I wrote about the Mac application “Fake”[1] awhile ago. From my very first use, I thought it was an incredibly clever tool. Fake is like a super-charged automator for Webkit. It makes automating interactions with webpages easy and simple. But why would I want to use Fake instead of Automator or curl or even a Python script? Here’s an example that I just started using.
If I want to add an affiliate link for a Mac or iOS app, I need to visit the Apple Link Maker page with my affiliate id as a get-parameter in the link.
Yahoo has become the joke of Silicon Valley. But while they may have let their lead in search die of neglect, they should be applauded for one of their greatest contributions it JavaScript. The YUI libraries are great. I learned JavaScript while hacking around with YUI stuff. It made me feel like I could actually hack something together that worked and looked professional. YUI 3 is even better. Take a look this Nettus tutorial for making a Twitter widget.
AppleScript is easy for most basic file manipulations on the Mac. For example, I can get a files modification timestamp with the following bit of AppleScript:
set modificationDate to modification date of this_item
where "this_item" is a reference to a file. "modificationDate" now contains a value like "Wednesday, December 21, 2011 7:24:22 PM"
But that's a pretty awkward timestamp if I want to use it to name a file. In AppleScript, reformatting a timestamp is awkward and tedious.
CodeRunner is getting better all of the time. The new update brings tabs and a file navigator side bar. $4.99 for a great scripting app.
There's some very high quality AppleScript functions and tools on Brati's Lover. Just look at this nicely compiled list of file handlers. The site is worth a visit just for the cute Mac-like design.
Think Vitamin has upped their post frequency recently and the content is great. They have a new post about creating JS bookmarklets for doing more than opening a URL. Besides a great feed, they’re also associated with Treehouse training, which is an interesting take on learning iOS and WebDev.
It's almost like flashcards for beginner Python users.
http://facts.learnpython.org/all
I wanted a handy way to convert a feed url to the redirected url. For example, Reeder puts this url on the clipboard:
“http://feeds.harvardbusiness.org/~r/harvardbusiness/~3/_folqII9-_8/beware-of-the-short-term-opera.html”
But when I make a post, I want this url:
“http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2011/12/beware-of-the-short-term-opera.html”
There are a number of reasonable ways to do this, but I like Python so that’s what I went with.
It’s a Hack! I’m an inquisitive hack. I know just enough of these technologies to be dangerous.
He's not called "Dr." Drang for nothin'.
I think I learned no less than six new things in this post by Dr.Drang, one of which is that I need to follow Dr.Drang on Twitter.
I just started using CodeRunner and Patterns for script writing.[1] They are both available in the MAS.
CodeRunner supports AppleScript, Python, Ruby, Shell and several more. It provides syntax highlighting and code completion. Importantly it also provides a console window to display the output as well as a mode for accepting input. Sure, it’s not BBEdit, but it’s lightweight and single minded. There are not many frills but it works great.
