Google announces Chromecast, $35 HDMI dongle to stream supported services to TV [feedly]

Want.
 
 

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Google announces Chromecast, $35 HDMI dongle to stream supported services to TV

Google has just finished their big breakfast event and one of the highlights for Apple users is Chromecast, a $35 HDMI dongle that turns any TV into a receiver for YouTube, Netflix, and potentially other services that adopt the API. It seems like Apple's AirPlay, but has some benefits and drawbacks all its own. Here's what Phil Nickinson from Android Central had to say:

YouTube, Google Play Music — all available through Chromecast and accessed through your phone. You can set up a queue of videos to play while still use your phone for other tasks. Browse, take phonecalls, check e-mail — whatever you need to do. Streaming is handled from the Chromecast — not from your phone. And Netflix? No problem.

As for those drawbacks, first, it's "cross-platform" as in "works with iOS and Android, and the [in this case Chrome] browser". Other desktop browsers, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone, so far, need not apply. That's increasingly the case with Google, which makes me kinda wish they'd find a new, more honest word for it like "select-platforms". Apple and AirPlay only work with iOS and OS X, of course, which is worse from a supported platform perspective, but you absolutely know that going in.

Second, whenever someone talks about device independence, it means they're selling service dependence. It's the same old yarn from Flash, where it can run everywhere, but you become locked into Adobe's ecosystem. Likewise, Chromecast looks like it'll support a wide range of devices, but you'll be locked into Google API for doing so. No such thing as a free-as-in-speech or free-as-in-beer lunch.

All that aside, the price is killer, and you use iOS or Chrome on OS X, and the services you care most about are YouTube, Netflix, and other Google and partner offerings, Chromecast might be a great option for you.

If you're Apple-only, AirPlay, especially with AirPlay mirroring, and an Apple TV look like they're still a far better option (especially considering Apple TV has built-in, native YouTube and Netflix channels.)

I'll be getting one, though. Anyone else?

Source: Google Play via Android Central

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Capacity for beer still main source of pride [feedly]

Scientists from the institute of studies have been hard at work again! 
 
 

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Capacity for beer still main source of pride

MOST Britons consider drinking a lot of beer to be their greatest achievement.

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Fuck Off As A Service [feedly]

Haha! Well played.
 
 

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Fuck Off As A Service

Fuck Off As A Service:

FOAAS (Fuck Off As A Service) provides a modern, RESTful, scalable solution to the common problem of telling people to fuck off.

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Learn Ember With Us for Free [feedly]

Learn Ember for free, cannot argue with that.
 
 

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Learn Ember With Us for Free

Hopefully, it's clear by now that Envato and Tuts+ are dedicated to education. In addition to the various Tuts+ sites like this one, we also offer Tuts+ Premium, which provides the best web development courses and ebooks available today for a small monthly cost. Members of Premium help to contribute back to Tuts+ and ensure that we can continue offering as much free content as possible.

Speaking of free: each month, we release one new entirely free course. This month, I'm proud to announce that you can learn Ember with us for free!

Bookmark Me!

---

Lessons

Introduction

• Introduction
• Installation and Bootstrap

The Object Model

• Classes and Objects
• Computed Properties

Application Components

• Observers

Demonstration

• Ember Architecture Explained
• Router
• Controllers
• Views
• Templates
• Models

Conclusion

• Let's Build an Ember App: Part 1
• Let's Build an Ember App: Part 2
• Final Tips

---

There Will Always Be More!

Be sure to bookmark freecourses.tutsplus.com (and subscribe to the newsletter) to stay updated on each new free course that we offer to the community!

If you'd like to learn more, of course a Tuts+ Premium membership is only $19 a month, and includes countless courses and downloadable eBooks on the topics that I guarantee you're most interested in learning: HTML5, jQuery, Ember, Laravel, PHP 5.5, Rails 4, architecture, design patterns, and so much more.

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Use Aliases, Not Hostnames [feedly]

Hurrah! I do this. 
 
 

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Use Aliases, Not Hostnames

I'm going to cut straight to the point: it is 2013, you should use aliases, not hostnames; aliases as in DNS CNAME records. This goes for everything and anything: your source control server, your issue tracker, your wiki/document management system, your central configuration service, etc. So what exactly am I talking about?

Let's say one day, one of your IT teams (development, operations, sysadmins, whoever) realizes they could really use a tool to do "foo bar". "Foo bar" may be source control, issue tracking, etc. The tool itself is not important, but what is important is if it's any kind of client-server application (a web site, some sort of service with a thick-client, etc.). So one or more enterprising individuals on the team with the need decides to set up this tool themselves on their local workstation, or a spare server or VM they have laying around.

