Love Songs

I’ve been reading recently about a couple of platforms, namely Android and Ubuntu Unity about these platforms wanting to get rid of menus:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/28/google-tells-android-devs-to-kick-the-menu-button-to-the-curb/

and

http://www.osnews.com/story/25539/Ubuntu_To_Replace_Menus_with_Search_Field_Dubbed_HUD_

Now, the Ubuntu example, as it it shown above can only ever be an alternative to menus, not a replacement, it’s far to unwieldy. But if we look at the Android example, here we have it:

And we can see how icons are not a suitable replacement for words. Working from the left, this icon could be “refresh” or “sync”, the next could be “take a photo” or “view photos”, the next could be search or zoom, the next two could really mean anything, and the last is probably the only obvious one as “delete”.

Think how much more obvious words would be in this context.

Check out the “BIK”. As someone who grew up with RISC OS, it pleases me to see it available on modern hardware once more, at a decent price. Make no mistake, RISC OS is old, web browsing is a joke, and it multi-tasks somewhat poorly. But it’s stupid fast on slow hardware, you don’t need to ask permission to publish software for it, and it has a wonderful simplicity that other OS makers should take a look at.

Last night, I had to transfer some photos from my phone to one of my computers. Easy? No.

My Android phone can of course send emails, but the photos totalled over 50MB, and GMail reported the maximum attachment size is 25MB. However, it also has an FTP client installed, so without too much fuss, I was able to transfer the files onto my Stora NAS. Now of course I had to get the files from my NAS onto another computer not on my local network. I attempted to send the files from my Chromebook, but the attachment system only allows selection of single files. I’m too lazy to individually selected 30 files or whatever it was, so I dug up my Windows laptop. This mounted the Stora with ease, and I was soon attaching files into emails. However GMail then responds with “Problem attaching file, maybe a problem with firewall or proxy”. Clicking “retry” apparently solved any firewall or proxy problem I had, but I had to do this on every file that failed, and it only failed right at the end of attaching. The job got done eventually, but it got me thinking, as I often do, that computing has got dramatically worse in recent decades.

According to Wikipedia, the FTP specification was developed in the 1971. It was changed to the current spec in 1985. So before I was born, the problem of transferring data between computers had been resolved. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and their like have been reinventing the wheel for year, and always with some absurdly flawed system. It’s always got a file size limit, or it’s just for photos and music, or it only works if you’ve got Windows, or a Mac, or a Google account. Or it can’t restart failed uploads, or it can only do one file at a time, or the only interface is a crappy website, or a crappy application. It seems that computing at large corporations is not about creating an idea which makes sense, it’s about creating a product which can be marketed.

Imagine how much better it could be if we said, “Look, the spec is SFTP, deal with it.”. We’d teach how to use simple ideas not a million different flawed paradigms. 

We’d have SFTP for file upload/management and HTTP (note: HTTP, not the web) for simple downloads. Services can compete on merit, not proprietary lock in.

This is the somewhat talked about documentary by Werner Herzog. It’s marketed as a “magical” and “enchanting” exploration of some ancient French caves. 

I found it to take a very interesting subject, and make it crushingly boring. Take out the trite philosophical commentaries, the jarring music, and the seemingly unrelated sections on a Perfumer and albino crocodiles, and you’ve got a low budget Channel 5 documentary which would have overstayed it’s welcome at 30 minutes long.

The positive reviews of this documentary are puzzling to say the least, interesting topic to be sure, but utterly dreadful film. Repetitive to extremes, and almost entirely lacking in actual information, Herzog focuses on psuedo-intellectual bullshit to convince us he has made an important piece of work. He hasn’t. 

The BBC makes better documentaries than this without even trying.

Not surprising:

http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/29/forrester_research_finds_consumer_interest_in_windows_8_tablets_slumps/

But frankly, my next tablet will almost certainly run Windows 7. I need some capabilities not present/not convenient in Android/iOS. I need real Dropbox support, a music player which can get it’s tunes from different directories, and also I want VNC support, so I can access it from my other computers.

