TITLE: This and That
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: September 18, 2004 12:02 PM
DESC: a few links for a lazy Saturday
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BODY:
I am enjoying a weekend at home without a lot of work to do.  After
having been at PLoP for five days last week, a chance to be with my
family and to regroup is welcome.  Tomorrow is my longest training
run for the
<A HREF="http://www.desmoinesmarathon.com/">
   Des Moines Marathon</A>
-- 24 miles.  My 22-miler last Sunday at
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2004-09.html#e2004-09-16T07_43_33.htm">
   Allerton Park</A>
went well, so I'm hopeful for a good run tomorrow.

Here are some programs that I've been experimenting with lately...

<A HREF="http://daringfireball.net/2004/08/markdown_10">
   Markdown</A>
is a simple plain text formatting syntax *and* a program that
translates this syntax into HTML.  I like to work in plain text,
so I write all of my own HTML by hand.  But when I am trying to
whip up lecture notes for my courses, I find typing all the HTML
formatting stuff a drag on my productivity.  Markdown gives me
the ability to format my notes in an email-like way that can be
posted and read as plaintext, if necessary, and then translated
into HTML.  It doesn't do all of HTML, but it covers almost
everything that I usually do.

Here are a couple of Smalltalks implemented in Java:
<A HREF="http://www.architur.de/frames.php?a=deutsch&b=produkte&c=talks2&d=t2_index">
   Talks2</A>
and Tim Budd's Little Smalltalk,
<A HREF="http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~budd/Books/little/info/SmallWorld/">
   SmallWorld</A>.
Talks2 builds on Squeak and so has more stuff in it, but SmallWorld is,
well, small, and thus has source code that is more accessible to
students.

And here are a couple of fun little sites:
<UL>
<LI> <A HREF="http://www.csszengarden.com/">CSS Zen Garden</A>,
     a demonstration of the power of CSS design for web sites,
     along with oodles of style sheets for download.  I don't
     do much CSS, but some of these pages are pretty.
<P>
<LI> <A HREF="http://www.segmation.com/">Segmation</A>,
     a company that makes cool image segmentation software.
     The web site's draw is its Color by Number toy, where
     you can paint by the numbers using your mouse and screen.
     The kids can have fun with this one.
</UL>
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