supernifty - nifty stuff, that is also super

iOS Sensor Apps with Arduino provides a concise introduction to the possibilities of interfacing Arduino with iOS. Much of the book concentrates on the Redpark serial cable. This cable simplifies many of the headaches involved with interfacing with iOS devices. With the Redpark serial cable, things appear to be reasonably plain sailing, with the author providing step [...]

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If you’re a Speed Scrabble player and running Firefox, then you might be interested in trying the new Speed Scrabble Extension. The add-on helps you keep track of who is currently online so you can easily drop in for a game. Try it out!. Speed Scrabble is a fast, fun and free online multiplayer word game. If [...]

Supercharged JavaScript Graphics provides an introduction to a number of modern and practical JavaScript topics. This book is well-written and easy to read, with relevant, practical examples. It covers a wide range of topics, centred around dynamic graphics and game development, including: Profiling and optimization DHTML Sprites The Canvas element Vector graphics Visualizations with the Google Charts API Mobile app development [...]

Here’s a set of simple steps to localize a Python application for different translations. This tutorial provides a clear set of steps with sample code. Step 1: Initialize your application Here is the code to initialize your application with localization enabled: If you can’t see the source code try here. This snippet looks for a resource file based on [...]

Supernifty likes helping others out, especially those who really need it. Microlending is one way to do this. Microlending involves lending a small amount – sometimes just a few dollars – to someone just to help get their business off the ground. In developing countries, often this is all that is needed to get a viable [...]

Suppose you have a lot of tasks with completion callbacks to complete in the browser, but you want to do them sequentially. For instance, you might have a list of AJAX requests to make to your server. This JavaScript demonstrates a simple solution: If you can’t see the source code, look here.

“Programming HTML5 Applications” is a new book from O’Reilly media that focusses on some of the new technologies available in HTML5. It also places significant emphasis on the language of web applications – JavaScript. The book starts with a brief history of the Internet and the web, before covering some of the trickier features of JavaScript [...]

Supernifty’s latest series of technical articles demonstrates the use of Google App Engine and PayPal to build a real-time auction site. We also show off some HTML5 and discuss some of the issues associated with designing a site suitable for mobile devices. All pretty interesting if you’re into this kind of stuff. Check it out: Part 1 Part 2 Part [...]

We did some analysis on our Speed Scrabble players to find out the 80 most popular words used in games: QI is easily the number 1 word, with AI and IN second and third. I guess most people know that trick when you get stuck with a Q without a U. 2-letter words dominate the list, taking [...]