Scott Hanselman's Wonderful Things

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• I started a new bi-weekly podcast with humor blogger and social media strategist Luvvie fromhttp://www.awesomelyluvvie.com. Our show is called Ratchet and The Geek and there’s two episodes up now:http://ratchetandthegeek.com. We are also on iTunes. Check us out.
• Do you work in a large, soul-crushing “enterprise” company? Then check out http://enterprise-html.com.
• A great tumblr for those of us who use the Git source control system.
• How much did that meeting just cost the company? Show this to your boss and get out of meetings.
• Today you can get a FREE copy of “Getting Results” on Kindle. Act fast.
• I love the idea of a tiny arcade with a Raspberry Pi.
• Have you and the kids played http://www.drawastickman.com yet? Check out Draw a Stickman EPIC on the iPad and Windows 8 Appstores.
• Article on “human wormholes” - people born at the right time to span history.
• A faithful Apple ][ in your browser.
• I gave a talk at the BUILD conference in Seattle this week and I’m very happy with how it went. If you’d like an hour of edutainment and technology with lots of references to the Cloud and JavaScript, please check out my talk.
• What happens if you compare an authentic Apple power adapter with a $2 knockoff?
• Mathematically challenging bagels.
• A software “comb-over”
• What machines will we need after the apocalypse?

Scott Hanselman

(BTW, since you *love* email you can subscribe to my blog via email here: http://feeds.hanselman.com/ScottHanselman DO IT!)

P.P.S. You know you can forward this to your friends, right?

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• Amazing single page of JavaScript that uses D3 and SVG to create an Epicyclic Gearing simulation
• A free ebook on creating Single Page Applications
• There’s a huge movement on the web towards Semantic Symbol Fonts. You want an icon or glyph and you spend all this time making PNGs of various sizes when you could be using a symbol font.
• More people should write. I’ve been saying this for years, for different reasons.
• What if a camera emphasized TIME rather than SPACE?
• A clever online animated GIF maker.
• I’m getting addicted to AirPlay with my iOS devices. You can AirPlay your computer to AppleTV or AirPlay your iPhone to your PC or use your Raspberry Pi to watch movies via AirPlay
• If you need to test your sites in Android, why not use a cloud-based Android Simulator
• Great browsing site for Wallpapers and Inspiration.
• An Introduction to Graphviz via R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” Hip Hopera
• If you aren’t using Instapaper to read these very links, you should. Why not send these stories to your Kindle?
• Fascinating article on using spaced repetition to remember more while studying.
• Michael Sarchet and I have make HUGE updates to http://smallestdotnet.com. Some folks have found it useful.
• If I may be so bold, the last few months of my Podcast have been particularly good. I don’t know why, but I’m happy with them. Check the archives and subscribe!

Scott Hanselman

(BTW, since you *love* email you can subscribe to my blog via email here: http://feeds.hanselman.com/ScottHanselman DO IT!)

P.P.S. You know you can forward this to your friends, right?

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• An interview with the world’s youngest, most charmingly oblivious hedge fund.
• Remembering Your First Computer Is For Old People. 
• “CoffeeScript is to Ruby as TypeScript is to Java/C#/C++” - Luke Hoban
• Scrollbars through history 
• Extremely detailed guide to building a Dev or Gaming PC http://tinyurl.com/falconguide   
• 12 years old but still interesting. Seven Habits of Effective Text Editing
• How to credit an xkcd-style diagram using math
• Hacking your Diabetes
• I’m still trying to make it through this. I don’t think I’m smart enough. “How to write a spelling corrector.”
• WAY too much detail but super interesting article on what happens when your headphones aren’t plugged in right.
• Ultrabooks are dead. Er, wait, no, they aren’t.
• Why did StarCraft take so long to come out?
• Amazing slidedeck on Google’s Chrome Dev Tools
• Will San Francisco survive all the tech?

Scott Hanselman

(BTW, since you *love* email you can subscribe to my blog via email here: http://feeds.hanselman.com/ScottHanselman DO IT!)

P.P.S. You know you can forward this to your friends, right?

