/tech-ref-links

tech-ref-links

A collection of links on web-dev, programming, sys-admin, tinkering, iot, and other geeky things.

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Online Tools

Web Development

General

  • 12Factor - General SaaS design principals
  • API
    • Swagger - API definition language, can generate documentation, Test UI, server skeletons and client libraries

Front End

Back End

Shared

  • VS Code Plugins
  • Javascript Libraries
    • Flush out the Standard Library
      • Bluebird - An improved Promise implementation with easy wrappers and multi-promise operations
      • Lodash - Array/Object manipulation
      • Moment - time/date library
      • Node-cron - Easy cron-like job scheduling
      • Node-fetch - A Node.js polyfill to add the browser fetch API to node.js - no more changing code, no more request.js, promise native.
    • Make Progressive Web Apps
      • Dexie - Wrapper for IndexedDB, etc. Used by Vue-IDB
      • Workbox - Google-backed Service Worker tooling with multiple caching strategies
    • Make CLI Tools
      • blessed - curses-like windowing UI on the terminal
      • boxen - easily draw CLI boxes that fit text
      • cli - Simple tool for arg parsing, fatal error management, progress bars, and more.
      • cli-table3 - Make formatted tables
      • inquirer - Better user answer prompting
      • ora - A pretty spinner
      • shelljs - JS-native unix command replacements (sed, awk, grep, and more) - swap out unix commands without portability issues
      • sudo-block - Prevent users from running your app as sudo
      • terminal-link - Make clickable links in terminals that support them, and put the URL in parens if not.
      • update-notifier - Inform a user that there are updates available using background checks
    • Manage packages
    • Interact with common services
      • Git/GitHub
        • Isomorphic Git - Work with git repos; aims for 100% drop-in git compatibility
        • gh-home - Go to the homepage of the git repo your working dir is in
        • js-git - Work with git repos
        • OctoKit - Interact with GitHub
    • Work with file formats
    • Test Things
    • Cool NPM ecosystem tools
      • cost-of-modules - Get the 'cost' for each module. npx cost-of-module
      • npkill - Search for and kill node_modules folders; npx npkill
      • standard - A simple, no-config JS linter using eslint under the hood. npx standard to check, npx standard -fix to autofix
      • trymodule - Test a npm module in a reply from the CLI npx trymodule MODULE_NAME
    • Misc.
      • Alex - Spellcheck, but for insensitive language (race, religion, gender, etc.)
      • D3.js - SVG-based drawing for visualization
      • Lunr - Like Solr in pure JS.
      • StegCloak - Hide password-protected messages in non-printable characters!
      • UUID - Make proper UUIDs - v4 is the most common.
  • Python Libraries
    • Make CLI Tools
      • click - “Command Line Interface Creation Kit” - Allows building keyword-style CLIs easily (think awscli, etc.)
      • click-log - Make logging in click apps trivial
      • rich - Used for pretty output, including coloring, non-ASCII chars in supported terminals, Markdown conversion and more
      • texttable - Simple text table generator
    • Web
      • Scrapy - Scrape from APIs and web pages
  • Misc.

OS

Linux

Tech Shopping

Security

Hardware

Backup

Material / Chemical Science

  • 3D Printing
  • Materials
    • Aerogel - a lighter-than-air solid material that is stronger-than-steel (though fragile)
    • Plastics
      • InstaMorph - plastic pellets that, when heated in water, are moldable like clay - then, when cool, are a hard plastic. Does not expire; can reheat/reuse.
      • Sugru - a moldable plastic that chemically sets shortly after being exposed to air. Requires refrigeration, expires, cannot reheat/reuse.
      • Worbla - Thermoplastics, primarily for artists and theater, but many differentt types available.
    • ALON - Transparent Aluminum (like from Star Trek).... oh, also bulletproof!
    • De-lignified wood - removing lignin from wood via hydrogen peroxide makes a material that has the tensile strength of steel, can be transparent, and has impressive heat-management properties
  • Adhesives
  • Chemicals
    • P&G Purifier of Water A chemical packet that - when used with two large buckets and a cloth filter - can purify 10 gallons of water.
    • PolyGlu demo vid - a soybean-based coagulant to help purify water.
  • Electrical
    • Eneloop101 - Everything you could ever want to know about Eneloop (arguably the best rechargable AA/AAA batteries)

Memory and Perception

  • Aphantasia - The inability to mentally visualize (lack of a mind's eye)
  • Autostereogram - aka 'Magic Eye' art, a specific type of 2D image that can use noise to present a 3d scene
  • Blue field entoptic phenomenon - small fleck of light in vidion caused by occasional white blood cells
  • Closed-Eye Visualizations - the visual noise and/or images you see with your eyes closed
  • Eigengrau - The grey you see in the absence of light (it's not black!)
  • Floaters - Squiggly cell debris seen occasionally in the eye caused by vitreous deterioration
  • Impossible Color - Why we cannot see a 'reddish-green' color
  • Pratītyasamutpāda/Dependent origination - A Buddhist belief / understanding about how any given thing is the way it is because of things around it - "if this exists, that exists; if this ceases to exist, that also ceases to exist"
  • Synesthesia - Cross-sensory perception (numbers having 'colors', sounds having 'taste/smell')

Miscellany