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UI Inspiration Resources

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:44:04 GMT

My list of UI inspiration resources:

And for something a touch different: http://worrydream.com/ABriefRantOnTheFutureOfInteractionDesign/

Oracle, Passenger and error ORA-12154 on a Mac

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:21:43 GMT

I was trying to connect to Oracle database today and had a few problems along the way. For most of the problems, a quick search came up with fixes. One problem, however, I had trouble finding a solution for. The error I was getting was:

Error: *** Exception PhusionPassenger::UnknownError in 
PhusionPassenger::Railz::ApplicationSpawner (Error while trying to 
retrieve text for error ORA-12154 (OCIError)) (process 666):
from env.c:257:in oci8lib.so

So, I was thinking I might post what I did as it might be helpful for others.

Assumption: Ruby, rails, mod_rails (passenger) and Oracle instantclient are already installed.

1. Download the ruby-oci8 library from http://rubyforge.org/projects/ruby-oci8/
Then compile it:

cd ~/Downloads/ruby-oci8-1.0.7
ruby setup.rb config
make
sudo make install

2. My Instantclient for Oracle is located in /Library/Oracle. If yours is in a different location, all the following instances of “/Library/Oracle/” should be changed according to your location

cd /Library/Oracle/instantclient_10_2
sudo ln -s libclntsh.dylib.10.1 libclntsh.dylib
sudo ln -s libocci.dylib.10.1 libocci.dylib

3. In ~/.bash_profile add:

export ORACLE_HOME=/Library/Oracle/instantclient_10_2
export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME
export SQLPATH=$ORACLE_HOME

I also did the following:

sudo mkdir -p /b/32_216/rdbms
sudo ln -s /Library/Oracle/instantclient_10_2 /b/32_216/rdbms/lib

4. Install the oracle-adapter gem:

sudo gem install activerecord-oracle-adapter --source http://gems.rubyonrails.org

gem sources -a http://gems.rubyonrails.org
sudo gem install activerecord-oracle-adapter

I then tested for connectivity by running:

ruby /usr/bin/irb

In the IRb console, I typed:

require 'oci8'

And got

true

Also, within the app dir, starting console had no problems connecting to the Oracle database. This suggested that the problem was not in the installation of Oracle but that Passenger did not find the Oracle libraries, which lead to checking the environment files.

5. If /Oracle/instantclient_10_2/network/admin/tnsnames.ora does not exist, run:

mkdir -p /Oracle/instantclient_10_2/network/admin
touch /Oracle/instantclient_10_2/network/admin/tnsnames.ora

Then open /Oracle/instantclient_10_2/network/admin/tnsnames.ora and add the following (you will need to change the <var> according to your server and database details):

<addressname> =
 (DESCRIPTION =
   (ADDRESS_LIST =
     (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(Host = <hostname>)(Port = <port>))
   )
 (CONNECT_DATA =
   (SERVICE_NAME = <sid>)
 )
)

The tnsnames.ora file contains client side network configuration parameters.

6. I am using the passenger preferences pane, therefore:

cd /etc/apache2/passenger_pane_vhosts

Open the appropriate app.local.vhost.conf file and add:

SetEnv ORACLE_HOME "/Library/Oracle/instantclient_10_2"
SetEnv LD_LIBRARY_PATH "/Library/Oracle/instantclient_10_2"

for example:

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName app.local
  SetEnv ORACLE_HOME "/Library/Oracle/instantclient_10_2"
  SetEnv LD_LIBRARY_PATH "/Library/Oracle/instantclient_10_2"
  DocumentRoot "/Users/username/where/app/is/public"
  RailsEnv development
  <Directory "/Users/username/where/app/is/public">
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

7. Restart your server by either running

sudo apachectl -k graceful

or within your rails application dir:

touch tmp/restart.txt

And you should be good to go… or at least that what worked for me :)

Other resources:

Review: DOM Scripting

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:25:39 GMT

In DOM Scripting, Jeremy Keith teaches the theory behind the Document Object Model scripting to build powerful and practical functions. Keith starts with a chapter about the history of JavaScript. The chapter that follows covers JavaScript basics and JavaScript syntax. With each further chapter Keith builds on previous learned knowledge to create more advanced functions with easy to follow script examples. Chapter 11 puts everything learned beforehand together using a website case study. Just as Keith starts with review of the past, he finishes with reviewing the present and possible future of JavaScript and Ajax. This last chapter introduces very quickly what Ajax, progressive enhancement and Hijax are.

