January Bookmark Summary

I bookmarked quite a bit of stuff during January. Looking back on it, there are a few themes that repeated themselves.

Atom Publishing Protocol

I really, really, really want an end-to-end Atom Publishing system. To me, an ideal implementation would start from the ground up based on this and actually not even *have* a web-based interface. I had hope for one project mentioning APP support as a core feature. However, given that all of their initial work has been on designing an administration page/interface and logo, I kind of tossed that hope out the window. I'm building some of the pieces myself, to soothe my desire a bit.

• About Yulup
  An atom publishing protocol client that hooks into firefox. I installed this, not knowing when I'd first get to use it. Then I ended up on a Wordpress.com site that triggered this app because the site was enabled. Raised my hopes of a truly Atom Publishing Protocol method of writing for this and other sites.
• Getting Started - Yanel
  Atom publishing protocol server in Java Recommends Yulup as a client. Looks like Yulep and Yanel would work together well for a cohesive test system.
• How to make a good ID in Atom [dive into mark]
  The "id" element on each Atom post needs to be globally unique, associated with the site/author and independent of any URL changes to the site. That means that they need to remain valid even if you change your CMS engine, etc.
• isolani - Atom: PHP AtomAPI Implementation
  A basic implementation (an early one) of the APP server in PHP. At the very least, it's a good example of how to get hold of and deal with the PUT and DELETE HTTP methods in addition to the GET and POST we're all used to.
• habari - Google Code
  Proposed PHP blogging software that is based on the Atom Publishing Protocol. This is the engine that I was hoping would turn out well. The early work points to another open source project that is going to be "design by committee" and end up mediocre. To me, they should be starting with the overall architecture, NOT the look and feel. If you base an engine on APP, you should actually be able to have any number of different admin interfaces, depending on how you plan to use it. It looks like they are mostly building what they wish Wordpress was and tacking APP on as a cool feature. Oh well.
• URI Templates - Well Designed Urls WiKi
  If you build a truly RESTful application, how you do your URL's is critical to how the thing works. I really like this approach for simple rewrites. Definitely much easier to explain to people than mod_rewrite (despite the latter's power).
• APP Test Client GUI
  A GUI application that serves as a test client for your APP server. Tools like this are critical if everyone's aiming to match up their interoperability on these things.

Fonts

From fonts for an eventual redesign on this site to finding the perfect font to go with the perfect programming environment, I ended up with quite a few font links.

• Free Font Manifesto
  Arguing for a little bit of open source spirit in the fontography realm.
• FontForge install procedures for cygwin (MS/Windows)
  Tool for creating fonts, ported to Windows. Beats the heck out of paying the big bucks for the font tools, especially if you're just doing it for fun.
• Inconsolata
  monospaced open source font for programming. While I looked at lots of programming fonts, this one is not only free, but open source and includes the files you need to tweak it if it bugs you in some way.
• OFL Fonts
  Open Source fonts. All under the open font license. Though many aren't much to look at, I think it's an important distinction to single out these open source fonts as being different from yet another free font site.

Pens and handwriting

As I have been working on my handwriting, I've gone looking for stuff that's related.

• Grand Illusions Ltd Best Sellers
  Inkless pen. I wants one. So, much in fact that when they came back in stock, it was past my impulse tax window and I've got one on the way. No ink to spill out into the laundry. We'll see how fast I can lose it.
• handwriting tips
  Some general tips for fixing bad habits in your handwriting. If you don't need the kind of overhaul I needed, but just a brush-up, this might help you out.
• Improve handwriting. Quick results, easy work
  Improve handwriting using the italic script that's been used for a *long* time. Just because they got away from it for a few hundred years doesn't mean it isn't worth returning to.
• Italic Handwriting
  Feels a bit silly, but if you're looking for a free way to get the sheets for tracing out the letters, here they are.
• moleskinerie: Moleskine Pens?
  Discussion about pens to use with Moleskine notebooks. Lots of recommendations of good pens in there.
• { Pixilate } Handwriting Fonts
  If you're fed up with trying to fix your own handwriting, but still want that handwritten "look", just grab a font and fake it.

Just Plain Interesting or Useful

Don Visual Security: 9-block IP Identification
Don Park's stab at an automatic way of giving commenters a visual identity without them needing to set up avatars.
• Download of the Day: Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor - Lifehacker
  Figure out if your computer is going to keel over if you try to put Vista on it.
• YAWL: Yet Another Workflow Language - Home
  Found this while looking at diagramming solutions for working through application design. Programming language for building workflows.
• Jello « Jello.Dashboard
  A replacement dashboard for Outlook that helps you implement a GTD approach to task management. MUCH better suited to being task-oriented than the default one (which didn't get any better in Outlook 2007). I liked this so much, I offered the guy hosting and his new site will be sitting on my server.
• Minnesota Trivia & Tidbits - American Profile
  Stuff you never knew you wanted to know about Minnesota.
• grof# - A Group Oriented Framework for C#
  intriguing way to do internal chat without setting up a dedicated chat server or having to mess with MSN and company.