) once the air application goes in the background (minimized/hidden).
Read the full article at arno.org
Here is a great concept for a CAPTCHA.
The ROTCAPTCHA (PDF, 1.4MB).
It’s a CAPTCHA based on image orientation.
The ROTCAPTCHA system requires users to adjust randomly rotated images to their upright position. This is a task most people will be familiar with given the state of early digital cameras, etc.
This system has many advantages, such as being language independent and support many input sources.
Brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that? yooouuutuuube.com
With the google TV Ad platform, learn how google makes use of the data it uses and how it’s all about the initial audience retained (%IAR).
Via the Google Blog.
JSWOOF is a pretty neat JSON parser. It’s lightweight and about a third faster than the corelib JSON encoder/decoder.
Techcrunch has a very good article about Twitter and its new position on the market of search engines.
Essentially when a news breaks out or a product is being launched, Google will take several days to aggregate the information said about it, while Twitter Search can reveal nearly instant opinions.
The barriers is also lower as a Twitter account takes a lot less maintenance than a blog account. Writing a post on Twitter can be done while on the phone and virtually takes no time.
However, because it is instant feedback, it also implies that the ‘review’ of the news, product or subject in the tweet is obviously right off the bat, and might not be polished / thought about. People could change their opinion and post again in 10 mins.
Twitter, which I used to hate, is starting to take a very important place on the net and I’m mature enough to admit it and embrace it. That said, it is still a gezillion of idiots fantasizing about their life, writing about their pets or the latest battlestar.
Mozilla Labs is working on a new project called Bespin. It’s a web-based code editor and it looks promising. It will eventually allow participants to collaborate on the same files straight from their browser.
The project is at a very early stage but it already looks solid.
It doesn’t do much at the moment but they’re confident that Bespin will eventually be highly extensible and easily accessible to users.
More info in this post and here.
The Digg Mob experiment is a flash application that follows the comment as they are posted lived on Digg, regardless of the post.
It’s freaky to see that there are comments posted every 2-3 seconds, sometimes faster.
The app is beta but it’s browsable. Each comment is shown on one line and is clickable. From there you can read the blurb about the Digg post and/or visit the site straight from Digg Mob.
Just a quick personal update. I’m in the process of going Freelance in Adelaide for Flash development and Flex development.
If you need or know someone who needs a senior Flash/Flex/AIR developer with experience, please don’t hesitate to forward my details.
I’m open for freelance and contract work, remotely or on location anywhere in Australia.
I’ve been developing and designing websites and web applications since the late 90ies and I’ve been full-time Flash-ist for 6 years. I started as a Web Designer. With experience on both sides, I manage my time efficiently and take care of a project from specifications to deployment.
Cheers
Nicolas
Today Adobe announced the launch of the Adobe Air Market Place. It’s a new website supposed to help the promotion of Adobe Air applications and to highlight them for sale.
It’s not an Apple app store, for sure, but it should help promote your Air applications out there.
Working through Screens: 100 Ideas for Envisioning Powerful, Engaging, and Productive User Experiences in Knowledge Work.
It’s not the easiest read, but it has some great insight, and hey, can’t beat a free ebook.
Thanks Ollie for this one. Obsessing is a web based processing sandbox.
Beta features will include real-time error checking, code-completion, import, export, tabs, and saving to Amazon s3.
Still in heavy beta.
Spatialkey let’s you overlay data on a map. Really cool.
The submit button is enabled/disabled automatically based on the form elements’ validations.
<mx:Form x="0" y="90" width="100%" height="100%" id="form1" creationComplete="resetForm()"> <mx:FormItem label="Email" width="100%"> <mx:TextInput width="100%" id="txtEmail" change="validateUs()" /> </mx:FormItem> <mx:FormItem label="Password" width="100%"> <mx:TextInput width="100%" id="txtPassword" displayAsPassword="true" change="validateUs()"/> </mx:FormItem> <mx:FormItem width="100%"> <mx:Button id="btnLogin" label="Login" width="85" height="25" click="loginUser()" /> </mx:FormItem> </mx:Form>
<mx:EmailValidator id="val1" source="{txtEmail}" property="text" required="true" />
<mx:StringValidator id="val2" source="{txtPassword}" property="text" required="true" minLength="2" />
private function resetForm() :void
{
btnLogin.enabled = false;
}
private function validateUs() :void
{
btnLogin.enabled = (Validator.validateAll([val1,val2]).length == 0);
}
IE6 is 7 years old!, and Wisdump has a campaign to kill the web browser that just won’t die.
Few facts about IE6:
I say let’s do it. Let’s do whatever it takes to bury that piece of c… nightmare.
