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Over the last few months we’ve been working with LEGO Australia, thinking about what would happen if we brought bricks to the browser. Build is the result: our latest Chrome Experiment which lets you explore and build a new world of LEGO creations together online. With 8 trillion bricks, think of Build as the largest LEGO set you’ve ever seen.

Only Australia and New Zealand for now. Works fine in Aurora too.
Build with Chrome →
Build: bringing LEGO bricks to Chrome →
A tile at Watson Bay which I filled →
Junior — an iPad browser that makes browsing more fun, more ergonomic and re-thinks browser user experience from the ground up.
Like the fact that the browser is runnning fullscreen with only two buttons overlayed: a back button and a “go somewhere” button. The latter brings up a screen where you can change tabs, load a favorite or type in a URL.
Crappy screengrabs from the video below:

(via tweeted:
)
Most developers use PHP in a web context and run their code via Apache. The command line interface (CLI) is another approach to run PHP without the overhead of your webserver. This talk not only illustrates the usage of the PHP binary, but also some use cases for which the CLI is the better tool.
Enlightening talk at PHPNW11 by Thijs Feryn. Video also available.
Very nice! The customizable click-on keyboard is a really nice touch (no pun intended)

The name could’ve been chosen more carefully though, as I first though of the (previous) Microsoft Surface which, apparently, has been renamed to PixelSense.
Now, when can we buy this baby?
Proof of concept of the USE-IT Twitter Split-flap Display, a project issued by USE-IT and built by a few of my students Professional Bachelor ICT
The whole installation is connected via a Netduino board to Twitter and monitors a certain (configurable) hashtag. Tweets found are then displayed on the split-flap display. Heart of the installation is a MCP23018. The split-flaps themselves were recovered from an old train station.
The current installation is only a proof of concept (limited to 8 characters) running in demo mode (showing a set of pre-configured words) and is not optimized yet (characters turn one-by-one, not simultaneously).
A very solid read on billing and doing business in general.
Consulting can be a great way to fund a startup or make a bunch of cash. It’s easy to start; Just pick an hourly rate and jump in.
But someday soon you’ll notice there’s only so many billable hours in the day, and you’ll be tempted to expand. Maybe hire an employee for $30 per hour and re-bill them at $60. Easy money, right?
Unfortunately the math doesn’t work that way.
The unfortunate math behind consulting companies →
Popular pet names Rover, Cheryl and Kate could be a thing of the past. Banks are now advising parents to think carefully before naming their child’s first pet. For security reasons, the chosen name should have at least eight characters, a capital letter and a digit. It should not be the same as the name of any previous pet, and must never be written down, especially on a collar as that is the first place anyone would look. Ideally, children should consider changing the name of their pet every 12 weeks.
Hilarious! Be sure to read the full article, as it contains more gimmickry.
Children warned name of first pet should contain 8 characters and a digit →
Single page demoing all the new CSS filter effects (grayscale, sepia, hue-rotate, invert, brightness, contrast, blur, saturate, drop-shadow & opacity). Not to be confused with the legacy IE filter CSS property, which has been deprecated.
Use Chrome or IE10 dev preview.

Something that was long overdue: an official Facebook for WordPress Plugin which brings some basic Facebook features (such as injection of a Like Button, publishing to Facebook when publishing a post, etc.) and some new ones (such as tagging a Facebook friend straight from the WordPress “add post” screen) to WordPress
If you want to set up publishing – which I did – expect a lengthy process to go through (Facebook should omit the approval step imo).
UPDATE: I cannot seem to get the Publish to author’s Timeline feature working, and I’m not the only one. After publishing a post nothing is posted on my timeline and the publish-to-timeline-checkbox in my wp-admin goes unchecked.
The supposed fix that is circulating doesn’t work. Official Facebook response (found in the thread linked above) is “Hey folks, this gets disabled if there’s a Facebook API error. We’re working on a couple of things to make this flow easier. Please keep your eyes peeled for an update to the plugin next week.”
Good to read that they’ll be updating the flow. A pity they didn’t fix this before even launching

Nice, downward compatible, touchable, jQuery dial
Uses canvas for rendering on screen
jQuery Knob Source (GitHub) →
jQuery Knob Demo →
Responsive images is a surprisingly complicated topic, and one that’s been steadily gaining attention over the last year as more developers discover they need them and then discover there’s no good solution yet. This article aims to give an overview of the problem itself, and show the different proposals in the works to address it.
Good summary if you want to catch up or didn’t find the time to follow the W3C Responsive Images Community Group blog
Responsive images: what’s the problem, and how do we fix it? →

CSS Hat turns Photoshop layer styles to CSS3 with a click
Now $19.99 (regular price $29.99)
CSS Hat →
CSS Hat Example Output →
As announced last week.
Apple also announced a likewise feature, named Flyover, in their new mapping platform today:

Related: Rapid 3D Mapping, the tech behind Flyover
Fresh OS X install, fresh XCode install, and starting the iPhone Simulator (without launching any custom app) quits at start-up and spits out a “The simulated application quit” error dialog.

