Russell going to tackle the 100Blogs challenge

As you may have noticed, my 100Blogs challenge stalled at #25 because I was using it to fight my way out of some writers block. I’ll likely pick it up again when I’ve got less to talk about 🙂 The 100Blogs Challenge is a list of 100 Blog titles that Chris Brogan hopes that people … Continue reading “Russell going to tackle the 100Blogs challenge”

As you may have noticed, my 100Blogs challenge stalled at #25 because I was using it to fight my way out of some writers block. I’ll likely pick it up again when I’ve got less to talk about 🙂

The 100Blogs Challenge is a list of 100 Blog titles that Chris Brogan hopes that people will tackle. Chris’ idea is for the community to have addressed all of them but I think it’s a good idea for anyone wanting to up the content on their blog or work through some block issues to start at #1 and aim for the sky.

Russell McQuillan, wireless guy and all-round scout, is giving it a go.

Do Not Assume. Do Not Resize

Last-Standing.com is the web site for a local Battle of the Bands. I meant to just highlight it but as this is an ANGRY BLOG, I have to be pissed about something. Two sins It uses Flash. And it’s their way or the highway. If you have a device that doesn’t like Flash then you’re … Continue reading “Do Not Assume. Do Not Resize”

Last-Standing.com is the web site for a local Battle of the Bands. I meant to just highlight it but as this is an ANGRY BLOG, I have to be pissed about something.

Two sins

  • It uses Flash. And it’s their way or the highway. If you have a device that doesn’t like Flash then you’re shit outta luck. Why is there no equivalent to the ALT tag for Flash? Navigate to that page without Flash and the only things you can do are click on the ‘friends’ links at the bottom and handily email the designer with some invective. I have plenty of devices which CAN handle Flash but I don’t choose to handle it on my Nokia N800 for instance. And for those of us who use iPhones – well – you’ve just alienated us completely. I’m not saying anyone should abandon Flash, but this sort of thinking – that everyone is on a Flash-capable, high-speed connection to the Internet is frankly stupid and annoying.
  • It resizes the browser window. There’s a plaintive text caption at the bottom where we are whimsically asked to view at 1024×768 or more and to blame the designers for that. Fine, if it’s not looking the best at the 800×600 I keep my browser window at, I can always resize to fit the content. My Mac even has a little green button on every window to ‘resize to content’. Except that this web site forces your browser window to resize to fill your available screen estate. That’s simply obnoxious. Especially as my laptop screen is 1680×1050 – there’s no need to take up all of the damn screen. Grrrr.

But anyway – my gripes aside.

The heats for this Battle (war?) are:

  • 05.08.08 | Ossia Music, Belfast
  • 15.08.08 | Share Holiday Village, Lisnaskea
  • 30.08.08 | Strule Art Centre, Omagh
  • October | Queens Hall, Newtownards

and:

For the winners, an outstanding reward:
– cash prize
– demo recording at Shabby Road studio
– 100 copies of the demo
– expert advice from those in the music and promotion business
– mentoring
– high profile playing opportunities

Anyone interested in showcasing their band, even just for the experience, should head along to their web site and download the Application Form (Microsoft Word file). There are currently 8 bands registered and there’s room on the site for samples, photos and mini-bios. Contact Paul McMordie for more information

Control: GamePlay in New Directions

When I started with computer games, you had a paddle with a button. Or a joystick with a button. And it was glorious. We swept through the skies, trundled our tracks upon the ground and raced upon the seas. We fired glowing balls of energy at rainbow walls and sniped at invading aliens who relentless … Continue reading “Control: GamePlay in New Directions”

When I started with computer games, you had a paddle with a button. Or a joystick with a button. And it was glorious. We swept through the skies, trundled our tracks upon the ground and raced upon the seas. We fired glowing balls of energy at rainbow walls and sniped at invading aliens who relentless floated towards our bases. The sky wasn’t even the limit.

With those simple controls we were able to wage our wars and fill our memory with what would now be called nostalgia for 8 bit gaming. These games were quick to start, quick to throw aside (unless your score was such that a personal best could be defeated) and everything was in the gameplay. They were casual games even before the term had been invented.

