This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can follow this list of links as I post them on Friend Feed or on Twitter. Or you can get the weekly update by subscribing to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• ,
• [BLOGGING] Zemanta – First Impress Review, problogger.net
  • Blogging software plugin that automatically suggests links and videos.
• [CODE] Why hackers FLOSS, blog.milkingthegnu.org
  • Thoughts on motivating IT workers based on why people contribute open source code.
• [CSS] Timelapse CSS, matthewbuchanan.name
  • Javascript for playing CSS rendering in slow motion.
• [FRIENDFEED] Blame FriendFeed, techcrunch.com
  • Not sure what to make of this. Vaguely entertaining.
• [FRIENDFEED] How To Find FriendFeed Rooms With Google, andybeard.eu
  • Google query to search for public rooms
• [FRIENDFEED] Keep Your Eyes On FriendFeed: It May Be The Google Of Social Networks, webomatica.com
  • Why Jason things Friend Feed is one of the social apps to watch for 2008
• [GOOGLE] goosh.org – the unofficial google shell., goosh.org, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • unix-like shell for google search in the web browser
• [JAVASCRIPT] Announcing AJAX Libraries API: Speed up your Ajax apps with Google’s infrastructure, ajaxian.com
  • This is pretty huge for webdevs. You can let Google handle your jquery, prototype, etc libraries.
• [JAVASCRIPT] Vote! How to Detect the Social Sites Your Visitors Use, azarask.in, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • Uses the same CSS hack I use for one of my Greasemonkey scripts to intelligently sense which social sites a visitor uses.
• [LIFEHACKS] An Engineer’s Guide To Weight Loss, teddziuba.com
  • The simple and to the point guide to not being a fat ass engineer.
• [LIFEHACKS] How to Recycle Electronics and Get Cash Back, friedbeef.com
  • I might have to try this out as I downsize my garage
• [SLEEPHACKS] Easy way to reset your sleep cycle: Stop eating, parentingsquad.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • Temporarily adjusting your diet can be a quick way to ensure when you’ll wake up.
• [WEB2.0] Scaling Fast, lukasbiewald.com
  • Scaling your web app when you’re linked to by the most trafficked page on the internet.
• [WEB2.0] StikiPad – When software in the cloud goes sour, mentalized.net, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • Good reminder — only use web apps that let you backup your data
• [YOUTUBE] YouTomb, youtomb.mit.edu, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • Track YouTube in real time videos as they are removed for copyright infringement.

Tags: friendfeed, google, javascript, lifehacks, web2.0

This is for all the Greasemonkeyers in the house who want to learn how to be much more productive when it comes to hacking together Greasemonkey script by using my favorite Javascript library: jQuery. jQuery will turn a 700 line Greasemonkey script into a 12 line Greasemonkey script. I learned about jQuery through all of the Greasemonkey scripts I created to work with Friend Feed.

This is advanced stuff that is of interest to people writing Javascript. If you’re just a Greasemonkey user then you can safely skip this one.

What is jQuery?

jQuery lets you very concisely access any element on the page through the use of normal CSS selectors and custom selectors specific to jQuery. If you can access it with CSS or XPath then you can access it with jQuery. It gives you more options for selecting elements than CSS or XPath.

It also support method chaining which makes for some stupidly concise javascript code compared to the normal pain of walking the DOM or calling XPath that you see in most Greasemonkey scripts.

    function ff_show_domains() {
        $("a.main").each(function() {
            var uri = $(this).attr('href').replace('www.','').split('/');
            var domain = uri[2];
            ...

        });
    }

• Why you should use jQuery
• Another very detailed intro to what jQuery gives you
• The latest jQuery documentation
• Alternate jQuery documentation
  • I like the jQuery help Windows program and Visual jQuery
• jQuery presentation (video)
• Best practices in Javascript library design

The other thing I love about jQuery is that it has plugins you can grab and import into your Greasemonkey scripts. Check out this concise plugin that lets you call Firebug’s console.log from within a jQuery method chain. That’s a perfect example of how powerful jQuery is.

jQuery Makes Me Happy

The hardest part of using jQuery with Greasemonkey is importing it. There are several ways to include jQuery into a Greasemonkey script. I’m going to walk through three of them. I would love it if jQuery became an official component of Greasemonkey, and I think that would greatly increase the number of useful Greasemonkey scripts being created.

Technique #1: Site already uses jQuery

If the site already uses jQuery (friendfeed.com, wordpress admin) then you’re in luck: you don’t have to import it.

$ = unsafeWindow.jQuery;
console.log( $('p') );

You can find out if the site uses jQuery by running ‘alert($)‘ in the Firebug console or by looking at the imported scripts.

Technique #2: Import from Remote Host

If the site doesn’t already use jQuery (boo, hiss) then you can import jQuery from jquery.com.

Joen Piedra has example code and a script showing how to do this.

// Example from http://www.joanpiedra.com/jquery/greasemonkey/

// Add jQuery
    var GM_JQ = document.createElement('script');
    GM_JQ.src = 'http://jquery.com/src/jquery-latest.js';
    GM_JQ.type = 'text/javascript';
    document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(GM_JQ);

// Check if jQuery's loaded
    function GM_wait() {
        if(typeof unsafeWindow.jQuery == 'undefined') { window.setTimeout(GM_wait,100); }
    else { $ = unsafeWindow.jQuery; letsJQuery(); }
    }
    GM_wait();

// All your GM code must be inside this function
    function letsJQuery() {
        alert($); // check if the dollar (jquery) function works
    }

It’s a similar technique to the jQuerify bookmarklet that lets you add jQuery to any site in one click so that you can play around in the Firebug console.

Technique #3: Embed in Your Script

This is my preferred method because it reduces the number of external dependencies of your script. You can put all of the code for jQuery directly into your script so the user only has to download it once. This will reduce the load time of the page you’re Greasemonkeying since it is always faster to load local files than to load a Javascript library over the internet.