Turns out the Asepsis feature from TotalFinder (the feature which prevents the creation of .DS_Store files) is the culprit. Disable that feature and all will work fine.
on{X} lets you control and extend the capabilities of your Android phone using a JavaScript API to remotely program it.
Kinda like iftt but then based on actions that happen on your mobile: an SMS being received, a location being entered/left, a change in mode of transport (from car to walking), etc.
A recipe like Text my wife “I’m on my way” when I leave work would programmatically end up being:
// Initializing variables
var friend = { name : "my wife",phoneNumber : "+1234567890" } ;
var messageText = "I'm on my way";
var action = "exit"; // leaving
var location = { name : "work",latitude : "40.771442",longitude : "-73.974295" } ;
// create a geo region for the trigger to take place at
var region = device.regions.createRegion({
latitude: parseFloat(location.latitude, 10),
longitude: parseFloat(location.longitude, 10),
name: location.name,
radius: 1000
});
// register a callback which sends a message when entering/exiting the region (depends on action)
region.on(action, function (){
device.messaging.sendSms({
to: friend.phoneNumber,
body: messageText
},
function (err) {
if (err) {
console.error('Error sending text message: ' + JSON.stringify(err));
}
}
);
});
// start monitoring the region
device.regions.startMonitoring(region);
All can be configured via the website. Really neat!
(via teusje)
xip.io is a magic domain name that provides wildcard DNS for any IP address. Say your LAN IP address is
10.0.0.1. Using xip.io:
10.0.0.1.xip.ioresolves to10.0.0.1www.10.0.0.1.xip.ioresolves to10.0.0.1mysite.10.0.0.1.xip.ioresolves to10.0.0.1foo.bar.10.0.0.1.xip.ioresolves to10.0.0.1…and so on. You can use these domains to access virtual hosts on your development web server from devices on your local network, like iPads, iPhones, and other computers. No configuration required!
Now that’s pure genius! How come no-one else ever thought of that before?
in this game of thrones it’s eye for eye
there is no middle ground you either win or die
you gotta watch the cats who watch your back
you can get hit quick and man that’s a fact
politics and bedfellows who’s real who’s fake
the surprise in your eyes when your man goes snake
it can happen to your fam or you all alone
we go big we go home we play this game of thrones
Download Game Of Thrones – (Dominik Omega & The Arcitype Remix) →
jQuery++ is a collection of extremely useful DOM helpers and special events for jQuery. jQuery++ is all about providing low-level utilities for things that jQuery doesn’t support. If Underscore is jQuery’s functional-programming tie, jQuery++ is jQuery’s bald-spot covering toupee.
Some handy additions, yet I’m wondering why they provide an override of $.fn.animate() instead of pushing the changes into the jQuery core itself.

Looking for the right mobile framework? Compare all major mobile frameworks and choose the one that fits best.
Very complete chart listing target platforms, target apps (native/hybrid/web), languages it can be developed in, hardware support, etc.
Also: Who was I to think that there were only a few players (PhoneGap, Appcelerator Titanium, jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch) out there?
Mobile Frameworks Comparison Chart →
As mentioned before, I’m especially looking forward to AppleTV developer beta. A new MacBook Pro is also something I’ve been waiting for (mine is over three years old now, time for a new one).
What we will (and won’t) see at WWDC 2012 →
Apple to update most of its Mac lineup and multiple accessories at WWDC →
The following W3C draft standard features match these criteria and IE10 now supports them in their unprefixed form:
- Gradients (CSS Image Values and Replaced Content)
- CSS Animations
- CSS Transitions
- CSS Transforms
font-feature-settingsproperty (CSS Fonts)- Indexed Database API
- Timing control for script-based animations (
requestAnimationFrame)IE10 also supports the following W3C draft standards in vendor-prefixed form.
Looks like IE10 is on the right track
Moving the Stable Web Forward in IE10 Release Preview →
Today, 6.5million LinkedIn password hashes leaked. These hashes are unsalted SHA-1 hashes and can be found online. If you happen to have the file lingering around, use grep "yourhash" combo_not.txt to check your hash is in it. Also check with the hash in which you replaced the first 5 characters by 00000.
If you’re not savvy enough, or don’t have the list, you can use LeakedIn

My old LinkedIn password was in the list (I changed it about a month ago). Best is to change it now, and change it again after LinkedIn has fixed the hole. Also, it’s — again — yet another reason to use different passwords for each site on the internet.
Bad day for LinkedIn: 6.5 million hashed passwords reportedly leaked →
LeakedIn: is your password safe? →
At home I have a pretty neat media center setup if I say so myself. The core of the whole setup is a Mac Mini running Plex, which indexes all media that I have. To watch any media I either use Plex.app on the Mac Mini itself (or Plex.app on any other Mac in my network), any of my iOS devices, or my LG Smart TV (a 42LV5500) with the medialink app on it.