Niche requirements of course, but requirements which only Windows 7 can really meet on a tablet form factor right now. Maybe a Linux tablet could, but who can be bothered?

However, what I think will happen is that Microsoft will make an ARM-based Windows 8 tablet which can only run Metro apps, and largely behaves like iOS or Android in how limited it is. iOS is limited by design, Android is limited by a simple lack of software, but either way MS will likely copy them.

They’ll come to the market late with no real argument as to why we should buy their products, and then scratch their heads over it.

Right now, Microsoft is of course getting hammered in the tablet market, but they do have a trump card: Windows 7 is far more useful and powerful than iOS or Android. I expect they’ll go to lengths to destroy that trump card when Windows 8 comes along.

Of course, you’ve got to have some niche requirements to prefer Windows on a tablet to an iPad, but right now, that’s where Microsoft can win.

I’ve become quite fond of Javascript as a language for developing apps (as opposed to websites). It’s very cross-platform, and pretty powerful. On modern hardware, it runs quick too.

But recently I’ve had to delve into the BlackBerry Java SDK, we’re talking Java, not Javascript. And what a pleasure it is to use a real typed language again, error checked at compile time, and easily debug with simple print statements (I tried and failed to get meaningful logs out of a BlackBerry Smartphone WebWorks app. PlayBook is fine, BTW).

It’s also totally batteries-included, you get JSON parsers, the crypto stuff I need, a user interface paradigm which automatically works across screen resolutions and whether it’s a touch screen BB or not.

BlackBerry have said that the Java environment will not appear on BBX (their new QNX-based OS). I think this is a major error. WebWorks on PlayBook, make no mistake, is a great environment, but for snappy little phone apps, it’s not ideal. It’s also not ideal for the trackpad of a BlackBerry.

We’ve also got who-knows how many companies writing corporate apps for Java-based BlackBerries, who will not want to re-write in a web app.

Many will say that Java on BlackBerry has had it’s day and is outdated compared to say iOS or Android. Graphically, maybe it is, but for making actual working applications for achieving tasks and solving problems, it’s very, very strong indeed.

I’ll say to RIM now, keep Java on BBX, I know you’ve said there are technical issues, but no-one is buying that, let’s be honest.

Anonymous asked: Hi! Is there any near plans for putting Flux in a discount bundle? :) Thank you.
jurimandersonam[at]gmail[dot]com

Check it out!

http://www.macbundler.com/

This kind of thing gets really boring. Google is wading into an established market, and they can’t even be bothered to support their service outside of the U.S.

Some will say that it’s difficult to sort out the contracts worldwide, and it’s easier to just get the contracts in the U.S. Well, Apple and and Amazon managed it, and besides, when you’re running a company like Google, you’re paid to solve difficult problems.

So, Adobe has decided to drop Flash on mobile devices as a plugin, and refocus it on being an app platform.

I think we can all agree that this is a good thing.

Recently, I’ve developed a lot with Adobe AIR, and I must say, I like it a lot. You get native capabilities baked into Javascript/HTML. Javascript is far from a perfect language but it runs on practically every computer available, so it’s becoming almost like the new C. I’ve also tinkered a little with Flash/Flex, and I’m pretty impressed with that too. But like just about everybody, I don’t like Flash as a plugin for ads etc. So Adobe going down this road is about the best thing that could have happened, Flash remains for game developers, mobile developers etc. AIR remains for HTML/Javascript guys, but Flash as an advertising medium is likely to go away. Sounds like a win for everybody.

Because I kind of want one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Netbook-800Mhz-Freescale-Processor-Storage/dp/B005CA0X8M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320055257&sr=8-1

Looks like a cool, inexpensive computer to carry around or use around the house. Approaching half the price of an iPad or similar Android device, this has to be worth a try.