hrbrmstr's Daily Drop

  • Drop #762 (2026-01-23): If It Talks Like A…

    This second DuckDB-focused Drop of the week discusses three more/new DuckDB Community extensions: duck_tails, which enables version-controlled data workflows from git repositories; crawler, which provides web scraping tools compliant with robots.txt; and urlpattern, designed for parsing and matching URLs. Each extension enhances data handling capabilities within DuckDB.

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  • Drop #756 (2026-01-09): Fool Around And Find Out Friday

    Today’s Drop covers some good news about Google reinstating JPEG XL support in Chromium after pressure from developers and market changes. It also sports a link to an interactive guide on terminal concepts that simplifies complex ideas for users. Meanwhile, it further shunts you to Cooper Quintin’s EFF piece which outlines counter-surveillance tools to combat…

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  • Drop #755 (2026-01-08): Let’s Get Visual

    Today’s Drop discusses two projects enhancing data storytelling: Lumino, a high-performance JavaScript framework for building complex web applications, and HPCC Systems, an open-source platform offering a versatile visualization library built on D3.js. Additionally, the Pew Research Center highlights effective 2025 data visualizations, emphasizing appropriate chart types for various data narratives.

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  • Drop #753 (2026-01-05): Monday Morning Grab Bag

    Today’s Drop discusses advancements in scrollytelling using CSS rather than JavaScript, the CSVW/FDP standards for enhancing CSV files with structured metadata, and Craig Silverman’s new OSINT media venture, Indicator, aimed at teaching verification skills amid rising disinformation.

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  • Bonus Drop #106 (2026-01-04): K.I.S.S.

    The first Bonus Drop of 2026 presents three simplified tools: Mastoshare enhances Mastodon link sharing by routing users to their home instances without tracking; doxx allows terminal viewing of .docx files with formatting; nettool.sh is a Bash script that consolidates networking tasks for sysadmins. Each tool boosts efficiency in its respective domain.

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  • Drop #751 (2026-01-02): Fool Around And Find Out Friday

    The Friday Drop covers: lint-http, a Rust-based forward proxy tool for analyzing HTTP traffic; a Cooked.wiki FOSS alternative along with the challenges food blogs face due to AI and LLMs in recipe content; and Columnar’s predictions for data infrastructure in 2026, focusing on Apache Arrow’s growth and the need for improved interoperability and accessibility in…

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  • Drop #748 (2025-12-30): Typography Tuesday

    The final Typography Tuesday edition of the Drop for 2025 discusses the political implications of font choices, particularly the U.S. State Department’s switch from Calibri to Times New Roman, highlighting biases related to DEIA policies. It also emphasizes typography’s impact on public safety and introduces Fantasque Sans Mono, a visually playful yet functional programming font,…

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  • Drop #747 (2025-12-29): Monday Morning Grab Bag

    Today’s theme-less and abbreviated Drop looks at two topics: Out Of Band Security Testing (OAST) and the Gleam programming language. OAST enhances vulnerability detection by leveraging external servers to expose blind vulnerabilities, while Gleam combines the reliability of the BEAM virtual machine with type safety and modern syntax aimed at web developers.

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  • Drop #746 (2025-12-26): Boxing Day Grab Bag

    Today’s Drop discusses three main topics: mq, a Rust-based Markdown processing tool designed for structured data transformations; UBLOCKAI, a comprehensive blocklist of AI-generated content to enhance search engine results; and Friendly SQL, a guide featuring innovative SQL techniques for data manipulation in DuckDB.

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  • Drop #745 (2025-12-23): Typography Tuesday

    Today’s Drop covers the RFSL’s “Human Writes” font designed to evade Meta’s ad ban, allowing messages deemed political to be visually obscured. It also covers David Jones “pay-what-you-want” bundle of fourteen fonts, “Advent of Type 2025.” And, shows how to “hack” Adobe to use their fonts without breaking the bank.

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