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JSONLint – The JSON Validator.

I’ve been working on a personal project and found this excellent tool for validating JSON. It’s called “JSONLint” – The JSON Validator.

I installed the JSON plugin on my wordpress site and now I can retrieve the data from a web app on my personal domain johnpolaschek.com. My testing URL is: http://www.dontlookhere.com/blog/?json=get_recent_posts&count=2

I drop that URL into JSONLint and I can verify the output. Very cool. I’ve now got a mobile page running on johnpolaschek.com that retrieves the feed and displays as buttons on a jQuery mobile page.

via JSONLint – The JSON Validator..

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Online Backup for Mac | Arq | Haystack Software

Arq can back up to either Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) or Amazon Glacier.

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is the gold standard of online storage, backed by Amazon.com, Inc, a $100B company. S3 offers 99.999999999% durability of your data. It’s designed to withstand the concurrent loss of 2 data centers without losing your data.

Amazon Glacier is an extremely low-cost storage service. It offers the same 99.999999999% durability. In order to keep costs low, Amazon Glacier is optimized for data that is infrequently accessed. Initiating retrieval from Glacier typically takes 3-5 hours, and Amazon charges for retrieving large amounts of data from Glacier.

Choose S3 for fast access, or Glacier for low cost. Or mix and match, backing up some folders to S3 and others to Glacier.

via Online Backup for Mac | Arq | Haystack Software.

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FastGlacier – Windows Client for Amazon Glacier – An Extremely Low-Cost Storage Service. Amazon Glacier Client.

FastGlacier is a freeware Windows Client for Amazon Glacier – an extremely low-cost storage service that provides secure and durable storage for data archiving and backup.FastGlacier enables you to upload your files to Amazon Glacier using your full bandwidth. With FastGlacier you can also download your files from Amazon Glacier and manage the vaults with ease!

via FastGlacier – Windows Client for Amazon Glacier – An Extremely Low-Cost Storage Service. Amazon Glacier Client..

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MechBass robot nails bass guitar sounds with Arduino and a stone cold groove (video)

This is pretty cool. Sweet sounding bass!

End-of-year engineering school projects often pique our interest for their creativity. It’s not every day that they can carry a bassline, however. James McVay’s robot project for his honors year at the Victoria University of Wellington, the supremely well-named MechBass, wouldn’t have much trouble keeping up with a favorite band. It centers on a custom, Arduino-compatible board that controls the plucking, fretting and damping of four strings to faithfully recreate bass guitar sounds from MIDI input. The design even accounts for the unwanted noises of actuators and motors, while virtually everything was either 3D-printed or laser-cut just for the task at hand. Sounds good? There’s more in the pipeline: an upcoming Swivel robot will experiment with different playing techniques, and McVay ultimately sees his work teaching us about robotic music’s interaction with human performers. For now, we’ll be happy with the video after the break and hope that MechBass takes requests.

via MechBass robot nails bass guitar sounds with Arduino and a stone cold groove (video).

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SPACEVIEW :: Home

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH FOR SPACE

SpaceView seeks to provide the amateur astronomer with the opportunity to make a difference in the task of protecting our nation’s space assets. We are actively seeking information from individual astronomers about their equipment, sites, and observing habits.

We are also exploring a mutually beneficial partnership that can last for the long term. This could potentially include time-sharing on telescopes, upgraded hardware at the astronomer’s site, or financial compensation.

via SPACEVIEW :: Home.

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New iPad (3)

New iPad 3 is simply amazing. The features impressing me the most are:

  • The retina display
  • Dictation
  • The overall gaming and app performance

Everything just looks more crisp and runs so much faster. Battery life seems just as good as the previous version. I’m actually writing this blog post using the dictation feature.