The tool they chose to do "foo bar" is a hit. The folks who set it up enjoy using it and it makes their job easier. They start telling other folks on the team about it. More people start using the tool and eventually its use spreads to other teams.

This sort of grassroots movement to introduce new tools into an organization is awesome because a need is clearly met by this tool, otherwise so many people wouldn't be using it. However, there is almost always one tiny detail that is glossed over when setting up this tool, and more importantly – when telling other people about this tool: the "connection details" of the tool's "server". Rather than ask for (or create) a DNS alias that has an actual meaning to it and that is related to the tool/application for which the host is being used, folks tend to pass out the actual underlying hostname of the computer running the tool.

This may seem like a small nit to pick on, but think about it: what happens if you need to move that tool to another computer? Maybe you need to get a more powerful server for it now that so many people are using it. Maybe you need to come up with a way to make a disaster recovery plan actually work. Maybe the dude who's workstation you used to first setup the prototype instance of the tool just got fired.

Whatever the reason is, you will inevitably need to put that tool's server component on another computer, and then what? If you just passed out the direct hostname to everyone, now umpteen people need to update their bookmarks, their thick-clients' connection details, etc. Your lack of planning on this superficially small detail just led to wasted time for a lot of people having to update something on their end because of a hostname change on the backend. This sounds a lot like a violation of one of our best practices: DRY – Don't Repeat Yourself.

All of this wasted time could've been avoided if you simply took a few minutes during the initial setup of this tool to get a DNS alias created that had meaning for your application. Setting up a web based issue tracker? Use an alias named after the product itself. Setting up your source control system? Use that as an alias: "sourcecontrol". Just pick a name with meaning. Then, when – not if – you need to move that service to another machine you do the move, then update the DNS alias to point to the new underlying hostname and your users won't have to update any "connection details" on their side.

Just like how you use a variable or constant in a programming language to avoid repeating the same value over and over again in source code, you should use aliases, not hostnames to avoid repeating hostnames over and over again in client application configuration.

Use Aliases, Not Hostnames is a post from: DevOps On Windows - Be awesome at Windows DevOps or Windows Sysadmin

The post Use Aliases, Not Hostnames appeared first on DevOps On Windows.

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snackable content: the pros and cons

snackable content: the pros and cons: "Snackable content is the latest buzzword to enter the ever-changing content marketing scene. But as with any fad or trend, it is important to consider exactly what the bandwagon is that everyone seems to jumping on, and of course, the pros and cons. "

'via Blog this'

5 questions to ask yourself before starting a company blog

5 questions to ask yourself before starting a company blog: "One of the main reasons company blogs fail is because of a lack of commitment. Business blogging is hard, and in order to have a sustainable blog that is updated frequently, you will need to put in a significant amount of time per week. The most important question to ask yourself: are you prepared to put in the time and effort to make it work? "

'via Blog this'

Markdown Here Adds Markdown Support to Email and Web Forms [feedly]

I love markdown. anything markdown I'll use. added.
 
 

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Markdown Here Adds Markdown Support to Email and Web Forms

Chrome/Firefox/Safari/Thunderbird/Postbox: Markdown is a great way to instantly render text as HTML without knowing a lick of coding, and if you want to use that in an email client like Gmail or Postbox, Markdown Here adds the functionality easily.

Read more...

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Four desks for a minimalist work space [feedly]

I don't have much room at home. In fact make that no room at home so I've been on lookout for something like these products for a while. A tad on the expensive side but Free Stand especially looks perfect.
 
 

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Four desks for a minimalist work space

Whether you stand or sit while you work, chances are you may be using an office to get your stuff done. But, is it really necessary to have an office anymore? A lot of must-have equipment for just about any work environment now seems a bit obsolete because, well, there's an app that. For example, you can use a scanner to digitize important documents or you can use an app (like Evernote) to scan and store the items you need to keep.

Like me, you might still prefer having a flat surface to work from or a smaller surface to use for your laptop or tablet. If you plan to minimize your physical work area or to re-design your home office, you don't have to give your desk up and permanently keep your laptop on your lap while you work. Instead, look for a smaller desk that will still give you the function you need.

