One Thing Well

Worqshop

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:16:16 +0100

Worqshop is a small development environment for the iPad with GitHub and Heroku support. It features a fast code editor with syntax highlighting for Python, Ruby, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.

The Github integration is particularly slick: import a project, commit changes, deploy via post-receive hooks. An interesting alternative to the iPad coding apps that use SSH, SFTP, &c. to grant you direct access to remote machines.

Mac App Store

rfc

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:33:21 +0100

rfc:

Searchable and nicely-formatted RFC documents from the IETF (including my favourite, RFC 2324, which describes the HTCPCP).

The source is available on Github.

Via The Changelog.

cellout

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:10:03 +0100

cellout:

cellout is a simple battery status printer.

Sites Like One Thing Well?

Sun, 20 May 2012 13:57:00 +0100

I just spotted the following question from Memo on the wonderful Ask MetaFilter:

I love the One Thing Well blog and the newish The Toolbox. Are there any other good link blogs similar in purpose (links to resources and webapps instead of news/articles)?

You’d think I’d be able to answer that, but the sources I use for this weblog are tag feeds from social bookmarking sites, forums, weblogs that don’t focus on software exclusively and—best of all!—submissions from readers.

So, if you know of any cool software link blogs, do head over to Ask MeFi if you’re already a MetaFilter user¹, or send me an email and I’ll pass on your tips and write up a post of recommended sites next week.

Only MetaFilter members can answer questions; an account on the site costs $5. ↩

Wifi2Hifi

Fri, 18 May 2012 15:49:34 +0100

Wifi2Hifi:

Use WiFi2HiFi to turn your [iOS device] into a wireless audio receiver for your stereo system or sound-dock. Combined with the desktop app WiFi2HiFi Station you can listen to whatever audio program is playing on your computer.

There’s one minor flaw—a ~2 second lag when pausing, playing or skipping a track—but otherwise WiFi2HiFi comes highly recommended: setup is simple, it’s stable and the sound quality is good, especially when using a dock.

Mac App Store

ifconfig.me

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:36:05 +0100

ifconfig.me:

ifconfig.me returns your external IP address, remote host, browser user agent and lots more useful info. You can view a summary at the website, or grab info at the command line, like so:

curl ifconfig.me/ip

Thanks, fs111

properVOLUME

Thu, 17 May 2012 17:57:44 +0100

properVOLUME:

properVolume is a little app that sits in your menu bar, providing instant access to various sound settings and preferences—you can pick input and output devices, change volume levels precisely with visual metering, set the volume on inactive devices, &c..

In short, properVOLUME will save you a lot of futzing around in the Sound pane in System Preferences.

It’s available in the Mac App Store and developer pjv has kindly provided a batch of promo codes for One Thing Well readers. Get ‘em while they’re hot:

HYH4MRJJTJNW
LE6HLTWF4NWM
7WNRTJ97NY6W
Y6NXKTRMFYRT
6JMRLENF3TMR

Fountain

Thu, 17 May 2012 15:52:47 +0100

Fountain:

Fountain is a simple markup syntax for writing, editing and sharing screenplays in plain, human-readable text. Fountain allows you to work on your screenplay anywhere, on any computer or tablet, using any software that edits text files.

Via Mac OS X Screencasts

lolcommits

Thu, 17 May 2012 14:02:28 +0100

lolcommits:

Takes a snapshot with your Mac’s built-in iSight/FaceTime webcam (or any working webcam on Linux) every time you git commit code, and archives a lolcat style image with it.

Permanently Unhide Library

Wed, 16 May 2012 19:18:59 +0100

Permanently Unhide Library:

If you, or somebody you love, truly wants the Library folder to be forever visible in the Finder, a good trick is to add a script Login item to do the deed. Here are detailed instructions for achieving this.

Including a wee snippet of AppleScript to unhide ~/Library.

Acme

Wed, 16 May 2012 14:06:52 +0100

Acme:

A text editor and graphical shell that shipped with Plan 9 from Bell Labs. It has, putting it mildly, an unusual interface that largely eschews keyboard shortcuts in favour of ‘mouse chording’.

You can use it on Linux, OS X and *BSD via Plan 9 from User Space, and on Windows (and the other three) with Acme Stand Alone Complex. (Or by installing/booting Plan 9 from Bell Labs/Plan 9 from the People’s Front of cat-v.org )

icanhazip.com

Mon, 14 May 2012 13:33:40 +0100

icanhazip.com:

A website that returns your external IP address, and nothing else.

Via /r/linux

Octogit

Fri, 11 May 2012 15:55:57 +0100

Octogit:

A free and open source interface to github from the command line. Avoid the usual copy and paste when creating repositories, keep up to date on issues, and much more.

gzipWTF

Fri, 11 May 2012 13:55:19 +0100

gzipWTF:

gzipWTF is the easiest f***ing way to check for gzip and more. The purpose of this site is to aide web designers & developers in speeding up sites by pinpointing which resources are not being gzipped by the server, which resources are slow and which resources are causing 404s.

units

Thu, 10 May 2012 15:17:33 +0100

units:

The ‘units’ program converts quantities expressed in various scales to their equivalents in other scales. The ‘units’ program can handle multiplicative scale changes as well as nonlinear conversions such as Fahrenheit to Celsius (which may appear to be linear but is actually affine). The units are defined in an external data file. You can use the extensive data file that comes with this program, or you can provide your own data file to suit your needs.

You can use units at the command line or interactively, like so:

units
586 units, 56 prefixes
You have: 7 gills
You want: pints
    * 1.75
    / 0.57142857

Via The case of the 500-mile email, a legendary tale that’s being doing the internet rounds again thanks to Kottke.

Jupiter

Wed, 09 May 2012 17:57:40 +0100

Jupiter:

Jupiter is a light weight power and hardware control applet for Linux. It is designed to improve battery life of a portable Linux computer by integrating with the operating system and changing parameters of the computer based on battery or powered connection.

FakeS3

Wed, 09 May 2012 16:06:03 +0100

FakeS3:

FakeS3 is a lightweight server that responds to the same calls Amazon S3 responds to. It is extremely useful for testing of S3 in a sandbox environment without actually making calls to Amazon, which not only require network, but also cost you precious dollars.

vimux

Tue, 08 May 2012 18:01:19 +0100

vimux:

Easily interact with tmux from vim.

T

Tue, 08 May 2012 16:55:46 +0100

A command-line power tool for Twitter. The CLI takes syntactic cues from the Twitter SMS commands, however it offers vastly more commands and capabilities than are available via SMS.

Via Backing Up Your Twitter Account With “T”.

danielhooper: I’ve been working on a way to make text editing...

Tue, 08 May 2012 14:00:00 +0100

danielhooper:

I’ve been working on a way to make text editing on iPad better.

I wouldn’t normally post a concept video/vapourware, but Daniel Hooper’s solution to the problems of editing text on iOS strikes me as pretty sensible, and anything that might spur Apple to revamp the current cursor movement and text selection interface is a good thing.

SlideWriter borrows from Hoopers ideas, but uses a stripe above the keyboard, which might be a better bet in terms of discoverability/cutting down on accidental cursor movements: