Elementary Funk

Links for 2012-08-05 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 06 Aug 2012 00:00:00 PDT

Rails Searchable API Doc
Downloadable docs on the Rails source to help with finding that method or action
Abandoned Walmart Recycled As Public Library
City reclaims the run out ruins of a Walmart shopping complex to rebuild up as a library
The Ruby Toolbox - Know Your Options!
Sorted and categorised collection of Ruby projects found at GitHub
Handwriting Is a 21st-Century Skill
Connecting the hand to the paper through the pen is a way for the brain to fire up neurons. Handwriting falling out of favour is more due to lack of uniformity, a key drive in early typewritten documents.
MarkdownPad - The Markdown editor for Windows
Given it is a ClickOnce app, you may want to set up the proper "Opens With..." call to on your system if you want to associate .md files.

Links for 2011-12-29 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 PST

Shockingly Comprehensive Doctor Who Companion/Villain Infographic
Charting the timeline of The Doctor along with his companions and various major villains through each generation.
Designing websites for the Asian market
Notes, pointers and general guide on how best to deliver your website to the Asian market. Better hope you at least mark things as UTF-8. Otherwise, you'll be gibberish.
Quoting and citing with BLOCKQUOTE, Q and the CITE attribute
Use of italics is long gone now that HTML5 are settled on making CITE the tag of choice when dropping the mentions on a movie, book or title of any other type of media/publication in the document.
Open Source Code
Ticking up as a programmer, the benefits to your own method of programming and network with other code monkeys when you work in open source projects. Or at least when you release it into the open source wild.
Bluegrass Mystery Theatre
Based and shows around Lexington, a theatre troupe that has a lot of death in their plays.

Links for 2011-11-17 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:00 PST

Git Immersion - Guided tour that walks through the fundamentals of Git
Steps to get started in working with and the workflow of using Git as a version control system
University of Kentucky Department of Theatre
Low cost tickets to theatre productions hosted a branch of University of Kentucky in Lexington.
Opera Mobile Emulator
Tool to test mobile layout and functions through the eyes of users coming in through Opera Mobile and using a range of smartphones.
Pagination with rel=“next” and rel=“prev”
Proper, or at least more constructive, use of the next and prev rel elements. Instead of flitting back and forth between articles, makes more sense to use just in pagination or articles breaking over pages. But no one in their right mind would ever do the latter.
Bogan Ipsum
Like a cut snake flabbing us a drongo. You little ripper pig's arse mate stands out like a ankle biter. Flat out like a gutful.

Links for 2011-09-14 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 00:00:00 PDT

Photo editor online / free image editing direct in your browser
Pretty much a web version of Photoshop
How do you photograph rain?
High contrast works best, when water falling has a light source that is either from the side or the back and against something very dark, if not black.

Links for 2011-09-13 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 PDT

Scaling web applications with HMVC
On what the HMVC has over MVC patterns of building web apps and its use in scaling large projects
Hiding from Daleks behind the couch: The Doctor’s love of children
The influence and effect that The Doctor has on children, on their empowerment and inspiration and how they in turn affect him.
Photo editor online / free image editing direct in your browser
Pretty much a web version of Photoshop
How do you photograph rain?
High contrast works best, when water falling has a light source that is either from the side or the back and against something very dark, if not black.
Trello - collaboration tool to organise projects at a glance
Collaboration tool where you keep track of projects across who is working on what and where in the process they are.

Links for 2011-07-22 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:00:00 PDT

Produce worker's guide to choosing fruits and vegetables
Heavier items are usually the ones that will cut and bleed the most moisture, water and sweet stuff. Go for the fruits and veggies just shy of a mashed brain most of the time.
The future of the library - Seth Godin
When libraries stop being places where information is found and passed around, society dies. Access to information the reason for libraries. In one form or another.
All The Names: Algorithmic design and the 9/11 memorial
Design and solution on how to place 9/11 victims in "meaningful adjacencies" - showing connections between friends, family and acts of heroism.
EU privacy and cookies: A very inconvenient truth
Dealing with the EU's Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive in how websites in the region are to warn visitors how and why they use cookies on the site.
Keyboard frequency sculpture
Data driven 3D modelling of the frequency in which Qwerty keys are hit and used.

