Monday, December 31, 2018

The Feynman Technique: The Best Way to Learn Anything

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-feynman-technique-the-best-way-to-learn-anything
You don't know anything until you can explain it.

Content management for today’s makers

https://twill.io/
Yes, another open-source PHP CMS. This one driven by Laravel

Master Python through building real-world applications (Part 4)

https://towardsdatascience.com/master-python-through-building-real-world-applications-part-4-7a72ae77e741
Intro to web serving with flask.

A “Data Science for Good“ Machine Learning Project Walk-Through in Python: Part One

https://towardsdatascience.com/a-data-science-for-good-machine-learning-project-walk-through-in-python-part-one-1977dd701dbc
Good walk-through of an actual data science project.

Nancy, a 1930s comic strip, was the funniest thing I read in 2018

https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/12/26/18151274/nancy-olivia-jaimes-best-comic-2018
She's back: Nancy! Really well-done resurrection.

Canonical shares the Top 10 Linux Snaps of 2018 -- Spotify, Slack, Plex, VLC, and more!

https://betanews.com/2018/12/27/canonical-10-snaps-linux-2018/
Containerized apps, aka snaps are taking off at Canonical.

Beware Silicon Valley’s Gifts to Our Schools

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/12/silicon-valley-school-programs-tech-toys-do-more-harm-than-good/
Does throwing $millions in tablets and laptops really help education? Hint: not-so-much.

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Monday, December 24, 2018

Meet Arsenal, the smart camera assistant.

https://witharsenal.com/
Really cool DSLR add-on to do a bunch more stuff. When will the camera manufacturers incorporate this tech?

5 Dumb Words That May Have Cost Mark Zuckerberg $34 Billion — and How Not to Make the Same Mistake

https://medium.com/inc./5-dumb-words-that-may-have-cost-mark-zuckerberg-34-billion-and-how-not-to-make-the-same-mistake-9acf71e06ed6
Zuc fell victim to recency bias.

Python and Slack: A Natural Match

https://towardsdatascience.com/python-and-slack-a-natural-match-60b136883d4d
Python and Slack integration.

DevOps and Segregation of Duties

https://medium.com/@jeehad.jebeile/devops-and-segregation-of-duties-9c1a1bea022e
One of the basic tenants of InfoSec is Segregation of Duties. How does this work in a DevOps world?

Take Script, add Snow - the appeal of the Hallmark Christmas movies.

https://longreads.com/2018/12/24/take-script-add-snow/
The appeal behind the hallmark Christmas movies.

The bad news on human nature, in 10 findings from psychology

https://aeon.co/ideas/the-bad-news-on-human-nature-in-10-findings-from-psychology
And now the bad news: we're all basically assholes.

Thursday, December 20, 2018

The Spacing Effect: How to Improve Learning and Maximize Retention

https://fs.blog/2018/12/spacing-effect/
Spaced repetition in learning. 

Three drawings I use to explain agile

https://medium.com/swlh/three-drawings-i-use-to-explain-agile-9c0ef15b64b8
Agile in simple graphics.

The Yoda of Silicon Valley Donald Knuth, master of algorithms, reflects on 50 years of his opus-in-progress, “The Art of Computer Programming.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/science/donald-knuth-computers-algorithms-programming.html
The Man, the Myth, the Legend: Don Knuth.

Max2Play is an Operating System

https://www.max2play.com/en/
Raspberry pi audio, like volumio.

Free illustrations to class up your project

https://icons8.com/ouch
Free SVG illustrations.

How to quickly improve website performance

https://medium.com/@lderendorp/how-to-quickly-improve-your-website-performance-98bf3843708
The usual suspects, but PWA manifests are new.

Introducing Flextype Modern Open Source Flat-File Content Management System

http://flextype.org/
Yet another opensource flatfile CMS.

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Scikit-Learn: A silver bullet for basic machine learning

https://medium.com/analytics-vidhya/scikit-learn-a-silver-bullet-for-basic-machine-learning-13c7d8b248ee
Gentle intro to what scikit-learn is and isn't

How computers got shockingly good at recognizing images

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/12/how-computers-got-shockingly-good-at-recognizing-images
The turning point of machine vision: the AlexNet paper in retrospective. 

Writing copy for landing pages

https://stripe.com/atlas/guides/landing-page-copy
I'm not sure I buy all the hype of landing pages, but here's a pretty good guide.

Yep, Bitcoin Was a Bubble. And It Popped.

https://www.bloomberg.com/crypto
The bubble has burst.

Making podcast production super quick and easy

https://alitu.com/
Can you really have a podcast auto-producer?

18 striking findings from 2018

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/13/18-striking-findings-from-2018/
The state of the US and some European nations.

8 Reasons Python Sucks

https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/archives/825-8-Reasons-Python-Sucks.html
yeah, pretty much

The best web hosting service for your website in 2019

https://www.techradar.com/best/best-website-hosting-service
Familiar names, new pricepoints. 

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Your Infrastructure as Code CloudFormation Vs Terraform?

https://hackernoon.com/your-infrastructure-as-code-cloudformation-vs-terraform-34ec5fb5f044
We use terraform, but there's cloud formation as well. Pros and cons of each.