Developer to pull Tris from App Store tomorrow
This is ridiculous. Tris is one of the best app for free on the iphone store. It doesn’t even have the name TETRIS and it is better than the Tetris that you have to pay for on Itunes.
They could just buy it instead of canning it. EA is really being a bully.
One thing that I really missed when moved from XP to OS X was the ability to tile windows and make use of them fullscreen.
Yes, it’s not for everyone, and it’s not for every apps but it’s damn handy when you are working on 2 or 3 different files in TextMate.
That’s where applescript black magic comes out. I found a few script, most of them were shit, except one.
bbs.macscripter.net -> use the second one, it has settings.
All you need to do is copy and paste that in SCRIPT EDITOR, save it as a script scpt in your documents folders or applications folders.
Then in Quicksilver, add a triggers to call that script. Mine is Control+` and VOILA, TextMate has wicked Tiled Windows now.
here are my settings
property horizontalSpacing : -4 — sets the horizontal spacing between windows
property verticalSpacing : -4 — sets the vertical spacing between windows
property maxRows : 1
property maxCols : 3
-4 because otherwise, there is gap, even at 0 (due to drop shadows).
Note: it doesn’t work well with Finder or Flex Builder 
I attach the script for archiving purposes and in case that site falls off the earth.
All credits go to isherman and dennis from bbs.macscripter.net for the following:
--tile windows of frontmost applications in a grid
--this script is useful for
--multiple window chatting
--working side by side of several windows of the same app
--make need to make it as a stay open application later
--for now assume that it is opened and closed per invokation
property horizontalSpacing : -4 -- sets the horizontal spacing between windows
property verticalSpacing : 0 -- sets the vertical spacing between windows
property maxRows : 1
property maxCols : 3
on run {}
local a
set userscreen to my getUserScreen()
--display dialog (getFrntApp() as string)
try
set applist to getFrntApp()
if length of applist = 0 then
return
end if
set a to item 1 of getFrntApp()
on error the error_message number the error_number
display dialog "Error: " & the error_number & ". " & the error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try
try
tileScriptable(a, userscreen)
on error the error_message number the error_number
--display dialog "Error: " & the error_number & ". " & the error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1
try
tileUnscriptable(a, userscreen)
on error the error_message number the error_number
display dialog "Error: " & the error_number & ". " & the error_message buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try
end try
end run
on tileScriptable(a, screen)
local i, c
set i to 1
tell application named a
set theWindows to every window of application a whose visible is true and floating is false and ¬
modal is false -- and miniaturized is false
set c to count theWindows
if c = 0 then
return
end if
set tiles to calTileBounds(c, screen, 1)
repeat with theWindow in theWindows
my tileScriptableWindow(a, theWindow, item i of tiles)
set i to i + 1
end repeat
end tell
end tileScriptable
on tileUnscriptable(a, screeninfo)
-- unscriptable app
local i, c
set i to 1
tell application "System Events"
set theWindows to (every window of application process a)
--set theWindows to my filterUnscriptableInvisible(theWindows)
set c to count theWindows
if c = 0 then
return
end if
--display dialog screeninfo as string giving up after 5
set tiles to my calTileBounds(c, screeninfo, 1)
repeat with theWindow in theWindows
--display dialog (class of visible of theWindow)
my tileUnScriptableWindow(a, theWindow, item i of tiles)
set i to i + 1
end repeat
end tell
end tileUnscriptable
on filterUnscriptableInvisible(ws)
-- filter out from ws windows that are docked
set newws to {}
set docklist to getNamesDocked()
--display dialog (docklist as string)
repeat with theWindow in ws
if name of theWindow is not in docklist then
set end of newws to theWindow
end if
end repeat
--display dialog (count newws)
return newws
end filterUnscriptableInvisible
on getNamesDocked()
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Dock"'s list 1
set l to name of UI elements whose subrole is "AXMinimizedWindowDockItem"
end tell
return l
end getNamesDocked
on tileScriptableWindow(a, w, bound)
tell application a
set bounds of w to bound
end tell
end tileScriptableWindow
on tileUnScriptableWindow(a, w, bound)
tell application "System Events"
--display dialog (count position of w)
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to " "
set position of w to {(item 1 of bound), (item 2 of bound)}
-- why the -5?
