funwithstuff

2009-01-03T16:29:00.000+10:00

Welcome to the new year. Here are some web design tips to get you started.

2008-12-20T18:35:00.000+10:00

If you've ever chased an achievement (pick up 10 medals, reach point X, die in a particularly embarrassing way) on a game, you need to play Achievement Unlocked, in which the entire point of the game is to unlock all the achievements. Enjoy heartily.

2008-12-15T20:56:00.002+10:00

Hazel watchers out there, know ye that she can, at 16.5 months:

- say ~170 words and understand more
- recognise a rainbow on my screen and go to find her book on rainbows
- eat with a spoon without always spilling everything
- build many blocks into a stack (7 is her record so far)
- make the sounds of a sheep, cow, dog, cat, parrot or duck
- say "eight" when parked on my shoulder and I say "pieces of"
- stand on parental feet for a dance
- turn in a circle and fall over dizzy when being read the book about the "rosie ring"
- demand paper and pen ("draw!") when she wants a good scribble
- throw a ball (or anything hand-sized) with some force
- play the piano on my iPhone and her little crocodile xylophone ("ding-ding")
- give kisses to mummy and daddy at bedtime and whenever else she feels like it
- remember that nana will be coming in a couple of days time
- wave like a crazy thing when she figures out that someone is leaving
- smile like an angel

2008-12-06T22:58:00.000+10:00

The Australian internet filter is doomed to failure. Here's why, in technical-but-not-too-technical terms, from the always reliable Ars Technica.

2008-12-01T23:30:00.000+10:00

My new Threadless design is up for critiquing. Feedback more than welcome, though I just had a little idea for improvement.

2008-11-30T09:07:00.000+10:00

So, I had an idea yesterday. Not a big idea, not a particularly clever idea, just a quick joke for a t-shirt really. A zero-dollar bill with Bush as the requisite president. Of course, something like that is only good if it's original, so a quick Google led me to find that an artist did it (and got noticed) in October, but forgot to change the president's head, leaving George Washington from the $1 bill in place.

Seems an obvious thing to forget; at least two commenters on different sites suggested that Bush would have been a better choice. Indeed, a dodgy Photoshop version was made (though not printed and distributed by an artist) in December 2007. If you really want precedent, though, head for this effort from 1978 featuring Uncle Sam.

2008-11-25T18:36:00.000+10:00

If your environment is dirty or graffitied, you're more likely to commit crime than if your environment is clean.

2008-11-24T10:07:00.001+10:00

Let's all hope that the case against iiNet from "big media" falls flat. Nic Suzor knows enough about copyright law to have an opinion worth hearing, and he's hopeful.

In other unrelated news, Japan was awesome and there will be notes and pics in due course. Fellow parents will know that time is the scarcest commodity about.

Kyoto rain

2008-10-24T10:22:00.000+10:00

We'd given up on seeing this 1000-year parade as Hazel doesn't like
staying still for long, but we came across it at the end of our walk
anyway.

It was a tad wet.

More posts to come after our return along with much advice. iPhones
have been fantastic but composition on a tiny phone when there's a
baby needing wrangling is hard.

In Hiroshima at the moment; it's a profoundly moving place. Today,
though, is a Hazel day. Not much travel and lots more playtime.

Bamboo and crowds

2008-10-20T22:10:00.000+10:00

We've been all over Kyoto and around in the last few days. West to
Arashiyama and south to Nara, to bamboo forests and parks without
grass, to stunning gardens with few visitors and to so-so gardens with
hordes of people and deer poo.

Highlights? Hazel has been feted by so many people so far... given
gifts, food, had her photo taken. A lovely cafe owner gave her a
squeaky octopus. Some great temples and gardens, the best ones off the
main tourist routes.

What can we recommend if travelling with a baby? Don't bring a pram;
too many steps. Don't try to do too much. Relax about bedtimes but be
ready for crazed squawking. Don't underestimate how far distances can
be.

Eep. Enough for one post. Email is good here but not voip so
apologies; no phone calls at the moment.

So we got here

2008-10-16T07:37:00.000+10:00

A 2-3 hour delay is not the best way to start a 9 hour flight, but a
father-in-law in hospital was visited and good vibes ensued all round.

Flights with babies are long. Take lots of toys, books and food and
take turns with the wrangling. Hazel wandered up and down the aisles
making herself cute and only cried during the descent.

