I was surprised when I didn't find a Jetpack that already did this. Who doesn't love the flipped-text Unicode trick? ˙op ǝɹns I Now you can flip text at will.

What's Narwhal? Ahem:

Narwhal is a cross-platform, multi-interpreter, general purpose JavaScript platform. It aims to provide a solid foundation for building JavaScript applications, primarily outside the web browser. Narwhal includes a package manager, module system, and standard library for multiple JavaScript interpreters. - narwhaljs.org

It basically enables you to do things in JavaScript you might do in other scripting languages, like Python or Ruby. It's one implementation of the CommonJS specification. If you're in to JavaScript, you should get acquainted with it.

The default engine uses Rhino, but there's also a XULRunner engine, allowing you to use Narwhal from within Firefox extensions and other XUL applications. Really exciting stuff!

I wanted a quick way test Narwhal/XPCOM modules, so I made an engine using xpcshell to do just that. It shares most of its libs with the xulrunner engine.

To set it up:

git clone git://github.com/tlrobinson/narwhal.git narwhal
cd narwhal/engines
git clone git://github.com/Gozala/narwhal-xulrunner.git xulrunner
git clone git://github.com/zaach/narwhal-xpcshell.git xpcshell
cd xpcshell
bin/install
cd ../..
NARWHAL_PLATFORM=xpcshell bin/narwhal
js> 

It should work on Linux and OS X. Windows support is certainly possible. I'll have a hack at it one day.

You can learn more about what can be done with Narwhal on their site.

Engineering Expo was held at my university a couple of weeks ago. Its an event where schools and families travel from afar to see just how awesome engineering actually is. Really, its like a college level science fair, including tons of robots, cars, Tesla coils and other engineered eye candy. But what does the computer scientist have to offer in this environment? Hm?

How about, Firefox!

Open Art Day

We had an open source day, but minus the source and plus the art:

This was an attempt to teach the ways of open source through art and a beloved open source project, Firefox.

Hundreds of kids, chaperons, and family members came through our open art exhibit. Almost all of them knew about Firefox, but almost none of them knew it was open source (or what open source was.)

These visitors left our exhibit with, at the very least, a notion of open source where there had been none before, and some sweet Firefox swag. ;)
- Open Art Project

In the absence of robots, I wanted to present something that could capture the attention of the kids and be accessible to them, but also teach something valuable. The idea for them to collaborate on art rather than source code formed from this. Yes, the image above was drawn by our visitors, along with five other posters filled with signatures and drawings.

Marker on Paper

I gave each group of visitors a brief explanation of Firefox and how, through open source, it was made possible. We then had the kids grab markers to help us fill in our posters. Hundreds of visitors signed names, doodled, and contributed.

Some kids were intimidated by the Firefox poster at first. They didn't want to blemish such a well established code ba- err, image. It's a feeling I'm familiar with... but Christine, the initial artist, reassured them, "It's just marker on paper - that's all it is." They were comforted by this notion, as evident by the finished poster.

Household Name

As I surveyed each group, it was clear that very few students knew of open source, though most of them knew or had used Firefox - more so then the older family members and chaperons. A couple of high school students even admitted to knowing about Linux! Those poor souls...

What is clear to me though, is that Firefox has done what no other open source project has really done before. It has boldly gone into the realm of household name-age. Whether aware or oblivious, openness is being injected into the fleshy forearm of society, thanks to a little fox.

Overall, the experience of "open art day" was great, but the message delivered, I think, even greater.

I'd like to thank all the ACM volunteers who helped out and Mozilla for the swag packs! You can view some of the festivities of the day here.