How to scrape MySpace, YouTube, BitJunkie

Bootstrap your career in data hacking! With Ruby and WWW::Mechanize you can get started collecting data on the web with just a few lines of code.

download Jdubs’ mechanize scrapers 1.0 — simple scraping examples for MySpace, YouTube, and torrent index BTjunkie.

Techniques for exploring a web page, Ruby & gem installation, and explanations of the simple extractors below.

New del.icio.us Firefox extension rocks

I’ve always used the Firefox del.icio.us extension to manage my social bookmarks, but the extension’s latest release is making my life tastier than ever.

The new version completely subjugates Firefox’s crappy bookmark system to its awesome del.icio.us will, pushing it well into the coveted zone of ‘totally awesome.’

Hot new features

cmd-b = list all bookmarks, sortable, searchable, very speedy.

cmd-d = tag w/ delicious, with slick interface.

Keywords: like a host alias. Type it in the location bar and go go go!

This also means no more Google Browser Sync to manage bookmarks across multiple machines.

MacFUSE sshfs vs WebDAV benchmarks

With the wonderful MacFUSE filesystem layer I can mount a remote disk using ssh — awesome. But how does it compare speed-wise to the more universally supported WebDAV? Some quick Xbench that would make my statistics professors blush:

sshfs

WebDAV

Conclusions

Whoa. I mean, whoa.

15.78 to 0.54 — sshfs is almost 30 times faster. No more WebDAV for me.