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MooresCloud Light runs Linux, puts LAMP on your lamp (video)
Yes, we'll admit that we borrowed that pun in the title. MooresCloud founder Mark Pesce's Xzibit reference is still a very apt description of the Light, his company's Linux-based LED lamp. The Australian team's box-shaped illumination runs the open OS (including a LAMP web server stack) on an integrated mini PC with an accelerometer and WiFi. The relative power and networking provide obvious advantages for home automation that we've seen elsewhere, but it's the sheer flexibility of a generalized, web-oriented platform that makes the difference: the Light can change colors based on photos or movement, sync light pulses to music and exploit a myriad of other tricks that should result from a future, web-based app store. When and how the Light launches will depend on a Kickstarter campaign to raise $700,000 AUD ($717,621 US) starting on October 16th, although the $99 AUD ($101 US) cost is just low enough that we could see ourselves open-sourcing a little more of the living room. At least, as long as we don't have to recompile our lamp kernel before some evening reading.
Saving iPhone applications inside data URLs
This is really basically the same theory as the iPhone bookmarklets Mat posted earlier (squeezing content into a URL), but it's a little less about function and a little more about storage. Currently, the iPhone doesn't allow you to save actual files locally, but it does allow you save URLs, so the idea here is to save entire applications (or other HTML content) in the form of a data URL.It's a pretty wonky hack, but it works-- you can convert whole HTML pages, or even applications, depending on the URL length the iPhone's bookmarks allow, into data URLs (with the Perl script on that page if you don't want to do it manually), and then those data URLs can be loaded into MobileSafari on the iPhone, even in Airplane mode. The suggestion is made that this could allow persistent storage for web applications on the iPhone, but wouldn't that require allowing the HTML page to write to and read from the iPhone's bookmarks? Is that possible?At any rate, maybe it's a good thing, for a little while at least, that Apple didn't release a "real" SDK for the iPhone. Web programmers are making their code do all kinds of flips and tricks to get every bit of access they can on the iPhone. People have been talking about browser-based, OS independent applications for years-- maybe Apple's insistence that iPhone developers go through the browser will bring about that world sooner than we thought.[via DF]
Platypus: create Mac applications from Ruby, Perl, shell scripts, etc.
MacResearch has posted a nice two part tutorial on using Platypus, a neat utility that allows you to "create native, flawlessly integrated Mac OS X applications from interpreted scripts." This include shell scripts, Perl, Ruby, Python, etc. With Platypus you can turn command-line only tools into full fledged, free-standing Mac applications that support drag and drop and even basic graphical feedback. Obviously this isn't going to make for a full GUI application, but it will allow you easily to create self-contained OS X applications that you can double-click to run. Especially for those in the science fields, and even for beginning (Ruby) script programmers like myself, Platypus makes it possible to get basic (and even not so basic) Mac app up and running very quickly.Platypus is a free download from Sveinbjorn Thordarson, and donations are requested.[Via MacResearch]Update: fixed headline
Apple TV Perl plugin
Earlier we posted about a couple of cool drop-in plugins for the Apple TV. However, somebody we know around here was busy over the weekend and has hacked up a more user extensible plugin for the Apple TV that lets you run a perl script from the Apple TV interface. As Erica notes, many folks know how to write perl, but not Cocoa. So with this plugin you can easily write perl scripts to "scrape web pages, subscribe to RSS feeds," etc. Erica's examples include getting weather information, or date and time, etc., but obviously much more is possible. While it may not be quite as slick looking as those other plugins, it promises to be much more powerful, and of an entirely different order of geekiness. Check it out over at MacDevCenter. While you're there also have a look at Erica's State of the Hacks, that runs down what's now possible if you're willing to crack open your new toy,
Access Gmail through IMAP in Mail.app
Hawk Wings is at it again, and this time Tim Gaden has tracked down a method for using Gmail with IMAP in Mail.app. It might not be pretty - it's a Perl module that needs a little bit of finagling - but it apparently works. I can't even begin to fake that I know a lick about Perl, so I'm just going to have to point you to the original post to have at it yourself.If any TUAW readers get this to work, feel free to post your thoughts on this most sought-after of (wholly necessary) Gmail features.
Switch iTMS countries via the command line
I think we can file this one under 'Just because I can.' Erica Sadun has written a perl script that allows you to change your currently selected country in the iTunes Music Store. Both iTunes and Safari have to be open for this script to function.If you aren't a Terminal jockey you can just pop open the iTunes Music Store and choose your country from the pop up menu at the bottom of the main page, but who likes using GUI's anymore?
