Macarons au Chocolat

 Fuji X-E2  1/180 ƒ/8 ISO 200 56 mm

I am experimenting how to light a dark background and had no other subjects on hands than the macarons we just cooked :)

Architecture

 Fuji X-E2  1/480 ƒ/9 ISO 200 33 mm

Les Trois Pucelles

Les 3 Pucelles, the Three Maiden, are three rocks high above Grenoble in the Vercors. It was an important location used by the Resistance during the 2^nd World War.

1/80 ƒ/8 ISO 250 25 mm

This 90-metre springboard was used for the ski jumping competion during the 1968 Winter Olympic Games at Grenoble. It has been closed since the 80s and can no longer be used.

210 ƒ/8 ISO 400 18 mm

La Fourchette d'André Kertész

Yesterday, I was reading a book about André Kertész, one of my favourite photographers. I tried to reproduce one of his most famous photographs, La Fourchette, that he made in 1928.

1/180 ƒ/5.6 ISO 200 37 mm

The shape of my fork and plates are different from the original ones but the lighting is pretty similar. I used a single strobe to get a unidirectional hard light and tried several positions to get the shadows of the plate, the fork and the teeth close to the original:

The printing I have is more subtle and nuanced that this picture from Wikimedia that has too much contrast.

2013 in Photos

2013 has ended and it's the opportunity to look back at all the photos I made during the year.

They are mostly landscapes from our trips (Tuscany, Brittany, Barcelona), food and a plethora of portraits of Marion :)

I expect more of the same in 2014 and continue to improve my craft and skills.

Rainy Sunday Cookies

There is nothing better for a rainy sunday than cooking some cookies with my girlfriend and make pictures of them to play with my flash and reflectors.

1/80 ƒ/5.6 ISO 400 42 mm

Let's eat them now!

stomp.js for node.js apps

stomp.js is a simple JavaScript library to send and receive STOMP messages from a Web browser using Web Sockets.

Today, I have released its version 2.3.0 that adds support for node.js. This makes it possible to send and receive STOMP message from any node.js app by connecting to a STOMP broker on its TCP port (usually 61613) or on its Web Socket.

I have registered a npm package stompjs that can be installed by typing:

npm install stompjs

and in the code, requiring the module:

var Stomp = require('stompjs');

To connect to a STOMP broker over a TCP socket, use the Stomp.overTCP(host, port) method:

var client = Stomp.overTCP('localhost', 61613);

To connect to a STOMP broker over a Web Socket, use instead the Stomp.overWS(url) method:

var client = Stomp.overWS('ws://localhost:61614/stomp');

Apart from this initialization, the STOMP API remains the same whether it is running in a Web browser or in node.js application.

A simple node.js app that sends and receives a STOMP message can be coded in a few lines:

var Stomp = require('stompjs');

// Use raw TCP sockets
var client = Stomp.overTCP('localhost', 61613);
// uncomment to print out the STOMP frames
// client.debug = console.log;

client.connect('user', 'password', function(frame) {
  console.log('connected to Stomp');

  client.subscribe('/queue/myqueue', function(message) {
    console.log("received message " + message.body);

    // once we get a message, the client disconnects
    client.disconnect();
  });
  
  console.log ('sending a message');
  client.send('/queue/myqueue', {}, 'Hello, node.js!');
});

In this example, the client connect to the STOMP broker on its TCP socket by calling Stomp.overTCP(host, port):

var client = Stomp.overTCP('localhost', 61613);

To connect on its Web Socket, you only need to change the creation of the client by calling instead Stomp.overWS(url):

var client = Stomp.overWS('ws://localhost:61614');

This means that if your code uses stomp.js, you can run the same code in the Web browser or in node.js That may prove handy for testing...

Why another STOMP client for node.js when there are already a dozen?

I believe the code of stomp.js is already the best of them.

It is distributed by the major STOMP brokers (ActiveMQ, Apollo, HornetQ, and RabbitMQ), widely used, thoroughly tested and documented.

The STOMP protocol implementation is the same whether the client is running in a Web browser or in node.js. The only differences are the timers and the socket implementations (native Web Socket for Web browser, net.Socket for node.js). The socket implementation can still be customized and many users run it over SockJS

There are likely some corner cases to iron out but the main features (including heart-beating) should work as expected.

Note that the node.js support is done outside the stomp.js file. If you only need to use STOMP from the Web browser, this changes nothing: you only need that file (or its minified version).

Enjoy!

Guitarist at Park Güell, Barcelona

1/100 ƒ/5 ISO 800 40 mm

⇨ Teahupo'o: Inside the Monster

Breathtaking documentary about Teahupo'o surf spot:

Writing a Book for O'Reilly about Mobile & Web Messaging

The title says it all: I've agreed with O'Reilly Media to write a book about Mobile and Web Messaging.

Almost all my career has been spent developing messaging platforms or clients using messaging. The last few years, I have focused on messaging for Mobile and Web platforms.

• I added STOMP support to HornetQ to be able to send and receive messages from iOS and Android apps.
• I wrote stomp.js to send and receive messages from HTML5 Web Browsers¹. This small library is now used by the main Open Source messaging brokers (ActiveMQ, Apollo, RabbitMQ in addition to HornetQ).

This book is the result of all this work and will help mobile and Web developers leverage messaging protocols in their applications.

I plan to introduce messaging protocols and write about STOMP (and most likely MQTT too) in details. The book will come with examples for mobile platforms and Web browsers.

I have setup a web site at mobile-web-messaging.net to promote the book and will tweet about it at @mobilewebmsg.

The target release for the book is June 2014.

For a long time, I wanted to write a technical book and it is a chance to do it about an interesting subject and be published by the best editor for programming books. O'Reilly agreed to publish the book under an Open Source license and the source and examples will be hosted on GitHub (when I have some material to show).

This opportunity is only possible because my employer, Red Hat, allows me to spend some of my work time on this book. Red Hat is an awesome company to work for and we are hiring!

I am incredibly excited about this book and look forward to sharing some sample chapters. I just need to start writing them now! :)

1. That's why I just released a new version of stomp.js. I plan to write a chapter about it and found some shortcomings that I wanted to fix. ↩