2012 Archive of Hanselman's Newsletter of Wonderful Things

I have a "whenever I get around to doing it" Newsletter of Wonderful Things. Why a newsletter? I dunno. It seems more personal somehow. Fight me.

Still, it's one more site to check and it's a hassle for some of you  Dear Readers. Therefore, I will still do the newsletter, but I'll post each newsletter to the blog a week or so later.

Here's 2012's Archive of Wonderful Things' Newsletters as a way to kick it off.

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: November 9th, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• I started a new bi-weekly podcast with humor blogger and social media strategist Luvvie from http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com. Our show is called Ratchet and The Geek and there’s two episodes up now: http://ratchetandthegeek.com. We are also on iTunes. Check us out.
• Do you work in a large, soul-crushing “enterprise” company? Then check out http://enterprise-html.com.
• A great tumblr for those of us who use the Git source control system.
• How much did that meeting just cost the company? Show this to your boss and get out of meetings.
• Today you can get a FREE copy of “Getting Results” on Kindle. Act fast.
• I love the idea of a tiny arcade with a Raspberry Pi.
• Have you and the kids played http://www.drawastickman.com yet? Check out Draw a Stickman EPIC on the iPad and Windows 8 Appstores.
• Article on “human wormholes” - people born at the right time to span history.
• A faithful Apple ][ in your browser.
• I gave a talk at the BUILD conference in Seattle this week and I’m very happy with how it went. If you’d like an hour of edutainment and technology with lots of references to the Cloud and JavaScript, please check out my talk.
• What happens if you compare an authentic Apple power adapter with a $2 knockoff?
• Mathematically challenging bagels.
• A software “comb-over”
• What machines will we need after the apocalypse?

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: October 20th, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• Amazing single page of JavaScript that uses D3 and SVG to create an Epicyclic Gearing simulation
• A free ebook on creating Single Page Applications
• There’s a huge movement on the web towards Semantic Symbol Fonts. You want an icon or glyph and you spend all this time making PNGs of various sizes when you could be using a symbol font.
• More people should write. I’ve been saying this for years, for different reasons.
• What if a camera emphasized TIME rather than SPACE?
• A clever online animated GIF maker.
• I’m getting addicted to AirPlay with my iOS devices. You can AirPlay your computer to AppleTV or AirPlay your iPhone to your PC or use your Raspberry Pi to watch movies via AirPlay
• If you need to test your sites in Android, why not use a cloud-based Android Simulator
• Great browsing site for Wallpapers and Inspiration.
• An Introduction to Graphviz via R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet” Hip Hopera
• If you aren’t using Instapaper to read these very links, you should. Why not send these stories to your Kindle?
• Fascinating article on using spaced repetition to remember more while studying.
• Michael Sarchet and I have make HUGE updates to http://smallestdotnet.com. Some folks have found it useful.
• If I may be so bold, the last few months of my Podcast have been particularly good. I don’t know why, but I’m happy with them. Check the archives and subscribe!

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: October 8th, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• An interview with the world’s youngest, most charmingly oblivious hedge fund.
• Remembering Your First Computer Is For Old People. 
• “CoffeeScript is to Ruby as TypeScript is to Java/C#/C++” - Luke Hoban
• Scrollbars through history
• Extremely detailed guide to building a Dev or Gaming PC http://tinyurl.com/falconguide
• 12 years old but still interesting. Seven Habits of Effective Text Editing
• How to credit an xkcd-style diagram using math
• Hacking your Diabetes
• I’m still trying to make it through this. I don’t think I’m smart enough. “How to write a spelling corrector.”
• WAY too much detail but super interesting article on what happens when your headphones aren’t plugged in right.
• Ultrabooks are dead. Er, wait, no, they aren’t.
• Why did StarCraft take so long to come out?
• Amazing slidedeck on Google’s Chrome Dev Tools
• Will San Francisco survive all the tech?

