LazerCatz!

I competed in the first ever Node Knockout over the weekend with a couple of friends and the fruit of our labor is an 8-bit multiplayer shooter called LazerCatz!

It was my first foray into Node and I have to say that event-based programming is a lot easier in the browser than it is on the server, at least for me anyways. There was still tons of fun to be had and the awesome Faye library made implementing a real-time game between many players a breeze.

Please check out the game and vote/review it if you have some free time. Also, if you want to participate next year please let me know, we were short a person this time around and we could have benefited from another set of hands.

Extract & Edit A Safari Extension

I asked this on Twitter the other day, but alas nobody came back with an answer.

Turns out it’s pretty easy to edit a Safari extension that you’ve downloaded. The downloaded file will have a .safariextz file extension. To extract the contents of the file, use the xar command. I’ll demonstrate with the BetterSource extension.

jerod@mbp:~/Downloads$ xar -xf BetterSource-1.0.safariextz

This will create a new directory called BetterSource-1.0.safariextension which has the plugin’s source files (plists, html, js, css, etc.). You can add this to Safari’s Extension Builder by:

1. Selecting Develop -> Extension Builder from Safari’s menu bar
2. Clicking the + button in the lower-left corner of the editor window
3. Pointing the open dialog box to the BetterSource-1.0.safariextension directory

And that’s all there is to it.

Some Great iOS Apps

I’d like to give props to a handful of iOS apps that I think are exceptional. If you haven’t used any of the following, I highly suggest you check them out.

Instapaper

Instapaper’s “read later” bookmarklet will change (for the better) how you consume content online. The iOS app is exactly what you need to read the content you’ve saved and nothing more. It’s beautifully minimal.

IMDb

Just wow. The developers of this little gem have almost ensured I’ll never visit their website again.

Amazon

I was hooked the first time I made some significant purchases while traveling 80+ mph down I-80. Massive value.

Kayak

This app has tons of use cases, but the flight tracker alone makes it worth its weight in gold. Realtime updates on the status of your flights? Yes, please!

Strategery

An addictive game akin to risk.

iSSH

Best of breed SSH application. Perfect when you’re in a pinch.

Reeder (iPad)

Seriously gorgeous interface for your Google Reader feeds. I literally wait until I’m around my iPad to check my RSS now. It’s that good.

iOctocat

The best way to keep up with open-source activity on GitHub.

Dropbox

I’m sure you already know about Dropbox. Unsurprisingly, their iOS app is great too.

USA Today (iPad)

Even old people would ditch their paper versions of the USA Today if they had this application on hand. Sometimes I check up on the news just to use it.

NPR (iPad)

Peruse and listen to tons of NPR content. So good.

Twitterific (iPad)

Despite the constant Twitter API Errors, this is one of the best feeling Twitter clients I’ve ever used. It takes advantage of the iPad’s form factor in every way.

Google Earth (iPad)

This app is nothing short of amazing. It literally puts the world in your hands as you tap, pinch, and spin the world around with ease. This is future stuff, and we are fortunate to be able to use such technologies.

Sorry for no direct links, but I was too lazy to fetch all the iTunes URLs for the apps. Just run a search in the App Store and you’ll find them with no problem.

Do you have any iOS apps that you absolutely love? Please let me know as I’m always on the lookout for great software.

Rack, and Firebug, and Fuel. Oh Hai!

So there is this really cool Rack middleware written by Simon Jefford which allows you to send arbitrary messages from your Rails controllers & views directly to Firebug’s (or Web Inspector’s) console. It is great for quick debugging. If that possibility excites you, head over to my recently published article on Fuel Your Coding to read all about it.

You may be wondering, what’s up with this Fuel Your Coding stuff? Well, I’ll tell you what’s up.

I’m very happy to announce that I’ve joined the Fuel Network as co-editor of FYC! I’m excited to help improve upon an already awesome blog by cultivating more content on the technologies that I use and love. I won’t be authoring articles there too often, but will be actively seeking and promoting quality contributions (If you’d like an opportunity to write for FYC, please contact me).

What does this mean for my blog? Not too much. Like before, I’ll be writing here as inspiration hits. Which is rarely, hah!

If you enjoy my blog, I highly encourage you to subscribe to FYC’s RSS feed as I’m sure you’ll find future content there very interesting.

Cheers!

Exciting Projects I Watched In February

Another month, another handful of great open-source projects I found on GitHub. Let’s get straight to it, shall we?

SlickGrid – A lightening fast JavaScript grid/spreadsheet. Finding a quality client-side grid tool is tough. This might just be one.

Textmate-Minimap – A minimap plugin for TextMate. So great for those overly sized source documents we all hate to admit we have.
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