Tech Smarts

Old IE users are really SOL now that Google is sunsetting Chrome Frame

tforster — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 15:44:07 -0400

Old IE users are really SOL now that Google is sunsetting Chrome Frame

Google search penalises app download interstitials. Nicely played Google.

tforster — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 06:22:16 -0400

Google search penalises app download interstitials. Nicely played Google.

We're adopting HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS effective immediately. You should too.

tforster — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 21:11:22 -0400

We're adopting HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS effective immediately. You should too.

Handy list of phone, tablet and laptop screensizes w/density

tforster — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 07:39:52 -0400

Handy list of phone, tablet and laptop screensizes w/density:

Hopefully it will expand quickly to include many more devices

HTML5 Rocks article on script loading will have you pulling your hair out - though well written and informative

tforster — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 14:56:30 -0400

HTML5 Rocks article on script loading will have you pulling your hair out - though well written and informative

Google plus communities take a lot of taps to consume. Should be RSS straight into Google Reader,...

tforster — Mon, 27 May 2013 07:21:09 -0400

Google plus communities take a lot of taps to consume. Should be RSS straight into Google Reader, er Feedly. G plus needs big UX improvement.

Some excellent presentations happened at Mobilism2013 and @WillemMulder has put up a list of presentation decks

tforster — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:52:47 -0400

Some excellent presentations happened at Mobilism2013 and @WillemMulder has put up a list of presentation decks

Nice use of headless web browser to generate SVG email

tforster — Wed, 15 May 2013 15:43:01 -0400

Nice use of headless web browser to generate SVG email:

via @thomasfuchs

If you've been following ShadowDOM and WebComponents you'll want to check out Polymer.

tforster — Tue, 14 May 2013 22:38:20 -0400

If you've been following ShadowDOM and WebComponents you'll want to check out Polymer. :

The web of the near future.

Fashion Brands Absent From Wearable Tech Revolution #WearableWednesday « adafruit industries blog

tforster — Wed, 08 May 2013 21:55:38 -0400

Fashion Brands Absent From Wearable Tech Revolution #WearableWednesday « adafruit industries blog:

$10 billion by 2016. How is your brand involved?

projectprovenance: The Smarter Objects system explores a new...

tforster — Thu, 02 May 2013 15:37:48 -0400

projectprovenance:

The Smarter Objects system explores a new method for interaction with everyday objects. The system associates a virtual object with every physical object to support an easy means of modifying the interface and the behavior of that physical object as well as its interactions with other “smarter objects”. As a user points a smart phone or tablet at a physical object, an augmented reality (AR) application recognizes the object and offers an intuitive graphical interface to program the object’s behavior and interactions with other objects. Once reprogrammed, the Smarter Object can then be operated with a simple tangible interface (such as knobs, buttons, etc). As such Smarter Objects combine the adaptability of digital objects with the simple tangible interface of a physical object. We have implemented several Smarter Objects and usage scenarios demonstrating the potential of this approach.

Setting up a Pebble Watch Face Development Environment

tforster — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 22:11:00 -0400

Pebble provides a decent set of instructions at http://developer.getpebble.com/1/01_GetStarted/01_Step_2 for setting up a development environment but they only support native development on OSX and Linux at the moment and suggest using Ubuntu in Virtual Box on Windows. I tried the Virtual Box route using Ubuntu 13 desktop and while it can be done it take a long time to setup, configure and futz with before you’re actually coding. And then you’re still tied to a single workstation that is hosting the Virtual Box instance.

I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Digital Ocean’s super cheap SSD backed Virtual Servers for a while now and decided that’s exactly what I needed to host my Pebble development - and I would be able to access that environment from both my Windows host and my iPad.

The following steps are synthesized from Pebble’s GetStarted page.