This is actually the second time I have read this book and I enjoyed reading it even more second time around. Dom Scripting is a must-have book for every web designer/developer that either wants to learn JavaScript from scratch or wants to improve their current JavaScript skills while learning web standards and JavaScript best practices. Throughout the book, Keith continuously emphasises the importance of good DOM scripting to ensure separation of structure, presentation and behaviour to create websites and web applications that degrade gracefully. The progressive enhancement approach means creating a basic version of the website and then use unobtrusive JavaScript and the Document Object Model to enhance it further (and without using inline JavaScript).

DOM Scripting ends with a reference section containing a list of some of the most useful methods and properties provided by the Document Object Model. I think this is a very handy JavaScript reference book to have around.

Dom Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model
Author: Jeremy Keith
Publisher: Friend of Ed
ISBN: 1-59059-533-5
Book’s Website: http://domscripting.com

My Summary Notes:

There is so much more to the book than these notes. These are just a few things I wanted to remember:

Convention:

Use underscores for var_name but camel case for methodName

Loops:

var count = 1;
while (count <11) {
    alert (count);
    count++;
}

Something happens within the while loop that will affect the test condition. In this case, we increase the value of count within the while loop. This results in the condition evaluating to false after ten loops. If we didn’t increase the value of the count, the while loop would execute forever.

do {
    Statements;
} while (condition);

Even if the condition evaluates as false on the first loop, the code contained within the loop will be executed at least once.

Functions:

function name(arguments) {
    statements;
}

To create a function that returns a value, use return. For example:

function multiply (num1, num2) {
    var total = num1*num2;
    return total;
}

Variables Scope:

Global variable—can be referenced from everywhere in the script
Local variable—exists only within the function that declared it. Use var keyword within a function to create a local variable.

Node Values:

Element nodes have a nodeType value of 1
Attribute nodes have a nodeType value of 2
Text nodes have a nodeType value of 3

Script Examples:

Example 1

<ul id="purchases">
    <li>…</li>
    <li>…</li>
    <li>…</li>
</ul>

var shopping = document.getElementById("purchases");
var items = shopping.getElementByTagName("*");
alert (items.length);

Example 2

<a href="http://example.com/" onclick="popup(this.href); return false;">example</a>
…but would be even better if all the JavaScript including the event handlers, were contained in an external file.

Example 3

if (!getElementById || !getElementByTagName) return false;
Tests for existence of the methods and if they don’t exist, the rest of the function does not get executed.

Example 4

links[i].onclick=function() {
    showPic(this); // when link is clicked the function is called
    return false; // cancels default action so the link is not followed
}

This creates a function on the fly and by returning a Boolean false value; the browser will act as if the link was not clicked.

Example 5

Simon Willison’s addLoadEvent takes a single argument: the name of the function that you want to execute when the page loads.

function addLoadEvent(func) {
    var oldonload = window.onload;
    if (typeof window.onload != 'function') {
        window.onload = func;
    } else {
        window.onload = function() {
            oldonload();
	    func();
	}
    }
}

Example 6

variable = condition ? if true : if false;

Side Note 1: In HTML documents, nodeName always returns an uppercase value, even if the element is lowercase in the markup.

Side Note 2: Avoid using onkeypress. The onclick event handler is all that is needed, In spite of its name, onclick supports keyboard access perfectly well.

Side Note 3: DOM Core methods are not specific to JavaScript, and they can be used by any programming language with DOM support. They are not just for web pages, either. These methods can be used on documents written in any markup language (XML, for instance).

When using JavaScript and the DOM with (X)HTML files, you have many more properties at your disposal. These properties belong to the HTML-DOM. Examples:

document.getElementByTagName("form") OR document.forms
element.getAttribute("src") OR element.src

HTML-DOM is generally shorter but it is specific to web document—something to bear in mind if you ever find yourself using the DOM with other kinds of documents.

Side Note 4: innerHTML is HTML-specific, a proprietary method and not a web standard. Better to use DOM methods: createElement and AppendChild
Whenever using createElement, it is a good idea to assign the newly created element to a variable. For example:
var para = document.createElement("p");

Example 7

function insertAfter (newElement, targetElement) {
    // get the parentNode and assign it to parent var
    var parent = targetElement.parentNode;
    // find it the target element happens to be the last child 
    if (parent.lastChild == targetElement) { 
        // if true – append the newElement to the parent
        parent.appendChild(newElement);
    // otherwise, the newElement needs to be inserted
    // between target and the next child
    } else {
        parent.insertBefore(newElement, targetElement.nextSibling);
    }
}

Side Note 5: CSS-DOM and getting styles: for example:
element.style.color or element.style.fontFamily
Any style properties that have more than one word become DOM camelCase property.
The style object does not include stylistic information that has been declared in an external style sheet or any styles declared in the head section.

