Reverse-engineering proprietary javascript data transfer: not my idea of fun.

• MacinCloud - Rent a Mac online. Not exactly cheap but not as expensive as buying one.
• Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support - Don't buy an Android phone unless you're happy with the version of the OS that it already runs.
• Ruby HTTP clients features - Nice chart to help you choose among a bunch of libraries.
• Pixelmator 2.0 - Yum yum.
• Mercury - Nice in-browser WYSIWYG editor written for HTML 5.

Bobbing for apples in ice water: not the smartest thing ever.

• Debugging and editing webpages in 3D - The latest news from the Firefox Tilt addon, surely one of the wackiest debugging tools out there.
• A Quick Introduction to Rack - A bunch of the basics if you don't know what this web request handler does.
• Gaga: A Git-Backed Key/Value Store - Just in case you need a KVS with versioning.
• AppCode - New commercial Objective-C IDE from JetBrains.
• Codify - Touch-based Lua IDE for the iPad.

Getting the itch to write again. Now, if I can only find time…

• Say Hello to Hubot - GitHub open sources their Campfire bot.
• Compiling Ruby on a fresh Lion install - A couple of notes about how to do it cleanly inside of rbenv.
• osx-gcc-installer - Get gcc and related tools on OS X without the pain in the butt of installing XCode.

There's always room for one more good consulting client.

• node-toolbox - All the links you need for working with and enhancing node.js.
• ixoth - Ruby utility to integrate with Apple's new Siri voice assistant.
• Nest - Fancy-schmancy Apple-inspired new programmable thermostat that had a full-court press blitz this morning. We'll see if it lives up to its PR in a few months.
• db2fog - Rails plugin to backup MySQL or PostgreSQL to a cloud storage provider. Now with some annoying code from me ;)
• Testling - Cross-browser automated javascript testing service.

Sleeping under the stars: still fun when it leaves you with a head cold.

• On cryptography and dogmas - Technical discussion of SHA1 with a good general point at the end: "Finally it is ok for me when people are rude with me when they are right. Arrogance can be handled if it is mixed with smartness. When instead it meets ignorance it is really just a sad affair."
• rails-style-guide - Opinionated attempt to collect Rails 3 best practices.
• Firebug 1.9a4 - I'm actually finding Firebug alphas on nightly Firefox builds to be quite usable. Your mileage may vary.
• How to achieve more clean, encapsulated, modular step definitions with Spinach - A new alternative to Cucumber for testing.

I'm past ready to spend another weekend in the woods.

• OCZ's Octane SSD: Indilinx Everest, Up to 1TBB in a Consumer Drive - Yum yum.
• XSS is fun! - Cross-site scripting hole at NYT, CNN, and elsewhere. This sort of thing is why I run Firefox with NoScript.
• I Hate My Smartphone - Glad to see someone else isn't all starry eyed about this new tech stuff.
• Ruby 2.0 Implementation Work Begins: What is Ruby 2.0 and What's New? - I guess this means it's about time for me to look at 1.9.

I wonder how many people would be interested in a course on Rails on Udemy?

• 65K Open TCP Ports - Server with every port open. Useful to see whether your ISP or hosting company is blocking something.
• FinalTouch - App that gives you a hot key to slow down the mouse when you're trying to position something precisely.

Another day in the trenches.

• rest-client - Easy ruby REST client.
• LayerVault - "Simple version control for designers" offering a transparent UI-based way to keep version history.
• Mustaches, ERB and the future of templating - Techniques to get view/layout separation within ERB.
• RubyMonk - In-browser Ruby learning experience.
• rolify - Roles gem designed to integrate with CanCan and devise.
• Markdown Pro - Markdown editor with instant preview, Lion integration, PDF and HTML export. $9.99 on the App Store.

Finally got the comments here sorted…I think. Sorry for missing the setting that turned them back on for so long.

• Why Bundler 1.1 will be much faster - Because people actually worked together, that's why.
• Amy Editor - Pretty impressive online shared code editor.
• Caution for Startup Kids - Things to watch out for if you're tempted by notions like "ramen profitability."

• Renee - Oh look, it's another Rack-based web framework.
• Factory Girl 2.2, your new best friend! - Syntax marches on.
• Time zone database has a new home after lawsuit - The Internet routes around damage once again.
• Alice - Javascript library for applying CSS3 animations. Only supported in a few browsers at the moment.

And now back to the grind, after a lovely day off.

• Ubuntu Certified Hardware - There really are a lot of systems you can happily run linux on these days. That sort of snuck up on me.
• The Resque Way - A batch of advanced stuff you can look at after you get beyond the "fire and forget" approach to resque jobs.
• GitLab - Open source partial UI clone of GitHub that runs on top of gitosis. Amusingly enough their source is hosted on GitHub.
• State of the Stack - New Relic reveals what the cool kids are using these days.

Looks like a fine day to be out in the woods.