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: September 12th, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• via @BarrettAll - Breaking News: AT&T announces new #Apple iPhone 5 will in fact make and receive phone calls.
• A lovely Open Source library for web services, inspired by Sinatra. “Nancy 0.12 released”
• The Higgs Boson discovery has been confirmed. Even better, I learn about this from MC Hammer.
• Interesting effort to map Khan Academy videos to the South African curriculum - this is the future of education
• Dual Monitor Portal Wallpaper: http://shawnw.me/O1n8Wk via  @ShawnWildermuth
• A new design that could revolutionize Tacos as we know them.
• Remember when you could get an actual Vinyl Record in a book? Flexi-discs are still alive! Kind of.
• Twitter’s Response to Apple’s iPhone 5 Announcement. These are hilarious.
• Learn Vim by playing a Zelda-like adventure game! VIM Adventures
• Like Cosplay? There’s a whole spectrum of Cosplayers out there, including CosplayingWhileBlack.
• Here’s a great solution for bringing your MAME retro arcade in out of the garage in a spouse-friendly format. My DIY Arcade Machine Coffee Table
• Pac-Man created entirely in HTML5.
• FitText is a clever plugin with some even more clever math behind it for inflating text across browser formats.
• Speaking of FitText, SlabText and this writeup will give you a lot to think about and possibly make you feel bad for skipping Math.
• I’m often told I have a nice Home Office setup. However, I submit that Adam Elmore’s setup is insane.
• I installed this and uninstalled this, but Pokki is an attempt to bring “widgets” back to Windows with a nice App Store.
• Automatically Backup your Gmail account on a schedule with GMVault and Windows Task Scheduler, or even do it headless on a Synology.
• Desperately want a Classic Shell for your Modern Windows? 
• Deep Korean analysis of PSY’s “Gangnam Style”
• Your Colorful Visual Studio 2012 with the Color Theme Editor (VS2010 colors, too)

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: August 22nd, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down athttp://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• The internet continues to impress. A *font* for making *charts.* Drink it in.
• In the “Microsoft Shill” department, this is a well-balance and interesting history lesson about what Internet Explorer did to make the web NOT suck.
• Have you heard about http://app.net? Then why not joinhttp://ihave50dollars.com.
• A very sad comic about a Martian Lander. I challenge you not to tear up.
• HTTPie is a great way to talk to REST services from the command line.
• Watch these two polyglot nerds walk around a mall and talk a dozen languages to strangers. Awesome.
• Breathtaking view of the Milky Way from the surface of Mars
• A file that’s simultaneously a valid Windows EXE, PDF, JAR, and HTML file.
• Octavia Butler’s Essay on a World Without Racism
• Well written article explaining what Monads are as they related to Functions.
• This is a great new site on making HTML5 games…here’s how to do multiplayer
• Aaron Swartz on “Believing You Can Change.” I changed how I talked to my kids after reading this essay.
• Uncle Bob on “What is a Professional Programmer?”

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: August 2nd, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• Productivity vs. Guilt and Self-Loathing - I wrote this for a friend…ya, that’s right, a friend…
• Science Fiction author Octavia Butler’s classic essay on Racism. I personally recommend EVERY one of her books. All of them.
• Why use vi or vim as a text editor?
• I got the children a Raspberry Pi and then got a few more. I made one into a media server. It’s early, but it supports AirPlay!
• Augmented Reality is interesting but what is really keeping it from happening?
• A machine that takes bricks and turns them into a perfectly laid cobblestone road? You have to see it to believe it.
• This is what an offer letter looks like if you are paid 30M dollars a year.
• Clever solution. Get actual humans to compete over getting you a cheaper flight. 
• Do you love Stan Lee and the Marvel Universe? Familiarize yourself with Jack Kirby.
• Whatever happened to Johnny Cage from Mortal Kombat? It’s been 20 years!
• Great website for keeping track of all those social APIs and whether they are down or not. Are they affecting YOUR site?
• Amazing Google Street View IN ASCII! Works in Chrome 20 or Firefox 8.
• Enough with the low contrasts sites already, it’s time for a Contrast Rebellion.
• New site that shows you how to build games in HTML5.
• Apparently there are 147 CSS named colors. Who knew? http://www.147colors.com
• Think JavaScript can’t do hard or interesting math? Wrap your mind around this prime number visualization.
• What Keycode was that JavaScript keydown event?

