Interesting Conferences not to miss:

Makerland: http://www.makerland.org
EuRuKo: http://euruko.org
I T.A.K.E: http://2014.itakeunconf.com
RE/Mixed Media Festival IV: http://remixnyc.com
beyondtellerrand http://beyondtellerrand.com/berlin-2014
31c3: http://events.ccc.de/tag/31c3

For years I’ve been running my own CalDav/CardDav server to sync my Contacts, Calendars and Reminders across all my devices. I’ve been very happy with DAViCal, until recently, I had to switch to a simple vhost which doesn’t offer PostgreSQL and custom apache cfgs. So I did some research which other implementations may be useful, those are most promising ones:

Radicale (Python + Mysql)
http://radicale.org

Baïkal (PHP + Mysql)
based on SabreDav
http://baikal-server.com

SabreDav (PHP + Mysql)
DAV Framework,
https://code.google.com/p/sabredav

DAViCal (PHP + PostgreSQL)
Very complete, but not that easy to install.
http://www.davical.org

Other:
Apple CalendarServer: http://trac.calendarserver.org

See full list:
http://caldav.calconnect.org/implementations/servers.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b4w749Tud8

Me wants :)

https://www.leapmotion.com/apps

ok some time passed since I wrote my dev setup, so here”s my current one *braindump*

Main Development Setup
Mountain Lion
xCode (or latest iPhone SDK)
Homebrew
Ruby: rvm + rubygems + rails etc.
Database: Mysql 5.1 + Sequel Pro
OpenVPN: Tunnelblick
iTerm 2
Sublime Text 3
Git + GitX (rowanj fork)
FTP & Co: Cyberduck
Hudson status: CCMenu
Share Files: Dropbox
Google Chrome
Safari
Firefox + Firebug

Extended Development
Arduino
Processing
Fritzing
Eclipse

Nice to have:
System Notification: Growl
IRC: hide join messages Adium
Skype
original Twitter client (suxx)
Bowtie
Spotify
All Codecs: Perian
Dasboard widgets: IP + App Update
Copy&Paste History: Flycut
Word replacement: iWork
Apple Mail

Installation hints:

Show hidden files: http://www.mikesel.info/show-hidden-files-mac-os-x-10-7-lion/
Show full dir: http://osxdaily.com/2007/12/02/show-full-directory-path-in-finder-window-title-bars/

Wow, I just discovered EEVblog which has awesome video material for electronic geeks. This one will definitely help me choosing a new multimeter + its just fun to watch - stay tuuuned!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zele19jm1MQ

Here a very late shout out to an interesting project: control your Arduino via the browser! Basically its a browser plugin to get access to your machines (virtual) serial port. With that you can use javascript to send and receive any data - how cool is that!?

http://www.zambetti.com/projects/seriality/

so return actually makes difference in some cases!

def mystery_number
  return 23
ensure
  42
end


def mystery_number2
  return 23
ensure
  return 42
end

puts mystery_number  # -> 23
puts mystery_number2 # -> 42

Yay the Carambola Board arrived today from Exp Tech. Time to start hacking!!

Good place to start with:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK0ia4DXrtA

To start with: http://www.8devices.com/wiki_carambola/doku.php/

oh yeah, I guess I finally got the basic difference between a Transistor and a MOSFET:

Transistor is current driven, a MOSFET via voltage! Thanks to Pete, and his fabulous SparkFun screencasts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFt8hkh17_w

yieha! Watch ‘em all: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9EF3C374FD903ACE

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOSFET

I had the problem of my Mac not going into sleep when external screen is connected and closing the lid. Luckly I came across this advice which indeed, did the trick:

1. Disable external Monitor
2. Type sudo nvram boot-args="iog=0x0"
3. and restart

Voilà!

Update : With Yosemite you need to type:

sudo nvram boot-args="niog=1"

Source: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6601019

Little MySQL to hide a unwanted variable declaration:

problem

SELECT
@l:="tempvalue" AS unwanted_output,
"actual output" AS ouput,
@l AS position;

Solution - ‘hide’ the var assignment within a Wrap variable inside a IFdefenition:

SELECT
IF(@l:="tempvalue", "actual output", "dummy") AS ouput,
@l AS position;

In ruby curly braces have different meanings:

1. A hash:

my_hash = {:a => 1, :b => 2}

or the same but more JSON like syntax ( ruby >= 1.9 only)

my_hash = {a:1, b:2}

same as:

my_hash = Hash.new
my_hash[:a] = 1
my_hash[:b] = 2

2. A block:

in rough and short: a block is a piece of code which will/can be executed either ‘later in time’ or ‘in a different context’

3.times do
 puts "HI"
end

or

3.times {
 puts "HI"
}

especially in one line it reads nice:

3.times { puts "HI" }

usually blocks have parameters which allows them easily to be identified:

  3.times { |index| puts "Loop: #{index}" }

oh and here’s a third case:

3. curly braces us variable within a string_

name = "Heinz"
puts "#{name} Ketchup is toll"

same as

name = "Heinz"
puts name + " Ketchup is toll"

I hope this helps to understand. I have to admit, curley braces have lots of different meanings in ruby and are indeed confusing - quite often they are ‘shortcuts’ to make your code read nice.

For the record: Here’s my favorite realworld hack I got once told by my lovley coworker Roel:

How to clean a messy whiteboard.

Remember the situation when one used the wrong pen for the whiteboard and can’t clean it? Just take another pen which can be erased and go over the non erasable parts - suddenly everything gets clean away:

Or in the words of TvLesson:
Take another dry erase marker (preferably darker than the marks that you are trying to remove) and draw on top of the messy marks. Then wipe the marks away with a dry erase eraser or soft cloth.

The new layer of dry erase marker will lift and loosen the underlying marks. It’s simple but may not work for tougher messy marks.

http://www.tvlesson.com/article/13405_how-to-erase-a-messy-whiteboard.html

Example code for multiple FE state toggled via CSS classes only

<html>
<body>

<div id="state" class="pending">
  <div id="pending">Pending</div>
  <div id="success">Successful</div>
  <div id="fail">Failed</div>
</div>

<style>
#state div {
  display: none;
}

#state.pending #pending  {
  display: block;
}

#state.success #success {
  display: block;
}

#state.fail #fail {
  display: block;
}

#state.debug div {
  display: block;
}


</style>

</body>
</html>

Here are two *very* good update-to-date sources of Rspec howtos and best practices:

The first on by Andrea Reginato(@lelylan) gives a very good overview. Start here:
https://docs.google.com/a/soundcloud.com/document/d/1gi00-wwPaLk5VvoAJhBVNh9Htw4Rwmj-Ut88T4M2MwI/mobilebasic?pli=1&hl=en

The second one by Jeff Pollard features ninja-kick-ass shared spec examples:
http://bitfluxx.com/2011/05/23/some-rspec-tips-and-best-practices.html

Andrea did already a good job with the Google Doc, but what about collection all tipps into git repo so everyone can easily collaborate - let’s fork, PR and drive it forward!

More sources to follow - spec it, run it, kick it!

[kind of unrelated but nice picture ‘borrowed’ from global nerdy]