Topics: Free MS ebooks, Xamarin podcast, cloud server in 55 sec., squash your PNGs, Heartbleed fallout, RDP from Android.
- Former co-worker @_Shakeel passed along some free e-books being offered by Microsoft Virtual Academy.
- @munificentbob announced his free online book, Game Programming Patterns.
- I keep finding more and more Xamarin community resources. This week it was their podcast on SoundCloud.
- Also, useful for cross-platform development: Notes on Using Various PCL Profiles with Xamarin (via @WindowsAppDev)
- Cloud hosting service DigitalOcean advertises you can spin up a new “droplet” (i.e. VM) in 55 seconds, and has what looks to be a pretty reasonable pricing structure.
- Do you know what your TRAQ score is? Online comic Devil’s Panties (“not satanic porn!”) has a good write up about their ad revenue tanking after improperly getting flagged as an adult site.
- If you’re working on web pages be sure to check out these handy CSS tips.
- In the wake of Heartbleed the OpenBSD community is refactoring OpenSSL “one arcane VMS hack at a time.” (via Dan)
- Meanwhile, a security firm reports many Android apps (mostly games) are vulnerable to Heartbleed and most scanning apps are doing it wrong, but don’t tell us which ones are doing it right. (via Re/Code)
Tools, etc.
- Color Scheme Designer is a great online tool for generating/exploring color palettes.
- And while we’re talking design, Scott Hanselman reminds us to squish our image files – Trimage is a handy app to do that on Linux, Windows and Mac.
- Did you know Google has a Remote Desktop tool for Chrome? Well, now it’s available for Android too.
Projects, etc.
- Less than 30 days left in the FoodStats app fundraiser. We’re at $250 now. Pledge as little as a $1 or as much as you feel like – every little bit helps. Or just help spread the word: Use the share buttons on the campaign site or give this easier-to-remember URL to friends, family and those who might be interested: http://tiny.cc/foodstats
- Released an initial alpha version of Commit Message Editor – a simple, cross-platform GUI editor for commit messages in Git. The goal is to provide a light-weight editor with key features useful for writing commit messages. (This was a request from my friend and former co-worker Jonathan.)
Do you have diabetes, high blood pressure or another medical condition that means you need to be careful what you eat? Do you have a loved one who does? Or perhaps you just want to keep careful track of your calorie intake? Earlier this year I finally began getting my own Type 2 Diabetes under control by reducing my carbohydrate intake. I’ve gone from a blood sugar of over 340 to a daily average of 120 in the last several months. Now my doctor and I are tackling my high blood pressure, which means I need to also watch how much sodium is in the foods I eat. During this time, I’ve found the NutritionIX website to be a great tool. Not only can I look up the nutrition stats for individual foods, but they also list menu items from over 500 restaurants. Unfortunately, their website is not very mobile friendly and they don’t make a mobile app.
Today I am announcing that I have started an Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign to help me build such an app for Android smart phones. Future efforts will include an iOS app, but this first phase will be for Android because that’s what I have. The app will be created with cross-platform support in mind, and will be available under an open source license, so anyone else will also be free to build upon my work – whether it be for Windows, Mac, Linux the web or other phone platforms.
And that’s why I’m running a crowd-funding campaign. Medical issues like diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity have become a common part of our lives. Nutrition plays a huge part in maintaining our health and modern technology now gives us the ability to get that information no matter where we are. It shouldn’t be limited to just those who can afford to pay for it, provided only by those who can afford to make it available. I want to help NutritionIX, the USDA and other providers get this information into as many hands as possible.
You can help. Even if you can’t afford to make a donation please help me spread the word. Tell everyone you know – especially doctors, dietitians or anybody else concerned with nutritional health. Use the buttons below to share this post on your social networks. And if you are considering donating, thank you. Every little bit helps: I’ve set the minimum donation at $1, with perks for those who donate more. If you’d like even more options you can find them on my Support Shawn’s work page.
This campaign is my first step on the path of the new way to think about “employment”, which I talked about in a previous post. Help me prove that we are no longer locked into the same old cycles. There is a better way.
]]>If you have or know somebody with diabetes, high blood pressure or dietary restrictions – and a smart phone – watch for a major announcement from me tomorrow (4/15/2014) morning.
]]>I’ll soon be announcing a project I’m very excited about: a portable library and Android app for the wonderful data provided by the folks at NutritionIX. NutritionIX provides comprehensive nutrition information for individual food items as well as popular restaurants – something that has been extremely useful in managing my diabetes (type 2). Watch this space for the official project announcement in the coming days.
Also, I’ve added a new option for donating to support my work: There are now PayPal buttons both here on my blog and at http://tiny.cc/support-cms which allow you to make a donation of any amount you wish using only a credit card. There is no need to sign up for an account. Thanks for your support; every little bit helps.
]]>I’m going to try something new, in an effort to both share things I find out about and write more. Each week I’ll compile a list of cool and/or useful tools, information, tips, etc. and post them here each Friday:
- Listened to a great Hanselminutes podcast interview with Model View Culture – A new media platform covering Technology, Culture, and Diversity.
- Venn diagrams of SQL JOINs. (via @jamesthigpen via @ShawnWildermuth)
- Scott Hanselman also has a good overview of things you shouldn’t be doing, or doing any more, in ASP.NET.
- Did you know that Github will show geo data as maps? And that now you can look at diffs of the committed data to see how the map changes over time?
- Is your government on Github?
Tools
- Windows Firewall Control – more and better control over the firewall built into Windows. (via Security Now, ep 441)
- Need to search a Github wiki? (Searches on Github don’t include wiki content.) There’s an extension for that. (via Stackoverflow)
- Network Monitor Mini for Android floats a minimalist upload/download speed widget on your screen.
- Need a multi-functional calculator? //web2.0calc.com has got you covered. (via @SGgrc)