Planet Raw

September 03, 2010

Today's Blog Music - The Hype Machine

Brad Sucks

The First Thing About Me (demo)

Seriously gotta get moving on these album demos. Here’s one:

The First Thing About Me (demo)

The mix is a disaster, but I MOVE ON. It’ll be the last track on Guess Who’s a Mess.

by Brad at September 03, 2010 07:11 PM

Today's Blog Music - The Hype Machine

ProgrammableWeb

Maps Without Maps Shows Off Google’s Styles

Google MapsAsk someone what makes a map and you’re likely to hear that it’s the roads or the physical characteristics. A new mashup is questioning whether you can still have a map without these details, while at the same time showing off the map styles feature that Google Maps announced in May.

Perhaps Maps Without Maps isn’t that useful, since it’s missing those elements that so many consider a map prerequisite. But it’s pretty fun to drag around and zoom in on areas you think you know, with only the city names (and some highway labels) visible.

The site achieves the effect thanks to a new and mostly unused feature of Google Maps. The map styles feature uses CSS-like syntax within the map’s JavaScript, so that you can change colors of the map. Or, selectively show and hide portions of the map, with about two dozen options to choose from. Of course, in the case of Maps Without Maps, it means making almost every element invisible.

Google isn’t the only mapping provider to allow styled maps. CloudMade provides a style editor which provides even more options in a point-and-click interface.

Hat tip: Mike Duffy and Kottke


Sponsored by

Nokia Developer Summit 2010

Related ProgrammableWeb Resources

Google Maps Google Maps API Profile, 2051 mashups

by Adam DuVander at September 03, 2010 07:00 PM

Lifehacker

How Many Vacation Days Do You Get Every Year? [Reader Poll]

Netflix lets its staff take as many vacation days as they want, and they can take them whenever they want, and according to news site The Telegraph, it works. Now we're wondering: How much vacation time do you get every year? More »


by Adam Pash at September 03, 2010 07:00 PM

Google Code Blog

Deep dive articles for the Analytics Data Export API

(Cross-posted from Google Analytics Blog)



On the Google Analytics API Team, we’re fascinated with what people create using the Data Export API. You guys come up with some really amazing stuff! Lately, we’ve also been paying a lot of attention to how people use it. We looked at whether the API has stumbling points (and where they are), what common features every developer wants in their GA applications, and what tricky areas need deeper explanations than we can give by replying to posts in our discussion group.



As a result of identifying these areas, we’ve written a few in-depth articles. Each article is meant as a “Deep Dive” into a specific topic, and is paired with open-source, sample reference code.



In no particular order, the articles are as follows:



Visualizing Google Analytics Data with Google Chart Tools

This article describes how you can use JavaScript to pull data from the Export API to dynamically create and embed chart images in a web page. To do this, it shows you how to use the Data Export API and Google Chart Tools to create visualizations of your Google Analytics Data.



Outputting Data from the Data Export API to CSV Format

If you use Google Analytics, chances are that your data eventually makes its way into a spreadsheet. This article shows you how to automate all the manual work by printing data from the Data Export API in CSV, the most ubiquitous file format for table data.



Filling in Missing Values In Date Requests

If you want to request data displayed over a time series, you will find that there might be missing dates in your series requests. When requesting multiple dimensions, the Data Export API only returns entries for dates that have collected data. This can lead to missing dates in a time series, but this article describes how to fill in these missing dates.



We think this article format makes for a perfect jumping off point. Download the code, follow along in the article, and when you’re done absorbing the material, treat the code as a starting point and hack away to see what you can come up with!



And if you’ve got some more ideas for areas you’d like us to expound upon, let us know!



by A Googler (noreply@blogger.com) at September 03, 2010 06:58 PM

Today's Blog Music - The Hype Machine

Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard

In the 1980s I worked as a theater critic. I spent a lot of time in expensive Broadway theaters and ambitious nonprofit repertory companies. But some of my most memorable experiences were at street theater events by groups like the San Francisco Mime Troupe and Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theater. I first saw them in Boston at a time when the manifesto below was relatively new. It’s now a quarter century old but it hasn’t lost any of its truth.

For most of my writing life I’ve had a copy of this poster on my wall near where I work. When we rebuilt my basement office I lost track of it, but recently found it and rehung it. Here it is for you. (I got this image here.)

