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Mar
15th
Thu
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I know, let’s use numbers to make this really clear…

I know, let’s use numbers to make this really clear

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Android development information fail conversation

  • Me: Hello Android developer page! How do I start?
  • Android: Prepare your development computer and ensure it meets the system requirements.
  • Me: okay, what do I need to prepare?
  • Android: Silence. No links, no hints.
  • Me: okay, apart from an Intel chip running OS X, what are the system requirements?
  • Android: Silence. Blankness. A gaze into the void of no information.
  • Me: okay, if you have nothing to say, I'll look at the 'readme' file.
  • Android: (readme file) The Android SDK archive initially contains only the basic SDK tools. It does not contain an Android platform or any third-party libraries. In fact, it doesn't even have all the tools you need to develop an application.
  • Me: Dearest Android, are you going out of your way to be unhelpful here, or is it just information design slackness, or perhaps merely accidental carelessness?
Feb
9th
Thu
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It’s all too much…

I have two websites to finish - stardiscenterprise (almost there) and counsellingmeltonmowbray (in progress) - one massive website (slightly broken) of nearly 3,000 files to administer and help transfer to a CMS, one half-complete single-page app (best viewed in an iPad or iPad size) to get into the App Store, one website backend/data interface to sort out and make, one Processing workshop to prepare for, and one paper to write (because I’m a part-time researcher). Most of those things originally had a deadline of 31 January… and now it’s snowing outside and I feel all Christmassy, yet strangely motivated too.

Oh yes, and I’m participating in a Talentopoly podcast on the 18th, but that’s fun.

May
29th
Sun
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My very first iPhone app (from a tutorial) in HTML5 wrapped up with PhoneGap on Gareth’s (Snow Leopard) Mac… click to play :-)

My very first iPhone app (from a tutorial) in HTML5 wrapped up with PhoneGap on Gareth’s (Snow Leopard) Mac… click to play :-)

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Looks like PhoneGap and HTML5 is the way for us to go with a phone app for Greenview - a project to show the energy use (raw live data and movie test here) of university buildings… see version 1. HighCharts was a dream, after an initial restless night or two.

Oct
5th
Tue
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A foxglove went a bit creative in the garden, and this was the result. Nice work, foxglove, nice work!

A foxglove went a bit creative in the garden, and this was the result. Nice work, foxglove, nice work!

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.turquoise { color: #139383 }

This morning, I awoke with a hex colour on my mind - #139383 - for no reason I can discover.

Aug
20th
Fri
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Usability lab fail (real conversation)

  • Tester 1: Do you know where usability lab is?
  • Tester 2: Haha! That's funny! I mean, isn't it supposed to be easily navigable?
  • Tester 1: Absolutely! Usability fail!
Aug
16th
Mon
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every boat is copied from another boat… it is the sea herself who fashions the boats, choosing those which function and destroying the others
Alain, 1908 (Quoted in Wild and Domesticated Religions: How the Machinery of Religion Evolved, Lecture by Daniel Dennett, Santa Fe Institute, 16 March 2010
May
29th
Sat
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artists are experts in uncertainty
— Tom Morris, National Theatre (BBC Radio 4, November 2009)