crayon physics deluxe - tablet game

I definitely wanna check out this tablet game: crayon physics deluxe. You draw objects on the screen and they immediately become part of the physics model and interact with already existing objects.

Knol - google's social knowledge base

Google launched Knol, a social knowledge base similar to wikipedia. The idea looks very promising so I immediately jumped in to check it out.

The interface is (as usual with google) very simple and straightforward, it is very easy to write your own article in a minute.

pros

• great idea
• simple (usable, easy to learn, easy to use)
• google-integrated
• colaboration (each article has clearly defined owners, authors and reviewers)
• licensable (for now you can choose from (cc-attribution, cc-attrib-non-commercial, all-rights-reserved)
• revisioning (versioning)
• commenting
• article summary
• reviews (you can post reviews on anything and link to your review will show up on the original page)
• referencing
• adsense integration

cons

• no tagging? ...oh wait, there's an alternative titles field, but I think this is a bit confusing, the tagging should work more like what we're used to from other google products, e.g. mail, notebook...
• too long and confusing urls (e.g.http://knol.google.com/k/jazzy-junggle/tagging-best-practice/8d1khziecqie/2#edit - maybe its just me and there's a way to view the article url, but i believe the addressing of the articles should be more clear to the user and/or simpler)
• lack of semantics (defining meta tags, relations to other articles, etc.)
• limited presentation options (styling, css, page layout, templating...)

I think Knol is on the right track but still needs a lot of work to become the only and ultimate knowledge base.

Python basics

Comments

• start with (#)

Types

• numeric (int, float, long, complex)
• iterator
• sequence (str, unicode, list, tuple, buffer, xrange)
• set
• map
• file

Numbers

• integer=7, long=9999999999L, float=1.34, complex=0+1j

Strings

• 'single quotes', "double quotes", r'raw\n', u'unicode\u0020', 'multi\
line (end of lines must be escaped)', '''strings in triple quotes can span
multiple
lines without escaping newlines'''
• can be concatenated ('dirty ' + 'monkey') and repeated (4 * 'lol')
• literals next to each other are automatically concatenated ('you' 'tube')
• can be sliced (word[4], word[0:6], word[1:], word[0:-1])
• cannot be changed (unmutable)
• ()

Vim cheatsheet

modes

• normal (command) - enter editor commands (default mode)
• visual - like normal, but movement commands extend highlighted area
• select - typing a printable character deletes the selection and starts insert mode
• insert - everything you type is inserted in the buffer until you press Esc
• cmdline - you can enter one line of command at the bottom of the window
• ex - like command line, but after entering a command you remain in the ex mode

commands

quit

without writing changes :q!/ZQ, write changes & quit :wq/:x/ZZ

file

read :e {file}, write :w {file}

cursor

j/k/h/l, word w/b, WORD W/B, word-end e/ge

to first/firstnonempty/last char in line 0/^/$, to first/last line in window H/L

insert

before/at cursor i/a, at line beginning/end I/A, new line below/above o/O

complete

word C-n/C-p, line C-xC-l

delete

d, char at/before cursor x/X, line dd

undo

u, redo C-r, undo changes to current line U

search

pattern forward/backward //?, word under cursor forward/backward */#, next/prev match n/N

char fF, till tT, match bracket %

repeat command

.

Google App Engine

Google App Engine is a free webapp hosting service that allows you to create and run web applications on google's infrastructure.

Features

• free
• hosted on google's infrastructure
• easy to get started
• 500 mb of space
• Python support (more languages to come)
• enough CPU and bandwidth for 5 million pageviews/month
• Datastores as data persistence layer (limited SQL databases)
• user authentication via Google's Users API (Google accounts)
• Django web framework with templating support

More info

• Developing and deploying an application on Google App Engine - video tutorial

Tagging best practices

Tagging (folksonomy) is a popular and powerful way of organizing stuff on the web. But as your tagbase grows, it itself needs to get organized...

1. lowercase (use google, css, zend framework instead Google, CSS, Zend Framework, even with names)
2. english (describe the object in english words, transcribe all non-english characters and punctuation to alphanumeric characters [a-z0-9], tags like 2006, 90s are ok)
3. simple (don't use multi-word tags unless it's a name or a well established phrase)
4. singular (use map, monkey, video instead maps, monkeys, videos)
5. noun (use drawing, meditation, design instead draw, meditate, designed)
6. system (build a personal framework, a set of tags based on your areas of interest, level of abstraction, word preference, etc. and stick to it. Ask yourself what's the most appropriate set of tags for your purpose. Remember, whatever object you are tagging, there are possibly millions of tags applicable. Pick only the tags that fit your paradigm)
7. balance (when tagging an item, choose the most relevant tags from your set. If you are tagging article, ask what is it about, not what's mentioned in it. If you create too few or too many relations, your system becomes ineffective)
8. action tags (one thing that works for me are action tags like 2check, 2read, 2explore, 2print...)
9. consistency (whatever rules you pick, stick to them)
10. reuse (try to reuse words you have already in your tag base before adding new word. Avoid having multiple synonyms with same meaning)

If you are not sure what tags to use, ask yourself "What keywords would I enter into search engine when searching for item like this?".