These days, now I have the opportunity to play more games because I carry around a phone with more processing power than the Dreamcast console and much more than the Nintendo Entertainment System or the Atari 2600 (icons of retro gaming both). I have the opportunity because casual games are quick to launch and quick to drop. It occupies the time in a waiting room (which would previously have been occupied only by uncomfortable silences) and makes sitting in a car while the other half pops into a shop a much more pleasant experience.

Apart from the adding of more buttons, game controls didn’t change that much. They did add force-feedback to game controllers in order to provide some sort of haptic feedback to gamers – and yes, in most cases it enhances the gameplay by involving more senses. But the model stayed the same – buttons, a joystick/D-pad and it didn’t matter if it was wired or wireless.

Nintendo’s ‘revolution’ device which eventually became the critically acclaimed and best selling ‘Wii’ is probably responsible for a lot of recent changes in interface and controller design. It was wireless but that’s not where the innovation lay. It used attitude, pitch and yaw to provide control cues. It transmitted location data via bluetooth and direction data via an infrared sensor. It was, in control terms, a revolution and opened up a whole new world of customers to Nintendo. And with the later addition of the Wii Fit, it showed that a set of pressure-sensitive bluetooth bathroom scales could outsell just about anything from the traditional controller world. Add to that a WiFi card and you’re now networked with millions of other people.

So, what did the other console makers do in response?

They put blue-ray drives into their consoles. And increased the size of the hard drives. And did nothing to address the shortfall in gameplay or game control which they now found themselves in. I presume they must be working on something revolutionary to compete.

Consider then the iPhone. It has accelerometers, proximity sensors, touch screen, GPS – and apply those to a gaming console.

Have a look at Radius (iTunes).

This sort of gameplay is new and exciting. Whether or not Radius itself holds your attention is not relevant – when you consider the possibilities for controlling the games we play, the Wii and the iPhone present some amazing opportunities. And we have but to wait to see what comes out as their successor.

Project Gutenberg

I love Project Gutenberg. Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Where else can you download the top 100 eBooks for nothing? Here’s the top … Continue reading “Project Gutenberg”

I love Project Gutenberg.

Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.

Where else can you download the top 100 eBooks for nothing? Here’s the top 10 yesterday.

  1. Manual of Surgery Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. by Miles and Thomson (814)
  2. The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4) by J. Arthur Thomson (447)
  3. Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob (236)
  4. Searchlights on Health by B. G. Jefferis and J. L. Nichols (223)
  5. Our Day by William Ambrose Spicer (221)
  6. Sex by Henry Stanton (219)
  7. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (211)
  8. Illustrated History of Furniture by Frederick Litchfield (202)
  9. Sketches of the Fair Sex, in All Parts of the World by Anonymous (184)
  10. The People’s Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English by Ray Vaughn Pierce (177)

And the top 10 Authors yesterday?

  1. Dickens, Charles (897)
  2. Twain, Mark (841)
  3. Miles, Alexander (814)
  4. Thomson, Alexis (814)
  5. Austen, Jane (739)
  6. Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir (718)
  7. Verne, Jules (717)
  8. Shakespeare, William (632)
  9. Thomson, J. Arthur (451)
  10. Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank) (418)

This is also neat:

The World eBook Fair from July 4 – August 4 2008 offers over a million free eBooks for download. Project Gutenberg is a proud content partner. Read more here.

They offer text, audio books, CD/DVDs and digitised sheet music comprising 14.8 GB of text and 91.5 GB of MP3s. Project Gutenberg survives on donations and volunteer work. As they say, even a single cent per download would make a difference.

So, here’s a plan. Create a Gutenberg eBook reader for the iPhone/iPod touch. That will permit browsing of the catalogue, download/caching of books. The reader will not be free but available for a token amount – every penny of which, outside of Apple’s 30%, will go straight to the Gutenberg Project. So, what do you think? On top of that, I’ll host a mirror of the Gutenberg site (the 14.5 GB text files) which this app will use to browse – which should reduce the network costs for Project Gutenberg.

Proposed Feature list

  • Browses the entire Gutenberg site mirror
  • Provides a quick search function (option to have the index auto-update and be cached locally as it’s only 3 MB uncompressed)
  • Formats the text into a couple of readable fonts
  • Provides a donate button.
  • Download books to the device.
  • Automatic Pagination
  • Tell a Friend which gives them the link to the Gutenberg mirror
  • Optional ‘send page to email’ would be nice.

