AmitU's Weekly - Volume 1

Programming & Geeky Stuff

mumpy.html

For a survey I decided to use google spreadsheet with their form. Problem: I can not edit my data. Also I wanted to show summary in real time as data is being entered. Read a bit more about it.

Unload Event Doesn't Work In Chrome

About why Google Chrome and other webkit/modern browsers do not "properly" support onunload event because they "hide" the page. (Also: onbeforeunload).

The New York Times Paywall Is Working Better Than Anyone Had Guessed

NYTimes started charging for their article some time back. Apparently move worked brilliantly for them. Internet may not kill news after all.

Cactus: Static Site Generator

My site runs on jekyll and am a big fan of static site generators. No deployment issues, no headache of site ever going down or requiring debugging. And almost full benefit of rich features for writing content. But I want python, and I am currently in love with Cactus. I am planning to fork the project to a different direction as I have quite a few plans with it.

Erlang on Xen

This is quite awesome, erlang and xen as the whole virtual machine, no operating system, no other processes. Startup time within 100ms. This is low enough that an xen instance that serves the web request and the erlang application that actually handles it can both be launched after the browser has made the request.

Links

• Mark Cuban's AMA
• Using the Inner Ear's Biological Battery
• Harvard Scientist Proposes Refreezing Arctic to Prevent Global-Warming Disaster
• Hundredth monkey effect
• Use ack instead of grep to parse text files
• Always Produce
• Steve Jobs was lucky or not?.
• Your iPhone as a Weapon
• Moneyball method for picking up startups
• The hum that helps to fight crime
• Screenshot-proof images via temporal dithering
• Ratchet: Prototyping iPhone apps in simple HTML, CSS, and JS
• Awesome Bootstrap Enhancements, paid

Politics & India & Philosophy

Reddit For Aaam Aadmi Party

I have created a new subreddit: /r/aap. I believe Kejriwal has right intentions but is complete fool in terms of strategy. He still deserves our support as he is trying to do the right thing, but he does not know what right is. I have argued why this subreddit may help give him better direction. Please subscribe to the subreddit, and spread the word about it.

Justice Katju's Blog

Justice Katju, Chairman Press Council of India, Former Judge Supreme Court Of India, has a blog. Some interesting defense of Sanskrit there (and an awesome comment destroying his thesis). Love this man, though, in my opinion, he has some nutty ideas.

Guns Vs Mobs

An article by me about how guns are an insurance against mob, and why they should be legal, despite the incidences like recurring US shootouts. Recent delhi gang rape in public shows how important it is for Indians to be self suffecient in terms of their security.

Women must own Taser (Stun Gun) In India

Another article by me advocating tasers or stun guns, as a must have tool for women. Unlike guns it does not require permits, so is plausible today, and is cheap and safe.

Links

• A brief history: Why do end-of-time beliefs endure?
• Trojan-horse therapy 'completely eliminates' cancer in mice
• Longer life expectancy, more years of disease
• First Sale Under Siege: If You Bought It, You Should Own It
• Is there such a thing as truth?
• The Copyright Monopoly Stands In Direct Opposition To Property Rights
• History of Gun Control
• Silencing the Science on Gun Research
• A $5 Lamp Powered Solely by Gravity
• Start-ups aim for a more democratic lobbying system

Personal Stuff & Random Thoughts

First Weekly Newletter

This is my first weekly newsletter, after sitting on this idea for months I have decided to write one. It arose from a need to share links, writing an individual post about each link is too much. Tweet is also not good as then my links get lost and 160 characters is too little. So now I have a file containing all the neat articles I read worth preserving, and at the end of week I am planning to send it as my newsletter.

Instapaper and Evernote

I am planning to have a page about all the tools I use, in the meanwhile I would say these two rock. I am reading lot more thanks to one and writing more thanks to the other.

Slots and Poker

Games by me :-). Working at crispygam.es is fun. Flash rocks.

Flash For Python Programmers

I am quite enjoying working with flash, and to be frank I quite feared flash all this while. These could be called the last few years of flash, but because it is such a cool technology I hope it lasts. In the meanwhile I am writing in a bookish form my notes on flash, intended for fellow python gprogrammers for learning flash from scratch, with bias towards game development.

Fahrenheit 451

Just finished this novel. 1984 probably had nicer ideas, but this one has more litrary value. Highly recommended.

Rise of the Guardians

I quite liked this movie. It is a fine Christmas movie, but what I really loved was the little things they changed. Everything was fresh, a Santa Clause that looked distintly Russian or Viking like, with a Russianish house, and swords in both his hands! How awesome is that! Yetis instead of his usual minions building the tools. Good will win if even one person believed in it shown in a very convincing manner without preaching. I feel the other characters made the movie less Christian, and more story driven, Sandman was distintly Budhdha like looking. Awesome battles.

Links

• Quentin's World

Date: 26th Dec 2012