Web 2008 popularity

Here is a scheme i created as a result of my website popularity research:

Top 10 productivity tools

Here is my current list of tools that I use on a daily basis:

1. google (search engine)
2. thinkpad X41 (tablet laptop)
3. firefox (web browser)
4. google mail (gmail, mail client)
5. google calendar (calendar)
6. google reader (feed reader)
7. google notebook (note taking + organizing)
8. jedit (text editor)
9. ubuntu (operation system, open source)
10. blank sheet of paper + pencil

irregular flow (-4khz)

irregular flow from 4khz on Vimeo.

Top ten blogs of 2008

As a part of my mission to map the web, I did some research of blog popularity. Here are the top 10 most visited blogs according to technorati:

1. huffington post - politics
2. gizmodo - tech & gadgets
3. TechCrunch - web startups
4. engadget - gadgets
5. boing boing - hodge-podge
6. lifehacker - productivity tools & tips
7. ars technica - tech news & analysis
8. icanhascheezburger - lolcat imageboard
9. Mashable - social networking
10. SMASHING - web, design

The most popular subjects are politics, tech, web and social networking.

How I organized my music library

This is how i organized my music library (mp3 files):

1. i deleted thousands of tracks and albums that don't inspire me/are not to my taste/make me feel bad/...
2. i renamed all files to the following format: %artist - %title.mp3
3. i moved all files to single folder named music
4. i used utils like mp3renamer, musicbrainz tagger, etc to fetch tags from the internet and tag all the files
5. now whenever i listen to music in amarok, i add tags to tracks i listen to. i use the comment tag to store my own tags (e.g. meditative, relaxing, flute, dreamy, ambient)

I really love the way my music is organized now. I can't wait for filesystem which will native tagging support (maybe future version of ubuntu?)

Linux glossary

svn

tool to manage source code changes (version control system)

xmodmap

utility for modifying keymaps and pointer button mappings in X

bash

Bourne Again SHell, a command line environment

cron

program scheduler

daemon

service

lilo

LInux LOader, boot manager

grub

boot manager

binaries

executable programs

CLI

command line interface

gzip

file compression utility

grep

regular expression based line filter

init

first proces run after OS load

kernel

core of the os, interacts with hw, manages resources

MBR

Master Boot Record, first physical sector on a bootable disk drive

mount

identify disk drive to the file system before use

NFS

Network File System, filesystem that allows sharing of files across the network

open-source

software released with source code

OSS

Open Sound System, sound hardware driver, supports most-popular devices

pipe

|, symbol used to chain commands in shell

POSIX

Portable OS Interface for uniX

redirection

>, symbol used to send program output to a text file

script

set of commands stored in a file

session

period between login and logoff

shell

OS CLI

shell script

script designed to run automatically when a shell is started

superuser

root (admin)

syslog

system logger where all system errors/messages are stored

widget

GUI object (button...)

alias

shell command that allows user to create alias for a command

acroread

pdf viewer

802.11

wireles network (WLAN)

Setting up Thinkpad X41 Tablet in Ubuntu

Fingerprint reader

1. install thinkfinger (sudo apt-get install thinkfinger-tools libpam-thinkfinger)
2. acquire fingerprint (sudo tf-tool --acquire)
3. verify fingerprint (sudo tf-tool --verify)
4. update pam config (sudo gedit /etc/pam.d/common-auth so it contains only these 2 lines: auth sufficient pam_thinkfinger.so auth required pam_unix.so try_first_pass nullok_secure
   update for ubuntu 8.10: change the according lines in this file so it looks like this: ... # here are the per-package modules (the "Primary" block) auth sufficient pam_thinkfinger.so auth [success=1 default=ignore] pam_unix.so try_first_pass nullok_secure # here's the fallback if no module succeeds ... here is fix for situation when auth won't proceed until you press enter

(thanks to wiki.ubuntu.com/ThinkFinger and thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_enable_the_fingerprint_reader_with_ThinkFinger)

Back/Forward keys

update for ubuntu 8.10: you can skip this step as the keys work out of the box

run sudo gedit /etc/X11/Xmodmap,

add: keycode 234 = XF86Back keycode 233 = XF86Forward
for immediate effect run xmodmap /etc/X11/Xmodmap (Note: this works in hardy, you may need to use Xmodmap instead in older versions of Ubuntu)

