Rawkes Weekly: 12th September 2011

It's been another busy week for me (when is it not?), but a fun one all the same. I'm actually out in California right now for the Mozilla All-Hands event so you'll have to excuse this week's update being a day late.

Since the last update I finished the prototype Ask MDN dashboard and it worked like a dream during the session on Local Web Development last Friday. I'm looking forward to beefing it up and introducing some much needed functionality, like an archive of the previous sessions.

I've also recently gotten my hands on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the one which has been banned from sale in Germany because it's too much like an iPad. I'm loving it so far and very much looking forward to developing on it and creating demos for upcoming versions of Firefox Mobile.

This week is going to be packed out for me, but I'll keep an eye out for awesome links to share with you this time next week.

Links of the week

• Big question: what do you think of Adobe Edge?
  • .net magazine asks a bunch of industry figures what they think of the latest update to Adobe Edge. The overall feeling isn't amazing but there are some important points being made.
• Git Is Simpler Than You Think
  • An article by Nick Farina which breaks down the internals of Git. After reading this you'll realise that Git isn't crazy magic, it's actually quite simple.
• Swarms of boids attacking each other in JavaScript
  • I'm a massive fan of boids so I was very happy to see this real-time simulation of boids chasing and attacking each other. It's really fun to watch, and you should definitely check out the code to see how it was put together.
• A3 WebGL engine
  • Paul Lewis has released his WebGL engine. The examples look amazing and I can't wait to check out the video tutorials about how the engine was made.
• Node Knockout winners!
  • This year's Node Knockout competition was amazing to watch unfold. Here are the overall winners that were picked by the judges.
• Homebrew
  • This isn't new but it's massively useful. Homebrew allows you to easily install tools and binaries on the Mac. I use it myself to isntall things like Git, Node.js, and parts of my local Web server.
• Tinkercad - Solid modeling for artists and makers
  • What I love about Tinkercad is that it allows you to construct models in the browser using Web technologies like WebGL. Not only that, but its Google Sketchup-style experience makes it dead easy to use. What's even better? You can then print your 3D model and have it sent to your house in just a couple of clicks.
• IEWebGL
  • Ever wanted WebGL on Internet Explorer? Well, now you can with the IEWebGL plugin! Ok, so in all seriousness IE should be added WebGL functionality themselves, but this will do for now.
• Get off(line)
  • A great post by John Allsopp on how to take your websites and Web apps offline with the HTML5 appcache.

Track of the week

Escala by Escala. Epic classical string music from four attractive women. What's not to love?!