Categories
Flickr
- I missed having an icon for Python files in TextMate, so I made one with a Python Logo on it:
You can add it to your TextMate by downloading this file and putting it unter Contents/Resources/File Icons/ within your TextMate.app folder (to open that folder in the Finder, go to Applications, right-click TextMate and choose “Show Package Contents”).
Then open the file Bindings.plist (located in the same folder where you put the .tiff) in your favorite text editor and add this anywhere directly after a “</array>”:<key>PBX-python-Icon</key> <array> <string>py</string> </array>
That’s it! Restart TextMate and you’re done.
If you’re looking for better folder icons, there’s a blog post for that, too. With the recent debate about the deletion practices in the german Wikipedia, a fork has been brought up as an option a couple of times. Right now, Wikipedia has a huge monopoly when it comes to online knowledge and a fork may be able to decentralize things a bit. While the content is under a free license, the policy governing it is not that flexible.
One of the problems is that Wikipedia is supposed to be an encyclopedia, not a system to store any and all knowledge. I wonder if it would be feasible to implement a Really Friggin Big Wiki where anyone can write about any topic. The only restriction would be that the article has to state facts in a neutral manner (citing the most dubious sources is ok, as long as it’s clear that the text in question is just the possibly biased opinion or completely insane claims of the source). No restrictions should be imposed when it comes to relevance or target audience.
Such a Really Friggin Big Wiki (maybe I should trademark that) could then be forked into an encyclopedia, a sysadmin wiki, a cookbook, … anything. Edits should be made by the general public in the RFBW and can then find their way into the subwikis where stronger moderation is imposed.
This leads to an interesting set of problems. On the technical side, people are already experimenting with converting MediaWiki XML dumps into a git repository. The problem that remains is making that data available again for web-based editing. I’ve experimented with this in the past and created a very rudimentary wiki system that used git as a backend for both read and write operations. The code sucked, but I think in principle it is the right way to go about this.
Another problem is namespacing and categorizing the data, using “John_Smith” as identifier for an article will no longer be sufficient – the disambiguation pages would be interesting.I’m looking forward to what the community will come up with and how we’ll organize knowledge in ten years. Just too bad rfbw.org is already taken. Dammit.
- There are a thousands of tutorials and tips on retouching and post-production out there, so it’s pretty hard to find new things worth sharing. Here’s one I use on all my photos:
I call it Creative Quarantine. It’s not a fancy technique, but a strict policy: Whenever possible, I do not publish (or otherwise send off) images the same day I retouch them.
All my retouched photos go into quarantine for about 24hrs, usually meaning that I have got a good night’s sleep between looking at the close-to-final image and actually finishing it. What this does for me is giving me some distance, staring at and working on an image in Photoshop for hours doesn’t exactly improve your perception of it. Go to sleep. Eat something. What I noticed is that often I would spot areas that look overdone – lower that opacity a bit. How come I missed that spot yesterday? – heal it out. Uh, that skin softening looks just a little to gaussian – you get the idea.
I suggest you try this the next time you get all excited about that gorgeous photo that you can’t wait to get some feedback on. Don’t rush things.