Remember when software came in a box?
Console games still do of course, but how long for?
PhoneGap: The JavaScript files are different!
I have recently been developing with PhoneGap, the cross platform development kit for mobile devices (essentially a browser window that lets you run HTML 5 web sites as an App)
I started off developing for iPhone and Android, using the packages provided by their download to get up and running. Great stuff. You write an app using HTML 5, JavaScript and CSS3 and then deploy to each device. The PhoneGap package contains a directory for each platform, with a number of files – the important one being phonegap.0.9.4.js.
So I developed the app on my Windows PC, copying the files across to my trusty Mac to deploy to iPhone. There are some subtle differences in the way Safari and Chrome render, so it was important to test across both devices. I kept coming across intermittent problems on the iPhone however, with the deviceready event not firing. What was going on?
phonegap.0.9.4.js
Due to the negligible amount of documentation available on PhoneGap’s site (Hey – I am used to having MSDN at my disposal!) I found myself digging through the sourcecode to work out how on earth I could do things. I noticed a lot of Android specific code, but no iPhone code. How odd. I then checked in my BlackBerry project folder and noticed the file was much bigger.
Yes, folks – the various phonegap.0.9.4.js files – despite having the same filename are totally different for each OS implementation. Not once in the many hours spent reading PhoneGap’s web site did I see anything that told me that. Turned out my iPhone problems were because I was deploying an Android version of PhoneGap to the iPhone. Having the same filename is confusing and they seem destined to get used in place of one and other. I suspect many others will have tried to deploy the wrong file to the wrong device.
I would really like to see the folks at PhoneGap have a more sensible naming convention. e.g. phonegap_android.0.9.4.js? It would be apparent straight away the it was specific to that OS, and avoid what amounts to DLL hell issues for mobile apps.
Of course a file is a file, and I can rename it to whatever I like (and probably will) – but it’s nice not to have to (who renames jQuery?) and would certainly make learning the platform easier.
My favourite music of 2010
Yes I know its nearly February but here’s what grabbed my attention the most last year (in no particular order).
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
The Arcade Fire’s third album is one of those albums that sounds better as a whole that any single track. From the epic orchestral thumping of “Rococo” to the quiet introspection of “Wasted Hours” to the delightfully poppy “Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” this collection of songs deserves your full attention while listening. While it probably is slightly too long, I couldn’t pick a song to drop and I’m glad they didn’t. There really is no filler on this album, a rarity indeed. Original, catchy, melancholic this if my favourite album of the past 5 years, let alone 2010. It just hooks me every time, it has its rockier moments, it’s quiet moments but they all feel like one. The hallmark of a great album is one where your favourite track changes regularly, for now my favourite track is ‘We Used to Wait’ (checkout this amazing dynamic video) but in the past it has been Rococo, Deep Blue, Ready To Start (in fact they’ve all been a favourite at times). Brilliant.
Manic Street Preachers – Postcards From A Young Man
The Manics return for their tenth album, a milestone in their career. Thankfully they are still on top form, and this album could be seen as a continuation of what was started with “Send Away The Tigers”. They sound unusually upbeat with tracks like “I Think I Found I” and The Wire is on top form with his lyrics in tracks like “A Billion Balconies Facing the Sun” and “Don’t Be Evil” – the latter seemingly taking a swipe at Google and internet blogging culture. They’ve said this is their last chance at “mass communication” and I have mixed feelings about this, some of their best songs were written when they were trying make popular music but wonder what they could achieve without that constraint. Favourite track? It’s difficult because they are all so good, but it would have to be the title track ‘Postcards from a Young Man’ or ‘Don’t Be Evil’.
James – The Morning After
When James got back together in 2007, many could be forgiven for thinking they might release a new ‘best of’ complication and do a tour (they did) to make some money and then go back to hibernation. Thankfully they stuck around, and we now have their third album since the reformation. A sequel to ‘The Night Before” the silky guitars from Larry and Soul’s energetic violin make this album melt away in your brain. My favourite song, “Tell Her I Said So”.
The Duke Spirit – Neptune
Technically released in 2008, however I came across it in 2010 which is why I am including it here. It’s been a long time since I’ve discovered a new band that write such interesting music with lyrics to match. This album spans multiple genres, from the poppy “My Sunken Treasure” to the all out rock energy of the title track “Neptune’s Call” to the blues of “This Ship Was Built To Last” every song on this album sounds fresh and the lyrics will make you laugh, or send a shiver down your spine. Looking forward to their next album out in 2011. My favourite track would have to be “Neptune’s Call”.
Audible finally release iPhone app in the UK
Audible UK have released an app for the iPhone. The best feature over the built in software is that it doesn’t rotate when you hold it sideways (I am certain this “feature” of the the iPhone exists solely for in-store demos, I find it very frustrating and wish it could be turned off).