1. Copy the packed version of jQuery into your script
   
   • Direct link to the packed version of jQuery 1.2.3
2. Use jQuery :)

Here’s an example of one of my scripts where I use the embedded packed jQuery as well as an embedded image file. That script runs on Soundamus (a very cool site if you’re a Last.FM listener, check it out) and adds links to search for the artist/album on an different site.

Here is the active javascript code that uses jQuery to do all the magic.

$('.post').each(function(i) {
		  var artist = $(this).find('a:eq(0)').text();
		  var album = $(this).find('a:eq(1)').text();
		  var search_link = SEARCH_URL+encodeURI(artist+" "+album);
		  $(this).prepend('<div style="clear:both; float:right;"><a title="Search for '+artist+' - '+album+'" href="'+search_link+'"><img src="'+data+'" /></a></div>');
		  $(this).css('clear','both');

});

Actually Related Posts

• How to Install and Use Greasemonkey
• How to Profile Greasemonkey Scripts with Firebug
• How to Unminify Javascript Code
• All of my Greasemonkey scripts

As websites have moved away from static pages to interactive updating displays, the modern Greasemonkey hacker has been forced to learn new tricks: namely interacting with the Javascript on a website. Sometimes that’s harder than it looks because the Javascript on the site you want to modify has been minified.

Minifying is a process where all the comments, whitespace and variable names of a file are removed so that it is smaller in size. This is better for the users because it takes less time to load the site. It’s worse for Greasemonkey hackers because all you get is a mess of gobblety gook.

1. Install this javascript beautifier Greasemonkey script
2. Cut-and-paste the minified javascript from the site you want to work with
   
3. Visit nopaste.voric.com and cut-and-paste the code from the site
   1. Click the Javascript option
   2. Change “Save until” to 1 day
   3. Cut and paste the code from the site
   4. Click “Save”
4. Click the Beautify link

Now you have a copy of the source code you can work with! I usually save it to a local file at this point so that I can annotate it with comments.

There are probably simpler ways to do this with other javascript beautifiers, but I haven’t found any other ones that do as good of a job at deminifying code as this trick.

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. You can see me add them in real time on Friend Feed.

• [BITTORRENT] Protect Your Privacy When Downloading, lifehacker.com
  • Two tips for not being caught as the nasty pirate that you are.
  • (bittorrent, torrents, 31 inbound links)
• [BLOGGING] 20 Types of Pages that Every Blogger Should Consider, problogger.net
  • Great examples of how to use the WordPress page feature. I wish I didn’t have so many damn problems with it on WordPress.com (can’t remove it from my theme head, trackback prob).
  • (blogging, wordpress, tips, 581 saves, 46 inbound links, 21 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] 7 Blogging Statistics Rules – There is Life After Page Views, hanselman.com, via:raganwald.com
  • From the article: ” If you post a Gallery or a List or anything post with a Prime Number and the word “Rules” in the title, you’ll get traffic. You post smart, compelling content, you need to be wicked smart before folks take note.”
  • (blogging, statistics, 16 saves, 8 inbound links)
• [BLOGGING] A Caffeine Inspired Interview with Jeff Atwood from CodingHorror.com, caffeinatedcoder.com
  • “The only difference between good and great blogs is that the good bloggers kept writing until they became great bloggers.” — Jeff Atwood
  • (blogging, writing, tips, codinghorror, 3 saves, 6 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] Group Interview: What Do Online Advertisers Look For in a Website?, dailyblogtips.com
  • Daniel gets the skinny on how to sell ads on your website.
  • (advertising, blogging, 20 saves, 8 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [FRIENDFEED] A Few FriendFeed Treats Out There, jeffisageek.net
  • A list of the cool little hacks people have made for FF so far.
  • (friendfeed, 5 saves, 5 diggs)
• [FRIENDFEED] Friendfeed 2018, blogoscoped.com, via:winextra.com
  • The future of Friend Feed.
  • (friendfeed, humour, web2.0, 5 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [FRIENDFEED] Share that link on FriendFeed using FeedDemon, winextra.com
  • Share items on FF using Feed Demon.
  • (rss, friendfeed)
• [FRIENDFEE] The FriendFeed Playground, ffapps.com
  • Avi put together a FF apps site for pointing to the cool apps people are building around FF.
  • (friendfeed)
• [GEEK] Wired’s Geekster Handbook, a Field Guide to the Nerd Underground, wired.com, via:reddit.com
  • Which geek are you? I’m 1-5 but thankfully not 6.
  • (geek, 2 saves, 3 inbound links, 10 diggs)
• [GREASEMONKEY] How to play nicely with jQuery and Greasemonkey, joanpiedra.com
  • Tips on accessing jQuery inside your Greasemonkey scripts.
  • (greasemonkey, jquery, javascript, programming, 46 saves, 15 inbound links)
• [JAVASCRIPT] Great JavaScript presentation by John Resig, lazycoder.com
  • I started using jQuery a lot this week and its friggin awesome. I must watch this video.
  • (jquery, javascript, 2 saves)
• [MARKETING] Polarize Me, fastcompany.com, via:37signals.com
  • The ‘Made to Stick’ guys talk about how in order to have people love you, you have to decide who will hate you. No walking the middle line.
  • (marketing, branding, 43 saves, 36 inbound links, 1 diggs)
• [SOCIALSOFTWARE] Why I will never get another date, jennifer-mccarthy.blogspot.com
  • The truth of social web apps exposed.
  • (socialsoftware, humor)
• [STARTUPS] How To Use Perks and Rewards in Startups to Get The Best Talent, instigatorblog.com
  • Anywhere could hire me away if they offered me the best-of-breed source control, chat, backup and allowed me to attend conferences.
  • (startup, hiring, 6 saves, 7 inbound links, 37 diggs)
• [STARTUPS] The Psychology of Entrepreneurial Misjudgment, part 1: Biases 1-6, blog.pmarca.com
  • Long read, but the section on incentives/disincentives are particularly interesting and applicable to all aspects of your life.
  • (entrepreneurship, psychology, startup, 304 saves, 54 inbound links, 13 diggs)
• [WORDPRESS] FriendFeed Comments WordPress Plugin, blog.slaven.net.au
  • Display the Friend Feed discussion on your WordPress blog.
  • (friendfeed, wordpress, 9 saves, 8 inbound links)
• [WORKHACKS] The KJ-Technique: A Group Process for Establishing Priorities, uie.com, via:labnotes.org
  • The KJ-Technique is a method for getting the ‘wisdom of the crowd’ as fast as possible without getting bogged down by borderline cases.
  • (workhacks, psychology, 234 saves, 23 inbound links, 1 diggs)
• [XBOX360] REST API for Xbox Gamertag Data, duncanmackenzie.net
  • Public rest API for Xbox Gamertag. Gives you an XML file.
  • (xbox360, rest, 7 saves, 5 inbound links)