Get an account at Digital Ocean: https://www.digitalocean.com/.
Create a New Droplet: Give it a hostname. I chose pebble-dev. You only need the cheapest and lowest end droplet for this. I chose the 512Mb / 1 CPU / 20Gb SSD for $5/month. Click or tap the Create Droplet button and in less than a minute you will get an email with your login info and a new droplet.
SSH into your new droplet with the credentials found in the email. Change your passsword: passwd
Create a new user (yourname?): https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/initial-server-setup-with-ubuntu-12-04
Install Git (You’re going to use Git right?): https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-install-git-on-ubuntu-12-04
Install FTP: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/articles/how-to-set-up-vsftpd-on-ubuntu-12-04
It looks like Digital Ocean are missing two steps that I’ve noticed with all my VSFTPD setups so far:

sudo chown -R username /home/username/files
sudo chmod -R 777 /home/username/files

Create directory: mkdir pebble-dev
Change to directory: cd ~/pebble-dev
Download SDK: Do this on your local workstation via their web interface. Make sure you’re logged in first. https://account.getpebble.com/sdk_releases/2/download/pebble-sdk-release-001.zip
Copy to your dev server: Use FTP to copy pebble-sdk-release-001.zip to your Digital Ocean server.
Install the toolchain dependencies: sudo apt-get install libmpc2:i386
Download toolchain: Do this on your local workstation http://developer.getpebble.com/files/sdk-release-001/arm-cs-tools-ubuntu-12.04-2012-12-22.tar.bz2
Unzip the toolchain: tar xjf ../files/arm-cs-tools-ubuntu-12.04-2012-12-22.tar.bz2.tar.bz2.tar.bz2
Export path: export PATH=~/pebble-dev/arm-cs-tools/bin:$PATH
Confirm path: arm-none-eabi-gcc —version and get

arm-none-eabi-gcc (32-bit ARM EABI Toolchain JBS-2012.03-56-v2011.09-69-17-g3019757) 4.6.3 Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Install Python and dependencies:

sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev
sudo apt-get install python-dev
sudo apt-get install python-pip
cd ~/pebble-dev/pebble-sdk-release-001/
pip install —user -r sdk/requirements.txt

Ensure waf is executable: chmod +x ./waf
Let’s test it:

cd ~/pebble-dev/pebble-sdk-release-001/
./waf configure
./waf build

Let’s serve it:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8000
Navigate to http://198.199.81.95:8000/build/ using Mobile Safari (iOS Chrome does not work)
Tap the .pbw file and follow the prompts

I'm a huge fan of dark themes - here's one for Chrome tools

tforster — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:00:41 -0400

I'm a huge fan of dark themes - here's one for Chrome tools :

Today’s large monitors are great but the default white background that many applications use floods our eyes with a lot of bright light. Switching to darker themes really makes a difference after a few days.

Great HTML5 multi-touch demo from Moz Dev Net

tforster — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 15:17:41 -0400

Great HTML5 multi-touch demo from Moz Dev Net

The buzz grows around teaching kids to code. Now before reading?

tforster — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:43:11 -0400

The buzz grows around teaching kids to code. Now before reading?:

Several colleagues and myself have been discussing this topic a lot recently. They all have children from roughly 3 to 13. I have none but keenly interested in sharing my passion for tech, creative problem solving and the natural intersection we call programming.

Articles are appearing almost daily on those subject and its popularity is definitely growing with parents. Something we are acutely aware of and actively looking at participating in.

All billboards are ugly. Except perhaps this one. Sucks water out of air.

tforster — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 19:28:10 -0400

All billboards are ugly. Except perhaps this one. Sucks water out of air.

Coding the new home-ec? Girl Scouts Chapter Introduces Game Design Merit Badge

tforster — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:16:12 -0400

Coding the new home-ec? Girl Scouts Chapter Introduces Game Design Merit Badge

Sometimes I wonder about the "script" in JavaScript. This one's emulating 32 bit linux!

tforster — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 17:41:40 -0400

Sometimes I wonder about the "script" in JavaScript. This one's emulating 32 bit linux!

Beware of the Helvetica's. @shanselman has a good post on how windows picks from fonts

tforster — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:45:41 -0400

Beware of the Helvetica's. @shanselman has a good post on how windows picks from fonts

Shout out to http://forecast.io for an awesome HTML5 weather app. It's gorgeous.

tforster — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 10:51:11 -0400

Shout out to http://forecast.io for an awesome HTML5 weather app. It's gorgeous.