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Making the move to metalsmith
Saturday, February 13th 2016
I moved this site from WP to metalsmith.io in order to get a more pure authoring experience. The result is good, though there were a few gotchas along the way.
The meandering journey of NodeBots Interchange
Tuesday, January 26th 2016
What started as a plan to simply make components work a bit better with NodeBots turned into a way of managing any firmware using JavaScript.
Datatium - data as material for contextually responsive design
Wednesday, September 9th 2015
Responsive design is still very screen size focussed where as we should be considering context much more than we do. This talk explains how Datatium helps resolve this.
DDD JavaScript IoT workshop
Saturday, August 8th 2015
A summary of the various projects completed as part of the JS IoT workshop given at DDD Melbourne 2015.
The role of context on ambient technologies
Tuesday, January 20th 2015
Ambient technologies are very hard to design well. A blinking light for a new email is novel for a few minutes before quickly becoming a distraction. This essay provides a model for thinking about ambient technologies and how a designer may maximise their use.
A Device API safari
Sunday, May 4th 2014
There are many interesting things to be found in the Device API. This talk went on a journey to see what we could find worth playing with.
Should JavaScript devs build real things?
Wednesday, August 21st 2013
JavaScript is leaving the browser and entering the real world. Is this just a bunch of web devs playing with hardware or are we starting to see a fundamental shift in the direction web technologies are taking?
Book launch of Jump Start Responsive Design
Wednesday, March 20th 2013
Working on my first book was quite good fun, though hard work, and today after all of that effort it's finally released.
The ClickFail of Australian Retail.
Tuesday, November 20th 2012
The coming of age of online retail in Australia crashed and burned in Australia tonight due to lack of preparation and hubris. It could have been so different.
Datatium - a material to create responsive experiences
Friday, October 19th 2012
Device responsive design is only one part of context. These are the sketch notes that underpinned a talk at WDS2012 on the wider aspects of using data in responsive design approaches.
Web Facilitated Play in the Real World
Wednesday, July 25th 2012
How can physical interaction with digital media augment the experience of both and what part does the web have to play in this space?
App stores are delivery channels not search engines
Monday, November 7th 2011
The main purpose of the app store is not discovery, it's to simplify the installation process to get an app on your device. Discovery continues to happen through other channels.
We are the champions... of the web
Thursday, November 3rd 2011
The "problem" with the web is it's lack of control, but it doesn't need control, it only needs an unruly mass of champions to defend it and let the process unfold to win.
Neo-Futurism in the Information Age
Monday, October 17th 2011
Finally the gloom of the GFC appears past and the web community are attempting to dream big ideas again - a summary of WDS11.
On a post-flash world and Adobe's place within it
Tuesday, October 4th 2011
Sacred cows in the Adobe world finally appear to be on the BBQ. Recent signals from the tooling company suggest Flash may finally be about to die - and not too soon.
Device API - Applications of DeviceMotion & DeviceOrientation
Thursday, September 15th 2011
Modern smartphones are jam-packed with sensors attached to them. This data is now available for use in the mobile web browser too. Here's some things you can do with them.
The web of intent
Monday, August 8th 2011
Web applications could handle common tasks such as sharing or pinning using an Intent oriented design.
Thingstreams - the future of product / consumer dialogue
Tuesday, July 20th 2010
As consumers engage more directly with each other, how to brands understand what is happening in the "backchannel"?
Why Google is a more "typical" business than you think
Wednesday, June 23rd 2010
There's been some interesting reportage over the last couple of weeks around whether Google's decision to remove Windows from internal use as a supported desktop has wider ramifications for the future of Windows in…
Adobe - Narayen's kingdom for a plan...