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• via @BarrettAll - Breaking News: AT&T announces new #Apple iPhone 5 will in fact make and receive phone calls.
• A lovely Open Source library for web services, inspired by Sinatra. “Nancy 0.12 released”
• The Higgs Boson discovery has been confirmed. Even better, I learn about this from MC Hammer.
• Interesting effort to map Khan Academy videos to the South African curriculum - this is the future of education
• Dual Monitor Portal Wallpaper: http://shawnw.me/O1n8Wk via  @ShawnWildermuth
• A new design that could revolutionize Tacos as we know them.
• Remember when you could get an actual Vinyl Record in a book? Flexi-discs are still alive! Kind of.
• Twitter’s Response to Apple’s iPhone 5 Announcement. These are hilarious.
• Learn Vim by playing a Zelda-like adventure game! VIM Adventures
• Like Cosplay? There’s a whole spectrum of Cosplayers out there, including CosplayingWhileBlack.
• Here’s a great solution for bringing your MAME retro arcade in out of the garage in a spouse-friendly format. My DIY Arcade Machine Coffee Table
• Pac-Man created entirely in HTML5.
• FitText is a clever plugin with some even more clever math behind it for inflating text across browser formats.
• Speaking of FitText, SlabText and this writeup will give you a lot to think about and possibly make you feel bad for skipping Math.
• I’m often told I have a nice Home Office setup. However, I submit that Adam Elmore’s setup is insane.
• I installed this and uninstalled this, but Pokki is an attempt to bring “widgets” back to Windows with a nice App Store.
• Automatically Backup your Gmail account on a schedule with GMVault and Windows Task Scheduler, or even do it headless on a Synology.
• Desperately want a Classic Shell for your Modern Windows? 
• Deep Korean analysis of PSY’s “Gangnam Style”
• Your Colorful Visual Studio 2012 with the Color Theme Editor (VS2010 colors, too)

Scott Hanselman

(BTW, since you *love* email you can subscribe to my blog via email here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScottHanselman DO IT!)

P.P.S. You know you can forward this to your friends, right?

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• An interview with the world’s youngest, most charmingly oblivious hedge fund.
• Remembering Your First Computer Is For Old People. 
• “CoffeeScript is to Ruby as TypeScript is to Java/C#/C++” - Luke Hoban
• Scrollbars through history 
• Extremely detailed guide to building a Dev or Gaming PC http://tinyurl.com/falconguide   
• 12 years old but still interesting. Seven Habits of Effective Text Editing
• How to credit an xkcd-style diagram using math
• Hacking your Diabetes
• I’m still trying to make it through this. I don’t think I’m smart enough. “How to write a spelling corrector.”
• WAY too much detail but super interesting article on what happens when your headphones aren’t plugged in right.
• Ultrabooks are dead. Er, wait, no, they aren’t.
• Why did StarCraft take so long to come out?
• Amazing slidedeck on Google’s Chrome Dev Tools
• Will San Francisco survive all the tech?

Scott Hanselman

(BTW, since you *love* email you can subscribe to my blog via email here: http://feeds.hanselman.com/ScottHanselman DO IT!)

P.P.S. You know you can forward this to your friends, right?

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• The internet continues to impress. A *font* for making *charts.* Drink it in.
• In the “Microsoft Shill” department, this is a well-balance and interesting history lesson about what Internet Explorer did to make the web NOT suck.
• Have you heard about http://app.net? Then why not join http://ihave50dollars.com.
• A very sad comic about a Martian Lander. I challenge you not to tear up.
• HTTPie is a great way to talk to REST services from the command line.
• Watch these two polyglot nerds walk around a mall and talk a dozen languages to strangers. Awesome.
• Breathtaking view of the Milky Way from the surface of Mars
• A file that’s simultaneously a valid Windows EXE, PDF, JAR, and HTML file.
• Octavia Butler’s Essay on a World Without Racism
• Well written article explaining what Monads are as they related to Functions.
• This is a great new site on making HTML5 games…here’s how to do multiplayer
• Aaron Swartz on “Believing You Can Change.” I changed how I talked to my kids after reading this essay.
• Uncle Bob on “What is a Professional Programmer?”