set size of w to {(item 3 of bound) - (item 1 of bound) - 5, ¬
(item 4 of bound) - (item 2 of bound) - 5}
--display dialog (count properties of w)
end tell
end tileUnScriptableWindow
on calTileBounds(nWindows, screen, direction)
-- return a list of lists of window bounds
-- a simple tile algo that tiles along direction (current only 1=horizontal)
local nRows, nColumns, irow, icolumn, nSpacingWidth, nSpacingHeight, nWindowWidth, nWindowHeight
set {x0, y0, availScreenWidth, availScreenHeight} to screen
set ret to {}
set nRows to (nWindows div maxCols)
if (nWindows mod maxCols) ≠ 0 then
set nRows to nRows + 1
end if
if nRows < maxRows then
set nSpacingHeight to (nRows - 1) * verticalSpacing
set nWindowHeight to (availScreenHeight - nSpacingHeight) / nRows
else
set nSpacingHeight to (maxRows - 1) * verticalSpacing
set nWindowHeight to (availScreenHeight - nSpacingHeight) / maxRows
end if
repeat with irow from 0 to nRows - 1
if nRows ≤ maxRows and irow = nRows - 1 then
set nColumns to nWindows - irow * maxCols
else
set nColumns to maxCols
end if
set nSpacingWidth to (nColumns - 1) * horizontalSpacing
set nWindowWidth to (availScreenWidth - nSpacingWidth) / nColumns
set nTop to y0 + (irow mod maxRows) * (verticalSpacing + nWindowHeight)
--display dialog "Top: " & nTop buttons {"OK"} default button 1
repeat with icolumn from 0 to nColumns - 1
set nLeft to x0 + (icolumn) * (horizontalSpacing + nWindowWidth)
set itile to {¬
nLeft, ¬
nTop, ¬
nLeft + nWindowWidth, ¬
nTop + nWindowHeight}
set end of ret to itile
--display dialog item 3 of itile as string
--set itile to {x0 + (icolumn - 1) * wgrid, y0, wgrid, hgrid}
--set item 3 of itile to ((item 1 of itile) + (item 3 of itile))
--set item 4 of itile to ((item 2 of itile) + (item 4 of itile))
end repeat
end repeat
return ret
end calTileBounds
on getFrntApp()
tell application "System Events" to set frntProc to ¬
name of every process whose frontmost is true and visible ≠ false
return frntProc
end getFrntApp
on getUserScreen()
-- size of the menubar
tell application "System Events"
set {menuBarWidth, menuBarHeight} to size of UI element 1 of application process "SystemUIServer"
--display dialog "Menubar width: " & menubarWidth & ", height: " & menubarHeight
set dockApp to (application process "Dock")
set {dockWidth, dockHeight} to size of UI element 1 of dockApp
--display dialog "Dock width: " & dockWidth & ", height: " & dockHeight
set dockPos to position of UI element 1 of dockApp
--display dialog "Dock x: " & (item 1 of dockPos) & ", y: " & (item 2 of dockPos)
end tell
-- size of the full screen
(*
{word 3 of (do shell script "defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver | grep -w Width") as number, ¬
word 3 of (do shell script "defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver | grep -w Height") as number}
*)
tell application "Finder"
set screenSize to bounds of window of desktop
set screenWidth to item 3 of screenSize
set screenHeight to item 4 of screenSize
end tell
--display dialog "Screen width: " & screenWidth & ", height: " & screenHeight
-- by default, set the available screen size to the full screen size
set availableWidth to screenWidth
set availableHeight to screenHeight - menuBarHeight
set availableX to 0
set availableY to menuBarHeight
--determine the userscreen origin and size
-- case 0: hidden dock
-- if (item 1 of dockPos < 0 or item 1 of dockPos ≥ screenHeight) then
-- no need to change anything
-- end if
-- case 1: bottom dock
if ((item 2 of dockPos) + dockHeight = screenHeight) then
set availableHeight to availableHeight - dockHeight
end if
-- case 2: left dock
if (item 1 of dockPos = 0) then
set availableWidth to availableWidth - dockWidth
set availableX to dockWidth
end if
-- case 3: right dock
if ((item 1 of dockPos) + dockWidth = screenWidth) then
set availableWidth to availableWidth - dockWidth
end if
return {availableX, availableY, availableWidth, availableHeight}
end getUserScreen
Another great use of the useless Twitter is My Tiny Jesus. No explanation as to what it does besides pumping recent Twitts.
That said, anybody using Twitter data is either looking for art or fun. So having no explanation sure fits the bill.
Twitter is not my favourite application as you must know by now, but I am often amazed by the things people come up with using their api. It’s filled with tons and tons of useless information. Brilliant for a weirdo mashup.
I will definitely have a play with the Twitter API myself once I’m done with Digg Mob Talk.
Twittearth was brilliant.
And so was Twistori.
Now be sure to check out My Tiny Jesus.
