Blogger for iOS

So it's been an incredibly long time since Blogger for iOS was updated, but it finally was and I'm pretty sure all my nits for the initial release were addressed (the only one I can remember is landscape editing).
Also, it works on iPad now!

Mozilla Summer of Code event

So I'm thinking of hosting a Mozilla Summer of Code (specifics, moar specifics) event.
In case you didn't know, Mozilla is actively leading a campaign to make our generation "web-literate" - which means that you don't just consume the web, you have the skills to actively partake in creating the web. Web literacy is about understanding more about the underlying system and code that makes the web work.
Mozilla Summer of Code is about people creating events, worldwide, which people will attend with the intention of increasing their web literacy and learn some more about the web. The event that I would host would be either a kitchen table meetup - which is basically where some of us meet and I teach y'all how to make websites - or a hack jam - which is where we'll all collaboratively make a prototype of some idea that someone has - or even a combination of these two. Either way, it will be tons of fun.
People I'm thinking might be especially interested are Gabriel Pehrson, Zeb Burke-Conte, Zoey Salsbury, Adam Hanson and Jackson de Campos - but anyone is totally welcome (and highly encouraged!) to come. If someone really wants to come but can't make it for whatever reason, we could possibly do something with Google+ Hangouts, or figure something else out - really, this is casual and we can adapt to fit people's schedules. This is about learning, and you don't have to have any prior experience coding. Don't worry; you'll be fine - I'd encourage you to come even if you're on the fence about it, but ultimately, of course, it's up to you.
Anyone interested?
#mozparty #ftw

I just read an article on how awful PHP is.

This blog post may include some French, so excuse me in advance, but it seems kind of appropriate.
So a couple of days ago I took about an hour or two of my life to read about the many, many, many, many faults of PHP. I found the article in question from this blog post.
Then, fully processing and then ignoring the post's message about how we need to stop ranting about PHP and create something better, I read a comprehensive list of all the awful, terrible decisions the PHP developers made when creating this language, entitled PHP: A Fractal of Bad Design.
This series of images describes my reaction pretty well throughout the list.

Why...

Oh God, why would someone design shit like this?? That's awful!

I wish this was a joke.

This is so awful. (Repeat from image 1.)

After I took these photos, I recorded an hour-long video of me reacting to and reading this list. I'm not quite sure why, and if you want to watch it for some reason, too bad. It wouldn't upload.

Introducing Realtimd

So I'm going to be creating (someday) a service called Realtimd.
Realtimd is about enabling people viewing a textual communication, like an article or blog post, to have a contextual conversation centered around the text - in a dead-easy way. Realtimd is completely optional and augments a page's functionality. Faliures and downtimes in the Realtimd service will not affect pages using Realtimd in any way.
The Realtimd source is available on GitHub. It's possible to run your own instance of Realtimd, but this isn't recommended.
Let's talk about a real-world scenario that Realtimd could be useful in. In the process of describing this scenario, I'll give details on what exactly Realtimd does.
Let's say Person A has a blog. Since there are blog posts made up (largely) of text on Person A's blog, Realtimd can be useful to Person A.
Person A goes to the Realtimd enable page - which will eventually be at realtimd.alexj.jumpingcrab.com - and Realtimd will generate an HTML snippet.
At the first release of Realtimd, the generated HTML snippet will always be the same - basically just a <script> tag pointing to a js file on the Realtimd server. However, as Realtimd evolves, it will allow you to customize the HTML snippet. For example, it will allow you to host the code yourself instead of linking to the js file on the server, and it may also allow you to enable a dashboard for your site on the Realtimd website, showing who is using Realtimd on your website and what pages they're looking at, etc. It may also allow you to have the Realtimd widget (which I'll explain in a second) served without any CSS styling, allowing you to specify your own rules and styles for the widget.
Anyway, Person A will get his/her HTML snippet from the Realtimd enable page, then put that snippet into the page with his/her content - in this case, his/her blog post pages. Realtimd is now enabled for Person A's content.
Person B views a blog post on Person A's blog, Blog Post 1. The Realtimd js file loads, and enables Realtimd on the Blog Post 1 page for Person B, telling the Realtimd service that Person B is viewing the page in the process. Then, Person C does the same thing. Both Person B and Person C are now viewing Blog Post 1, Realtimd is enabled for both of them, and they are both registered with the Realtimd service as viewing the page.
At this point, since there is more than one viewer, a little widget will appear on the page of Blog Post 1 on both Person B's screen and Person C's screen.  This widget will offer to open a chat with other users viewing the page. In this case, Persons B and C are the only users viewing the page.
Person B is interested by this, and accepts the offer. Person B is now registered with Realtimd as wanting to talk about the page.
(From this point on, user experience is not final and is subject to change.)
At this point, the Realtimd widget on Person C's screen will change to say that 1 other person is interested in talking about the page. Person C can ignore this, or can choose to chat. If Person C decides to chat, a chat window will be opened on Persons B and C's screens. They will be put in the same chat room, and can now talk about the page and its content.
As a bonus, Realtimd will at this point offer to provide additional information on behalf of each person. By default, users will appear anonymously, but users can provide additional information (basically their name) to other users. Realtimd will also offer to expose what text is selected on a particular user's screen - for example, Person B could enable this, then when talking about a particular block of text, select that text, and that selection would appear on Person C's screen.

Introducing lmwtfy

You know lmgtfy (let me Google that for you)?
So I'm going to make a let me Wikipedia that for you. There's not much else to say, really. It'll be almost exactly like lmgtfy, only for Wikipedia.
As always, the source is available on GitHub. It will be live on lmwtfy.alexj.jumpingcrab.com.

So I should probably explain myself

I am not secretly obsessed with One Direction. In the words of me in Spanish class while we were talking about One Direction:

"Me gusta One Direction, pero no me encanto a One Direction."

Translation: I like One Direction, but I'm not in love with One Direction.
I have One Direction photos on my iPad because I have a grand scheme to get memes onto my friend Emma's phone (Emma is obsessed with One Direction, just like all the other girls in my grade). And One Direction memes seemed like an ideal strategy, as she wasn't likely to delete One Direction content.
There. Boom. Done. Bye

ONE DIRECTION SHRINE PART TWO

We need more One Direction photos.
p.s. I think there's a chance Alex is secretly obsessed with them so maybe I can just do this forever... I found pics of the band on his iPad so...

Alex's Friend

K I'm going to pause from the shrine to One Direction for a moment to kind of mull/ask an open question here.
So you know how you can have a song stuck in your head? So has anyone else (by that I mean Alex) ever had, like, a word stuck in your head instead? I know this is going to sound weird but it happens to me sometimes where a certain word will just kind of repetitively float back and forth and it's just always in the back of my mind. Not quite as annoying as having a song stuck in my head but still odd. A good example is this morning the word "guava" was just kinda in the back of my mind and it's not like I wanted a guava or anything, it was just stuck in my head. I don't know if this is even a real thing...
I should probably stop posting this late.
Alex's Friend

ONE DIRECTION

I was going to give Alex time to protest, but it's too late. My attention span can't handle it.
PICS! (and gifs)