This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

• Greasemonkey Scripts: Friend Feed Auto-Pagerization, Resharing Links and Even More
  It’s the last day of my week of Friend Feed and I have 5 more Greasemonkey scripts for you (for a total of 8). I think I’m done writing scripts for Friend Feed for the next little while.
• Greasemonkey Scripts: Friend Feed Twitter Client and Remove Visited Links“Friend Feed” week seems to be continuing at IDT. But don’t worry, there’s a team of trained attack Bonobo monkeys prepared to take me into a dark alley and beat me up and make me suffer if I don’t stop talking about Friend Feed. What can I say? This is what it looks like when a web app gets people excited. I’ve put together two more Greasemonkey scripts to add features I want to Friend Feed.
• Crunching the Friend Feed Stats to Find the Most Popular Web AppsOne of the nicest things about the Internet is that if you sit on your ass for long enough, someone will code up whatever little side project you’re thinking about starting. In my case, I was interested in finding out general statistics about Friend Feed as a tape measure of how popular certain social bookmarking sites are. Enter Friend Feed Stats. Thank you, lazyweb.

  Keep reading for my analysis of the data

• How to Generate 100s of Backlinks in MinutesThe abrasive model:

  1. Say something bone-headed so people clamour to their keyboards in order to prove you wrong.

  2. Make commenting on your post as hard as possible so that people will respond with blog posts of their own instead of a comment.

• Delicious Links – 20 links – friendfeed, lifehacks, blogging, programming, wordpress
• Greasemonkey Script: Filter FriendFeed by ServiceI’ve sipped the Kool Aid and I’m really liking Friend Feed as a lifestreaming aggregator. One feature that is a bit hard to find is filtering by individual services. I’ve created a Greasemonkey script that sticks a huge bar of icons at the top of the page to make this accessible.

This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

• Behind the Curtain
  Here’s a sneak peak into the trials and tribulations of hacking up websites with Greasemonkey:
• [TWITTER] Redirect direct links to tweets to use quotabl
  Quotably is a neat-o service that provides threaded conversations on Twitter. This greasemonkey script will automatically convert any http://twitter.com/*/statuses/* link to go to Quotably instead.

Tags: blogging, friendfeed, javascript, jquery, psychology, startup, tips, wordpress

This is my weekly collection of the best stuff I saw on the Internet. They’re saved on delicious and stumbleupon and cross-posted to Twitter and Tumblr as they happen and then collected together for my blog on Internet Duct Tape.

Subscribe to Internet Duct Tape using RSS or using email.

• [CODE] Research Supports The Effectiveness of TDD, haacked.com
  • IEEE paper on why Test Driven Development works
  • (tdd, testing, research, 42 saves, 27 inbound links)
• [CODE] Valued Lessons: Garlic Programmers for Silver Code?, valuedlessons.com, via:news.ycombinator.com
  • How can you measure programmer productivity when the biggest factor is the code base they are working on?
  • (maintenance, productivity, programming, 9 saves)
• [COMICS] Build your own Comics and cartoons, chron.com
  • You can put together a single page with most syndicated comics on it
  • (comics, 5 saves, 9 inbound links)
• [COPYRIGHT] Bad COPP No Netflix, davisfreeberg.com, via:dailybits.com
  • DRM causes hardware probs, that could make you lose all your legitimate digital downloads.
  • (drm, microsoft, netflix, 51 saves, 64 inbound links, 12 diggs)
• [DESIGN] Paper Prototyping, snyderconsulting.net
  • hallway usability testing before you code
  • (usability, prototyping, paperprototyping, 40 saves)
• [DESIGN] Web 2.0 how-to design style guide, webdesignfromscratch.com
  • Yes, we’re all tired of “web2.0” designs — but this guide makes some good points and is full of examples.
  • (web2.0, webdesign, tutorial, 10838 saves, 100 inbound links, diggs)
• [GAMERS] Audiosurf: Ride Your Music, audio-surf.com
  • Independent video game with strong ties to music/mp3s
  • (music, visualization, audio, game, 148 saves, 100 inbound links, diggs)
• [GAMERS] The Weighted Companion PC – Final shots, bit-tech.net
  • I’d love to have this PC mod… for Portal fans.
  • (portal, gamers, cool, 5 saves)
• [GREASEMONKEY] Greasespot: Greasemonkey Security Update, greasespot.net
  • New version of Greasemonkey is out. Please update.
  • (greasemonkey, 4 saves, 3 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [GROUP WRITING] Blog Writing Project: Tutorials, dailyblogtips.com
  • Write a tutorial as part of Daily Blog Tips group writing project
  • (tutorials, blog, writing, groupwritingproject, 8 saves, 27 inbound links)
• [JAVASCRIPT] The jSkinny on jQuery, errtheblog.com
  • Examples of using jQuery instead of prototype or rjs files
  • (jquery, javascript, rails, rubyonrails, 254 saves, 15 inbound links, 9 diggs)
• [JAVASCRIPT] jQuery plugin: Tablesorter 2.0, tablesorter.com
  • Client-side library for sorting tables.
  • (jquery, javascript, table, tablesorter, 623 saves, 74 inbound links)
• [MYSPACE] January 30th is International Delete Your Myspace Account Day, bloggasm.com
  • It’s a good idea to delete your old social networking accounts that you don’t use anymore.
  • (myspace, facebook, 20 saves, 100 inbound links)
• [PHOTOS] everystockphoto – searching free photos, everystockphoto.com, via:scottkuperus
  • search engine for copyfree photos
  • (copyright, photos, free, 5418 saves, 100 inbound links, 2824 diggs)
• [REDDIT] what’s new on reddit: new features, blog.reddit.com
  • Users will have the ability to create their own public/private reddits.
  • (bookmarks, reddit, socialsoftware, 14 saves, 37 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [RSS] Dosh Dosh Reaches 10,000 Subscribers (and the Reason Why People Subscribe to a Blog), doshdosh.com
  • How to get an audience
  • (blogging, howto, 10 saves, 29 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [RUBY] Rubular: a Ruby regular expression editor, rubular.com
  • Web-based regular expression tester
  • (Ruby, regex, programming, 754 saves, 37 inbound links)
• [SOFTWARE] Ned Batchelder: Software I use, nedbatchelder.com
  • List of Windows software… some stuff worth trying in there. I recognize a lot of it from lifehacker.com
  • (list, windows, software, 23 saves)
• [WRITING] Effective Writing – George Orwell, pickthebrain.com
  • 5 tips from one of the masters
  • (writing, tips, 987 saves, 100 inbound links, diggs)
• [WRITING] Programming Book Profits, ejohn.org
  • A look at how much income writing a book can generate
  • (books, writing, business, programming, 171 saves, 13 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• Powered by Delicious Links Pro