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: July 5th, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• Got 15 minutes and want to learn Git?
• Take 7min of your day and watch this cute little video to find out WHY you should care about the Higgs-Boson particle.
• Tutorial on how to use Responsive Design and ASP.NET MVC to created a nice desktop AND mobile site.
• If malware authors ever learn how to spell we’re all screwed.
• I wrote a little Lync Kiosk for remote workers last week
• Do you have NetFlix but you think there’s nothing worth watching on Instant Streaming? Bookmark InstantWatcher.
• A Dora The Explorer movie? Is this Dora or Tomb Raider? Either way, it rocks.
• I’m not sure if this is useful or not, but it’s pretty clever. It’s a jQuery-based HTML5 presentation tool.
• Some truly amazing JavaScript charts in D3. Click on them! Ya, Flash is dead.
• Flowchart: How to “retinafy” your website.
• Clever hosted service to handle user avatars from a half-dozen social services for your site.
• Integration test and application health framework for ASP.NET MVC that runs your tests in production if you like
• Nice simple series of guidelines for how to “punch up” your blog’s photography. It’s also a great little blog.
• Apparently the computers in the movie Prometheus (hundreds of years in the future) still run Windows.

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: June 12th, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week. If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• I saw “Prometheus” this weekend. I loved it, personally. This is a fantastic analysis (MAJOR spoilers) of the movie that I think is spot on.
• AppFail looks like a cloud version of ELMAH (a great error logging resource) and could be a useful tool to your website.
• I’m a HUGE fan of Responsive Design. Here’s a great overview of what it is and why you should care.
• Looks like git has a market share of 27.6%. Wow.
• I’ve found a new favorite Command Prompt Terminal replacement.
• Here’s the to 15 best uses of Chinese Profanity in the television show “Firefly.” 我的媽和她的瘋狂的外甥都 
• Sometimes you want to scroll stuff but you haven’t got room so you make a scrolling area. Why not add shadows for polish using only CSS? Lea Verou’s version is even better.
• LocalTest.me is super useful for testing SSL on your local machine (very clever).
• “Chosen” is a great improvement on standard select boxes that REALLY bring a level of polish to your forms. Indispensable.
• VB6 will never die.
• A fun little animation to show your kids that explains EXACTLY what “flame” is.
• I’m looking into MsgPack as a smaller alternative to JSON. Is it worth the risks?
• I’m not a Cygwin person but if I was, I’d use apt-cyg to install packages.
• The videos of all my talks from Russia are now up for viewing and downloading.
• Make your own Ethiopian spice blends at home.
• Nice “Game of Thrones” music video parody in the style of Maroon 5

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: May 30th, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week.

If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• Here’s a really amazing video showing some of the new soft-body physics applied to vehicles (rather than the rag-doll physics you’ve seen applied to characters) in the new CryEngine3
• A pretty slick CSS and jQuery trick from CSS-Tricks that automatically adds the favicon next to external links. I wish it was a little easier and more drop in, though.
• This works best in Chrome, but it’s about the nicest investor deck I’ve ever seen.
• I shared the story of how I got involved in computers on my blog this week. What’s your story?
• A fascinating read on genetics and a sick child.
• Nice tool from Google to find the fastest DNS server for you.
• Long but useful article espousing the value of WebSockets. Very educational, although there’s a small ad hidden in there.
• A classic: How to be a Programmer
• This only works in the US, but it’s the first 30 minutes of a new Tron Animated Show. I’m sure you could find it if you’re outside the US. ;)

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: May 16th, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week.

