colin's thoughts

on Windows 8 and the Ghetto

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 22:46:47 -0500

Yesterday Microsoft released a video showing off the new interface for Windows 8. My first impression was that Microsoft was making a bold move and hoping they could pull it off. But the brief demo of Excel gave me fear that underneath all of the nice UI nothing had changed. Would Windows have a split personality? Old style apps seem to relegated to a ghetto.

Today, that fear grows. Ars Technica reported that Microsoft revealed some hardware specs.

To get the new interface, tablets will have to offer a resolution of at least 1024x768. Anything lower and they will be stuck with a derivative of the classic Windows 7 shell. Increasing the resolution from the 4:3 1024x768 to the 16:9 1366x768 will additionally enable the “snap” side-by-side multitasking view that was demonstrated.

It seems clear that they view the new UI as an extra, not part of the core OS. MS continues to create tiered experiences for Windows. I wonder what percentage of users will receive the “full” Windows 8 experience?

Game Dev

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:15:59 -0500

Game Dev:

Game Dev is a newish question and answer site about game creation and development. It was launched just over a month ago and is a public beta. It is likely to launch in a couple of months with a new name and design. If you have any interest in game design and development, it is a great resource.

The site is powered by Stack Exchange, the engine behind Stack Overflow.

iPad Application Design

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:20:44 -0600

iPad Application Design:

Matt Gemmell gives a very good overview of design ideas that should be used for iPad applications. I love how these come together to create interfaces that seem natural to use and not overwhelming. These to me are what makes the iPad itself compelling. When it is released, I hope it will live up to my expectations in this area.

The Dev Show

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:48:22 -0600

The Dev Show:

I have started listening to a new podcast called ‘The Dev Show’. So far it seems promising, though I am a sucker for programming podcasts of any decent quality.

The Meaning of Information Technology

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:07:00 -0600

The Meaning of Information Technology

Introducing Google Building Maker

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:42:16 -0500

Introducing Google Building Maker:

I have always loved the idea of modelling real buildings, but this is really exciting. The easier it is to model individual buildings, the more scalable it is to model all of the more populated areas in the world.

The two App Stores

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:45:55 -0500

The two App Stores:

Marco hits on one thing that I’ve noticed by looking at many apps: the primary screenshot can easily sway an impulse purchase.

I have always been interested in cool toys, but as a parent I...

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:05:00 -0500

I have always been interested in cool toys, but as a parent I have an excuse to watch out for them. ThinkGeek has this cool marble tower toy now available. I love the idea of mixing in xylophone parts.

Turning the tide: a hands-on look at Google's Wave

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:50:51 -0500

Turning the tide: a hands-on look at Google's Wave:

Whenever my knowledge of a topic or technology is incomplete, an Ars Technica goes a long way toward understanding it. This article on Google Wave is no different.

Post-Medium Publishing

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:43:32 -0500

Post-Medium Publishing:

Paul Graham with another insightful article. His insight that most publishers are selling the medium not the content is well presented. It is not a new thought, but presented in such a clear way it feels like one.

NetNewsWire 2.0 for iPhone now on App Store

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:08:19 -0500

NetNewsWire 2.0 for iPhone now on App Store

The Failure of the GPL

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:53:00 -0500

The Failure of the GPL:

I find discussion on the pros and cons of different open source licenses fascinating. I tend to think of BSD licenses more favourably than the GPL, and increased cooperation is one of those reasons.

Do you need an umbrella today?

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 12:28:00 -0500

Do you need an umbrella today?:

Clever little website. Does one thing simple and well.

Mantia - App Store Ratings and Reviews

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:03:00 -0500

Mantia - App Store Ratings and Reviews:

Mantia’s comparison of the App Store to MacBooks highlights how people’s perception can flavor their attitude.

Cocoia - Snow Leopard UI roundup

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 15:09:29 -0500

Cocoia - Snow Leopard UI roundup:

Sebastiaan has summarized a bunch of the UI changes in Snow Leopard. The roundup has some nice observations of little things I had not noticed yet.

Tumblr, it is Your Turn

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:57:31 -0500

I do not like Wordpress. After months of using it half-heartedly, I have decided that it is not right for me. Instead, I am going to try out Tumblr for a while. So far it seems to be a big improvement. Wordpress was just too ‘heavy’ for my needs.

Update on App Store Rankings

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Every few days someone finds my site by searching for how to scrape app store rankings. I no longer use that script, since I found it awkward to use. I’ve switched over to using MajicRank by Majic Jungle software.

MajicRank is a Mac application that polls the top 100 lists in iTunes to find your apps. It keeps a history so you can graph and also see the change in rank since the last run. I find it very easy to launch the app every day to keep tabs on my apps’ rankings.

Egg Painter

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Yesterday, we submitted another iPhone application to Apple. This one is called Egg Painter. As you may guess, it’s an Easter Egg painting app aimed at kids. You can check out the website for it at http://www.fanfoot.ca/eggpainter.

Scraping App Store Rankings Around the World

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Having become frustrated trying to check iTunes for app rankings, I decided to look for a better way to do it. That search led me to a post on Ben’s Dev Blog. The perl script given is priceless and saved me from having to write something up myself. It would be preferable to have a Mac app that does it, but this works for now.

Edit: I have switched to using a Mac app called MajicRank. See my post for more details.

Ars on UISwitch labels

Fri, 06 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Ars Technica has an article about changing text in a UISwitch robustly. It looks like a fairly interesting approach, but the issue with localization is probably a deal-breaker for me.