Other features include the ability to download books over the Internet (but strangely, not 3G which would have been more useful), add bookmarks with notes, customise the length of time the rewind button goes back, a button-less interface for when in the car, and a sleep timer. Overall the user experience is much more suited to audiobooks than the default iPhone interface and I highly recommend it.
For those if you you haven’t discovered the joy of audiobooks, they are a great way to read while driving, doing household chores or just when your eyes feel too tired to read (I get that a lot since my job involves using a computer all day). If you like books then give them a try.
Now if only there was some kind of Kindle like device that would play audiobooks, but keep your place in sync between the audiobook and the eBook.
When you buy software, how long should it reasonably continue to work for?
Electronic Arts have decided to discontinue some of their earlier Xbox 360 games, meaning players will no longer be able to play online. With the 360 still selling exceptionally well, the fact that games publishers are deprecating some of its older games must be worrying news for console owners. To think I can still play Team Fortress Classic, purchased in March 2000 to this day on my Windows 7 laptop - this amazing feat however is because the servers are not run by one company. Lesson learnt?
Halo Reach
OK so I am a little late to the party with this review, I like to wait until the price of an Xbox game comes down in price before shelling out for it.
I’ve been playing Halo Reach a lot over the Christmas period and I am really enjoying it. I was a huge fan of the original Halo, the story and simplicity (there were only 6 or 7 weapons) and nonstop action. Yes some of the levels were repetitive (I remember one level, where you had to get to the top of a building fighting The Flood, and each floor was essentially the same, meaning you did the same over and over level 5 or 6 times!) but others like the wide-open second level where you drove around the planet Halo were ground-braking for an FPS. Halo 2 was more of the same, now with dual-wielding and some more weapons, and multiplayer. What I didn’t like was playing as someone other than the Masterchief , I lost interest during these parts. Halo 3 was for me, more Halo 2 with prettier graphics and better online play. The story didn’t really grab my attention, possibly due to the parts I’d blanked out while playing Halo 2 and me not knowing what on earth was going on except there were enemies to shoot. ODST was a return to form for me, a totally new set of characters in a rich, dark, film-noir (Blade Runner-esque) atmosphere and good backstory that compelled me to keep playing.
The good
Halo Reach takes the good parts of ODST’s story and gameplay, but adds some new features such as jetpacks and the sprint ability. What makes a big difference between it and say, Halo 3 is the story seems to grab my attention and gives me a reason so shoot all those
Covenant. The levels are also very varied and don’t get boring. The multiplayer is rock-solid too, unlike Halo 3, I don’t seem to end up getting shot from out of nowhere every 10 seconds – it seems more well balanced.
The bad
Not all is good however. Only 2 months after its release, Bungie are expecting loyal fans to pay more for some extra maps in order to enjoy the full online experience. I am all for additional content that can be purchased, but it seems that these days games developers hold back content specifically and then sell you it a few months later. I wouldn’t mind if we were 1 or 2 years down the line but to release it so soon just makes me think that nowadays when you buy a game, you actually get 90% of it and can expect to pay another ~£7 in points to get the full experience in 2 or 3 months time. I have also seen the new maps being bundled with the game in shops for the same price as the original, further penalising the loyal fans who go out and buy this stuff when it comes out.
Conclusion
The game is great, and will provide hours of fun. There is plenty of replay value, not just with the online play, but also the solo campaign which can be played on multiple difficulties and with friends. I am slightly annoyed about the additional maps being released so soon (they should have come with the game), but I wouldn’t that spoil what is the best Halo game to date and one of the best shooters of the 360.
No, I don’t want to update!
Automatic updates aren’t always a good thing.
Software updates. We all all love them don’t we? Unlike any other industry I can think of, users of software expect to get updates on a regular basis. When Microsoft included Windows Update with Windows 98 it hailed a new era of self-updating software. But what happens when you are forced to update software? Microsoft has always been pretty conservative when it comes to forcing users to install updates, prompting, prompting again, and providing administrators with means of delaying updates (much to the dismay of web developers, as many institutions are still using IE6, which is 9 years old) while Google on the other hand takes the opposite approach with its web browser, Chrome that updates itself so quietly you’d never notice. This is fine with me, as Google have continued to add features and make the browser better and faster.
