W3C’s new unified validator that can check feeds, stylesheets and XHTML/HTML markup at once.

∞

Added two new shortcodes: futpostcount shows the number of posts set to publish in the future, and draftpostcount the number of drafts. Refer to the list for all available codes.

∞

An excellent post on waffle entertaining the idea that Apple is working on a new language to complement Objective-C. Charles Ying from satine.org thinks that a language close to JavaScript would be a good fit, due in part to extensive use of the language in iOS, iAd & iTunes.

It’s a strong theory – and one that I would like to se a reality, given the popularity of C-style syntax and garbage-collected environments. I not a big fan of low-level languages, but crying out for one that is more abstracted than Objective-C is met with a kind of resistance I’ve never really quite understood – a resistance that an Ars Technica article discussing the future of Apple’s languages and APIs explains perfectly:

And so continues one of the biggest constants in software development: the unerring sense among developers that the level of abstraction they’re current working at is exactly the right one for the task at hand. Anything lower-level is seen as barbaric, and anything higher-level is a bloated, slow waste of resources. This remains true even as the overall level of abstraction across the industry marches ever higher.

∞

Essentially a diff tool on steroids, with support for images too. OS X only, $29.

∞

A tool by Google for accessing Google services via the command line. Works on Linux, Mac and Windows – though installation on the latter two platforms requires some trickery. On OS X, I used Homebrew to install pip (brew install pip) before installing googlecl (pip install googlecl).

∞