My media center setup: Plex Media Server + a plethora of connected devices.
Not that familiar with Plex? Or not sure what the difference between Plex Media Server.app and Plex.app is? Then read the Plex/Nine introductory post first.
Earlier this week I bought an LG ST600 to expand that list of connected devices. The idea behind the ST600 is great: upgrade any “dumb” TV to a Smart TV by attaching the ST600 (via HDMI) to it. Above that the ST600 comes with the medialink app, which allows communication with the Plex Media Server. Geek as I am I got really excited when the box arrived and immediately got it out to start playing with it.

The LG ST600
~
The ST600The ST600 is a tad bigger than the AppleTV (v3) but weighs less. It comes with the bare essential ports: Wired Network (RJ45), HDMI Output, Digital Audio Output, and a Power Supply Connector on the back. On the side you’ll find a USB port.

In the box you’ll find the ST600 itself, a remote, a power adapter and some Nero MediaHome which is a DLNA server (yet I’m not using that as I use Plex as the media server software). Plug in the power, connect it to your TV and you’re good to go. Wired network is optional as the device has built-in WiFi support.

Once booted (which takes about 30 seconds) I was presented with a rather familiar screen: the LG Smart TV interface just like the one on my 42LV5500. However, it did look a bit dated and not so appealing as it comes with empty tiles.

The empty-ish home screen (after having set up the WiFi)
As one has to do with all media devices nowadays I first set up the WiFi and looked for updates. Using the remote to enter the WiFi pass didn’t go that smooth really. Although the system is the same as on the 42LV5500 the (quite chubby) remote that comes with the ST600 is the lacking factor: pressing any of the arrow keys and holding it will only fire a pressed command once. This means that one has to click 5 times to go 5 characters in the same direction. On the 42LV5500 you can just press and hold the buttons.

Setting up the WiFi on an LG Smart TV
After having updated the device to firmware version ST.8.79.192.F I finally started playing around with. Navigating the menus felt slow to be honest. Above that it didn’t take all clicks, which can be quite frustrating when having to navigate down 10 items (which requires 10 presses on the down button).
Hmmz, not convinced by now really. But no worries, I bought the thing to communicate with Plex. A slow navigation won’t stop me from enjoying my media on any old screen I have lying around.
Cannot play the mediaHaving started the medialink app I again touched familiar grounds: quickly I navigated towards a 720p rip (H.264 video codec, .mkv container) which plays fine on my 42LV5500.

The medialink interface
Choosing it popped an error on screen however: “Cannot play the media”. Choosing older rips (ripped at other rates (480p, 1080p), using various codecs (XviD, DivX) and various containers (.avi, .mp4, .mkv)) all resulted in the same error: “Cannot play the media”. Sigh.
I immediately though of a connectivity issue, so I connected the device over a wired connection yet that didn’t solve the problem. Goofing around with the ST600 and eventually navigating to my Plex Media Server via DLNA (a new feature in the latest version of Plex Media Server) I got some media playing that way, yet most of them still popped the “Cannot play the media” error.

“Cannot play the media” makes me a sad panda
With a Google Search Coupon in my hand I started searching. Looks like I wasn’t the only one having these issues. Eventually I found a suggested solution on the Plex Forums: update the ST600′s firmware with a beta version (version ST.9.79.901) that should fixes a few medialink problems (and disables some DLNA features to give medialink more resources). As the update isn’t available online yet, it’s just a matter of downloading the version, putting it on a USB stick and popping in the running ST600 which will prompt if you want to install it. As said, as done.
One restart later I was back at it. Navigating to medialink and re-selecting that first movie I wanted to watch I got it working. Yes! Finally! On to some other media my disappointment in the device was growing again: some media played, some didn’t. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it really: one episode of a TV show played one, while the other (same codec, same container, same bitrate) failed.
With the media that did play, the ST600 still wasn’t all bells and whistles really: Again the remote again responded slowly (if I press pause I want the movie paused, not 2 seconds later) and sometimes it just couldn’t handle the HD media (buffering issues).