Offers of help appreciated as are suggestions for features or thoughts about the ‘model’. Note – I’ve not asked Project Gutenberg about this. I just think it’s a good idea. I’d even start my secret project early if I thought some enterprising young souls were interested.

FSF: easy targets

The Free Software Foundaion is now asking their drones to go into Apple Retail Stores and book up appointments at the Genius Bars to ask the hapless support staff about Apple’s software policies. This will, of course, have the effect of depriving real customers with real issues of their support. This, the harassment of consumers … Continue reading “FSF: easy targets”

The Free Software Foundaion is now asking their drones to go into Apple Retail Stores and book up appointments at the Genius Bars to ask the hapless support staff about Apple’s software policies.

This will, of course, have the effect of depriving real customers with real issues of their support.

This, the harassment of consumers and retail employees is what they call their “Apple Challenge“. Everyone should say thanks to the FSF for attempting to make your day that little bit more annoying.

It could be worse. You could be forced to use Linux or Windows all day.

They’re more concerned with the headline-producing iPhone (which has a 10% market share in Smartphones and about 1% of all mobile phones) rather than looking at some of the real potential bugbears out there. Google. Yahoo. Microsoft. Amazon. Facebook.

Some of their suggestions are just stupid.

Why do all developers have to submit their applications to Apple before they can be loaded onto an iPhone?

Two reasons. The first ain’t working too well but it’s the concept of quality control. Even so a load of crap apps have appeared on the AppStore but there’s also the burden of trust. They might want to make sure that no-one sneaks VoIP features into an app which might permit free telephone calls over the 3G network – something which goes against the T&C with AT&T. They might want to ensure that there’s no malware in there (because, guess what, all software developers are not kindly beareded benefactors).

Jobs is the largest individual shareholder at Disney, and he could insist that its films be DRM-free.

Largest individual shareholder does not mean that he has absolute control over the board. Apple sells DRM-free content but they charge more for the privilege. If you don’t like it, buy DRM-free content from Amazon or whomever. We also have to recall the complete failure of the FSF in the DeCSS case and the fact that they have ignored Microsoft, Rhapsody, Napster back in the day – why? Because there was no headline to grab.

Why doesn’t Jobs like Ogg Vorbis/Theora or FLAC? Possibly because Apple’s own video and audio development people believe they have engineered better file formats using open licensable codecs. And when the important decisions were being made, Ogg wasn’t around.

How can users be sure that the GPS cannot be used to track their position, without their permission?

Our society is actually built upon trust. We trust that our policemen will catch the bad guys. We trust our politicians not to force us into unnecessary conflicts or to place themselves in positions where they benefit to our cost. Some people deserve our trust, some don’t. When a corporation I trust says that it will not track me when I switch off their software, then I believe them. When an organisation devoted to software Freedom spends it’s time chasing headlines in contradiction of the facts, then my trust of that organisation fails.

In the United States, the Register of Copyrights has ruled that consumers have the right to unlock their phones and switch to a different carrier. How does Apple plan to remedy this discrepancy?

Back in the day, innovators were permitted to protect their inventions using patents. Writers had copyright. Traders used trade marks. These days patents in software are seen as evil and any protection of innovation is seen as a restriction of the narrow freedoms permitted by the Free Software Foundation. The problem I have with patents, copyrights, trademarks etc is entirely to do with their duration. Having a copyright extend beyond a writers years is fine – but moves to make it several generations is in extremis.

The Register of Copyrights does allow end users to unlock their phones in the U.S. It provided a DMCA exemption specifically for this. However, it did not protect the creation and distribution of tools for this purpose. An end user is free to unlock their own phone just the same way that you’re free to dismantle your car. But if you break it, it’s your own fault.

You know what you’re buying when you buy it. It’s a working phone, with new innovations appearing, with fabulous performance, great software and, you know what, it makes telephone calls too. But it’s not an open source device. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Buy a FreeRunner. I hear it can do texts AND make calls now.

It was a Golden Age…

“It was a Golden Age, a time of high adventure, rich living, and hard dying …but nobody thought so.” The Stars My Destination” Alfred Bester Keep this in mind when watching the news. Related posts: i am jack’s frustrated creativity Money for nothing and chicks for free What Steve said… Golden Braeburn: get unscrewed.

