Technobabble

The US Geological Survey makes available a small dataset containing the M1+ earthquakes from around the world in the past 7 days . I used this data along with the heatmap visualization layer offered by the Google Maps API to present the earthquake data as a heatmap. Check out Worldwide M1+ Earthquakes, Past 7 Days . One caveat: due to cross origin issues, I am hosting a local copy of the data rather than getting it live from the USGS.

Ever wondered what's on the opposite side of the world for any place? Then check out the Opposite Of The World . It's a "Hello World" exploration of the Google Maps JavaScript API that I wrote for fun. You can scroll and zoom through either map on the page and the other map will show you the opposite side of the world. It's quite basic now but I'm going to add markers and other overlays to make it more fun. PS: You might be surprised to know that Malaysia, is on the opposite side of Ecuador!

After sitting on the sidelines of the Raspberry Pi revolution for a few months, I recently picked up a model B from Newark . (There were a 100 units in stock a few days ago but as of this time, they are showing 0 in stock.) I wanted to complete the accessory setup with minimal wires and maximum portability. Newark offers a host of suggestions for each accessory but I decided to get parts separately. Here's the setup I chose: SD Card: An old Patriot 4GB SDHC card but Fry's has a Samsung 8GB micro SDHC card (with the SD adapter) for $4.99. OS: Raspbian “wheezy” available from the Raspberry Pi downloads page . Keyboard/Mouse: The cheapest wireless keyboard/mouse combination at Fry's which happened to be an iConcepts 2.4GHz Wireless Keyboard and Optical Mouse for $14.99. The dongle that connects to USB is tiny! Wi-Fi: I decided to skip the wired interface and instead got the Patriot Mini Wireless-N USB Wi-Fi adapter for $14.99 at Fry's. The adapter is quite small (...

Here are the steps to install QuantLib , a free/open-source library for quantitative finance, on OS X Mountain Lion: Install MacPorts . Install Boost using MacPorts by running this command: sudo port install boost This will install Boost and its dependencies under /opt/local . Download and extract the QuantLib sources . Configure QuantLib by running: ./configure --with-boost-include=/opt/local/include --with-boost-lib=/opt/local/lib/ Run make , followed by sudo make install .

I am always disappointed to see web programmers code pages which display messages like the one below. Safari 6 is the latest (beta) release. ING can do better, especially if they are the "rebel with a cause" - see The Orange Code: How ING Direct Succeeded by Being a Rebel with a Cause .

Over the past month, several interested parties have revealed their expressions of interest regarding the proposals for the HTTP/2.0 standard. Under consideration are primarily the SPDY and HTTP Speed+mobility proposals. The battle lines have been drawn, and as usual Microsoft wants to push their own agenda. There's also an interesting debate about whether HTTP/2.0 should always use TLS.

Windows 8 has a fancy delete progress dialog window for long-running delete operations. It shows: the number of items being deleted, percentage complete, instantaneous speed of deletion (items/second), a graph of historical speed of deletion for this operation, estimated time remaining, and items remaining (count and size) Get your copy of Windows 8 here: Microsoft Windows 8 Pro Pack 5VR-00001 .