How people really use the iPhone…
Inspired by the session with Anthony Franko at this years MIX in Las Vegas, I decided to do my own research into the ACTUAL usability of the infamous iPhone… is it really so userfriendly as everyone suggests and almost seems to take as a fact, without even thinking about the fact that it actually might not be natively userfriendly, but only userfriendly once you have overcome the initial obstacles…During my research I stumbled upon these slides which seemed to me as having the necessary evidence-based approach combined with the heuristic perspective making it interesting and relevant and yet comprehensible in a swiff…
Qwitter… another service by Contrast
Qwitter is an online service which e-mails you when someone stops following you on Twitter…
It will then send you a message something like this:
John Gruber (gruber) stopped following you on Twitter after you posted this tweet:
What's the difference between Arial and Helvetica?
Check it out…
http://useqwitter.com/
Introducing Skitch…
Skitch.com + ( Skitch || Email ) = fast and fun image sharing.
Skitch.com is a webservice that works hand in hand with the desktop application Skitch or your ordinary email client to give you 1-click
uploading of images for fast image sharing.
You can even set it up to send a tinyurl-ified link to the image in a twitter message…. and if done via email, the subject will become the Twitter message… very very cool…
Check it out…
http://skitch.com/
This is my public space…
http://skitch.com/dopenhagen/
No Adobe MAX 2009 Europe…
Last year in Milan, we were many that enjoyed the local attention we could give the Adobe oriented communities and professionals… however, due to the natural downturn as well as quite a number of suggestions to eliminate the Adobe MAX Europe (at least as one unified monolothic event, you all remember the last question on the questionaire last year… “would you prefer one large or several smaller more localized European MAX’es for 2009).
However, I guess the general downturn in conference attendance has made the choice to completely eliminate the European MAX that much easier…
And to be honest… for a guy who in 2008 attended both the North American and the European, I must admit there will be very few things to miss in comparison to missing out on the NA edition which was so much better that I had already decided only to attend the NA edition, if I had to choose…
Anyways, you can read more about it in a blogpost by Mr. MAX himself…
http://onflash.org/ted/2009/03/max-2009-in-los-angeles-and-online-no.php
See you in Los Angeles…
http://max.adobe.com/
HP releases free Adobe Flash Vulnerability Scanner
Slashdot has an interesting article today about checking SWF’s for vulnerabilities…
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/24/1818229
HP SWFScan is a free Windows-based security tool to help developers find and fix security vulnerabilities in applications developed with the Adobe Flash Platform. The tool is the first of its kind to decompile applications developed with the Flash platform and perform static analysis to understand their behaviors. This helps developers without security backgrounds identify vulnerabilities hidden within the application which cannot be detected with dynamic analysis methods.
Simply, point HP SWFScan at the SWF file for any Flash application and it will:
- Decompile the ActionScript 2 or ActionScript 3 bytecode back to the original source code.
- Audit the code for over 60 vulnerabilities including exposure of confidential data, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) and cross-domain privilege escalation.
- Validate the Flash application adherence with Adobe’s security best practices.
Read more about it…
http://www.hp.com/go/swfscan
Check the original article out at HP’s website…
http://www.communities.hp.com/securitysoftware/blogs/spilabs/archive/2009/03/20/exposing-flash-application-vulnerabilities-with-swfscan.aspx
YAGNI… one of the most important concepts
In software engineering, YAGNI, short for ‘You Aren’t Gonna Need It’, suggests to programmers that they should not add functionality until it is necessary. Ron Jeffries writes, “Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just foresee that you need them.” According to those who advocate the YAGNI approach, the temptation to write code that is not necessary at the moment, but might be in the future, has the following disadvantages:
- The time spent is taken from adding, testing or improving necessary functionality.
- The new features must be debugged, documented, and supported.
- Any new feature imposes constraints on what can be done in the future, so an unnecessary feature now may prevent implementing a necessary feature later.
- Until the feature is actually needed, it is difficult to fully define what it should do and to test it. If the new feature is not properly defined and tested, it may not work right, even if it eventually is needed.
It leads to code bloat; the software becomes larger and more complicated. - Unless there are specifications and some kind of revision control, the feature may not be known to programmers who could make use of it.
- Adding the new feature may suggest other new features. If these new features are implemented as well, this may result in a snowball effect towards creeping featurism.
The above excerpt is taken from today’s Wikipedia entry… Check it out…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAGNI
Advanced ActionScript APIs… by Jacob Wright
While researching a question put forward by one of the Flex developers in Hello about Serialization/Deserialization to/from AIR databases, I stumbled across a video where Jacob Wright gets hands-on and concrete in giving ActionScript developers tips on how to create reusable libraries…
Including things such as using Proxy, IExternalizable, Code Namespaces and how to plan your new great API which will be easy to use for others and represent a lot of power…
Interview by Mihai Corlan
Late night, walking in cold Copenhagen from one late night bar to another… and then the guy pulls out a camera… anyways, it was a great evening I remember more for Mihai’s great company than this interview, of which I hope to do a part two in which I will attempt to be more clear and concise then in this interview…
Check out Mihai’s blog, if you have not already…
http://corlan.org/
On the Skywalk… at Grand Canyon West
Deeply nested in Hualapai Nation territory in the western section of the Grand Canyon, the Skywalk has been build as a means for people to walk over the Grand Canyon on a floor made of glass…
This weekend I was so very fortunate to have this great experience… and I have the pictures to prove it.
From the left it’s yours truly, Anders Hjarnaa (Technical Director, Hello) and Claus Nielsen (Silverlight Developer, Hello)
The kind, clever and determined people of the Hualapai Nation are proud and strong people with a glorious history… don’t hesitate to check it out…
They describe their seal as follows…
The Great Spirit created Man and Woman in his own image. In doing so, both were created as equals. Both depending on each other in order to survive. Great respect was shown for each other; in doing so, happiness and contentment was achieved then, as it should be now. The connecting of the hair makes them one person; for happiness or contentment cannot be achieved without each other. The canyons are represented by the purples in the middle ground, where the people were created. These canyons are sacred and should be so treated at all times. The reservation is pictured to represent the land that is ours; treat it well. The reservation is our heritage and the heritage of our children yet unborn. Be good to our land and it will continue to be good to us. The sun is the symbol of life; without it nothing is possible—plants don’t grow —there will be no life—nothing. The sun also represents the dawn of the Hualapai people. Through hard work, determination, and education everything is possible and we are assured bigger and brighter days ahead. The tracks in the middle represent the coyote and other animals which were here before us. The green symbolizes pine trees, representing our name Hualapai— PEOPLE OF THE TALL PINES !
The official website of the Haulapai nation…
http://hualapai-nsn.gov/
Disturbance or Innovation
Some of the technologies in the not-so-near future pipeline at Microsoft have been put together in a video…We have seen all of it before, need I mention Minority Report !?But to be honest… it’s still cool…
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