Happy long weekend, everyone. Make some cheap art!

by Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard at September 03, 2010 06:36 PM

Lifehacker

JayCut Is a Great Web-Based Video Editor [Video Editing]

If you need to edit some video away from your home, free web-based video editor JayCut will likely get your project going, whether you need simple cutting and pasting or text, transitions, and impromptu audio recording. More »


by Whitson Gordon at September 03, 2010 06:00 PM

Word Soup

What Is It Good For

Gamestop video game retailers can no longer sell a game that would have allowed them to play as Taliban forces. Apparently, they might have realized that one religious zealot with a thirst for violence is the same as any other. From Kotaku:

As all stores located on Army and Air Force bases will no longer be allowed to sell Electronic Arts' upcoming military shooter Medal of Honor because an aspect of the game includes playable Taliban characters.

The Army and Air Force Exchange Services has confirmed to Kotaku that they requested the game pulled from the 49 GameStop's located on bases in the continent U.S. The ban, an AAFES representative told Kotaku, also extends to all military PXs worldwide.

In an email to employees, GameStop says the decision was made "out of respect for our past and present men and women in uniform."

Our hive mind brain is an odd animal. Murder and mayhem in the real world? Fine. Fictional representations of murder and mayhem? Fine. Fictional representations of murder and mayhem from the perspective of the OTHER guy? Sheer insolence.

by karl at September 03, 2010 05:45 PM

ongoing by Tim Bray

A Story of O

In recent days I’ve been thinking of JavaOne, as we kicked it around and decided we just couldn’t send speakers; and of Oracle OpenWorld, to which JavaOne will now serve as an appendage. It reminded me of a conversation I had last year about Oracle.

[Update: I reported this conversation, which I thought was instructive, carefully avoiding any conclusions. The commenters on the piece, however, drew lots of conclusions, which I enjoyed reading, and you might too. In particular, I thought some of the guesses as to my un-shared opinion on all this were quite illuminating.]

The conversation involved myself and a person with a convincing title who, as they’d say in the paper, was “familiar with the situation”.

My question was: “OpenWorld is this totally all-about-business conference. The Oracle Develop meeting is just a second-rate sidebar. Where does Oracle go about building developer mindshare?”

I’ll try to reproduce the answer in full as best as I can remember it:

“You don’t get it. The central relationship between Oracle and its customers is a business relationship, between an Oracle business expert and a customer business leader. The issues that come up in their conversations are business issues.

“The concerns of developers are just not material at the level of that conversation; in fact, they’re apt to be dangerous distractions. ‘Developer mindshare’... what’s that, and why would Oracle care?”

September 03, 2010 05:31 PM

Today's Blog Music - The Hype Machine

Lifehacker

This Altoids Tin BBQ Grill Can Still Cook Dogs and Burgers [DIY]

OK, maybe not "dogs" plural, but the (regular size) creator of this tiny grill, made from an Altoids Sours tin, says it can cook a small hamburger or a single hot dog, cut down to size, with ease. Awwww. More »


by Kyle VanHemert at September 03, 2010 05:30 PM

O'Reilly Digital Media Center

Planet Erlang

16 September 2010: London Erlang User Group Meet Up

Here are the details for the next London Erlang User Group Meeting:




Date : Thursday 16th September 2010

Time : 18:00

Place: Erlang Solutions, London





Advance registration required


Register here




Schedule:

-TBA



The location of our office can be found here.

Here is a map view

September 03, 2010 05:00 PM

Lifehacker

iPhone 3G Speed Test: iOS 4.0 versus iOS 4.1 [IPhone]

iOS 4.0 was so slow on our 3G, we promptly downgraded after updating. Earlier this week, Apple announced, among other things, that iOS 4.1 fixed performance on the iPhone 3G. We put their claim to the test. More »


by Adam Dachis at September 03, 2010 05:00 PM

Taskos Is a Voice-Powered Mobile To-Do List for Android [Downloads]

Android: If you prefer to use your Android as hands-free as possible, Taskos is a voice-driven to-do list manager that supports contexts, alarms, dialer integration and more. More »


by Jason Fitzpatrick at September 03, 2010 05:00 PM

Premasagar

Great day at #dconstruct. Fantastic talks this year.

 twitter:

Great day at #dconstruct. Fantastic talks this year.

September 03, 2010 04:58 PM