This Week at Internet Duct Tape

Internet Duct Tape is my blog where I talk about software, technology, blogging and other geeky subjects.

• CoinStar — Is It Worth It To Convert Your Spare Change?
  • When I was a kid rolling up the spare change to take in the bank, I always wondered why there wasn’t a machine that would do it for you in bulk. Sorting coins mechanically isn’t rocket science; all you need is holes of different sizes. Now we’re in the 21st centuary. We might not have…
• Stupid iTunes Tricks – How to Burn a MP3 CD with Folders
  • An MP3 CD is a regular old data CD like any CD you put in your computer. Any program that burns CDs can create an MP3 CD, but I like to use iTunes because I’m already using it to manage my music library.
• Free Idea: Outlook Calendar Screensaver
  • People often guard their ideas thinking that if they let the word get out people will steal their golden shot at success. What they don’t realize is that idea are worth nothing. Implementation is the only thing that matters. Here’s an idea I had for something I’m not planning on…
• Best of Feeds – 19 links – blogging, inspiration, writing, design, apple
  • apple, blogging, design, inspiration, tips, writing

This Week at IDT Labs

IDT Labs is where I announce new software I’m working on.

• [PIPES] Filtered Technorati Recent Mentions
  • My Filtered Technorati Recent Mentions pipe works again. It can give you an RSS feed of the latest blogs that links to your blog.
• [GREASEMONKEY] Userscripts.org Popular Scripts v0.2Updated my script for identifying the most popular Greasemonkey scripts on userscripts.org

