Tag Archives: opensource

Automated export of your goodreads library

Dev, Hacks, Projects, Python, Software, , ,

Goodreads used to have an API but they stopped giving access and it looks like they are shutting it down. A real garbage move.

I like to be able to use my data that I put in so I wrote a script to automatically download my data regularly. Then I can do stuff like check to see if books I want are in the library or keep my own list or analytics, etc.

Here’s the python script to export your good reads library, hope it helps you. I’ll put it in the public domain.

Updated to add: I got tired of dealing with places that do garbage moves. I left GoodReads for BookWyrm and it’s better.

Pingplotter

Dev, Pals, Software, Video, , , , ,

I need to see if my remote connection to work is healthy and if my remote connection to video conferencing is suffering.

I wrote a little utility to handle that in the commandline. It’s dumb but it works. Let’s call it pingplotter. It’s in the public domain, go nuts.

It’s fine to just pop in a terminal you have open, but it plays really nice with tmux and glances (I use both).

I think I spent nearly as much time making these screencasts as I did writing the shell script. I should blog that too, if only so I don’t have to research that again.

Save Crush3r – an open letter to Ericson de Jesus

Pals,

Hi Ericson,
Crusher was my favorite invite service.  I used it once or twice a year for my parties and thought it was just dandy.  I want to avoid big services because I didn’t like the way they were monetizing me and my friends. They felt gross.

I am an open source developer.  Not a great one, but a persistent one. If you are shutting down crusher and you don’t have a way to make enough money off it to support it, why not get some credit for what you made? If you want to make it an open source offering from Particle, that would be awesome.  If, instead, you’d like some help, I’d be willing to offer some hours from my side to open source it and make it easier for other folks to self-host and contribute.

I think it would be a shame if the great work you did just went poof!  I’m willing to chip in some effort to make this usable to lots of other folks.  If you can’t open source it, I’d love any advice or patterns you can suggest if I want to take this on as a project after I finish up Wordprss – an feed reader for wordpress. I’d like to have an easy evite alternative that I can self host and trust with my friend’s info.

So I’d love to hear from you – any thoughts on how to do this?

How to make an engagement ring

Pals, , , , , ,

This project will take around 7 years of preparation and 42 hours of labor.  Choose your inspiration wisely, then make sure to work with a professional for guidance, troubleshooting, advice and assistance. 1

Gather your materials.  In our case we will be using recycled white gold, a few flecks of rose gold and a Moissanite 2 gemstone.

Recycled white gold and a silicon carbide gem Continue reading How to make an engagement ring →

  1. Sam Abbay of New York Wedding Rings is a pleasure to work with and I can’t recommend him enough. He makes sure that all materials are sourced ethically and safely.  He gives great advice and helps you through the most difficult bits.  The ring I made with him is the most beautiful project I’ve ever worked on.   (back)
  2. Silicon Carbide   (back)

Better Berkeley Webcasts even better

Browsers, Hacks, User Experience, , , , , , ,

Nate Whitten wrote in with a suggestion for Better Berkeley Webcasts.  He wants to save all of the files to check them out later.  He’s using a download manager like Down Them All 1, but Berkeley’s files are named poorly, so he doesn’t know which one to watch first.

Even better, he sent in the fix for it – he’s numbered the download links.

You should download it from me, or over on the UserScripts.Org page.  As always, you’ll need Firefox and Greasemonkey.

  1. my favorite, you should check it out  (back)

How could you hack open subtitles?

Art, Pals, Politics, Video, , , , , , ,

The Miro open subtitles project just got funded at kickstarter.

The promise is an open source of subtitles for video. Now the subtitles won’t be restricted to the people who made the video. They are anticipating use for the hearing impaired and for translations.  Why am I excited?

The project is also designed to make this decentralized, so that it can be implemented by other video players, and so that users can subscribe to multiple sites of subtitles.  That’s the interesting bit!

I’m seeing subtitles as commentary, subtitles with contrasting dialogue, snarky notes about continuity issues and product placement, or political connections…  Imagine the amazing ShiftSpace web experience 1, or Google’s Sidewiki, but for video.

It’s just cream that the project was funded by tiny donations from lots of strangers 2.

  1. I know Mushon through Eyebeam and Add-Art   (back)
  2. I’m one of them   (back)

Ramblings about add-art

Art, Dev, Hacks, Software, , , , ,

Ignore this, it is just a braindump from the train.  Unless you want to help out.

I’ve started working on a project called add-art.   The idea is to turn advertisements into beauty.  It is based on the popular ad-block-plus firefox extension, but instead of leaving holes where advertisements are removed, it would insert art.  Curators could book shows on add-art.org for artists.  When you go to a website with tons of ads, they would be replaced by art images.

Great stuff!   Once we get the plugin working with add-art.org, we should look at decentralizing it.  Let the extension communicate with multiple ad block lists and multiple replacement image servers.  Then package the add-art.org server as an installable package so anyone can run it.  Let users pick up the url of other servers as a way to get art from the artists they like on their browser…

Deviantart might run something like this.
Maybe flickr/explore/interesting could be a provider.
Hell, why not use atom/rss as the provider and let any rss list of images be the provider?
Image sizing becomes an issue.  You need to stick in appropriate sized images.  If they aren’t the right size you’ll need to slice them up on the client side.  Is that cheap?  Does the browser give you a way to not only decently resize, but also slice from an image?