If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

• This is getting out of control. ;) HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS
• Thinkup looks like a great tool for folks that are REALLY into Social Media (like moi) so I’m going to try to install it on Azure. I’ll do a writeup if it works well.
• Raphael is a promising abstraction around SVG that falls back to VML for older IE browsers.
• I’m trying to get fit lately so I’m collecting lots of links in this space. NerdFitness looks about my speed.
• I love this MailCheck.js library. It suggests corrections to common email mispellings. Great for maximizing signups and avoiding mistakes.
• A GameBoy Color emulator written entirely in JavaScript and HTML5
• Is there a “below the fold?” Will users scroll?
• Another great bookmarkable site. ImgOps is a meta-tool for analyzing images online. Amazing.\
• Very long and very scary but important read to share with your relatives about get rich quick schemes and today’s internet
• Wonderful post from Jon Galloway about why he taught his daughter to code.
• Tim Bray weighs in on the question: Will browsers win or will apps win?
• This Quora question/answer still gets lots of traffic. “If licensing were free, what would be the downsides of the Microsoft Stack for a Website?”
• John Scalzi, one of my favorite sci-fi writers, has a great essay on how to explain how being a Straight White Male works in the world. It’s the easiest difficulty setting.

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: May 9th, 2012

Hi Interfriends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. This is my fifth newsletter. Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week.

• Wolfenstein 3D in your browser. This is all HTML and JS. There’s no Canvas or Web GL, it’s all DIVs. Crazy.
• Here’s a video commentary with John Carmack 20 years after Wolfenstein’s release.
• The Opera guys seemed to have used the Nuclear option and are supporting -webkit CSS prefixes in their dev builds. Here’s aproposal that might end the madness.
• I introduced the boys to Star Wars last week.
• Here’s a pretty awesome demo of SignalR (ASP.NET’s realtime layer) talking to a mobile phone
• I love this term “Chaos Cinema.” There aren’t any good action scenes anymore, there’s just metal and explosions. I can’t tell what’s happening on the screen. Transformers was a mess. It all started just after The Matrix.
• Great quote from Wil Shipley: “CSS: If a horse were designed by a committee of camels.”
• You think you know FizzBuzz? What about inverse FizzBuzz?
• Adobe Shadow looks promising. Browse and debug on your desktop and ALL your devices’ browsers follow you.
• I love this idea. SortBox: When I drop a file in my DropBox, move it to the right place based on rules.
• Might be time to back up my entire Gmail box.

If you forwarded this (or if it was forwarded to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: May 2nd, 2012

Hi friends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. This is my fourth newsletter - I hope I’m not boring you yet.

This is a place for me to include some things that are on my mind as well as fun or interesting links I come upon as well as ideas that aren’t ready for prime time. No, I have no master plan. Just having fun. :)

Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week.

• I’ve been trying to decide between a FitBit and a Nike Fuel. My friend Lindsey at CNET likes the FitBit.
• I wrote my first Visual Studio Extension when the team wouldn’t fix what I think/thought is a bug. It saves and restores your open fileswhen your project is changed outside VS.
• I’m a big of a “metrosexual” (which means I like fashion) but are you a “datasexual?” A fascinating read about those of us who like data a little too much.
• I like this article where they call Windows Azure “the world’s misunderstood cloud.” I like that. Too bad we won’t use that in our marketing materials.
• “Go Right!” a wonderful homage to side-scrollers and a walk down memory lane.
• A great reference presentation on the world of HTML5/JavaScript polyfills.
• I love this idea. A common file picker dialog for the internet. Super easy to use as well.
• Excellent online image optimizer from Yahoo. Makes GIFs, JPGs and PNGs smaller.
• Command line Twitter? Yes, please!
• I hope this project is still being working on. It’s an automation interface around Visual Studio using PowerShell.
• Always wanted a Starship Comparison Chart for reference? Of course you did.
• I’m really interested in 48fps film, much more than 3D.
• This guy ported his Java app to the iPad using Mono in two months.
• Movie Trailer for low budget scifi called “Shuffle.” Reminds me somehow of one of my favorite books “Replay.”
• Oregon Trail for the Apple ][, except with Zombies.
• I’ve said this before in presentations by my buddy Jon Udell says it better. Own Your Words. Don’t give them to Facebook or Google.

If you forwarded this email (or if it was forward to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: April 24, 2012

Hi friends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. This is my third newsletter - I hope I’m not boring you.

This is a place for me to include some things that aren’t usually in my blogs or tweets. Things that are on my mind as well as fun or interesting links I come upon as well as ideas that aren’t ready for prime time.

Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week.