Tags: javascript, jquery, programming, writing

• [JAVASCRIPT] Ext JS – JavaScript Library for Web Windows
  • Interesting javascript library for doing web windows. Has a nice spreadsheet display.
  • (javascript, ajax, web2.0, programming, ext)
  • (extjs.com, 3318 saves, 100 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [JAVASCRIPT] Welcome to Tablecloth
  • Javascript code for doing quick table highlighting
  • (css, javascript, tables, webdesign)
  • (cssglobe.com, 1767 saves, 100 inbound links, 1247 diggs)
• [WEBDESIGN] 30 Usability Issues To Be Aware Of
  • common tips, good for beginners
  • (usability, design, webdesign)
  • (smashingmagazine.com, 1705 saves, 100 inbound links, 781 diggs)
• [SQL] A Visual Explanation of SQL Joins
  • Jeff, where were you in 1997 when I needed this!?
  • (sql, database, reference)
  • (codinghorror.com, 1069 saves, 67 inbound links, 9 diggs)
• [DESIGN] 10 Usability Nightmares You Should Be Aware Of
  • (usability, webdesign, design)
  • (smashingmagazine.com, 874 saves, 100 inbound links, 253 diggs)
• [DESIGN] So you want to create WordPress themes huh?
  • 16 how-tos on building a wordpress theme
  • (wordpress, themes, howto, design, webdesign)
  • (wpdesigner.com, 585 saves, 100 inbound links, 21 diggs)
• [SLEEPHACKS] Top 10 Ways to Sleep Smarter and Better
  • LifeHacker has the goods on beating insomnia
  • (sleephacks, lifehacks)
  • (lifehacker.com, 546 saves, 68 inbound links, 1489 diggs)
• [JAVASCRIPT] Help! I Don’t Know JavaScript!
  • Collection of intros to javascript
  • (javascript, tutorial, mootools, programming)
  • (blog.mootools.net, 470 saves, 10 inbound links, 27 diggs)
• [GAMES] Science Museum – Launchpad Online – Launchball
  • Very cool little physics simulator game.
  • (games, science, physics, fun, launchball)
  • (sciencemuseum.org.uk, 392 saves, 100 inbound links, 947 diggs)
• [GIFTS] 30 Frugal Gift Ideas to Show You Appreciate Someone
  • Holidays are coming up…
  • (cheap, DIY, lifehacks, gift, presents)
  • (zenhabits.net, 326 saves, 25 inbound links, 669 diggs)
• [CODE] 10 Things Every Programmer Should Know For Their First Job
  • General, but true.
  • (career, programming, tips, work)
  • (applematters.com, 172 saves, 19 inbound links, 4 diggs)
• [RUBY] Mr. Neighborly’s Humble Little Ruby Book
  • Another free Ruby ebook
  • (Ruby, ebooks, programming, rails)
  • (infoq.com, 53 saves, 33 inbound links)
• [WEIGHTLOSS] Geek Diet and Exercise Programs
  • All familiar links and photos to me, but still a good roundup.
  • (codinghorror, diet, geek, tips)
  • (codinghorror.com, 44 saves, 35 inbound links, 46 diggs)
• [INTERNET] The Life and Death of Jesse James
  • The scariest people in the world are the lonely people, and this true story strikes it home for me with full force. This is essential reading for anyone who spends a lot of time in internet culture.
  • (culture, internet, relationships, scary)
  • (laweekly.com, 40 saves, 18 inbound links)
• [RAILS] Two months with Ruby on Rails
  • Two months checkin with what he doesn’t like about Rails
  • (rails, programming, ruby, rubyonrails)
  • (t-a-w.blogspot.com, 39 saves, 10 inbound links)
• [BOOKS] Hard Work, No Pay: What’s the Point?
  • Petzold on being an author of programming books. Response to Jeff Atwood post.
  • (writing, programming, books, blogs)
  • (charlespetzold.com, 30 saves, 12 inbound links)
• [TWITTER] Twitter is Paying My Rent
  • Why Twitter is a great tool for a first class tech blogger.
  • (twitter)
  • (marshallk.com, 25 saves, 7 inbound links, 20 diggs)
• [BOOKS] Expert Advice: Websites for the Book Lover
  • Quite a few sites I hadn’t heard of.
  • (bestof, book, library, tips, websites)
  • (makeuseof.com, 24 saves, 4 inbound links, 20 diggs)
• [DELICIOUS] Readeroo
  • Simple browser extension for marking items “to be read” later and then marking them as read when you’re done.
  • (firefox, del.icio.us, delicious, extensions)
  • (monsur.com, 21 saves, 5 inbound links)
• [WEB2.0] Q&A: Foul-Mouthed Blogger Ted Dziuba Tells Why Most Startups Fail
  • Uncov in wired! What.the.fuck!
  • (fun, startups, web2.0, wired, uncov)
  • (wired.com, 19 saves, 31 inbound links, 4 diggs)
• [WEB2.0] Tim O’Reilly – Graphing Social Patterns
  • Liveblogging notes from Tim O’Reilly’s presentation.
  • (social, facebook, web2.0, socialsoftware)
  • (allfacebook.com, 9 saves)
• [BOOKS] When Completing a Book Depends on Someone Else
  • Blogging Heroes should be in print soon. I was interviewed for the book, not sure if I made it into the final cut.
  • (blogging)
  • (mikebanks.blogspot.com)
• [COPYRIGHT] Happiness In Slavery No More: Nine Inch Nails Goes Record Label Free
  • Fans and artists are learning to bypass the recording industry.
  • (copyright, drm, nin)
  • (parislemon.com)
• [FICTION] The ride home
  • From the article: ” People with happy lives don’t go on quests, they lead their happy lives.”
  • (writing, fantasy, dark, noir)
  • (beatsentropy.com, 3 inbound links)
• [CODE] Getting rid of the use global contstants file
  • Another post from my old friend who used to bring me subway cookies at raves.
  • (code, programming, cohesion, contstants, perl)
  • (dlowe-wfh.blogspot.com)
• [MARKETING] The Smart Way to Get Traffic and Links: Creating a Prospect List for Bloggers
  • This is the proper way to promote yourself with other bloggers. Get on their radar before you ever approach them about anything.
  • (blogging, marketing, permission)
  • (doshdosh.com, 3 inbound links)

Legend

• saves – number of people who bookmarked on http://del.icio.us
• inbound links – number of blogs who linked to it (max 100)
• diggs – number of people who dugg on http://digg.com

This Week at Internet Duct Tape

• What I’m Playing: PC, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360
  • I’m on day 10 of “one of those weeks” so I haven’t had time to fully develop the usual cornucopia of rainbow-coloured blog post ideas. All of my time has been spent on work and family with a smidgen of video game playing to decompress my brain. This isn’t one of those…
• The Holiday Spread – Group Weight Loss Game
  • This past weekend was Thanksgiving (aka Turkey Day) in Canada, which means seeing your family and eating a lot of food together. One of the favourite pastimes at any holiday is pointing out who’s gained weight and who hasn’t. This got me thinking: one of the principals of successful dieting…
• Best of Feeds – 34 links – programming, google, lifehacks, ruby, funny
  • Tags: blogging, estimation, free, funny, google, gtd, javascript, lifehacks, productivity, programming, rails, ruby, rubyonrails, search, seo, tips

This Week at IDT Labs

• [WORDPRESS] Extract Comments or Trackbacks only from the Comments Feed
  • I’ve created two Yahoo Pipes for building filters of the comments feed on your WordPress blog so that you can see comments only or trackbacks only. WordPress Comment Extractor WordPress Trackback Extractor
• [RSS] Tagosphere
  • Tagosphere is an example I created for Jon Udell that builds an RSS feed around a specific tag using delicious, flickr, technorati, and wordpress.com.
• [GTD] Distraction Free GTD UpdateNow with 36 applications + fixes some problems with apps that don’t support https .

