Changelog.com - Visualizing the spread of Coronavirus

Super-simplified reimplementations of complex pieces of software are a great way to learn for the author and reader alike. When you can boil it down to just 33 lines like this, the surface area is minimal enough that reading it shouldn’t be too tough, but there’s definitely some code golf going on.

David Thompson:

I like Git commit messages. Used well, I think they’re one of the most powerful tools available to document a codebase over its lifetime. I’d like to illustrate that by showing you my favourite ever Git commit.

6-ish paragraphs of explanation for a single whitespace change in the code.

Look! I’m dialing into the millenium falcon with an open source camera stack!

The force is strong with this one.

Nice little function to add to your .bashrc:

function mv() {
  if [ "$#" -ne 1 ] || [ ! -e "$1" ]; then
    command mv "$@"
    return
  fi
  read -ei "$1" newfilename
  command mv -v -- "$1" "$newfilename"
}

Click through for usage examples and a lively discussion in the comments about other ways of achieving similar things.

This is a very cool idea and the use case is described perfectly by the authors:

Does your designer cry every time you load their beautifully designed screen, and it is full of empty boxes because all the images have not loaded yet? Does your database engineer cry when you want to solve this by trying to cram little thumbnail images into your data to show as placeholders?

You give BlurHash an image and it gives you back a short string (20-30 chars) that represents the placeholder image. Store the string and send it along with the other data for the object and your client can decode the string into a placeholder image while the real image is loading over the network.

A reimplementation of Markmap adding CLI usage, multiline text support, and more. Tryable right here.

3mux is a terminal multiplexer with out-of-the-box support for search, mouse-controlled scrollback, and i3-like keybindings.

Sign me up ✋

This is a deep dive into some of the tricks/techniques Facebook’s frontenders used on their latest web interface. For example, they’re using SVG for avatars, spacer divs instead of margin (!), and images for drop shadows (!!).

A fun little project that uses a neural network to map your facial movements onto an avatar of your choice. You have to watch the demo to get the full effect.

Zipcall boasts high video quality and industry leading low-latency by removing a central server. It has many of the features I care about: no download required, single-use disposable chat rooms, screen sharing, and more.

It does rely upon Twilio’s TURN service right now, which means it falls back to their network if the peer-to-peer connection cannot be achieved. This has a couple of implications. One, it’s not totally free because you have to pay for Twilio API calls. Two, it’s not totally necessarily decentralized 100% of the time. They’re working to address these issues.

Group video calling is also in the works.

This is pretty cool and I’m updating my DNS as I write this. They’re offering two flavors: 1.1.1.2 (no malware) and 1.1.1.3 (no malware or adult content).

Since launching 1.1.1.1, the number one request we have received is to provide a version of the product that automatically filters out bad sites. While 1.1.1.1 can safeguard user privacy and optimize efficiency, it is designed for direct, fast DNS resolution, not for blocking or filtering content. The requests we’ve received largely come from home users who want to ensure that they have a measure of protection from security threats and can keep adult content from being accessed by their kids. Today, we’re happy to answer those requests.

The setup is easy, and only requires changing two numbers in your primary and secondary DNS.

Are we setting up for another wave of recession-induced open source migration? Donald Fischer weighs in:

It’s been hard to be optimistic the last few weeks. But as I look for a silver lining in the current crisis, I believe there is an enormous opportunity for organizations to get even more nimble in their use of open source.

After José’s announcement yesterday I just had to get my hands a little dirty and kick the tires.