We're at the Cross Hotel in the heart of Osaka, a luxury oasis we'd
heartily recommend, in a corner room with fab bath, one of those fancy
toilet seats you've heard about and many comfy trimmings.

Outside it looks like this at night, with local goths and fashionistas
strolling the alleys. Huge, well lit, safe, overwhelming. All yay.

Welcome to Osaka

2008-10-16T01:12:00.000+10:00

The longest day, but all worth it. This pic isn't the half of it.

Hazel builds

2008-10-14T13:27:00.000+10:00

That's four blocks that is.

2008-10-12T09:28:00.000+10:00

Awesome takedown of Palin.

2008-09-30T10:40:00.002+10:00

I'm looking for an iPhone navigation app to fill a niche. I had planned on writing this app myself, but I haven't had enough time and don't expect to find it.

I'd like to be able to import my own maps and then track my progress across them. The iPhone camera is probably the most convenient way to get the map in if the resolution is good enough. You'd need two points for accurate display: the current location and a verifiable location some distance away, plus the ability to move/scale the map and/or the trail.

This opens up possibilities for any other kind of map (such as a guidebook map) and will really help when travelling away from data connections or where writing is in a non-Latin script. I'll be in Japan in a couple of weeks and even when I can get wi-fi to cache some Google maps, all the location names are in Kanji. I'd much rather follow myself around a Lonely Planet map.

The navigation market is getting pretty competitive, but there's a lot of ugliness in the current offerings. Track 'n Trail and Trails both look good but neither does quite what I want. For me, tracking is nice but only a side benefit. I really want to know where I am without a data connection, in useful detail, and in a language I can decipher.

Anyway, if you're looking for a hot new iPhone app, there you go.

2008-09-23T16:46:00.000+10:00

It's only a page of features so far, but thank goodness Adobe has finally fixed Flash's animation interface.

2008-09-21T23:03:00.000+10:00

Take a look most of the way down this page. Yes, it's me, a speaker at a conference. Well, I'm on a couple of panels, and very curious to see how all this is going to go down.

2008-09-13T09:18:00.000+10:00

Some of this is a bit hardcore, but I like where he's coming from.

2008-09-02T22:53:00.002+10:00

I have created an iPhone app. It's not new, though it hadn't been done when I thought of it and still hasn't been done in a really elegant way. Right now, I need beta testers. There's so little to it that I don't expect it to take you long to test, but test I must. If you have an iPhone and a few minutes, please send me your UDID by following these instructions and I'll send you back an app for you to test shortly. Email [myfirstname] @ [thiswebsite.com]. Thanks!

2008-09-02T22:31:00.003+10:00

I just tried the demo of the game "Braid" on Xbox 360, and my brain exploded with happiness. It's wonderful, joyous, liberating.

2008-09-02T09:48:00.002+10:00

If you download just one iPhone app, make it Stanza. A free book reader, it lets you download hundreds of copyright-free classics and many current Creative-Commons licensed books, such as those by Cory Doctorow. You can customise colour, font, size and more. Perfect when you're stuck in a car with a sleeping baby, for example. It's easy to read on the iPhone because the screen is very high resolution, and you can see why printed books will be a niche collectible product in years to come. Great. Now all I need is time to read.

2008-09-02T09:40:00.001+10:00

Rant:

Does anyone else cringe a little when they see "iTouch"? There is not and has never been a product called iTouch. iPod touch, yes. iTouch is just another iBlah name, and it's not even Apple's fault. Well, not directly, anyway.

Every new iSomething name out there, from web designers to florists, is a little death in our collective imagination.

2008-09-02T08:56:00.000+10:00

Well. Google has announced their new browser by launching a comic explaining the whole thing. It uses Webkit, as used and developed by Apple, with a host of great UI and functionality improvements. Available tomorrow but sadly Windows-only at first, I suspect this could be a big deal.

But hey -- no problem testing against another browser if it's another browser based on WebKit. Maybe this will actually wake up all the corporate IT people mandating Internet Explorer.

2008-08-25T22:14:00.000+10:00

This deserves a yay.

2008-08-18T08:56:00.000+10:00

Make sure you take some stills next time you're on a video shoot. In the near future, you might be able to use photographs to enhance your videos out of sight. Some fantastic, gobsmacking work here. Automatic retouching, resolution enhancement and high dynamic range for video.