May 2009
11 posts
JsChat
JsChat is a simple open source realtime chat protocol based on JSON. There’s a server and console and web clients. It’s developed by the Quite Useful authors. Download it from my GitHub repository: github.com/alexyoung/jschat, and read more at the JsChat Blog.
Web Client
Most people who have tried JsChat think it’s all about the web client, but this is only a proof of...
Beautiful Algorithms 3: Gravity
This series of articles explores using basic physics and mathematics to simulate balls bouncing. The examples are written with Ruby and Shoes.
I’ve been working on the 2D version of the previous example for 3 days now, and I haven’t got it to a point where it’s clear enough yet. However, I realised I was trying to cram too much into one article. Instead, this part focuses on...
Quite Useful Weekly Roundup
This week we posted the first of a new series of Beautiful Algorithms articles: Collisions. We also posted about eBooks and a web app called Orchestrate.
Twitter Summary
TeleRead is a great blog about eBooks. They post regularly, and write about hardware readers, formats, sites that sell/host eBooks.
6 Tips To Get Your App Noticed has some ideas for marketing your iPhone apps.
Wiimote...
Beautiful Algorithms 3: 1D Collisions
“1D Collisions” might sound a little bit strange, but the goal of Beautiful Algorithms 3 is to explore algorithms for collision physics. Collisions in 2 or 3 dimensions are naturally more complex than a single dimension, so let’s look at this first. I’ll explain what mathematics and physical laws are required (don’t worry, you understood all of this when you...
Beautiful Algorithms 3: Balls
Beautiful Algorithms 3 is going to be about simple physics. These examples will be written with Ruby Shoes, and will demonstrate how to simulate bouncing balls and collisions.
The easiest way to model bouncing is to go back to basics with high school physics. Start off with 1D collisions, then add the second dimensions, then apply gravity.
The first post in this series will be posted...
eBooks
You’ve probably seen the Kindle, Amazon’s reading device. I live in the UK, and I have massive Kindle envy because Amazon don’t sell it outside of the US. That doesn’t mean we all need to wait for Amazon to launch localised Kindles, however. eBooks have been with us for a long time: Project Gutenberg’s founder Michael Hart has been exploring eBooks since 1971. I...
Web App Review: Orchestrate
Orchestrate is a web application made by Elevensoft, who are based in the UK. It’s designed to manage tasks for projects. What makes it unique is the focus on scheduling conflicts and qualification management.
Orchestrate has a clean interface, similar to Lighthouse or Basecamp: the main page body is used to display information and forms, whilst the sidebar is used to issue commands or...
Quite Useful Weekly Roundup
This week we posted a selection of command line time savers, the source code for a Ruby Twitter scheduler, and a review of online collaboration service Woobius.
Twitter
I was having a bit of fun with mashups this week, so I posted a link to DJ Lobsterdust who makes some incredibly witty and skilled tracks. If you like that, it’s worth checking out Girl Talk too.
A lot of Twitter/Digg...
Mind Blowing Command Line Time Savers
Whether you’re an old skool unix hacker or a Mac user who uses Terminal regularly, there’s lots of ways to save time on the command line. I’ve mentioned a few of the following tips on twitter.com/quiteuseful, but I thought it’d be handy to collect them all here.
Bash
!! - repeats the last command
history n - shows the last n things you’ve typed
My favourite...
Review: Woobius
Woobius is a web app aimed at architects and engineers, designed to enable them to collaborate online. The main features are:
Drop box - Quickly share files with colleagues
Vault - Manage formal documents, track changes to them, and issue documents to colleagues with an expiration date
Companies - Give your clients access
Dashboard - Get an overview of activity
Workflow
The workflow...
Twitter Scheduler
In Delicious Twitter Sync I talked about one of the open source tools we use to run Quite Useful. Another script I’ve written to help out is twitter-scheduler. This one allows you to schedule tweets on the command line.
I use this to schedule up interesting tweets so they’re evenly distributed throughout the day. We try to post on the hour between around GMT 10am and 7pm.
Usage
To...