Trackpoint scrolling

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, locate section InputDevice with identifier Configured Mouse, add Option "EmulateWheel" "true" Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"

update for ubuntu 8.10: how to enable trackpoint in ubuntu 8.10

Stylus

1. install wacom driver (sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-wacom wacom-tools)
2. sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf, add Section "InputDevice" Identifier "stylus" Driver "wacom" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "stylus" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "eraser" Driver "wacom" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "eraser" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "cursor" Driver "wacom" Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" Option "Type" "cursor" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" EndSection, locate section ServerLayout, append InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents" InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents" InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"

   update for ubuntu 8.10: Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "stylus" Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0" # Change to /dev/input/event for USB Option "Type" "stylus" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY # Option "KeepShape" "on" # Option "TPCButton" "off" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "eraser" Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0" # Change to /dev/input/eventfor USB Option "Type" "eraser" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY # Option "KeepShape" "on" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Driver "wacom" Identifier "cursor" Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0" # Change to /dev/input/event for USB Option "Type" "cursor" Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY # Option "KeepShape" "on" EndSection Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Default Layout" Screen "Default Screen" InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents" InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents" InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents" EndSection

3. sudo gedit /etc/acpi/resume.d/20-setserial.sh, append #!/bin/bash /bin/setserial /dev/ttyS0 port 0x0200 irq 5 autoconfig and sudo chmod +x /etc/acpi/resume.d/20-setserial.sh

Display rotation

Ubuntu Thinkpad X41 tablet screen rotation

Windows XP installation guide

This guide was written 2 years ago and it might be still useful.

1. install system (Boot PartitionMagic from floppy. Create 3x 20GB partitions. Boot from WinXP Install CD. Install system from CD to first partition)
2. install file manager (Total Commander)
3. install hardware drivers (Install chipset, LAN, graphics, audio, USB, additional hardware,...)
4. install service pack and updates (SP2 is available as a download)
5. set up system
   • Move swap file to dedicated partition (swap) on secondary disk
   • Set fixed letters to disk drives
   • switch off indexing of drive C: (system) and X: (swap)
   • Check startup auto load list: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
   • Change audio card's buffer to 128
   • Disable fast user switching (control panel/user accouns/)
   • Disable unnecessary services in services.msc (Indexing service, Webclient, Time, System Recovery, ...)
   • Speed up menus (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop)
   • Disable NTFS Last Access Time Logging (NTFS Only) (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\CONTROL\FILESYSTEM\NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate=1)
   • Disable Notification Area Balloon Tips (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\EnableBalloonTips=0)
   • Disable CDROM Autoplay (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Cdrom\Autorun=0)
   • Disable kernel paging (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\DisablePagingExecutive=1 , LargeSystemCache=1)
   • Switch on Folder Options/View/Launch folder windows in separate process (increase stability)
   • ...
6. back up system with Ghost
7. install applications
   • image mounter (Alcohol 120%)
   • cd burner (Nero)
   • web browser (Mozilla Firefox)
   • ...

Ubuntu hotkeys

global

• alt + F1 = open panel menu
• alt + F2 = open panel run dialog
• ctrl + ins = copy
• shift + ins = paste
• (alt) + printscreen = take (window) screenshot
• ctrl + alt + arrow keys = switch workspace
• ctrl + alt + tab +arrow keys = cycle between panels and desktop
• ctrl + alt + d = desktop
• ctrl + alt + backpace = restart session
• shift + F10 = context menu

windows

• alt + tab = switch windows
• alt + F4 = close window
• alt + F5 = unmaximize window
• alt + F7 = move window
• alt + F8 = resize window
• alt + F9 = minimize window
• alt + F10 = maximize window
• =
• =
• =

Installing PhpBB 3 forum

Today I installed PhpBB 3 forum on my linux hosting with MySQL database. Here are the quick steps:

1. download the package from www.phpbb.com/downloads
2. upload the contents of the package to the server
3. write-enable certain directories:
   chmod 777 cache chmod 777 files chmod 777 store chmod 777 images/avatars/upload chmod 666 config.php
4. open installation script in the browser:
   http://site.com/forum/install/
5. fill in the preferences and db connection details
6. delete the install directory
7. proceed to administration control panel (http://site.com/forum/adm/)
8. walk through all the settings, create categories and forums...

Links

PhpBB 3 Quick installation (original documentation)
PhpBB 3 users home

User interface design for web-based applications

In this article, I will summarize the general rules that I learned during years of designing web application user interfaces.