FullCodePress 2009 Interview

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Craig Buckler from Sitepoint interviewed me on my experiences through FullCodePress 2009 event in Sydney last month. Although the event happened not so long ago, the interview will help me remember the event more vividly.

Technology Strategies in the Recent Format Wars

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:03:37 GMT

Abstract

Many regard Betamax vs. VHS formats as the classic example of a standards war. VHS format emerged as the winner not because it was a superior technology but due to various tactics, such as being a fast follower, its marketing strategy, complimenting goods, industry alliances and market influences. Four decades on, a new format war materialised—Sony’s Blu-ray vs. Toshiba’s HD-DVD. This time Sony utilised varied strategies to ensure Blu-ray becomes the standard format. Sony invested in development of the technology to increase Blu-ray’s disc storage capacity. Sony used its advantage in the gaming consoles and high-definition TV sets to push Blu-ray-compatible PlayStation 3 consoles. Sony developed Blu-ray’s interactivity around an open source Java-based solution. Sony even went as far as buying a movie studio to ensure titles for its Blu-ray’s format. But the key ingredient to Blu-ray’s success was support from major market leaders such as Warner Brothers, which earlier this year announced it will no longer support the opponent format, HD-DVD. Discussion of format standardisation is inevitably a discussion of patent rights and licensing, which holds great financial benefits to the owning company. Furthermore, as with any standards war, the consumers are the victims along the way. Until one format becomes the standard, consumers are left on the fence, confronted with the dilemma of which format to select and the danger of being locked into a format that did not become the standard.

Many regard the competing formats Betamax vs. VHS in the ‘70s as the classic example of a standards war. Sony was the first to introduce a compact videocassette recorder called Betamax. By mid-70s, six other major designs had been proposed, JVC’s VHS as one of these six. Although Sony had a few advantages such as being a first-to-market, superior position in the market and a technological lead, it lost sight of the importance of alliances and marketing to enforce a new standard and its advantages were short-lived. By Mid-80s, Sony’s Betamax had fallen behind JVC’s VHS format and Sony conceded and began producing VHS equipment. Certain factors were key to VHS’s success such as JVC’s willingness to create alliances and complimentary goods for VHS. JVC invited alliance partners to participate in the development of the format design (Jakobs and Wallbaum, 2005). JVC together with its alliance partners had bigger manufacturing capabilities and were able fulfill consumers’ demands and gain decisive edge in the VCR market. JVC reacted to consumers needs and provides longer recording time and improved technical performance. Furthermore, as a result of the unexpected appearance of video market with more video titles being available for VHS, consumers were motivated to purchase VHS hardware instead of Betamax. Since the days of the videocassettes, compact discs and their players became among the world’s most successful consumer electronic products. Today, four decades after the battle between Betamax and VHS, a new format war has emerged between Sony’s Blu-ray and Toshiba’s HD-DVD for the High-Definition (HD) video format. This time around, Sony employed varied business strategies and tactics to make sure its format came out on top.

The format that replaced VHS, DVD, had a very peaceful beginning. The DVD format is the result of an unprecedented agreement reached in late 1995 among all the hardware manufacturers (Bell, 1996). DVD is a transitional technology and a technical compromise forged specifically to avoid another format war (Greenstein, 2006).

Today the market has virtually exhausted all possibilities for growing sales through new users with most present sales are replacement purchases (Greenstein, 2006). Now that sales of regular DVDs have reached a plateau, the movie studios have started marketing high-definition (HD) DVDs and players as a way to make consumers buy their favourite movies all over again. A high-definition DVD, as the term implies, has a clearer picture than a regular DVD (when viewed with an HD player on an HD display).

The next generation, post DVD standard for high-capacity, high-definition optical discs uses blue-laser technology. Blue-laser optical discs pack more data than CDs and DVDs. The wavelength of the laser’s light limits the number of pits that can be stored on the disc. The data pits constitute the digital 1s and 0s or basically the amount of data on the disc. The shorter the wavelength, the smaller the pits it can read (Gunshor 1996). Blue diode lasers have a shorter wavelength than red laser and thus they can read far smaller data pits and increase the information density with tighter focus and less distortion (Fischetti, 2007).

