Josh On Design

Now that OSCON is over I can get back to working on Electron. That means a new version is coming, and by far the biggest change will be a brand new user interface. I had posted an early preview here but that's now completely out of date. You see, I discovered a new framework.

Michio Kaku, the science popularizer and theoretical physicist, is always a wonderful speaker. I’ve greatly enjoyed his TED talks. In _Physics of the Impossible_ he takes on the many improbable technologies of science fiction to determine if they are in fact impossible. Surprisingly, few truly are. He divides technologies into three levels of impossible: likely today or in the next 20 years with existing science (ex: replicators), likely in the next hundred or so without violating any known laws of physics (shockingly, time travel is in this bunch), and the truly impossible without some new laws of physics. There are very few things in the last category. It’s an easy read and lots of fun.

This is day zero of my Month Of Writing

I'm finally back from OSCON, and what a trip it was. Friend of the show wxl came
with me to assist and experience the awesomeness that is OSCON. Over the
next few days I'll be posting about the three sessions we taught and many, many sessions we attended. A splendid time is guaranteed for all. To kick things off, here is the code from my Amino talk.

I’m happy to announce Electron 0.2. We’ve done a lot of work to improve the compiler and library tools. The biggest news is Windows and Linux support. Also, you don’t need to pre-install the regular Arduino IDE anymore. Electron will auto-download it’s own copy of the required toolchain. Here’s the details:

I’ve been using Node JS off and on for the past few years, ever since we used it in webOS, but I’ve really gotten to go deep recently. As part of my learning I’ve finally started digging into Streams, perhaps one of the coolest unknown features of Node.

I love the Arduino platform. I have official boards and lots of derivatives. I love how it makes hardware hacking so accessible. But there’s one thing I hate: the IDE. It’s ugly. It’s ancient. It has to go.

It's the fashionable thing to speculate on future Apple products. One idea that continues to get traction is the Apple TV, a complete TV set with integrated Apple-ly features. Supposedly to be announced this fall, after failing to appear at any event for the past three years, it will revolutionize up the TV market, cure global warming, and cause puppies and kittens to slide down rainbows in joy.

More Beta Testing Software

This is a new future tweeting system I'm working on. It will let me write a post, send it to my blog, then link the blog from twitter, all in the *future*!

The Web is amazing for answering questions. Suppose you want to answer a question like, "what does the .JPG file extension mean", then the answer is just an internet search away. Millions of answers. However, if you stray from the common path just a tiny bit things get hairy. What if you want to get a list of all file extensions? This is harder to find. Occasionally you might find a PDF listing them, but if you are asking for all file extensions then you probably want to do something with that list. This means you want the list in some computable form. A database or at least a JSON file. Now you are in the world of ‘public’ data. You are in a world of pain.

During SXSW this year I had the great fortune to see the keynote given by Stephen Wolfram. If you’ve not heard of him before, he’s the guy who created Mathematica, and more recently Wolfram Alpha, an online cloud brain. He’s an insanely smart guy with the huge ambition to change how we think.

One of the benefits of my job at Nokia is the ability to do indepth research on new technologies. If you follow me on G+ then you know I've been playing with 3D printers for the past few months. As part of my research I prepared a detailed overview of the 3D printing industry that goes into the technologies, the companies involved, and some speculation about what the future holds; as well as a nice glossary of terms. Nokia has kindly let me share my report with the world. Enjoy!

I'm working on a few submissions for OSCON, due in two days. I've got lots of ideas, but I don't know which ones to submit. Take a look at these and tweet me with your favorite. If you can't make it to OSCON I'll post the presentations and notes here for all to read.

I recently got a 3D printer and boy are my arms tired!

Every day or so I read another blog post (or ranting comments) about how BlackBerry could be rehabilitated, or how Nokia could restart Maemo and build the ultimate smartphone again. Things came to a head after Jolla announced their first phone for sale. Surely this phone with an amazing user interface will vindicate the N9?! Amazing technology plus a killer UI? Marketshare is theirs for the taking!

No Starch Press is on a roll with its series of Lego themed books. While most of them are about model ideas or construction techniques, Beautiful Lego is different. This is a Lego art book. In classic coffee table style it is filled with gorgeous photos to thrill the reader. Beautiful Lego does not seek to discuss 'can Lego be art', but takes it as fact. These are works by artists, just artists using the medium of Lego instead of paint or clay, and the results speak for themselves. Stunning.

Almost since it was first released, fans of the Raspberry Pi have asked when it the hardware will be updated with better components. A faster CPU perhaps? Double the RAM? Built in wifi? The list of components you could upgrade is long. This request was brought up again when the Raspberry Pi foundation announced the sale of the two millionth Pi.

Now that Apple has given us final specs and cost for the redesigned Mac Pro I’ve heard complaints that it is underpowered and non-expandable, especially for the price. The Pro comes with reasonably beefy CPUs but they will be out of date in a few years. The buyer can only expand the ram and disk, and not so much on the disk side given the lack of available space. So how can this be worth the $3000 entry price Apple is charging?

Update the OS