Hey guys, no robitussin for me tonight. So I managed to shake loose some time to work on OPW's link-sharing features. The jump from the hack I had before to handling this... closer to properly... was a big one, but there's definite progress.

Here are some examples:

This strip has nonexistent semantic markup, which is geek-speak for "it's hard to embed it right," so I'm pleased with how they turn out now when you just paste a link to that day's comic page. I had to edit the title a little, and supplied my own description; it automatically picked the right image (the largest one, by area). You can also tap on the image to cycle through alternatives, if any decent ones were present.

Girl Genius looks good too. There was a problem with overlap— oops, I fixed it.

XKCD: 100A.

This one has an automatic summary, because they supply a proper og:description element. The best available image is pretty crap, though; reminds me that I need to add an option to remove the image entirely.

I also found a few links just now that don't work at the moment. Probably I need to specify a user agent string and then they will cooperate perhaps.

This is an iterative improvement; more are planned. Please do open issues via the bug button.

Thanks!

I attended Barcamp Philly today.

"What the heck is a barcamp?" you cry. A barcamp is an unconference.

"What's an unconference?" you ask. An unconference is a DIY conference. People who want to speak show up bright and early, write their name and the title of their talk on an index card, and slap it up on a grid of times and conference rooms. The board fills up, aaaand... that's the conference! Attend whatever talks strike your fancy.

"Why's it called barcamp?" you inquire. Because O'Reilly Associates, the people who publish those technical books with the animals on the covers, sponsors an annual conference you're not invited to called foocamp. And programmers like variables named "foo" and "bar." (Plus: "Friends Of O'Reilly.") Thus the joke.

"Why foo and bar?" you persist. The generic term "foo" dates to the 1930s and was popularized by a Smokey Stover cartoon, according to Internet RFC 3092, "Etymology of Foo." It was likely derived from the Chinese character "Fu." During World War II, GIs popularized the phrase FUBAR (F****d Up Beyond All Recognition). Thus after the war it was natural to think of "bar" as what comes after "foo."

"What talks did you attend?" I went to "You Are Not the User" by Shawn Berven, who covered a table with diabetes test gear and then explained what it takes to design products that are right for actual people... people who are not you.

I went to "Come On... It's in the Requirements" by Sloan Miller and Abby Fretz, who discussed the concept of the HIPPPO... the HIghest Paid, most imPortant Person in the room... who is guaranteed to be ill-informed and have strong feelings about everything.

I went to "Urban Exploration," by phillystomp, who showed us what she found when she snuck into abandoned Philadelphia public schools.

I missed an awesome talk by an eight year old girl about how to use iMovie because I was giving a talk of my own.

I went to "Web 0.9," where Greg McGee told us about headspinny new toys like WebGL and WebRTC.

And I wrapped up my day with "Geek Theater," an improv experiment by Lauren Galanter and friends. This turned into a panel discussion between an eight-year-old boy, an angry Philly cyclist, and Neil deGrasse Tyson. Hilarity ensued.

"Hey wait up! Did you say you spoke today?" Why yes, I did. My talk was entitled "javascript games, a HOWTO: thanks, Obama!"

"Why 'thanks, Obama?'" Because my friend turned 40. My friend sells health insurance, and his career got going as Obamacare was gearing up. I happen to think Obamacare has helped millions of people. It's also been an administrative clusterf***, no question. That created opportunities for people like my friend. So for his birthday, I whipped up a video game in which he must intercept as many potential customers as possible without running into any Tea Partiers. Because that makes Obama sad, you see.

This morning, I realized the game was just a talk waiting to happen, so I made a few changes to respect his privacy and "Willy Loman Sells Obamacare" was born.

"Why JavaScript?" It's the language of the web browser. And lately, the webserver too, but that's off topic. Everything can browse the web at this point, and it's a very easy language to code in, so if you want to whip up a game in a hurry that's your ticket.

"So you spent 45 minutes explaining a simple video game?" Well yeah, because details matter. But it was also a trojan horse for my favorite geeky rant, "this" considered harmful, in which I tell JavaScript programmers to stop stuntin' and frontin' and doin' things that are hard and save their best energies for the actual problem they are trying to solve.

"So how was it?" Oh, it was a blast, straight up. I've attended barcamps before, but it's been a while since I spoke at one, and I'd forgotten how good they can be. I attended JSFest in San Francisco this year— which required I get on airplanes— and honestly I got just as much out of barcamp today in many ways. I just love the vibe. I like the technical stuff, but I think I like the nontechnical stuff even more. You should absolutely attend the next barcamp in your area.

SHAVE ANOTHER DAY (2014) - James Bond (Ryan Gosling) pursues a hipster jewel thief through the streets of Red Hook, Brooklyn. When he finally catches up, the thief just hands him the jewels and says they "used to be cool." The Brooklyn scenes are credibly artisanal but Gosling's portrayal of "neckbond" is insufficiently ironic. B-

On a tangentially related subject, I continue to be delighted by the two most recent They Might Be Giants albums.