Scott Hanselman

(BTW, since you *love* email you can subscribe to my blog via email here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScottHanselman DO IT!)

P.P.S. You know you can forward this to your friends, right?

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• Productivity vs. Guilt and Self-Loathing - I wrote this for a friend…ya, that’s right, a friend…
• Science Fiction author Octavia Butler’s classic essay on Racism. I personally recommend EVERY one of her books. All of them.
• Why use vi or vim as a text editor?
• I got the children a Raspberry Pi and then got a few more. I made one into a media server. It’s early, but it supports AirPlay!
• Augmented Reality is interesting but what is really keeping it from happening?
• A machine that takes bricks and turns them into a perfectly laid cobblestone road? You have to see it to believe it.
• This is what an offer letter looks like if you are paid 30M dollars a year.
• Clever solution. Get actual humans to compete over getting you a cheaper flight. 
• Do you love Stan Lee and the Marvel Universe? Familiarize yourself with Jack Kirby.
• Whatever happened to Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat? It’s been 20 years!
• Great website for keeping track of all those social APIs and whether they are down or not. Are they affecting YOUR site?
• Amazing Google Street View IN ASCII! Works in Chrome 20 or Firefox 8.
• Enough with the low contrasts sites already, it’s time for a Contrast Rebellion.
• New site that shows you how to build games in HTML5.
• Apparently there are 147 CSS named colors. Who knew? http://www.147colors.com  
• Think JavaScript can’t do hard or interesting math? Wrap your mind around this prime number visualization.
• What Keycode was that JavaScript keydown event?

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman

(BTW, since you *love* email you can subscribe to my blog via email here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScottHanselman DO IT!)

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• I saw “Prometheus” this weekend. I loved it, personally. This is a fantastic analysis (MAJOR spoilers) of the movie that I think is spot on.
• AppFail looks like a cloud version of ELMAH (a great error logging resource) and could be a useful tool to your website.
• I’m a HUGE fan of Responsive Design. Here’s a great overview of what it is and why you should care.
• Looks like git has a market share of 27.6%. Wow.
• I’ve found a new favorite Command Prompt Terminal replacement.
• Here’s the to 15 best uses of Chinese Profanity in the television show “Firefly.” 我的媽和她的瘋狂的外甥都 
• Sometimes you want to scroll stuff but you haven’t got room so you make a scrolling area. Why not add shadows for polish using only CSS? Lea Verou’s version is even better.
• LocalTest.me is super useful for testing SSL on your local machine (very clever).
• “Chosen” is a great improvement on standard select boxes that REALLY bring a level of polish to your forms. Indispensable.
• VB6 will never die.
• A fun little animation to show your kids that explains EXACTLY what “flame” is.
• I’m looking into MsgPack as a smaller alternative to JSON. Is it worth the risks?
• I’m not a Cygwin person but if I was, I’d use apt-cyg to install packages.
• The videos of all my talks from Russia are now up for viewing and downloading.
• Make your own Ethiopian spice blends at home.
• Nice “Game of Thrones” music video parody in the style of Maroon 5

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman 

(BTW, since you *love* email you can subscribe to my blog via email here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScottHanselman DO IT!)

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week.

If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• Here’s a really amazing video showing some of the new soft-body physics applied to vehicles (rather than the rag-doll physics you’ve seen applied to characters) in the new CryEngine3
• A pretty slick CSS and jQuery trick from CSS-Tricks that automatically adds the favicon next to external links. I wish it was a little easier and more drop in, though.
• This works best in Chrome, but it’s about the nicest investor deck I’ve ever seen.
• I shared the story of how I got involved in computers on my blog this week. What’s your story?
• A fascinating read on genetics and a sick child.
• Nice tool from Google to find the fastest DNS server for you.
• Long but useful article espousing the value of WebSockets. Very educational, although there’s a small ad hidden in there.
• A classic: How to be a Programmer
• This only works in the US, but it’s the first 30 minutes of a new Tron Animated Show. I’m sure you could find it if you’re outside the US. ;)

Be well, right good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman 

(BTW, since you *love* email you can subscribe to my blog via email here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScottHanselman)