Tech-stuff · 12 April 2012 ·
Easing the pain of referencing, part II: Gathering bibliographical information
In part I of this brief guide to academic referencing software, I introduced BibDesk and Mendeley as two examples of full-featured referencing software. In part II, I will briefly hint at different means of extracting bibliographical data from Google Scholar and journal websites, that can be used by BibDesk and other BibTex based software. Some of these hints also work with other reference managers. This article is more advanced than the previous one. You should be reasonably confident in your usage of BibDesk or Bibtex.
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Webdesign Tech-stuff · 19 March 2012 ·
Batch conversion of HTML5 compatible video
Recently I had to develop a website that is using html5’s new <video> element excessively. I had to convert at least 10 videos from the original mov to webm, theora, and x264. If this was audio, I would simply be using the extremely handy MAX Unfortunately, I did not find a similar programme for video files, whereas I created a short bash script that does the job.
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Tech-stuff · 30 November 2011 ·
Easing the pain of referencing, Part I: Reference Managers
When you’re writing an academic article, one of the most annoying parts of the process is getting your references right. It’s an annoying but necessary task, that requires a large chunk of time that would be better spent on getting the content right. However, with the help of a referencing software you can reduce this hassle significantly.
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Politics Tech-stuff · 9 October 2011 ·
Chaos Computer Club dissects German police interception software
The hacker group Chaos Computer Club (CCC) has reverse-engineered the German state trojan software that is being used to intercept suspects’ online communication. You can read the full summary of their findings on their website. It is not my aim to reiterate the technical details of how the this remote forensic software works, rather I want to discuss some of the implications that arise from the use of evidence gathered through it.
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Media Tech-stuff · 4 November 2010 ·
Digital Veganism
Constanze Kurz of the Chaos Computer Club, crop of a photo by re:publica10, cc-attr
In an interview with the German Weekly Freitag, Constanze Kurz, spokesperson of the Chaos Computer Club, develops the notion of “data veganism” in the Internet. People who stay out of all sorts of social networks and similar online services due to privacy concerns, are data vegans. People who stay away from the worst offenders are data vegetarians. Apart from the majority, who indulge in all sorts of social networking activity, there is also a fourth group, the conscious meat eaters, who use social networks like Facebook, but are very cautious about the sort of information they provide.
Furthermore, Ms Kurz argues that the agenda of digital vegans and vegetarians is ultimately to the benefit of all, since it will lead to more choice and higher awareness amongst the consumers of online services.
So what are you? Vegan? Vegetarian? Or are you going for the beef? And if so, are you at least making sure it’s organic?
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Personal Tech-stuff · 20 June 2010 ·
The Sun is rising...
Since my bike got stolen over Easter, I need a new one. I decided to go back to the Common Wheel Project, a Glasgow-based charity that employs people with mental illness to build and repair bikes. It’s a brilliant project and they do a very good job at building bikes, too. Plus, they are a bit geeky.
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Tech-stuff Webdesign · 8 April 2010 ·
Irony is...
…when Richer sounds advertises a special offer for visually impaired people on its website’s front page, but places that very information in an image with no alt-text, thus rendering it invisible for people who use screen readers or who use a different style sheet to make websites more legible.
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Personal Tech-stuff · 25 November 2008 ·
Wanna buy speakers?
Old grannies get scammed with electric blankets and knife sets. But whilst an electric blanket probably wouldn’t attract the attention of students, other goods do.
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Politics Tech-stuff · 12 June 2008 ·
The irony is...
Reading news can be dull. It can be distressing, if it’s bad news. But from time to time you might find something to laugh about.
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Antipatterns Tech-stuff · 4 June 2008 ·
What is an Antipattern?
Before defining antipatterns, we must define a pattern. A pattern is a method of solving a common problem by using a generalized procedure1. Therefore an antipattern is a solution that presents more problems then it addresses2.
Initially, the term antipattern was coined in engineering and software development, but its definition can be used in a much broader sense too. There is already a wide range of resources and literature on antipatterns in engineering and software development. I want to refer the interested reader to Wikipedia and the extensive collection of antipatterns on the c2.com wiki.