• Content Security Policy: A Primer - Another chunk of web standards that I really ought to learn about.
• Creating Your First Gem - A tutorial that'll get you to the "hello world" stage.
• Understanding the Rails Logger - Graeme Matheison takes a journey into the Rails codebase.

Learning bushels about browser add-on development lately. Not sure this is really worth filling my brain with though.

• Tracking the Trackers: Where Everybody Knows Your Username - Further evidence that privacy on the web is largely illusory. Depressing enough to make me want to just unplug entirely.
• Programming Language Checklist - Simplifying the job of dissing new languages.

• Choclatey NuGet - Package manager for Windows. Srikes me as an odd concept, but hey, anything that improves Windows is worth doing.
• Puppet vs. Chef, Fight! - Fairly level-headed comparison of these two system management systems.
• KickSat - Your personal spacecraft in space! - $300 to this KickStarter project gets you an honest-to-goodness satellite. Amazing.
• Hello, World in Dart compiled to Javascript - Oh. My.
• Markdrop - Drag-and-drop browser-based Markdown previews.
• New Support Site & Over 100 Awesome Alfred Extensions - More good news for users for Alfred App.
• WebAppSec/Secure Coding Guidelines - Extensive advice from Mozilla.

Weekends were made for catching up.

• rubydictionary - Turn the RDoc from any ruby application into an OS/X dictionary. That's kinda neat.
• Rails 3.1 upgrade and asset folders - Some notes on making Rails and Capistrano play nicely together again.
• Private Eye - Free network connection monitor for OS X Lion.
• The new Ruby Toolbox is ready! - Big overhaul for this site that helps you find the most popular gems and plugins in a variety of categories.
• Upgrading to Rails 3.1.1 - Some help if you're coming from any beta in the 3.1.0 or 3.1.1
series.
• ApeJS - Tiny javascript web framework for Google App Engine.
• 16 Pixels: For Body Copy. Anything Less is a Costly Mistake. - Good advice. Except when it isn't, of course.
• Dart - New "structured web programming" language from Google. Personally, I'm underwhelmed; it looks like a main driver is the hope of creating a class of web apps that run best on Chrome for the immediate future. If I wanted amenities wrapping javascript, I'd use CoffeeScript.

Enjoying the end of another work week. Hope you are too. Even if we're working into the weekend.

• Time-zone database down - This is actually a huge big deal; a lawsuit (that appears somewhat dubious on its face) has caused the database of timezones that pretty much everything depends on to go offline. More info on the facts here.
• Google Cloud SQL: your database in the cloud - Google has implemented a MySQL workalike in the Google App Engine cloud environment.

It's a sad day when running a Fall Festival parking lot is more fun then writing code.

• Do you know Ruby Doctest - I don't find that embedding tests directly in the code being tested is very readable, but it's an interesting idea.
• New - Amazon S3 Server Side Encryption for Data at Rest - The latest leap forward for AWS. I've been on projects that could have really used this.

Parking cars today. The things I do for Scouting…

• Asepsis - Mac geek app to get .DS_Store files under control.
• jQuery 1.7 Beta 1 Released - New event APIs, animation improvements, and other goodies.
• Putting clouds in boxes for webdevs at Mozilla - Mozilla is feeling its way towards providing turnkey images for those who want to get involved.
• Fitbit Ultra - OK, so I've got a gadget problem. I still want one of these.

Just waiting for someone to announce a PAAS focused on BASIC.

• Innovatio’s Infringement Suit Rampage Expands To Corporate Hotels - There's now an outfit claiming patent royalties from anyone using WiFi. More evidence that the patent system is fundamentally broken.
• Bitbucket now rocks Git - Just in case you're looking for git hosting with unlimited repositories for free.
• RailsCasts Pro - I can't think of anyone who's done more to teach Rails than Ryan Bates. Here's your chance to support him to the tune of $9 per month for extra content.
• MicroGems: five minute RubyGems - Why not store an entire gem in a gist? Jeff Kreetmeijer shows you how. You can view the actual micro-gem here.
• Getting Started Guide: AWS Web Application Hosting for Linux - If you've lost track of all the Amazon Web Services and want a road map to rolling out a new site, take a look at this one.

Fall is definitely in the air around here.

• fog 1.0 is here - That's Engine Yard's gem for managing all manner of cloud infrastructure across many providers.
• MiniTest::Spec Setup with Capybara in Rails 3.1 - Small testing library, solid integration tests, what's not to like?
• Riak 1.0 is Officially Released! - Why, so it is.
• Stripe - More good-looking competition in the credit card automation space. This one looks really easy to get moving.
• Visual Transistor-level Simulation of the 6502 CPU - That I find this nifty probably just shows my advancing age.
• repl.it - Like Try Ruby, but for a bunch of different programming languages including Scheme, Ruby, Python, QBasic, and even LOLCODE.
• The Little Book on CoffeeScript - A brief introduction online.
• Hackerhub - If you can get a JSON file to a server with a URL, you can make your work available via the Hackerhub server.