Keeping up with technology is a lot of work. Luckily, we enjoy wading through the noise just to find the gems of awesomeness sprinkled throughout. Fusion Radar is our gift to you, Current or Potential Client, so that you can enjoy all of the awesome without any of the drudgery. Unwrap it each week, and know that you’re loved by the geeks and pixel-pushers at Agency Fusion.
Siege
Siege is a free, open-source tool that comes in handy when you're getting ready to launch a site and you want to see how it will stand up and load up on the internet. Siege was developed years ago, and is one of the most-used load-testing and benchmarking utilities that "stress-tests" your setup before you roll it out.
http://www.joedog.org/siege-home/
MessagePack
Next time you're working with JSON, you may want to check out MessagePack instead. It is fully compatible with JSON, but it's also more space-efficient, faster, and it supports a wide variety of languages (Ruby, Perl, Python, JavaScript, PHP, etc.). While it's not as robust as JSON is, it seems like a useful little tool, especially for something simple like internal APIs.
Adobe Edge Inspect
Adobe's known for superior software, and it didn't let us down here. Put simply, Edge Inspect lets users preview and inspect web designs on different devices. We've used Edge Inspect in our own office, and we've been impressed by the synchronized computer and mobile browsing, remote inspection, and the ability to not only see how our changes affect the mobile site, but to make changes to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript directly on the device.
http://html.adobe.com/edge/inspect/
Coursera
Coursera is a library of free college courses, with links to classes all over the world, from universities like Stanford, Caltech, Duke, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of London. They've got everything from Computational Methods for Data Analysis to English Common Law: An Introduction.
5 Science Breakthroughs of 2012
CNN featured an interesting article last week that detailed just a few of the coolest science breakthroughs of 2012. The brief article includes developments like medical treatment with the Human Genome Project, Gecko tape, and iPhone augmented reality.
5 Science Breakthroughs of 2012
Makeblock
We recently featured ATOMS Express Toys on the blog, and we recently discovered something similar (and equally delightful): Makeblock. This project (which has already tripled its goal on Kickstarter with 18 days still to go) is an aluminum extrusion based construct platform that can be used to build just about anything. Think robots, machines, toys, and art, all of which you can control through Makeblock's app.
Lumawake
If you've ever thought to yourself, I wish my iPhone dock did something besides . . . dock my iPhone, then you're in good company (we're right there with you). So let us introduce Lumawake, which claims to be the world's first smart dock for your phone. It has functions like sleep cycle tracking, a simulated sunrise alarm that begins when Lumawake detects that you're coming out of REM sleep, and home automation (like turning off your lights once the dock has detected that you're asleep, or turning on the coffee pot when it notices you're awake).
https://lumawake.us/
The Nest Learning Thermostat
Speaking of home automation, Nest has developed a thermostat that they say will not only conserve energy, but that will remember your preferences and habits, and will adjust the temperature accordingly. It also tracks your energy usage and can be remotely controlled through a smartphone app.
Hatch
We wanted to include this one just because there's still some cheerful holiday spirit lingering in the office and these things were too cute/nostalgic to resist. Hatch is basically Tamagotchi (remember Tamagotchi? We do.) for your iPhone.
Sugru <3 Lego
We've talked about Sugru before on here (and we still really want to buy it), and they've once again drawn our interest with this creative, entertaining YouTube video.