• Keep it simple and clear.
  Users need to solve tasks efficiently and quickly. The interface should be as simple and straightforward as possible. Each component should have it's clear purpose and the visual structure should reflect the logic behind it.
• Make it intuitive
  Don't make user stop and think about how it works. Let the layout and appearance of the components speak for themselves.
• Know the rules.
  Users expect a certain visual layout as well as functionality of the components. If you break the rules and make things look or behave differently, you should have good reasons for it and make sure user understands it.
• Use hints where necessary.
  When you are not sure, create hints that will explain the purpose and how it works.
• Look through user's eyes.
  Try to look at the interface from user's perspective. Think about what is the important information for the user and what is not so important. The most common tasks should be always at hand.

Related articles

User Interface Design for Web Applications (by Jean Tillman)

Starting with Ubuntu linux

Installation

1. download image from ubuntu.com
2. burn image to cd (using nero)
3. boot from the cd
4. install ubuntu
5. download updates
6. add essential software (see below)
7. disable pc speaker beep sudo rmmod pcspkr
8. enable numlock at startup: gedit /etc/gdm/Init/Default add: if [ -x /usr/bin/numlockx ]; then /usr/bin/numlockx on fi
9. set screen resolution and refresh rate
10. customize names of special dirs: gedit ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs (renaming/moving them in nautilus should work too)
11. uninstall open java and install sun java instead (to solve jedit display problems)

Essential software

• file manager: Krusader (+krename +kdiff3 +rar), Gnome Commander, Midnight Commander
• web browser: Firefox (+firebug)
• text editor: jEdit, vim, cream, GNU Emacs, XEmacs, Eclipse
• media player: amarok
• p2p: LinuxDC++, KTorrent, eDonkey 2000
• im: Pidgin (gnome), Kopete (KDE)
• graphic editor: GIMP
• audio editor: Audacity
• video editor: Kino
• drive partitioning: GParted
• antivirus: ClamAV
• firewall: Firestarter
• email: Thunderbird (sudo apt-get install mozilla-thunderbird)
• dvd burning: K3b
• pdf reader: KPDF, Evince, KGhostView
• desktop: SuperKaramba (KDE only!), Beryl, Compiz
• asio: JACK
• daw: Ardour, Hydrogen, Rosegarden
• games: Advanced strategy command

How to …

find a text file?

locate filename

view a text file?

more filename

edit a text file?

gedit filename

find a file containing …?

locate *.txt | grep sometext

install a package?

sudo apt-get install packagename

uninstall a package?

sudo apt-get remove packagename

define custom keyboard shortcuts?

...

mount a disk partition permanently?

sudo gedit /etc/fstab, add e.g. /dev/disk/by-label/IBM_PRELOAD /home/jj/sys_xp ntfs-3g locale=en_US.utf8,user,noauto,uid=1000,gid=1000,dmask=0000,fmask=0111,dir_umask=0000,file_umask=0111 0 0

set environment variables?

/etc/environment

edit keyboard layout?

sudo gedit /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/cz

set permissions recursively + conditionally?

find /home/user/demo -perm 777 -print -exec chmod 755 {} \;

make xampp start automatically after reboot?

sudo ln -s /opt/lampp/lampp /etc/init.d/lampp sudo update-rc.d -f lampp defaults

...

...

Filesystem

• bin - essential user binaries (for use by all users)
• dev - device files
• etc - config files (host-specific system config, environment vars...)
• home - home dirs of individual users
• lib - essential system libraries and kernel modules
• root - home dir of root user
• sbin - essential binaries used for system administration
• tmp - world-writable dir for temporary files
• var - variable data files like logs
• media - mount point for removable media
• mnt - mount point for temporarily mounted filesystem
• opt - add-on application sw packages
• srv - data for services provided by this system

Web predictions for 2008

What will be popular on web in 2008?

• semantic apps (ish ?)
• mobile web, mobile office, mobile web apps, services
• behavior monitoring, better personalised ad targeting
• OpenID
• content recommendation
• facebook platform
• distributed social networks
• open platforms?

source: various and 2008 Web Predictions - ReadWriteWeb

Bootstrapping PHP application

What?

Bootstrapper is a single access point (index.php script located in the web's document root) of the web application. Its purpose is to handle all incoming requests by 1. setting up the application environment, 2. routing the request to the correct action controller and 3. dispatching it.

Why?

Easy application configuration (all that is common is in single bootstrapper file).

How?

Setting up the application environment

1. set up php environment if necessary (error reporting, include paths,...)
2. set up class loader (and register is as autoloader within php)
3. load common classes
4. load configuration into registry
5. setup db and store db handle into registry
6. set up caching
7. set up front controller
8. set up router
9. dispatch front controller

Routing the request to the action controller

10. set up router

Dispatching the request (dispatch loop)

11. dispatch front controller

Links

• Blueprint for PHP Applications: Bootstrapping (part 1) by Jayson Minard
• Blueprint for PHP Applications: Bootstrapping (part 2) by Jayson Minard