Project 52

Writings for the Project 52 initiaitve

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Best quote of the day:

“Spiteful words can hurt your feelings but silence breaks your heart.” 
Oooh, so true.

Posted by admin on 01/21 at 03:57 PM
Posted in: Idle Chatter   Personal   Project 52  
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The 27th cometh for the last of a 1000 times

Ever since my trusty Newton was cancelled by the just-returned Steve Jobs over a decade ago, people have been speculating about what to expect in a new Apple Tablet. What they mean to say is that mouse-based computing was even back then beginning to suck. So will does Jan 27th mean to computing? Let’s prognosticate!

I think we can all agree - we’ve all had about enough of the Apple Tablet vapor/rumor-mill over the years. In some ways, I’m too nervous to even contemplate what the experience will be like on one. My experience with Sony smartphones never prepared me for an iPhone life; no-one saw it coming. It was new, fresh, a complete rethink of the phone experience, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a damn better world because of the iPhone.

I say that because people today poo-poo the Mac and it’s graphic interface, and there are generations living now that have no idea what it’s like to boot up a tape-drive and wait 5 minutes for a text adventure to start. And rightly so: these were neanderthal systems and the more advanced graphic systems left this branch of early hominid-interface far, far behind. You have to know where you came from to appreciate where you’re going.

For years, there was a constant howling about what the next steps should be. I genuinely missed my Newton (I still have one, a 2100, sitting on a shelf - near pristine and unused) but the downsides were too much to bear in this connected world. For years, at every coming of a MacWorld, the whispers that a new “tablet was coming” drove bloggers into a delicious madness.

Such speculation considered the Tablet to be a small, light Mac. With Apple’s current success, desires morphed it into a big iPhone. Big iPhone = Dumb Tablet, at least to me. The core of the iPhone’s success is it’s ability to move small bits of information to and from you - a photo, a video, a web page, a tweet. Small screen, small consumption.

Enter the Apple Invite for the 27th of January 2010:

image

Looks like whatever it is, it’s primarily a creative device. The Zapruderization of the invitation has already fueled another day’s speciousness and speculation. The truth is, as we always already know, not to be found on webpages anywhere. This is the age of the news we want, not the news we need.

I know nothing other than what I’ve experienced with the iPhone (v1 & v3), my Newton, a decade of experience with Macs and my desire for a Star Trek slate handed to me by a pretty yeoman. But since blogs are a suckers game…I’m in.

What I’d like to think is this:

  • It’ll have a new interface on a stable file system: It’s not going to be a big iPhone or a Half-Mac. It’s going to involve the immediacy you find in an iPhone and the depth of a real creative device. I can’t imagine a creative tool without a descending filing system, even with tags, too many visual clues would overwhelm selection, so I’d also expect the iPhone to upgrade its flat UI very soon too
  • Hardware: The card shows a thin, round-edged border, so there’s a good likelihood when closed that the Tablet will be similar in feel to a big phone; which is to say, very ergonomic. I have faith in Apple in this regard - say what you want about any of their products, they feel good to the touch.
  • I’m going to guess it’ll not have a removable battery but a moulded one like all their other products - we’re beyond throw-away batteries.
  • Yes, it’ll be wireless - it has to be these days. Will it be 3G? Only if there’s a way to have 2 devices on the same number, but without that I doubt Apple would niche the system by making you get a second phone account. With AT&T. Think about that a second and you’ll know I’m right.
  • The paint splatters everywhere give the impression of color, texture and density. Were I a betting man (and we know from past history it’s best I don’t) I would worry if I owned Wacom and PainterX stock. Possibly Adobe should worry too - this could be the cornerstone of an attack on the Creative Suite that could work if the apps were sold cheaply enough. You’d need the Tablet to use them; a reverse of the “Razor and Blades” theory, sure, but there’s plenty of other blades in the App Store, and it’s a way to get even with Adobe for the crap that CS4 and especially Flash have become.

    • But that’s all I can guess at, given what we all know; anything more is a mugs game. I’ve got the credit card warmed-up and parked in the garage, raring to go. I’ll let you know what happens to my bank balance in a bit over a week..

    Posted by admin on 01/19 at 10:07 AM
    Posted in: Gadgetry   IT notes   Malarkey   Project 52  
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    Sunday, January 17, 2010

    Ellipses…

    Last year was the year to cut back on commas. This year, ellipses…

    See what I mean?