It’s like going back in time…
It’s no surprise that the ST600 doesn’t do it for me: the device is slow and doesn’t do as advertised. Really a shame, as the 42LV5500 — with the same Smart TV engine and medialink app — does evertything perfectly.
It looks like LG didn’t give the device enough power (CPU, RAM) and that it released it way too soon, or didn’t test things properly.
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Emperor says no.
Sorry LG, but I shipped this one back to the store where I bought it from …
~
What now?I bought the LG to watch Plex media via the Plex interface. I could use any DLNA compatible device, yet I like browsing it via the usual Plex way (a requirement to me, so the Boxee Box for example won’t do it for me). Still sitting on my hunger I looked for other solutions.
One solution that looked appealing was to buy an LG Blu-Ray player, like the BP620 with Smart TV capabilities. The device itself cost only a bit more than the ST600 and I get a Blu-Ray player with it (which I don’t own yet). A few Google Search Coupons later I shelved that idea, as it turns out that the medialink app doesn’t come with the Blu-Ray players
This week someone suggested the Roku 2 to me, which has a Plex app. It’s something that indefinitely will require some testing, yet I haven’t found a distributor in Belgium (and I don’t feel like coughing up border-taxes which can’t be recovered if I were to dislike and send back the device). I’ll keep it in the back of my mind, yet I’ll search for other solutions first.

The Roku 2
One possible solution could come from Apple: As I have an AppleTV (v3) lying around (which I’m not convinced of either by the way: no extra features over my 42LV5500), and it is rumored that Apple will open up development of apps for it from next week on, my hope is in Apple’s hands for now. An official Plex for AppleTV App would be exactly the thing I need. And I know that the AppleTV is a fast device, and that the Plex for iOS apps play all media fine … so I’m sure it’ll be a hit.
Right now I’m awaiting next week’s WWDC announcement. If that won’t turn out, I guess I’ll start looking for a Roku or maybe use some of my students to build me a standalone device.

img { -webkit-filter: sepia(100%) contrast(200%) blur(5px); }
The current set of supported filters in Chromium include many that are familiar to web developers with image processing experience, such as sepia, saturation, opacity, and blurs.
GPU acceleration of these filters brings their performance to the point where they can be used for animating elements in conjunction with CSS animations powered by
-webkit-transitionor even HTML5 video tags.
Not to be confused with the legacy IE filter CSS property, which has been deprecated in favor of the new filters.
Accelerated CSS Filters Landed in Chromium →
Understanding CSS Filter Effects (html5rocks.com) →
Legacy DX Filters Removed from IE10 Release Preview →

Google is holding an invitation-only event next week in San Francisco, where it says it will show off the “next dimension” of its Maps product. The event comes a week ahead of when Apple is expected to replace Google as the mapping provider in iOS at its annual developers conference, which starts June 11.
Also see C3 Technologies’ Rapid 3D Mapping which Apple bought (and will be showcasing next week).
Google holding ‘next dimension’ of Maps event next week →
Apple’s new iOS 6 Maps app with 3D mapping is coming this summer, and we have photos →
Windows 8 worries Michael Mace:
Be sure to read his insightful (and lengthy) article on Windows 8 too:
Windows 8 is very different: attractive in some ways, and disturbing in others. It combines an interesting new interface with baffling changes to Windows compatibility, and amateur mistakes in customer messaging. Add up all the changes, and I am very worried that Microsoft may be about to shoot itself in the foot spectacularly.
Fear and Loathing and Windows 8 →
Download the Windows 8 Release Preview →
UPDATE: Having seen the movie above was quite helpful before I started playing with Windows 8 myself; I would ‘ve been quite lost without it to be honest. However, some of the old habits still worked and helped me to struggle through my first start screen experience:
(*) The start screen is quite confusing at first, yet it’s easier to wrap your head around it if you consider it being a replacement of the start menu. This explains why you can access it by pressing the Windows key. Only difference is that it’s been completely revamped and that it doesn’t have a dedicated button in the lower left corner anymore.
Whilst these things are somewhat familiar to me, it’s not the kind of stuff my mum knows (she isn’t an avid keyboard user, it took me quite some time to explain CTRL+C/CTRL+V to her). In the end she’ll be confused and become frustrated with the OS, which could indeed lead to Microsoft shooting itself in the foot with Windows 8 — the switch from Windows 7 to Windows 8 is too steep for the average user. This steepness could easily be fixed by bringing back the start button (only the button, not the whole menu) which upon a click would procure the start screen with a dedicated (and non-hidden as it is now) search box on it.
Sidenote: I found using IE10 accessed via the tiles (by which it enters some sort of kiosk mode) a horrible thing to use on a desktop (although it would work perfectly fine on a tablet). Accessing it via the (good old) Desktop made it usable.

Collusion is an experimental add-on for Firefox and allows you to see all the third parties that are tracking your movements across the Web. It will show, in real time, how that data creates a spider-web of interaction between companies and other trackers.
A neat demo/datavisualization is also available, in case you don’t want to install the add-on or if you’re running an other browser.
Collusion (demo + extension) →