September 2nd, 2011
Back in April 2010 I started this blog with the opening statement…
Welcome to my new blog. It’s about my 10th. The chances of its long-term survival are bleak I’m afraid. The good news is that you’re reading the very first post so my enthusiasm and itch-to-write is currently completely disguising the time-investment required to keep on posting! I’m also, once again, under the utter disbelief that this time will be different. I guess we’ll see…
The itch is now scratched. It’s time to do something different around here. This will be the last post to this blog.
My reasons are:
Who am I talking to? I appreciate those that took the time to comment on my posts but (personal) blogging platforms just aren’t a place that reward feedback or ongoing conversation. Social networks are where that happens. I get more response from a tweet of 140 characters than I do a 200 word article that took me an hour to write.
Social noise is becoming extreme these days. Everyone’s following Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, all their favourite news sites, e-mail, instant messages, iPhone alerts, … it goes on and on. There is a never-ending and increasingly overwhelming amount of information to interact with and consume. It’s crazy. And it means folk only have time to focus on the most relevant and the most important (to them). My day to day activities qualify in neither category in the vast majority of people’s minds. I won’t beat myself up about that because that’s the case for 99% of us in this world.
I may as well leave industry commentary to the journalists. There are writers who get paid to comment on and report industry events to the extent I sometimes try. They have the advantage of time and reputation on their side. I do enjoy writing and that’s often enough (to express myself/opinion) but perhaps I’d be better seeking out an already-established avenue to do that – or simply surpress it and focus on bigger goals.
Which brings me onto the primary reason for this decision… I’m going underground to focus on pet projects. I’ve got some interesting ideas that I’ve been developing lately and I plan to push a few of them over the line.
I’ll be updating this website soon to be more project portfolio, less blog.
Update: I’m now redirecting my root domain elsewhere. I’ll leave this blog in place for the time being. Maybe I’ll come back to it someday.
June 23rd, 2011
This post is part of my WWDC and E3 2011 commentary.
For me, the most exciting news at WWDC 2011 were all the new features packed into version 5 of Apple’s mobile operating system. These will be rolled out as free updates to everyone who owns an iPhone or iPad in a few months time. There are over 200 new features – too many to discuss in one post. Here are the 5 I think will impact the most…
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June 23rd, 2011
It has been an exciting time for technology enthusiasts lately. Two, huge events took place in the same week. One was Apple’s WWDC (Worldwide Developer’s Conference) where Steve Jobs and co. revealed their future plans for iOS (the iPhone and iPad operating system), Lion (the Mac’s operating system) and iCloud (a new service for storing your data online).
The other event was E3, the biggest annual entertainments expo at which all the games developers, publishers and console manufacturers pack into one space and try to wow the press and public with what they’ve been working on. It’s a place for big reveals, immense amounts of hype, and cutting edge tech. I absolutely love it.
The problem (and it’s a nice problem) with having both WWDC and E3 in the same week is that it has taken this long to absorb everything new that was announced. I’ve been watching all the keynotes and trailers, reading up on all the technical info and figuring out what’s hot and what’s not.
So what were the biggest announcements? What’s most likely to shake up the industry in 2011-2012? What is going to end up in the hands of average Joe Punter? I’ll be sharing my opinions in a series of posts over the next few days and weeks…
Update: We’re past the point where it’s worth me writing anymore about WWDC and E3. It was some time ago now and the world has long since moved on. I think it’ll be better if I concentrate on my own life/projects here from now on, rather than try to commentate on everything else. That’s what news blogs and social media are for.
May 4th, 2011
I’ve been getting more and more needy-greedy for desktop real estate lately. I’m now up to four displays in my man cave at home (more if you include iPads and iPhones, which I don’t) and five in the office at Linc (two of which aren’t currently in use but soon will be).
I blame the person who first dumped a second monitor on my desk and suggested I give dual-screen a chance because “monitors were going spare”. I didn’t need a second monitor back then… my desktop habits were perfectly organised into a single space: four borders, no neck action required. Now I can’t comfortably make do without at least three screens to flick between, cross reference and feed me information from multiple sources.
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April 24th, 2011
If, like me, you walk into a JB HiFi (or equivalent) anytime soon, with a bit of cash in your back wallet, looking around at what new gadget you can treat yourself to (as you do), you’ll see there are currently two pop-out options.
- Nintendo’s latest gaming handheld, the Nintendo 3DS.
- Apple’s iPad 2 (or the older, iPad 1 if you haven’t got one already).
Which should you get? There’s an easy answer… the iPad 2. Unless perhaps… you already own an iPad 1. Which I do. So I got the 3DS…
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March 12th, 2011
The new iOS 4.3 update for iPhones/iPads was released yesterday. I was tinkering with it last night and with (what I believe to be) one of the most exciting and potentially impacting features: AirPlay.
If you’ve got an Apple TV, AirPlay lets you beam any video/audio in an app out onto your big TV in the living room. I’ve been anticipating this feature since 4.2 when a (disappointing) partial version of it was first rolled out, limited to just some of Apple’s own apps. Now it can be used by 3rd party apps too such as InMethod’s AirVideo (screenshot above) and I’m happy to report, it works really well.
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March 1st, 2011
Apple just approved the first update I submitted of Frosty Badger’s iOS game, OsXs.
Version 1.1 is now a “Universal” app which means it works on iPhone, iPod Touch and… (drum roll)… iPad! On top of that, we’re still managing to maintain backward compatibility with earlier versions of iOS (as far back as 3.1.3). Which means those with earlier generation iPod Touches (or those not wishing to update their iPhone 3g to iOS 4) will still be able to enjoy the new features.
The biggest addition, besides retina and HD versions of all existing graphics, is the new “Blueprint” theme (awesome work Anton). And Paul recorded some appropriate stationary sounds to accompany it (pencil scribbles and rubber effects) – they give it an authentic “architect at his desk” feel.
Frosty Badger has some other more ambitious projects in the pipeline which I hope will see the light of day soon. It’s tough doing all this as a hobby in our spare time, but I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far (and there in lies the reward).
Link: http://www.frostybadger.com/osxs/
December 8th, 2010
Back in 2007 I started to keep a record of all the amazing creative and/or technology-focused inventions/art/projects I kept coming across on my browsing travels. I published many of them on a blog, titled “Technology\Creativity”(.com). That blog has since joined my project scrapheap but I was just going through my archives and came across the WordPress database. I’ve just imported the posts across to here.
You can find them all under the “T\C” category.
December 7th, 2010
This is Charles Manley, my son. He was born on the 22nd November 2010 at 6:19pm (Perth time). It was one of the happiest and most amazing events of my life.
November 22nd, 2010
Until recently, I stored all my bookmarked links in a widget on my Netvibes homepage – using my very own SS Bookmarks script. My browser’s bookmarks (or “favourites”) menu has always been empty. I did this to keep things centralised so whether I’m at work, at home, or on my iPhone/iPad I can always access one of my links. I also liked having them hosted on my own web space where I have full control and the data is entirely mine.
It has worked well but there were a few downsides and now I’ve switched to Mozilla’s Firefox Sync (for Mac/PC) and Firefox Home (for iPhone/iPad).
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