PDFminer

PDFminer is a Python library for extracting information from PDFs.

iText PDF API

I'd forgotten about this, but it's a pretty slick-looking Java/C# (?) library for working with PDF. Oughta go into the domain.

Patterns and boilerplate

A couple of old ones, and a couple of new ones. I really think patterns and boilerplate are a key component of the semantic approach, and for some reason they're cropping up in my daily reading today.

• Designing social interfaces - a Wiki with about 100 user interaction patterns; also a book.
• UI patterns - I'm pretty sure this has been linked from this blog before.
• Flask boilerplate
• Backbone.js boilerplate
• Pattern tap - these are more design elements, perhaps.
• Yahoo! design pattern library, of course
• Patternry open UI patterns

Ooooold bookmarks - D

The D programming language is a replacement for C that isn't C++. I have yet to really look hard, but it actually looks pretty nice.

This is the first of a long list of programming bookmarks from way back that I'm going to serialize onto this blog so I don't lose them.

Speaking of mail

Nobody seems to be able to manage to provide a mail aggregator and stay in business.

Overview of mbox formats

Good overview of mbox formats.

Veneer: modal dialogs in JS

Simple little library for modal display dialogs.

Fbootstrapp: Facebook design bootstrap

And as long as we're talking about design, here's a Facebook answer to the Twitter bootstrap.

Excellent post on learning design

Here. Lots and lots of good resources linked there.

Social network sleuthing

Neat post on how social network charting was used to bust some slumlord fraudsters in Chicago. [hnn] Prompted a post of this fascinating picture, which was generated at least in part with this code. Finally also prompted a link to sharesleuth.com, a Mark Cuban project tracking securities fraud. I do so love reading about detective work.

Database design mistakes

Interesting post with five common database design mistakes. This is the kind of best-practice knowledge that should eventually be boiled down into domains.

Target application: translation service provider suite

I've wanted to build this for a while - and in the meantime, somebody else did. Here's the link. I need to mine it for features. Meanwhile I have a possible business partner wanting to build something like this; it's possible it will be Drupal-based and start from Open Atrium.

Dreadnot for continuous deployment

Rackspace just open-sourced their continuous deployment tool. Interesting move - and it makes me want (again) to start thinking harder about that software component database.

The Oatmeal: How to make your shopping cart suck less

The Oatmeal with some excellent usability advice that simultaneously makes you laugh until your solar plexus hurts.

Data on tutoring

I happen to think that the education industry is ripe for some upheaval; on that note, here's Tutorspree with some interesting data from their 2011 work.

Government documents as grist for the mill

Another fascinating archive of large amounts of messy government text: the government attic. In particular interesting for their recent posting of (a lot of) FBI documents pertaining to the security of telephone services.

Futurist strategy

Here's a neat BoingBoing post of all things, presenting more or less "how to be a futurist". It would be interesting to boil these down into usable tools.

Decision tables

Here's a neat old technique I actually remember reading about long ago - and had forgotten about just as thoroughly as the rest of the industry had forgotten about it. Decision tables. A great user-responsive way to define complex logic.

Scrollorama

A jQuery plugin for neat scrolling tricks. I gotta start figuring this stuff out.

K-means clustering on pixels in art

Neat.