In the light of stars

Vimpress

DamienR — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:14:04 +0000

This post is written with Vimpress. I wanted to try this other Vim plugin to post to WordPress.

Google Chrome test

DamienR — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 20:05:46 +0000

Yesterday I installed Google Chrome on my Mac to give it a try. I had heard a lot of things on this new web browser so I wanted to have my own opinion. Well, the first impression is that it’s really fast, fluid and simple.

I’m used to using Safari and Camino and I must admit I’m a bit foiled by the lack of interface for managing the bookmarks. I was very satisfied with Safari bookmarks manager that allowed me to store and search my hundreds of bookmarks. I had lately tried Camino and was more satisfied with the simplicity and the speed of its manager. I looked for some plugins to extend the possibilities of bookmarks management on Google Chrome but I didn’t find anything interesting.

There are other little things that are missing:

a full screen mode
last thumbnails are not saved after closing Chrome

I guess these features will come in the future but for now I think Google Chrome is not matured enough (on Mac anyway).

I will keep on using it to see how it evolves.

Whitebox

DamienR — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:20:13 +0000

My second vim colorscheme, whitebox, is an attempt to provide a light scheme with vivid colours. Indeed I’ve been looking for one and all I could find was schemes with dull and sad colours. So I made my own, a bit inspired by whytheluckystiff‘s style.

An Arthur C. Clarke’s quote

DamienR — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 10:25:24 +0000

I tested Wordle, a website where you can do art, handling words and colours. I chose an Arthur C. Clarke’s quote as an illustration.

Alpine

DamienR — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 20:21:46 +0000

I finally succeeded in configuring Alpine, a UNIX email client. I had already tried with Mutt, another must-have, but it tourned out to be a real nightmare.

In fact, the most difficult part was the configuration of msmtp as an smtp client. Here is a .msmtprc file that helped me.

My Vim colorscheme: darkburn

DamienR — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:28:51 +0000

As a Vim user, I often test colorschemes. One of my favourite schemes is zenburn, created by Jami Nurminen. I needed one with a high contrast and with almost the same colors, so I’ve decided to make my own. Here it is:

As a Vim user, I often test colorschemes. One of my favourite schemes is zenburn, created by Jani Nurminen. I needed one with a high contrast and with almost the same colors, so I’ve decided to make my own. Here it is: darkburn.

darkburn : a mod of zenburn

Processing

DamienR — Sun, 10 May 2009 19:42:25 +0000

Processing

Processing is a programming language and an IDE to visualize data, create animations, teach. It was created by Benjamin Fry and Casey Reas from Aesthetics and Computation Group at MIT. I started to learn it, it’s quite simple and it’s incredible to see what we can do with it. Although the graphical part is based on Java you don’t have to know it to write programs in Processing. Maybe in the future, when I’m better, I’ll try to post some things.

Fast-coding concept

DamienR — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:36:00 +0000

As a student in physics, I sometimes have to implement codes using numerical methods. The main part is done in C and Matlab. But programming is also for me a hobby, a way to learn new things; I imagine it comes from my need to know how things work.

I’m learning Python, that is quite different from the other programming languages I used before. I’d really like to master it enough to do what I want. One of the specifities of Python is the possibility to write short codes easily and to import them as modules. In order to improve my ability to code fast, I try to write small programs. It can be anything that come into my mind, from funny things to numerical resolutions. That’s what I call “fast-coding”. The goal in this practice is to:

1) Train to write a simple program from any idea (“Simple is better than complex” cf Zen of Python)

2) Develop imagination in programming

Of course this can be done in any language. The motivation must remain the same : learning to code fast by having fun.

Spam and eggs

DamienR — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:20:08 +0000

I was very astounished today when I read that the well-known term “spam” probably comes from a Monty Python’s sketch.

The first sense of spam was a “ canned precooked meat product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation” it comes from Shoulder of Pork and Ham (cf wikipedia article).

By watching the sketch one understands better why this term has been used to designate polluting mails trying to sell us unwanted products. The most interesting fact is that it reveals us how an appararently common sketch influenced our vocabulary. This also demonstrates once again the impact of Monty Python on the internet and programming.

Jottit

DamienR — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:51:25 +0000

While I was looking for python scripts on Aaron Swartz’s site I’ve discovered Jottit.

Well, Jottit allows you to get ”a website as easy as filling out a textbox“. I decided to test it and edited some posts quite easily.

Indeed one good point is the possibility to use Markdown syntax. Another advantage is the simplicity and the sobriety of the interface making the management and the edition a quick task.