    I blame my poor grammar on living abroad for 11+ years - use it or lose it. I’ve also noticed my speech as become more lazy, less articulated, almost texan. Then again, don’t all Americans sound like either George Bush or Woody Allen?

    Is it too late to make a resolution?

    Posted by admin on 01/17 at 09:43 AM
    Posted in: Idle Chatter   Living in Holland   Project 52  
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    Tuesday, January 05, 2010

    Hello Project 52

    Project52 is a personal challenge geared toward getting fresh content on one’s website; the goal being to write at least one new article, per week, for the year.

    Welcome fellow Project 52’ers!

    As you know, we’ve banded together to motivate ourselves to actually (gasp!) write in our own blogs. To actually put content…up.

    Shame, shock, horror - doesn’t everyone perpetually blog?

    Answer: No - not if you have a life.

    Some of us have to be prompted, shamed, encouraged, lead by a carrot on a stick, and if not, then beaten with that stick.

    Writing can be the most frustrating thing in the world. It can also be the most transformative thing too - but part of the process is getting past the “have. to. write”-pressure and setting one’s thoughts free. Perhaps this initiative is a good thing - I’ve already written two posts this month, as well as half-built a new portfolio website. Procrastination is falling by the wayside, and co-incidentally my intake of Nespresso is on the rise.

    (Hmmm - Nespresso. Say what you want about Nestlé, but they’re doing the Nespresso brand the way it should be.)

    Anyhoo - it’s motivation, and all motivation is good.

    So I hope to see you, fellow Project 52’ers, here and there. Check out the Google Groups Project 52 discussion and if you like it, come join us. I expect this to take shame some time, as we all learn from each other and create communal threads (perhaps every week a new discussion point might be fun..)

    And off we go!

    Via Project 52...

    Posted by admin on 01/05 at 12:36 PM
    Posted in: Project 52  
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    Friday, January 01, 2010

    2010 - now is the time,,,

    I’m looking forward to 2010 with a mix of excitement and apprehension. Happy, not an equal mix. 

    Let’s cover apprehension first: I’m a web developer, and unlike many of my peers I’ve worked with only 2 big companies over the past 10 years, not hop-skipping from one job to the next. There are pluses and minuses on both sides, but for an American, moving to another country - different language, different work/life mix, different mindset…different everything - the best thing to integrating into a culture (aside from marrying someone there) is getting stuck into a company.

    The thing is - as a non-EU citizen, you need to have the company sponsor you. That means them navigating the changing channels of immigration policies, tax credits and financial barriers, etc. Very few are inclined, unless you possess a skill that is in need, and happily web development is such a skill. The problem is, ultimately, you can be too jacketed in a company, especially when they know you can’t actually leave without leaving the country as well.

    I’ve been fortunate in my first two companies - the initial group were tied to government and big business, and could move glacially slow, but we were asked to always innovate and so we went from FrontPage websites to Flash (yes, sorry, it was 2000) and up to Broadvision and Documentum-based sites. The latter also goes to show that often large organizations are moved to change not by needed technology but by valued partnerships. Documentum, a great package for document storage and archival, can’t make a website without considerable back-end programming. Ultimately we moved on to a smaller application, ExpressionEngine, that did more than either of the previous powerhouse efforts - but only with major management changes.

    The next jump went to a company who has long-since run fast and actively tried new technologies, but it too suffered from politics and internal wrangling. I came to work on the EE platform, and while I (and others) could try many options, the final choice of Wordpress was made long ago, for reasons long since invalidated. So, considering the number of css developers alone who can mark-up a WP template, it’s no surprise they no-longer do new development in-house - far too expensive. Still, you grow and learn, and they were fantastic people to work with—one of the few groups I’ll genuinely miss.

    So here I stand - where to next?

    I love the Netherlands, but they’re often more management-driven than solution-driven. Do I work for another company? Do I start out on my own. My heart says the latter, but previous work habit instills apprehension, and that can divert energies. Must. Stay. Focused.

    Where to next…that’s the $2010 question…

    Posted by admin on 01/01 at 11:59 AM
    Posted in: Idle Chatter   IT notes   Project 52  
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