Tuesday, April 13th 2010
Adobe's public fracas with Apple over lack of Flash on iThings and Google open sources V8 - it's been a tough couple of weeks for Adobe with no signs of getting better. Cries of "My kingdom for a plan" may just about to…
SPDY could gain acceptence - with some innovation
Friday, November 13th 2009
Google have announced some early findings about their research into a faster protocol to reduce latency times due to good old fashioned HTTP. HTTP was designed as a really simple protocol to delivery (primarily) text…
Case Study: Django + Agile = Sportsgirl redevelopment
Sunday, July 26th 2009
I've decided to write this one up because there isn't much on large scale and high speed Django development as yet and this is all still fresh in my head so it's worth getting down on paper (or screen as it were). The…
The Golden Age of mobile? Soon maybe...
Tuesday, July 21st 2009
Some would say that it's already been - during the heady days of GSM Data and WAP, some would say it stalled when European clients pulled all funding from mobile internet apps in the post-dot-com-crash GPRS days, some…
Easy product or class rating system
Sunday, April 27th 2008
Build a rating system that won't set your servers on fire.
Phorm over function?
Tuesday, April 22nd 2008
Phorm is, and will continue to be for some time I think a hugely divisive issue online. BBC have another story today about it, this time having spoken to the various security companies like F-Secure, McAffee etc about…
Can Yahoo really get things so wrong?
Monday, April 21st 2008
Yahoo are one of the original dotcoms. They've been around for a long time so they should know their business. Imagine my surprise when one of my clients starts complaining that their confirmation emails to yahoo email…
Why industries can still be revolutionised on the web
Tuesday, February 12th 2008
I'm a bit of a cynic really. Anyone that's trawled through the depths of this blog will know that I have a fairly acid tongue when it comes to technology. I am a walking example of the phrase "familiarity breeds contempt…
The state of Oz technology
Thursday, January 31st 2008
Rarely does an entire country entice me to start ranting (and at this point I'll point out I am in fact Australian) but by crikey Australian technology hasn't really moved in the last 5 years. Now I appreciate this is a…
The warm glow of site launch
Tuesday, January 8th 2008
I've been in this game a long time but there is still nothing sweeter than launching a site after spending a months building it with your team and the client. As a TD, site launch brings a mix of emotion - fatigue from…
My top 5 jQuery seasonal wishes
Thursday, December 20th 2007
I've waxed lyrical about jQuery before, I've been using it a lot to do worker code which I just can't be bothered to hand write any more. Not least because jQuery handles all the little browser inconsistencies for me so…
SMS Bamboozlement...
Wednesday, December 19th 2007
I'm doing some work for a client at the moment who's industry is particularly technophobic. The absolute cutting edge is a bit of YouTube video thrown willy nilly into a page. I'd also point out that design is something…
.NET / XSLT and how to import an external XML document
Monday, December 10th 2007
I work with XML and XSLT every day of the week. Indeed working for a company called XML Infinity you can imagine how much we use it. I had one of those incredibly frustrating moments this afternoon that one typically…
Fuzzy logic could book more flights
Monday, November 19th 2007
SQL makes logic easy for developers, however it also creates boundary issues when it comes to sales price matching. Fuzzy logic could help resolve this problem.
Bye bye OpenMoko
Monday, November 5th 2007
Google announced today that they would be partnering up with a load of other companies including Samsung, Motorola and LG to produce a new phone "software stack". For those of us in the technology game this basically…
CSS Structure - what a mess
Friday, November 2nd 2007
James posted a message on my blog some weeks ago and it's only now that a penny has dropped in my mind about what we need to deal with the issue of structure in CSS - the problem is we have none. As James points out you…
JQuery Slideshow
Sunday, October 14th 2007
It seems JQuery is definitely gaining some traction as a useful library - not least because of the development of the ThickBox Gallery library by Cody Lindley which is seeing huge amounts of use around the web at the…
JQuery saves the day?
Saturday, August 25th 2007
If you haven't come across it yet there is a javascript library called JQuery which is being developed as an open source project, designed to give us better control over our web pages and the things we can do with them…