• A great blog post by Majd Taby on “Modern Web Development” where he digs into Chrome and the Web Kit Inspector in GREAT DETAIL. It’s long but it’s really interesting and a great resource. Something to bookmark, surely.
• Random, but worth a moment of your time. It turns out that learning to read Korean is WAY easier than any of us thought.
• Self promotion here. I did a blog post on how easy it is to create a mobile web site. I’m particularly proud of the chart at the top.
• Today Google Drive and Windows SkyDrive came out with clients for Windows and Mac. There’s also SkyDrive apps for Windows Phone, iPhone, or iPad and OneNote apps that sync to SkyDrive for Windows Phone, Android,iPhone, or iPad. I’m a payingDropBox customer myself with over 60 gigs in there.
• A lot of people learn programming techniques from creating Conway’s Game of Life. Here’s a readable Conway’s, written in CoffeeScript. A good learning exercise.
• I can see myself using this application to get the locations of my friends regardless of their brand of Smartphone. Super useful.
• An excellent advertisement for a front-end designer.
• Is This Poisonous?
• Cubism is a very useful Time Series Visualizer (a D3 Plugin). I can see myself using this soon.

Please feel free to forward. If you forwarded this email (or if it was forward to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman

Hanselman’s Newsletter of Wonderful Things: April 12, 2012

Hi friends,

Thanks again for signing up for this experiment. This is a place for me to include some things that aren’t usually in my blogs or tweets. Things that are on my mind as well as fun or interesting links I come upon as well as ideas that aren’t ready for prime time.

Please feel free to forward. If you forwarded this email (or if it was forward to you) a reminder: You can sign up or sign down at http://www.tinyletter.com/hanselman.

Here’s some interesting things I’ve come upon this week.

• Rick Barraza has the most amazing blog posts because he doesn’t use screenshots. His samples all work and they work inline. I’ve read his amazing The Secret to the Page Flip in HTML5/Canvas for Windows8 and iOS post twice.
• Do you think you know jQuery? Are you using it effectively. I thought I was until I read “Elegance, thy name is jQuery.” I know nothing.
• Here’s a very detailed explanation on “How Computers Boot Up.”
• I revisited this post on how to add a Web API to your Web Forms application. A nice reminder that ASP.NET is just ASP.NET. No need to pick a side.
• GlyphLIbrary is a great resource of free icons that are Retina Ready.
• If you missed out on Caine’s Arcade this week take ten minutes, preferably with your kids (ages 6-14) and watch the video.
• My blog post on Car Dashboard Computers got ‘Verge’d” this week. Or they got Hanselman’ed.
• Thoughtful blog post on how young people get so paralyzed by choice that they do nothing.
• I’m working my way through this free “Node Beginner Book.”
• Finally someone writes a blog post that clearly explains what the heck REST is.

And finally, if you collect links and good reading like these, I really recommend you start using Instapaper with your mobile devices. Save items for later with the bookmarklet in your browser, and read them whenever on your mobile devices. I have no affiliation with Instapaper.

Be well, write good code, and stay in touch,

Scott Hanselman

The First One

Hi friends,

I hope you’re well. Thanks for signing up for this experiment. I thought I’d include some things that aren’t usually in my blogs or tweets. Things that are on my mind as well as fun or interesting links I come upon. I’ll also try sending “preview blog posts.” By this I mean when I’m working on a new idea but it’s not totally fleshed out, perhaps I can run it by you guys first.

• There’s a great multi-part overview of how Bryan Watts wrote a .NET Analysis Engine up on his blog.
• The YUI Blog had an interesting discussion of the meaning of “this” when scope is added. I had to read it twice to get it. I still don’t.
• Good basics of Modernizr article here although I think he confused things in Figures 3 and 4. Those classes are added at runtime and that wasn’t 100% clear from the way it was written.
• Wonderful blog about a gentleman who has been converting the Apple ][ version of “Prince of Persia” to the C64. That’s a “downport” in fact, as the C64 was less powerful. Remember this is 2012 and he’s still doing this! In other news, Jordan also just found the source of Prince of Persia in his dad’s house. 
• A teenage polyglot. The videos are very convincing. I’m not sure though how deep one could get into a language with just weeks of an overview. Maybe I’m just old and jaded.

That’s all for now.

Scott