As you may have noticed, OPW had an outage today. Our host is playing silly games, reporting inaccurate disk space numbers. This caused our database to shut down politely lest it become unable to save your content fully. I am officially Peeved. We're working on it with them.

As soon as I get a moment, I'll be working on a "status.onepostwonder.com" site that is not hosted by the same company, as well as a standby display on the main site for those cases (like today) where you would have been able to see it.

* * *

Today I had a group of guests in the office. These fine folks work for one of our clients. Unusually for us, I'd done a special sort of project for them in which I never actually met their team.

I'm glad that finally happened. There's nothing like face time to help you see folks as talented individuals who need a hand with their highly worthwhile work. As opposed to, y'know, generic timesink #23094823094823.

I am eating the breakfast I was fantasizing about last night: omelet on lavash. Mmmf.

Last night we watched the second Hunger Games movie. Roberta and I are thoroughly sucked in and eager to see the new movie and we don't want to see the trailer, hear any spoilers from the book, or otherwise know anything about it. My kid is eager to tell us all about the politics of the movies vs. the books and what her Tumblr peeps are disappointed about— but has neither read the books nor seen the movies. I am resolved not to listen to a word until I've formed my own opinion.

We are getting ready for the house painters. Everything smaller than a breadbox must go to the basement. Soon we will be blue and yellow and green and...

K. Ogden takes us by the lapels and intones, "no one will love it more than you!"

Ursula Sadiq demonstrates the proper technique of fairy-queen-staff-making.

Shelle Klein Houser tells us exactly how good Rob Bryan's book is.

And Daniel Allen explores the bike transit system of Taipei.

Strong stuff, people!

This is a tasty variation on something I've been pouring in the ice cream freezer for a long time. I should have tried the banana sooner.

1 frozen banana (or fresh; just takes longer)

1 generous dollop peanut butter

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 generous shake 5-spice powder

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Mix the ingredients and pour into your beloved ice cream maker. Y'know, the compact kind with the insert you keep in the freezer until it's ready.

Serves one. But by that I mean it serves the amount you're really gonna eat. Like, about two cups.

Yesterday was kind of epic.

Recently we spotted an H-Mart from the car while crossing back into town from Elkins Park, north of Philadelphia. I was vaguely aware it's a Korean supermarket. Our neighborhood has cheap, abundantly stocked pan-asian supermarkets, but this looked a little more upscale.

And on the way back into town, we passed through a Korean neighborhood that blends into an African-American neighborhood that blends into... and so on. But from a car, you miss a lot.

So yesterday, with the rest of my household out on their own errands, I decided to hop on my bike and pedal north... forever.

Around 0.3 forevers into this journey, I passed Fly School Circus Arts, currently located on 5th street near Cecil B. Moore. They teach you the flying trapeze. I tried it once. S'fun.

At the 0.6 forevers mark, I stumbled onto El Bloque de Oro, aka the "golden block." Actually several blocks of thriving Latino businesses and a community center.

But around 0.7 forevers, I found myself in what felt like an endless series of abandoned factories. So I changed course, rolled through the green space of Hunting Park, and worked my way north along Old York Road, which parallels Broad Street.

Old York was my ticket the rest of the way to forever: the H-Mart at Old York and Cheltenham Avenue.

I had expected a supermarket, and there is one, more of an upper middle class affair than I'm used to down in South Philly. But there is also an indoor pedestrian mall that feels more like a street market. And a vendor of Korean kitchen and bathroom fixtures. Which... are a vivid reminder that we are not the only high-tech culture on this planet that innovates in the vital arenas of consumption and elimination. But anyway.

The main score for me: red bean donuts. I hadn't experienced red bean paste desserts before, although I know they are a staple in certain cultures. These were served in a very health-label-conscious "parisian bakery" that clearly is no stranger to picky eaters, so I felt more confident than usual in ordering outside my comfort zone.

On my return home, I presented the family with freeze-dried asian pears, Korean corn chips and plum candy for dessert. The "crispy asian pears" were the clear winner; with no ingredients whatsoever other than asian pears, they scratch that "unhealthy crunchy snack" itch. I was impressed. The other two were just okay. But I get points for adventuring, yes?

I'm a big believer in leaving your backyard and exploring neighborhoods you wouldn't normally see.

I'm cognizant that in some places and times there can be risks associated with this. A tiny fraction, of course, of the risk and discomfort folks who don't happen to be white males might experience in far more places. But there are risks associated with never leaving the house, too. It also doesn't hurt that I tend to explore in broad daylight. Which is not to say that any particular places I've mentioned are less safe.