Tags: blogging, design, fun, javascript, lifehacks, programming, rails, tips, usability, web2.0, webdesign, writing

• [LIFEHACKS] The Printable CEO
  • Collection of PDFs for task/hour tracking.
  • (productivity, gtd, lifehacks)
  • (davidseah.com, 949 saves, 100 inbound links, 7 diggs)
• [BOOKMARKING] toread – an email-based bookmark service
  • Simple service to use to track stuff ‘to read later’. They store the top 10 for each day. It’s like having an archive of the delicious popular list.
  • (bookmarks, email, web2.0)
  • (toread.cc, 938 saves, 100 inbound links, 440 diggs)
• [RUBY] The Little Book Of Ruby
  • 85 page guide to the ruby language syntax, free ebook
  • (ruby, programming, book, ebook, free)
  • (sapphiresteel.com, 492 saves, 38 inbound links, 28 diggs)
• [CODE] Software Is Hard
  • *Excellent* article about software estimation and Rosenberg’s Dreaming in Code
  • (software, programming, essay, estimation)
  • (gamearchitect.net, 449 saves, 68 inbound links, 15 diggs)
• [STARTUPS] The Future of Web Startups
  • Paul Graham on how web startups will start to be standardized and easy to do… which will change everything.
  • (startup, entrepreneurship, paulgraham, startups)
  • (paulgraham.com, 443 saves, 100 inbound links, 671 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] Top 100 Productivity Blogs
  • I’m not on the list, but many there’s a lot of great finds on here.
  • (productivity, lifehacks, gtd, blogs, list)
  • (whitepapers.org, 440 saves, 44 inbound links, 53 diggs)
• [RUBY] Ferret – full text search engine
  • I’m wondering if this could be a replacement for intranet text search?
  • (ruby, search, lucene, ferret)
  • (ferret.davebalmain.com, 429 saves)
• [JAVASCRIPT] The Elements of JavaScript Style
  • Everything you need to know about writing good javacsript.
  • (javascript, programming, style, guide)
  • (javascript.crockford.com, 336 saves, 30 inbound links)
• [ESTIMATION] Web Worker 101: Estimating Basics
  • Nothing new, but good round-up for people who have trouble estimating.
  • (estimation, projectmanagement, productivity)
  • (webworkerdaily.com, 296 saves, 36 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [JAVASCRIPT] Learning JavaScript resources
  • Good collection of tutorials and links about Javascript
  • (javascript, learning, reference)
  • (juixe.com, 289 saves, 4 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [CODE] Software Branching and Parallel Universes
  • One of the best explanations of software branching in revision control that I’ve ever read.
  • (programming, sourcecontrol, branching, code, versioncontrol)
  • (codinghorror.com, 274 saves, 34 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [GEEK] Flo Control Cat Door
  • Image recognition to prevent cat from coming inside with a mouse. Why do I enjoy every link Coding Horror sends me so much?
  • (cats, technology, diy, hacks, geek)
  • (quantumpicture.com, 228 saves, 80 inbound links, diggs)
• [RAILS] Rails Rumble: 92 Web Apps Created in 48 Hours
  • Winners from the 48 hours Rails Rumble
  • (rubyonrails, rails, inspiration)
  • (readwriteweb.com, 169 saves, 28 inbound links, 681 diggs)
• [FIREFOX] A Visual Guide to the Firefox Web Browser – Learn Firefox
  • via: rooster
  • (firefox, tutorial, tips, help)
  • (learnfirefox.cybernetnews.com, 167 saves, 100 inbound links, 17 diggs)
• [RAILS] Build Your Own Ruby on Rails Web Applications
  • Free e-book for next 60 days. Probably not as good as Agile Web Development.
  • (free, ruby, rubyonrails, books, rails)
  • (sitepoint.com, 151 saves, 100 inbound links, 6 diggs)
• [VIRUS] Gathering ‘Storm’ Superworm Poses Grave Threat to PC Nets
  • Your antivirus software is completely useless. This is scary.
  • (storm, worm, botnet, spam)
  • (schneier.com, 104 saves, 62 inbound links, 14 diggs)
• [CODE] Inheritance is evil, and must be destroyed: part 1
  • Using the strategy pattern vs inheritance with dark jedi examples.
  • (programming, design, inheritance, patterns)
  • (berniecode.com, 76 saves, 9 inbound links)
• [IPHONE] If wishes were iPhones, then beggars would call
  • If you want to hack your phone (dvd player, etc) then buy a phone that lets you hack. Don’t complain about Apple’s lockin when everything they do revolves around lockin.
  • (iphone, apple)
  • (diveintomark.org, 60 saves, 61 inbound links, 9 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] 6 Rules for Dealing With Habits vs. Tasks
  • Good ideas about how to build habits
  • (habits, lifehacks)
  • (zenhabits.net, 54 saves, 8 inbound links, 58 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] Blogging is Dumb, Stupid and Successful
  • Rant against blogging about blogging and ‘quick tip’ type posts.
  • (blogging, writing, publishing)
  • (cornwallseo.com, 38 saves, 25 inbound links, 716 diggs)
• [CODE] What I Learned From X That Made Me A Better Programmer In Y
  • From the article: ” We go with Bob’s plan because Bob successfully asserted his dominance over Fred. If we’re lucky, Bob is good at making plans as well as asserting dominance, but if he’s bad at making plans but good at asserting dominance, his plan is still the plan”
  • (programming, philosophy, funny, genius, gilesismyhero)
  • (gilesbowkett.blogspot.com, 37 saves, 3 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [HUMOR] Microsoft Search
  • Microsoft Press releases shows that Microsoft Live Search will finally read the state Yahoo/Google was in 7 years ago.
  • (microsoft, search, funny, google)
  • (wdr1.com, 25 saves, 11 inbound links)
• [LIFEHACKS] shoutingmat.ch (lifehack)
  • Interesting agreggator for posts about lifehacks.
  • (lifehacker, blog, rss, news, lifehacks)
  • (lifehack.shoutingmat.ch, 22 saves, 10 inbound links)
• [SEO] SEOS : The Card Counters of the Internet
  • From the article: ” “Google is a casino, and you are a visitor.””
  • (seo, google)
  • (johnon.com, 19 saves, 24 inbound links, 19 diggs)
• [HUMOR] Crackbook
  • Facebook parody site.
  • (facebook, crackbook, parody)
  • (theinternetnowinhandybookform.com, 16 saves, 17 inbound links)
• [BLOGGING] The 7 Habits of Highly Defective Bloggers
  • 7 habits inverted with a view on blogging — what not to do
  • (blogging, tips)
  • (lifetrainingonline.com, 12 saves, 6 inbound links, 13 diggs)
• [PRESENTATIONS] Keynote (The Software) Considered Harmful
  • Do presentations and demos with nothing but a whiteboard. Much more interactive.
  • (presentation)
  • (gilesbowkett.blogspot.com, 9 saves)
• [SEO] How I reversed my Google ranking penalty
  • More on how asking for links with specific anchor text can get your blog blacklisted by google. Contest bloggers be aware.
  • (google, seo, contest)
  • (davidairey.com, 6 saves, 15 inbound links, 14 diggs)
• [HUMOR] 300: The Board Game
  • I still enjoy the meme :)
  • (funny, sparta)
  • (defectiveyeti.com, 5 saves, 4 diggs)
• [GUESTBLOGGING] Get Your Guest-Posts Here
  • Guestblogger for hire, Chris G.
  • (guestblogging)
  • (chrisg.com, 3 saves, 18 inbound links)
• [COPYRIGHT] Has And Belongs To Many: The Problem With Trademarking Rails
  • From the article: ” Trademark rights are destructive to the cooperation and trust necessary for successful open source projects.”
  • (copyright, rubyonrails)
  • (gilesbowkett.blogspot.com, 2 saves)
• [RUBY] When does ( ?? == 63 ) ?
  • True dat. Successfully scared me away from Ruby :)
  • (ruby)
  • (sob.apotheon.org)
• [SEO] A Google Allegory at Hamlet Batista dot Com
  • Asking for links with specific anchor text can get your blog blacklisted by google. Contest bloggers be aware.
  • (seo, google, contes)
  • (hamletbatista.com, 8 inbound links)
• [COMMUNITY] Poisonous People
  • OSCON PDF slides from the SubVersion guys. Read the poisonous people one!
  • (community)
  • (red-bean.com, 5 inbound links)