So what happens when (as seems to happen with all software) the browser starts to get a bit bloated and therefore needs a beefier machine to run on? Will I be so pleased when my browser suddenly takes longer to start up? Of course two things redeem Google here, firstly I would be free to downgrade and turn off automatic updates, and secondly they give it away for free, so it’s not as if would have lost anything, except perhaps the time investment spent learning and configuring the browser (which rules by the way, I used it on all my PCs and can’t recommend it highly enough)
I want my money back
When you pay for a piece of software, the publisher changes it considerably to its detriment, and then forces the update upon you then I have a problem. This was the case with Team Fortress 2. What started out as a fun, well balanced, class-based classic game of Red vs. Blue has slowly morphed into a terrible, badly balanced game of class-based luck that has more in common with Monopoly than its excellent predecessor Team Fortress Classic. Class upgrades and in game purchases are not what I originally bought into and it’s certainly not how the game was sold to me when I paid for it almost 3 years ago. Yet here I am 3 years later unable to play the game I originally purchased because that game no longer exists. Instead I have a considerably different game where they expect you to pay extra to get the best weapons. Can you imagine if your TV manufacture insisted you upgrade to a 3D TV and then burdened you with paying extra for silly 3D glasses you’d have to wear for the rest of your TV viewing years? Maybe there is an analogy here with the switch-off of analogue TV or when motorists were forced to stop using lead based petrol – but these were in the interests of the public good, and the decisions were no doubt made after lots of discussion by elected members of government.
I am struggling to think of any instances of when this sort of forced update would be acceptable. Security patches are a different matter, because they rarely take away features.and so I fully support them. Of course when the updates are actually good, then I don’t mind (TFC for example gained teleporters midway through its life) – but one person’s great new feature could just as easily ruin the game for someone else. There is no easy solution, I’m sure Value would argue it’s impossible to support each version ever released and still have people playing against each other. Had they released a whole new game called Team Fortress 3, then people would accused them of cashing in like they did when Left 4 Dead 2 was released.
So no easy answers, but as cloud computing becomes more commonplace in business I don’t see this problem going away.
The Painted Man by Peter V Brett
I don’t usually read fantasy books; in fact, before I read The Painted Man, I had never read a fantasy book. Not that I am one for boxing things into genres – I am far more likely to pick up a book based on the merit of its author’s previous work or by reading reviews. Luckily, my brother recommended this book to me, so I took it on holiday to Greece. Having just finished Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot, the pace and style of this book were difficult to get used to. However, once you get going, this book comes into its own. The author takes his time to build a realistic, plausible world, one plagued by monsters that arise from the core of the Earth whenever the sun sets.
The story follows three characters over a number of years, and by the time the narrative climaxes, you truly feel as though you are inside their heads, fully empathising with them and their actions. Along the way, there is, of course, plenty of action, heartbreak, and surprises – but what really makes this book so compelling is the fascinating world it exists in and the characters that inhabit it.
I was sad when I finished this book, not because the ending was bad (it isn’t) but because I knew I would be leaving that world behind. Luckily, there is a second book, and I’ve just started it. So far, so good.
I highly recommend this book.
Trouble with Talk Talk
3 months after moving into our new place, we finally have a decent broadband connection.
No thanks to Primus, our first choice of phone line provider – who never seemed to be able to hear or understand us at the other end of the phone. So we nipped that in the bud, and thought we’d go with Talk Talk instead, after hearing positive things about them from family members.
Well, after the usual delays and waits, we paid £70 for an engineer to come out and spend 10 minutes configuring the line, only to be left with a connection that struggled to reach 1Mbs. 1.2Mb was about as good as it got, and the pings were awful. After weeks of waiting on hold and speaking to first line, second line and third line support, they determined it must be the wiring in our apartment and we’d have to pay BT Openreach £160 (+60/hour) to fix it, and even then there’d be no guarantees of a speed increase. Are you having a laugh? We live a few hundred meters from the exchange, that can’t be right.
We decided to quit that joke of a company and go with Virgin Media. It didn’t start well, with Virgin putting the “wrong type” of ADSL on our line, and not sending the router out until 3 days after our initial activation (although it was a fairly decent D-LINK, not a £1.50 own-branded one with only 1 Ethernet port, like TalkTalk’s), but after about 3 weeks we finally got a connection. The speed started at 1.2 Mbs, and then went up to 2Mbs a few hours later. Now 2 days later it’s reaching 7Mbs – on the same line Talk Talk couldn’t get over 1.2Mbs on. I’ll wait and see over the next few days if it stays at 7 or drops, or if it actually reaches the promised 10Mbs – but a ping of 30ms is much more like it, and despite the cock-ups, and am pleased so far with the service.
So my advice would be, avoid Talk Talk like the plague!
Podcast Tool 1.2
I have updated Podcast Tool – a lightweight program for managing podcast subscriptions. The major new feature is it now includes playback functionality. I have also made many optimisations, so working with shows that have hundreds of episodes no longer causes a slowdown. The reason for adding playback functionality is so I can keep track of the playback position, meaning you can pause a podcast, close the program and when you come back to it, Podcast Tool will resume from where you left off.
Main Screen
Shows are listed along the left side of the screen, with individual episodes on the right.
Download Manager
Download Podcast Tool (freeware)