The Fine Art of Weekend Puttering

https://medium.com/s/story/the-fine-art-of-weekend-puttering-bab63977b49a
I look forward to doing more of this.

How to Become a Powerful Good Luck Magnet

https://theascent.pub/how-to-become-a-powerful-good-luck-magnet-d8d04dc93fec
Is there such thing as luck? Maybe but there is chance and chance does favor a prepared mind.

The quest for sustainable free/libre non-linear video editors

http://libregraphicsworld.org/blog/entry/the-quest-for-sustainable-free-libre-non-linear-video-editors
Survey of the major open source non-linear video editors, their state of development and economic models.

5 Things That Set Apart Expert Freelancers From Beginners

https://medium.com/forbes/5-things-that-set-apart-expert-freelancers-from-beginners-90e425b90031
How to be a more professional freelancer.

10 Top Tips for Recording & Mixing Better-Sounding Podcasts

https://www.waves.com/top-tips-for-recording-mixing-better-sounding-podcasts
Hints for recording and processing voice for podcasts.

Kubernetes on AWS: Setup and Lessons Learned

https://medium.com/@bouwe.ceunen/kubernetes-on-aws-setup-and-lessons-learned-93f8322bc13a
Kubernetes on AWS: some routes are better than others.

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

ESET discovers 21 new Linux malware families

https://www.zdnet.com/article/eset-discovers-21-new-linux-malware-families/
Malware that replaces your OpenSSH client or server.

11 Material Design UI Component Libraries for 2019

https://blog.bitsrc.io/11-material-design-ui-component-libraries-for-2018-b3d2c9962a2f
Libraries to add material design to the popular JavaScript frameworks.

The Song Remains The Same: A Story of Unencrypted Data, A 50-year-old Web infrastructure, A Lack of Patching And Certificate Time-outs

https://medium.com/asecuritysite-when-bob-met-alice/the-song-remains-the-same-a-story-of-unencrypted-data-a-50-year-old-web-infrastructure-a-lack-2ff8ceae3891
A post-mortum of the Equifax data breach. Lots of unlearned lessons.

How I found my dream job by contributing to open source projects

https://medium.freecodecamp.org/how-i-found-my-dream-job-by-contributing-to-open-source-projects-ca98cbe60009
Earn your stripes by contributing to opensource.

How I built an app with Vulcan.js in four days

https://medium.freecodecamp.org/how-i-built-an-app-with-vulcan-js-in-four-days-6368814077b1
Interesting new mobile development mashup.

Why Playfulness Is the Key to Success in the 21st-Century

https://medium.com/personal-growth/why-playfulness-is-the-key-to-success-in-the-21st-century-201a626fe18
One of the keys to creativity is downtime and letting the subconscious connect the dots.

Harvard Study: Gender Wage Gap Explained Entirely by Work Choices of Men and Women

https://fee.org/articles/harvard-study-gender-pay-gap-explained-entirely-by-work-choices-of-men-and-women/
And the pay gap is caused by.... individual choices!

A practical guide to testing the security of Amazon Web Services (Part 1: AWS S3)

https://blog.mindedsecurity.com/2018/09/a-practical-guide-to-testing-security.html
AWS S3 security

Thursday, December 6, 2018

Textpattern: The small content management system that can handle big ideas

https://textpattern.com/
Yet another open-source PHP CMS, actually has about a thousand plugins and extensions.

Generate Random Alphanumeric Strings in PHP

https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/generate-random-alphanumeric-strings-in-php--cms-32132
Some of the simpler ways to generate pseudo-random strings in PHP

Pipenv: Python Dev Workflow for Humans

https://pipenv.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
A hopefully better way to install and manage packages in Python.

Building Mobile Apps With Capacitor And Vue.js

https://medium.com/@smashingmag/building-mobile-apps-with-capacitor-and-vue-js-944b22ec4780
Developing a mobile page, progressive app, in Vue.

I created the exact same app in React and Vue. Here are the differences.

https://medium.com/javascript-in-plain-english/i-created-the-exact-same-app-in-react-and-vue-here-are-the-differences-e9a1ae8077fd
Informative side-by-side development of the same page in both react and vue.

The united states of wonder

https://vannizhang.github.io/wonder/
very slick visualization of what's google's top autocomplete in each state.

Saturday, December 1, 2018

6 Open Source SIEM Tools

https://logz.io/blog/open-source-siem-tools/
opensource security tools

Visualizing the Meaning of Life: The Drip Coffee Model

https://medium.com/the-polymath-project/visualizing-the-meaning-of-life-the-drip-coffee-model-87a37e3d4040
It's what you put in

Block-Element-Modifier

https://en.bem.info/methodology/quick-start/
Block-Element-Modifier web design

high fidelity music streaming

https://tidal.com/us
hi fidelity music streaming

Discover and share podcasting setups

https://setup.fm/
Recommended podcasting setups by price range.

Exclusive: Airbnb will start designing houses in 2019

https://www.fastcompany.com/90271599/exclusive-airbnb-will-start-designing-houses-in-2019
I've long argued that affordable housing is critical to economic well-being