Legend

• saves – number of people who bookmarked on http://del.icio.us
• inbound links – number of blogs who linked to it (max 100)
• diggs – number of people who dugg on http://digg.com

This Week at Internet Duct Tape

• Distraction Free GTD: 32 Todo List Web Applications
  • Web Runner is a tiny site-specific web application that runs using less resources than Firefox or Internet Explorer. The whole idea behind a site specific web browser is that you want to access a web application without being tempted to access other sites. You want to access a site without being…
• Magazine Review: October 2007 Issue of Inc. Magazine
  • I came to a rather startling discovery in the past month: magazines are just blogs with the added luxury of being able to read them while on the toilet or in the bathtub (but hopefully not both). I picked up the October issue of Inc. magazine because Joel Spolsky of Joel On Software has joined the…
• Blog Tip: Create a Link Post in 3 Seconds
  • One question I’m frequently asked is “how do you build those Best of Feeds weekly links?” The way I do it is pretty complicated, but I’ve found a much simpler way that I want to share with you all.
• Digest for September 2007
  • Every month I publish a digest post collecting the best of Internet Duct Tape.
• Best of Feeds – 30 links – programming, productivity, code, socialsoftware, socialnetworking
  • Tags: adsense, advice, blogging, career, code, design, development, firefox, gtd, lifehacks, productivity, programming, ruby, rubyonrails, socialnetworking, socialsoftware, tips, web2.0, webdesign

This Week at IDT Labs

• [AKISMET] Akismet Auntie Spam v2.04
  • Our favorite Auntie has a new version. 2007/10/04 version 2.04 – Fixed (some) memory problems with v2.03 – Still slow, I need to get it working with a profiler, none of the hacks for Greasemonkey + Firebug seem to work.
• [DELICIOUS] Delicious Link Builder
  • Build a list of links using your delicious account to bookmark them. Works great with my Yahoo Pipe Cleaner script . Example : [BOOKMARKING] toread – an email-based bookmark service Simple service to use to track stuff ‘to read later’. They store the top 10 for each day. It’s like…
• [RSS PIPE] Stupid Credit Builder
  • This is a clone of Stupid Feed Rewriter that backdates the entry to January 1st, 1970. Useful for adding a credit link at the end of a list.

Tags: blogging, estimation, free, funny, google, gtd, javascript, lifehacks, productivity, programming, rails, ruby, rubyonrails, search, seo, tips

Subscribe to //engtech to see this every week (or get it by email).