Links for 2011-05-13 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 14 May 2011 00:00:00 PDT

Hot Rods 50's Diner, Alcoa/Maryville, Tennessee
Defeated by The Chubby Burger Challenge (30 ounces of burger and one pound of fries) at 41m, 37s. No win for a T-shirt, but just under the 45 minutes for a photo on the wall of fame.
Shopping Cart Page Checklist: 16 Things I Look For
Fundamental things to keep an eye out for when designing an ecommerce store. Clarity of images, information and process the high key points. Anything to let the customer know what's going on and how to keep them engaged.
A Book Store. That's Right. Book, Singular.
Author Andrew Kessler rents out entire shopfront to sell his and only his book, "Martian Summer: Robot Arms, Cowboy Spacemen, and My 90 Days With the Phoenix Mars Mission."
The Rasterbator
Creates large, rasterized images from any picture. End result is a multi-page PDF that can upvert an image to 20 meters in size.
Doctor Who 4/12 NYC Premiere Screening Q&A transcript
Abridged transcript of the Doctor Who season 6 premiere with "The Impossible Astronaut" and "Day of the Moon" featuring Steven Moffat, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Arthur Darvill and Alex Kingston.

Black Hole by Charles Burn

entropicgrammar-elemunk@yahoo.com (Soon Van) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:19:01 +1000

Awash in similar faces, people in places of this graphic novel blend so much with one another even their tales of odd things and weirdities meld. Plot lines criss-cross to the point of jumping across each other.

A paper cut is very possible if the dust jacket stays on. Always a danger in any literary form. Much easier to read with the cover off, naked and free in the wind.

Not to say the pages themselves aren't wont to cut a fine slice of the fingers, but with one less layer a lesser chance. Plus removing the dust jacket keeps it looking nice when back on the shelf.

Deciphering the meandering lot that is their lives becomes part of the reading. Taking away the simple coast from one end to another. Nothing happens that isn't gross, so far as talking body parts go. Utterly surreal in so many scenes, a visit to the strange recesses of the psyche and a realm of just plain colourful black and white.

The malaise that is floating aimlessly on a lake nudges along the characters to where by the turn of the final page, it's not clear why it's now looking into a black hole. Save for the neat close.

Soon Van

Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

entropicgrammar-elemunk@yahoo.com (Soon Van) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 17:33:11 +1000

Coming of age through digression. And what digression. Holden Caulfield rambles on in such a fluid stream, of such a suddenly natural internal diatribe, it's a wonder whether there is anything else the matter. Definitely angry, hating the world so much so that finding a nugget of love is as hard as luck.

Never mind the caustic nature of his actions or the metallic flint of this tongue. What's great about this book is how it carries one thought into the next all the while essentially going nowhere in terms of speed. Doesn't ever feel like pushing too much from one chapter to the next.

A self-reflecting conversation taking a few passengers along the way and dropping them off at their stops, the pause and pace makes light work of getting to know the narrator. As much as it trails off into other things and wanderings, it keeps a hand steady on the who and why of this bloke.

Even the book itself, in the frame of mind, feels like wanting to jam itself into the back pocket to be read any time and anywhere the feet go. Attitude in the prose that thumbs its nose at society and not caring for it. Then sits down in the gutter by the side of a now broken payphone and asks nothing more than to be left alone.

Depressing and hopeless at the same time it is funny, wicked and just a treat. Quick work on taking page after page and then it's done.

Soon Van

The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne

entropicgrammar-elemunk@yahoo.com (Soon Van) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 04:31:30 +1000

Dense thatch of words pinching the eyes. Layers of symbolism with poetic hints taunting an easy, leisurely read. No stroll in a back alley here. An all out or nothing task foraging to keep a hold of words, phrases and turns of the scene.

Parts glare bright in simplicity of metaphor while others look to cloak in a warm coat ready for the wintry walks. Feet slog through the marsh, pulling up each leg before having to do the same to the other in order to keep above and ahead.

Difficult comes to mind in parsing the structure and make up of the letters upon the pages. Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter in a wonderful style that causes a headache too long in the reading position. Not enough to trigger a nosebleed, thankfully (or woefully), but enough to render pauses. And plenty of them.

Struggling to recover the mental prowess to process chapter upon chapter, it's a book that does not lend well to taking a rest. And yet, it's the kind of book that makes rests a requisite lest the best of reading is done and uncommon.

Not a read for leisure; a read of pressure and texture.

Soon Van

Snow way to wake up

entropicgrammar-elemunk@yahoo.com (Soon Van) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:29:50 +1000

Feeling like every other morning before. Only now with the heat closer to the floor. Beyond the door, a white shadow of the early day coats the outside from last night. Cool touch against a hot breath and the vapours chill. Cheeks rub the air listening out to the soft crunch underfoot leaving behind a trail of quiet spoken prints.

White on grey rocks and brown rails and every other colour beneath and jutting through. Snow enough to layer a side of the cake as the drag of the day warms itself to melt back the raw undercoat of the harsh ground below.

Powdery substance blankets the morning

One morning like any other not like any other.

Soon Van

Falling between the week

entropicgrammar-elemunk@yahoo.com (Soon Van) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:25:49 +1000

Days into nights with the sun and moon in clandestine meetings behind the clouds. Nothing rests well nor bright on the meridian. Not since breaking dawn over an endless horizon flying above the rest of it all to cross planes of time.