These four minimalist desks might be able to help you get stuff done and reclaim more space:

HIDEsk

Do you work in the kitchen? Living room? If you tend to move about your home and have no stationary workspace, the HIDEsk might appeal to you. It folds when not in use, which means it can be stored in a closet or under furniture. And, because it's portable, you can take it wherever work takes you. This desk doesn't have drawers, so the trade off to gaining more space means you'll need to bring along your favorite pen or needed office supplies wherever you go.

Image credit: IMM Cologne

HIDEsk is designed to hold your tablet and open slots to help you control your cables and wires. When the desk is no longer needed, you can fold it up and out of the way, transforming it into an easel or standing work area.

Image credit: Noroom

Free Stand

The Free Stand desk, designed by Stephan Copeland, folds flat for easy storage, has a carrying handle, and a surface that's big enough for your laptop.

The desk adjusts from 20 inches to 27 inches to suit the height of your seating.

Image credits: Coalesse

XTable

The XTable looks like a larger version of an ironing board and works in a similar way. It has an x base and a handcrank that you can use to reposition the height. This could work well if you share a workspace, no matter how tall you are. And, you can either sit or stand while you work. The XTable does come with one grommet and has an optional cabinet for storing supplies.

Image credits: Kibisi

Zevaka Table

This desk is designed specifically for students and has several features that will likely appeal to almost anyone. Like the other desks, the Zevaka Table takes up little space. But, unlike the others, it comes with a built-in mini-drawer, a bag hang, and a sleep space for tired students to take a nap on before they get back to work. There's also a storage slot for a drink.

The sleeping hammock is revealed when the hinged desk surface is lifted.

Image credits: Yaroslav Misonzhnikov

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FInally.io does a cannonball into the cloud-server monitoring pool [feedly]

Another cloud monitoring service for me to check out. 
 
 

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FInally.io does a cannonball into the cloud-server monitoring pool

Deploying in the cloud can cut the cost of on-premise gear and the number of employees needed to tend to it, but maintaining compute and storage resources on, say, Amazon Web Services can get tedious and pricey. Several startups have emerged to solve those problems. A new one sees a niche in helping busy or less savvy devops people discover when issues arise.

In the past couple of months, Finally.io has given beta users a tool for issuing alerts when errors pop up on AWS specifically, for EC2, its Elastic Block Store, DynamoDB and other services.

The program has helped some beta users by pointing out when performance was lagging when instances of AWS' Relational Database Service started calling on disk instead of just copying data to memory, said Ryan Gotszling, the company's CEO and co-founder. That information can be valuable because AWS customers can then decide to add instances in order to improve performance.

Finally.io has just added support for New Relic. It plans to support for Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) vendors in addition to AWS later this year, said Gotszling, who was the first employee at About.me (see disclosure) before it was acquired and later spun off by AOL.

About.me bought itself back from AOL earlier this year, and that gave Gotszling a chance to pursue other opportunities. He and co-founder Alex Bendig, another early About.me employee, had both dealt with the failure of cloud infrastructure and used monitoring tools for it, and they decided to go after solving problems existing services didn't address. Hence the rise of Finally.io.

The service will need to stand out from other tools for monitoring servers and cloud deployments, such as Boundary, Cloudyn, Newvem, Scalr and Server Density.

What makes Finally.io stand out is that it doesn't bother to tell you about the things that don't really matter. As soon as a company puts it to work, it starts evaluating the historical performance of a deployment — for now, thanks to AWS' Cloudwatch API — to get a sense of what's normal and what's not. As a result, Finally.io won't surface problems that are rare for most people running cloud servers but are constant little occurrences for the a customer. And it goes the other way, too — one company in the cloud might make a big deal out of what is typically a little hiccup for nearly everyone else, and that might prompt an alert on Finally.io.

Alerts show up on a web dashboard and arrive via email, although texts could be an option going forward, Gotszling said.

He and Bendig are thinking about adding the ability to just press a button on the dashboard and have Finally.io go to work solving problems, like restarting a server that went down. But implementing that functionality could be tricky, as not every developer realizes the consequences of such serious actions. "We are a little afraid of that risk — 'I know I told you to do it, but I didn't know it was actually going to restart the server,'" Gotszling said.

And so for now IT makes suggestions about what to do, and a user can check a box next to a recommendation and have the text struck out. That way, it's on cloud users themselves to take action.

The service is free for now, while it's in public beta. Premium service will follow in the ensuing months, in relation to how large of an infrastructure footprint users want to manage, Gotszling said.

Disclosure: About.me is backed by True Ventures, a venture capital firm that is an investor in the parent company of GigaOM/paidContent. Om Malik, founder of GigaOM, is also a venture partner at True.

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