• [GTD] Tracks
  • A Ruby on Rails web app that is multiplatform and ships with it’s own web server (if needed). Implements GTD.
  • (gtd, productivity, software, rails)
  • (rousette.org.uk, 3630 saves, 100 inbound links, 2 diggs)
• [CREATIVITY] how to be creative
  • From the article: ” Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.”
  • (creativity, inspiration)
  • (gapingvoid.com, 3159 saves, 100 inbound links, diggs)
• [DESIGN] 15 Excellent Examples of Web Typography. Part 1
  • 15 screenshots and links
  • (typography, design, webdesign, inspiration, css)
  • (ilovetypography.com, 947 saves, 68 inbound links, 1624 diggs)
• [GEEK] Cory Doctorow imagines a world in which Google is evil
  • Cory Doctorow short story.
  • (google, fiction, scifi, doctorow)
  • (radaronline.com, 374 saves, 100 inbound links, 22 diggs)
• [HUMOR] lolsecretz – LOLCATS + POSTSECRET OMG!!!!!!!
  • My memes have met and multiplied.
  • (humor, lolcats, postsecret)
  • (lolsecretz.blogspot.com, 311 saves, 100 inbound links, 17 diggs)
• [GEEK] How History Repeats Itself and the Death of Gmail
  • Joel recounts the death of Lotus 1-2-3 in modern terms and explains how Google and current AJAX apps will die when they don’t realize the changing SDK.
  • (history, javascript, joelonsoftware, strategy)
  • (joelonsoftware.com, 270 saves, 100 inbound links, 11 diggs)
• [CODE] 7 reasons I switched back to PHP after 2 years on Rails
  • Interesting take: your new code is better because your a better programmer, not because it’s a better language.
  • (ruby, programming, rails)
  • (oreillynet.com, 259 saves, 26 inbound links, 30 diggs)
• [JAVASCRIPT] Code Conventions for the JavaScript Programming Language
  • Good to know for writing Greasemonkey scripts.
  • (javascript, programming, conventions, research)
  • (javascript.crockford.com, 259 saves, 24 inbound links, 7 diggs)
• [INTERVIEWS] Thirteen Patterns Of Programmer Interviews
  • Humorous but very on-point. I wonder what the style of interviewing you perform says about your company?
  • (interview, programming, career, funny, interviewing)
  • (typicalprogrammer.com, 221 saves, 15 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [WORKHACKS] Secrets to Amazon’s success
  • From the article: ” People’s side projects, the one’s they follow because they are interested, are often ones where you get the most value and innovation. Never underestimate the power of wandering where you are most interested.”
  • (amazon, business, strategy, startup, workhacks)
  • (37signals.com, 176 saves, 26 inbound links, 3 diggs)
• [CODE] Everything Is Fast For Small n
  • Good overview of computational complexity and why you should always test with large datasets (on slow computers :) )
  • (programming, performance, optimization, sort, algorithms)
  • (codinghorror.com, 165 saves, 10 inbound links)
• [FIREFOX] Top 10 Firefox Extension-free Tabbed Browsing Techniques
  • Things you didn’t know how to do with Firefox tabs.
  • (firefox, tips, tabs, lifehacker)
  • (lifehacker.com, 83 saves)
• [EMAIL] Save Time With Search Folders in Outlook
  • Use search folders to organize your email instead of putting them in different folders
  • (outlook, tips, search, email)
  • (howtogeek.com, 42 saves, 4 inbound links)
• [SMO] Stumbleupon mathematics for stumblers
  • A very interesting hypothesis about how StumbleUpon decides how much traffic to send to a site.
  • (algorithm, stumbleupon, smo)
  • (ventureskills.wordpress.com, 40 saves, 19 inbound links, 5 diggs)
• [EFFICIENCY] Time Saving & Automation Round-up: Let the Computer Do the Work
  • Get your computer to do the heavy lifting. I can’t spell.
  • (productivity, automation, lifehacks)
  • (ofzenandcomputing.com, 30 saves, 2 inbound links, 8 diggs)
• [SMO] The Secret to Massive Digg/StumbleUpon Traffic Without Spamming
  • When someone promotes your post via a social media site, SAY THANK YOU and build a relationship with them.
  • (stumbleupon, digg, tips, socialnetworking, blogging)
  • (successful-blog.com, 26 saves, 16 inbound links, 75 diggs)
• [BOOKS] Author Robert Jordan Dies
  • Robert Jordan dies at 58 of a rare blood disease. Wheel of Times books left uncompleted.
  • (books, fantasy, news)
  • (ap.google.com, 8 saves, 100 inbound links, 10 diggs)
• [BLOGGING] 4 reasons to write on the weekend and 4 posts to do it with
  • Mu argues against taking the weekend off from blogging
  • (blogging, weekend)
  • (muhammadsaleem.com, 5 saves, 6 inbound links, 51 diggs)
• [LIFEHACKS] Nurture Your Relationships with Positive Flooding
  • You need 5 positive actions for every 1 negative action in marriages, 3:1 for work
  • (lifehacks, relationships)
  • (annezelenka.com, 5 saves, 3 inbound links)
• [PRIVACY] A Question of Privacy
  • Good overview of online privacy, data retention, cross-referencing, etc.
  • (privacy, internet, online)
  • (baekdal.com, 5 saves)
• [BLOGS] Copyright Notice
  • Finally a decent copyright notice for blogs! I’m going to copy it without giving any credit back.
  • (blogging, copyright)
  • (angryaussie.wordpress.com, 2 inbound links)
• [TV] 5 Questions Season Two of Heroes Had Better F#@king Answer
  • Great wrap up of Season 1 of Heroes.
  • (tv, heroes)
  • (cracked.com, 100 inbound links)

Legend

• saves – number of people who bookmarked on http://del.icio.us
• inbound links – number of blogs who linked to it (max 100)
• diggs – number of people who dugg on http://digg.com

This Week at Internet Duct Tape

• 9 Techniques to Promoting Your Social Web Application

  How do you build a web app that has traction, gain users and hopefully explodes virally? I’ve been paying attention to this space for far too long and this is a round-up of the tricks and techniques successful and not-so-successful social web applications use to promote themselves.

• The Problem With Social Web Applications

  This is an exciting time because unlike traditional software that runs on your computer [1], web applications are created as social software where you have a friends list, collaborate on a document with multiple people and it is easily to share information and communicate. The downside is these…

• Best of Feeds – 55 links – programming, firefox, blogging, tips, lifehacks

  Tags: blogging, books, business, debugging, del.icio.us, delicious, development, digg, facebook, firefox, funny, games, geek, humor, life, lifehacks, management, organization, productivity, programming, security, smo, socialbookmarking, socialnetworking, socialsoftware, stumbleupon, tips, video

This Week at IDT Labs

• [DELICIOUS/STUMBLEUPON] Delicious Stumbles crossposting tool

  Last Greasemonkey script this week :) With Delicious Stumbles I get all of the super-useful features I like about delicious (speed, recommended tags) but I also teach StumbleUpon more about what I like without having to spend all that time cutting-and-pasting between two accounts. Submit a page…

• [WORDPRESS] Comment Ninja

  My WordPress Comment Ninja extension is available for beta test. Try it out and let me know what you think! Respond directly from the comment administration panel on your dashboard Respond by comment, email or both (without having to cut-and-paste your response!) Respond using your email…

Tags: blogging, inspiration, javascript, lifehacks, productivity, programming, rails, strategy, stumbleupon, tips