Betulaceae, Thy Art my Cryptonite.

Today the Pollen count hit the ceiling. Every year this happens, and every year I am just as surprised to find myself floored around the time the weather turns warm.

I've often said that there are two weeks of good weather in Chicago every year - one as hot summer turns to cold winter, and another when cold winter turns to hot summer. 

I was wrong. As it turns out, there is one week of good weather in Chicago each year.












Electron microscope image of various pollen species [wikipedia]

Coding for Google SoC this summer

I just received the following in my mail:

This means that my project proposal was accepted, and that I will get to spend much of the summer working on a browser user interface for gRavi, mentored by Ravi Madduri of the Globus Alliance and Argonne National Labs.

You can find more details about the project in this google doc.

Ruby Syntax for the Javascript Fantasts

What?

A gem that gives you the Mash object which mimics the javascript object notation (with some powerful additions). 

Why?

It's a really easy and quick way to build and access deeply nested structured, e.g.

mash = Mash.new
mash.author!.name = "Michael Bleigh"
mash.author.info!.url = "http://www.mbleigh.com/"

How?

Check out the blogpost at intridea, alternatively go straight to the gem

sudo gem install mash

or straight to the source

git clone git://github.com/mbleigh/mash.git

Jumpstart Webpage Layout with YUI Builder

What?

A way to get your website cross-browser compatible Column layout ready in 30 seconds or less.

Why?

Column layouts is traditionally done with tables. WRONG.

YUI grids css gives you a cross browser compatible column layout, and the YUI builder helps you construct the HTML skeleton in a neat wysiwyg fashion.

How?

Go over to http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/grids/builder and build your layout.

Then just hit the Code button and get the plain text - voila. It also resets your fonts to make for a really nice, discreet default look that you can then modify.

Use your Google Account for OpenID

What?

OpenID is a way to sign in once, and only once, for all your web services. Only problem is: you need an OpenID account provider. Not anymore - just use your Google Account (Because we all have those, right?)

How?

Just go to http://openid-provider.appspot.com/. Google takes care of the rest.