“It was a Golden Age,
a time of high adventure,
rich living, and hard dying
…but nobody thought so.”

The Stars My Destination”
Alfred Bester

Keep this in mind when watching the news.

The Dark Knight: may contain a spoiler

Last night a small group of blokes descended on Belfast to watch The Dark Knight, latest in a long line of Batman movies. Before I get into any specifics which the reader may want to skip – let me just say – that movie is LONG. I expected the credits to roll a couple of … Continue reading “The Dark Knight: may contain a spoiler”

Last night a small group of blokes descended on Belfast to watch The Dark Knight, latest in a long line of Batman movies. Before I get into any specifics which the reader may want to skip – let me just say – that movie is LONG. I expected the credits to roll a couple of times!

The Dark Knight lacks the style of Batman Begins. It’s action packed to be sure but there’s much too much of it and not enough acting and dialogue. The only person who actually gets to do any acting is Heath Ledger and maybe that was a decision made on the cutting room floor; considering this was the actor’s last film it would seem they took the opportunity to give him the stage. Batman Begins was a character piece. The Dark Knight is a lot of explosions and fighting.

Continue reading “The Dark Knight: may contain a spoiler”

The view from the bar.

Dark innit? photo posted from my iPhone Related posts: 8/100 Ways to Save a Bad Time at a Conference View from the Molli Train A more sober view on iPhone application development Ice Bar

Dark innit?

photo posted from my iPhone

CoWorking: profit or non-profit

LaunchPad CoWorking An interview with Jerome Chang, founder of Blankspaces: Spike: You’re also using a for-profit business model (as is LaunchPad Coworking). How did you decide on this model? Did you take any heat for it? Jerome: I’m all for pushing collaboration and communities — if profit is what it takes to generate more participants … Continue reading “CoWorking: profit or non-profit”

LaunchPad CoWorking
An interview with Jerome Chang, founder of Blankspaces:

Spike: You’re also using a for-profit business model (as is LaunchPad Coworking). How did you decide on this model? Did you take any heat for it?
Jerome: I’m all for pushing collaboration and communities — if profit is what it takes to generate more participants and advance the cultural movement, then profit it is. Between the time and effort, money, and liability, we should be rewarded for that contribution and exposure. Besides, I didn’t know about coworking at all until I’d already started construction, so I was not “influenced” by the altruism.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that a Co-Working site needs to be a ‘company’ as opposed to a ‘charity’.

I’ve seen lots of non-profits fall by the wayside due to the founders needing to move on and it’s hard to find people with the right mentality to take over. I’ve seen non-profits founder because without the extra edge of needing to make a profit (and reaping benefits thereof) the good will can vanish.

I’m well aware that people working at a non-profit can draw salaries and that the non-profit moniker has been used in order to attract attention while the ‘workers’ draw insanely large salaries. I guess I’m not comfortable hiding behind the tax benefits of a non-profit while engaged in something that is creating things ‘for profit’.

But let’s run with the current school of thought. That CoWorkingBelfast will be a non-profit organisation.

That said – if I have anything to do with it, CoWorkingBelfast will have to be a shining light and not just a damp squib. I want it to be excellent, a model place to work and not just a set of desks in a dreary room above a bank. It has to make enough money to survive and prosper and not just be a half-empty space which has to resort to arcane marketing schemes disguised as trade shows in order to generate a bit of coin.

Part of the Co-Working Belfast ethos should, in my opinion, to create ‘industry culture’ in Northern Ireland. That’s got to be more than just creating a web portal (and how many of those have sprung up in the last year or so) but the creation of a lasting legacy, a tradition of fostering creativity in the technology sector. CoWorking is not about technology itself – it’s about connecting people where they were not previously connected.

Part of the culture of CoWorking Belfast should not only be the opportunities and connections which are brought about by proximity but also the potential for fostering tomorrow’s industry (you know, the people who will be paying taxes when you and I are in a home for the elderly). I have a plan which consists of nothing more than a couple of pledges, a holding page on a web site and a monthly bill which I’ll work to find sponsorship for – which will be wholly dedicated to finding people with energy, be they young in body or just young in mind, and giving them a place to work and express their creativity as well as providing mentoring (by using and abusing the people housed in the CoWorking building) – more on this later.

Through this meandering post I’m convincing myself that CoWorkingBelfast can be a no-profit. What do you think?