Clocks matter not when the vision brains itself into falling between the darkness of days ending in Y. Keeping an eye on things only when those things are on the membrane of the eyelid is the best thing to do.

Bright night lights don't matter an hour in the middle of the day when it's all narcoleptic on blackout. Insomnia catches wind on the other end and the two play a few games. Chess only with pawns, draughts with pieces of the same colour or even a crossword puzzle with no clues.

Time is a bender.

Soon Van

United 840 - Sydney to Los Angeles

entropicgrammar-elemunk@yahoo.com (Soon Van) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 18:25:49 +1000

Cavorting the Sydney to Lexington adventure involves three legs in the air. Sydney to Los Angeles. Los Angeles to Chicago O'Hare and then Chicago to Blue Grass Lexington. Long time in the air.

Longer if one of the legs, say Chicago, happens upon itself snowstorms and thick layers of white weather powder delaying the connection of other legs and leaving passengers aplenty at the airport.

Only time for a large slathering of movies to watch and pass and blackout to happens to be on the Sydney to LAX leg of the trip. Long haul, and without good movies, feels even longer.

December Boys

Daniel Radcliffe and three Aussie co-star kids running about a beach looking for parents. They being orphans and all born a December month. The parents in this case looking to test run how they'll be as a family unit and figuring out which of the orphan boys to call "son" and mean it. Underlying note of sadness with a few light points along the way. Overall a really nice warm glass of milk of a way to ease into flying back over the Pacific Ocean again.

Gone Baby Gone

Casey Affleck and possibly Michelle Monahagn standing outside on the street talking about something. And it's not even sure of remembering these two actors as actually being in the movie itself. Quite the blue tone though, like sepia only on a melancholy or down mood. Time for a nap.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Cate Blanchett returns as Queen Elizabeth in this sequel where the eyes are heavy, the night is low and the light wants to sleep away. One slow dance of a rather adulteress hint with Sir Walter Raleigh along with the subtitled opening sequence of events leading to her possible ousting is what little remains in the mind of this.

Time again for a snooze but after they pass out the ham rolls wrapped in cling wrap as the midnight snack.

Michael Clayton

How this movie finds itself playing on the small screen twice is possibly kicking out another film. All in all the only scene happens to be the minutes just before the end credits roll. Wondering why it's possible to see George Clooney sitting in a car in the same scene with no recollection of doing anything productive between.

Then again, it is the in-flight movie marathon.

Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Closing out the roll but not the flight. Awake enough from the rough and tumble turbulence to see Natalie Portman pixie it up charmingly against Dustin Hoffman. Magic toy store that comes to life and fights against its own death. Wonderful atmosphere, odd characters, entertaining props and a quick yet strange film to eat up before breakfast tottles around later in the day/night/day.

Week near come and gone with the feet firmly on the Kentucky ground and the first and last cinematic shots obviously the better of the rest.

Soon Van

Rafferty's Restaurant and Bar in Lexington

entropicgrammar-elemunk@yahoo.com (Soon Van) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 04:18:40 +1000

Not on top of any kind of hill, Rafferty's Restaurant is quiet and roomy in the middle of the day. Just before the rest of anyone comes in for their dinner time dinners. No idea what the theme or mood of the eat hole is all about if there is one.

Supreme nacho appetiser - tower of crisp tortilla chips swamped in refried beans, meaty chilli, sausage bits, Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese, lettuce shavings, tomato chunks, sour cream and jalapeno peppers - kills the rest of the stomach from mashing down anything else.

Tasty stomach blocker

Easy, super easy to pick up and run from chip to loaded chip down the gullet. One after the other and it's the small simple things that leaves wanting to better pace or skip altogether next time.

Means nothing when the appetite has to face against the oncoming make up of dead cow on bread buns and slices of potato in an array of fries. On this day and at this hour, a half pound BBQ burger. Cheese and onions to boot with a good sort of fries on the side.

1/2 pound Backyard BBQ burger

Nestles in the hand comfortably to a bulge. Then the mouth opens wide to start the chewing inside. Juicy smell and tinge of slight char does well to work up the mawing jaw.

Defeat comes off the nachos where the pace on the burger is now slow, deliberate and complete. Shame is hanging the head where parts of a plate, case being the tortilla chips, stands defiant with few to one quarter of its ranks left to spar. Two at the attack undone in the end.

Soon Van

Thricewise to the nines

entropicgrammar-elemunk@yahoo.com (Soon Van) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:13:21 +1000

Climbing ever closer out of the groove that is the second decade of life. Three away and three of nines. Nothing more than the usual unusual state of life, being and a sense of cold to the nostrils.

There is of course the need now to remember the age at checkout, check-in and working with the authorities.

Soon Van