Some resources for your next Web Project
Off late in most of the web projects that I take up i end up using the same resources again and again. So here is the basic list that we can together grow into an exhaustive one.
Graphics
- Get Buttons
- Fonts
- Colors
- Logo inspiration
- Domain
- google apps – I prefer buying from google apps for easy integration with gmail, etc.
- name.com
- godaddy.com
- Basic CMS based Website Creation
- WordPress
- Php Hosting (wordpress hosting)
- BlueHost (http://www.bluehost.com/)
- To start Blogging
- Tumblr
Components
-
File Upload
Project Management/ Team building
- Video Conferencing (for cross geographic teams)
- Google Hangout
- One to one chat and conferencing
- Skype
- Code Hosting and source control
- GitHub
- Project Management/tracking
- Pivotal Tracker ( http://www.pivotaltracker.com )
- Frameworks for WebApp development
- Ruby on Rails
- CodeIgniter (PHP)
Deploying a massively scalable recommender system with Apache Mahout
Integrating recommender systems like that of Amazon and Youtube has become pretty easy with Apache Mahout. This article referenced here explains the following :
- Use cases where Mahout should be use
- The infrastructure needed
- How to scale this infrastructure
Check out the article here : http://ssc.io/deploying-a-massively-scalable-recommender-system-with-apache-mahout/
There is also a book available that explains using Mahout in details : http://www.manning.com/owen/
E Ink on Cloth
Quite a few years ago when still in college, I read a book “When things start to think” by the Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT’s Media Lab. It was one of the reason i always had this dream to someday be at the Media Labs and work on some the cool culture and technology intersection related stuff.
So this book introduced me back then to the concept of E Inks. Now part of various devices and particularly made famous by Amazon’s Kindle, the e ink eventually as a technology aimed to become printable on surfaces as thin as the newspapers.
Today FastCompany published an article that talks about T Shirts that will allow for E Ink printing, thus giving a huge avenue to advertisers to use people t shirts as a dynamic display medium. The possibilities that something like this brings about are enormous like maybe even cell phones could eventually get integrated into clothing.
Check out the interesting prospect of E Ink on cloth:
And you can find the complete article here.
Visuals sculpted by sound (High speed Photography)
High speed photography is a art form that sometimes produces spell-bounding results. Today one of my facebook friends had shared a link which showed the work that the creative agency Dentsu London did for an advertisement for Canon’s Pixma printer. And I just couldn’t stop myself from sharing it on Technoticles.
Check out the complete flikr photoset here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/13084997@N03/sets/72157608258335431/
The creator, Linden Glendhill, wrote that the shapes have been made out of water based paints and sound come from a speaker. The motion is captured with mic triggered flash units controlled by StopShot.
Some relevant links:
Some photographs of the set up – http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2011/04/13/135377949/how-sound-can-create-sculpture
How to do high speed photography at home – http://www.diyphotography.net/diy_high_speed_photography_at_home
Some other beautiful high speed photography results – http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/04/08/beautiful-and-creative-high-speed-photography/
Google’s new +1
A future scenario based on glass
Corning, a company that work in the areas of specialty glass and ceramics has come up with a video that portrays a future scenario based on the use of glass. It is a well done video and worth a watch.
Read more about it here:
http://www.corning.com/news_center/features/A_Day_Made_of_Glass.aspx
Beautiful data visualization and analysis
In the current world of humongous data volumes, smart analysis is the key to making sense of things. And today, more than ever before, the general public has access to data that can be analysed for free. Like via twitter we have access to what a lot of people in the world are talking about at any given moment in time. Mapping this data to various events happening at that time, gives a very powerful technique to analyze the impact of these events (or even tv shows) and the kind of conversations they are generating.
Below is a video that talks about some of this (in its later part). It is also a very nice watch if you like data visualizations.
Creating a FBML facebook app in php
Finding your apps
First of all I always find it difficult to find where my apps are on Facebook. So i thought i’ll keep the url bookmarked: http://www.facebook.com/developers/apps.php
Using WAMP
I am a lazy person and like out of the box solutions. So for a windows machine WAMP gave me apache, php and mysql bundled.
- Install wamp
- Open port 8080 for external access, make sure the machine can be accessed from outside your domain
- To create fbml app you might have to work directly on the server, to see results at runtime
- create you app folder in the www folder
- Start all services in wamp
The next things: Gaming, Location. Merging the real and virtual.
Update : [ Today techcrunch has published an article on Grey Area, a Finnish smartphone games developer, doing a alternate reality game called Shadow Cities. They raised Series A funding. ]
One of the trends that i always think is gonna be big in future is gaming in the real world. By that I mean that when people themselves will become characters of the games that they are playing in the virtual worlds. The merging of your virtual and real self. Location based services are getting us there. Read more…