Disk makers have released two very similar yet competing high-definition formats: Sony’s Blu-ray and Toshiba’s HD-DVD. “Both Sony and Toshiba used this one scientific principle, yet they created different and incompatible formats” (Cherry, 2008). Blu-ray Disc was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group headed by Sony. HD-DVD was developed principally by Toshiba. Both formats use blue lasers to read and write data, support high-definition video resolution and leverage the same video encoding formats. Furthermore, the interactivity potential of both is comparatively similar; going far beyond what one can do with a regular DVD (Sauer, 2007). In 2005 the DVD Forum (which was chaired by Toshiba) approved HD-DVD as the next-generation high-definition format standard. However, when the formats are so similar and neither format incorporates outstanding advantages to make it the obvious standard, the standards war is ultimately determined in the marketplace and not by a formal organisation.

Shane Greenstein believes that in some respects modern format wars seem more complicated than those of the past, not because the technologies become more complex, but because contemporary strategies and tactics concerning standardisation do (2006). As in most pioneering technologies, a good product can help the standardisation process but it does not determine the final outcome. The firms fighting for their technology to be accepted as a standard employ detailed plans for achieving their commercial goals (Greenstein, 2006). Since being the owner of the technology to be accepted as standard holds major financial benefits to the owner firm, these firms leverage as many cross-market advantages as possible. However, processes in multiple markets inevitably become interlinked and standards often morph in response to market conditions.

Although the DVD Forum selected HD-DVD as the official standard, Sony continued to develop its Blu-ray technology and worked hard to build enough momentum to ensure Blu-ray becomes Hollywood’s preferred standard for high-definition content. Sony has gone to great lengths to diminish the role of luck and to generate a coalition of firms to ensure sufficient support to its Blu-ray format technology. Sony even bought a Hollywood movie studio—Sony Movies—so it could effectively guarantee titles for its format (Greenstein, 2006).

Sony worked on increasing the capacity of Blu-ray storage discs. In 2004, both discs only offered a single-layer of data storage with HD-DVD discs holding 15Gb and Blu-Ray discs 25Gb of data—both sufficient to store full-length movies plus some extra features (Fischetti, 2007). Today, Blu-ray discs offer dual layer discs with 50Gb disc capacity while Pioneer develops Blu-ray discs that will use 16 and up to 20 layers of data.

Sony banks on PlayStation 3 in the gaming arena to assist with Blu-ray adoption. Sony sells its Blu-ray compatible PlayStation 3 games consoles at a loss in the hope to establish Blu-ray in the marketplace. Furthermore, last Christmas, Sony began bundling free PlayStation 3 consoles with its Bravia flat panel high-definition televisions. Sony uses this strategy to advance Blu-ray as HD movie distribution. But as much as Sony plans for every PlayStation 3 to be Blu-ray compatible, much will depend on how many compatible games exist and on their subsequent popularity. One of the problems in this respect is that PlayStation 2 games are not compatible with the new console. Many game owners keep their previous game console and are not upgrading to the new PlayStation 3 for this reason.

Sony believes that interactivity is just as important as high-definition content and developed Blu-ray’s interactivity around an open Java-based format called BD-J. BD-Java (BD-J) incorporates Java Applets that can be triggered to start automatically and has far more capabilities than DVD in placing information in front of the viewer (Sauer, 2007). An example for BD-J is Disney’s BD-Live Network which offers high-quality interactivity during movie playback. The new service will connect BD-Live enabled movies to the Internet (via an Ethernet or Wi-Fi connection) allowing a variety of interactive features to be downloaded to the disc. The BD-Live Network will allow viewers to sync up their machines and watch a movie in real-time together from distant locations. Its interactive features will include Movie Chat, allowing text chats on the TV using a keyboard, a cell phone, or even the remote during the film, Movie Mail, allowing the viewer to record a personalised short video using a webcam or any other video camcorder and embed it in a scene in the movie and Movie Challenge, a trivia game to be played personally or against others in real-time online.

Quite a few companies offer HD content download services for either rental or purchasing purposes. For example Netflix relaunched its service last January offering more than 6000 titles to download. Netflix and Microsoft recently joined forces to stream movies and television programs to Xbox360 consoles. Last February Apple’s iTunes store began offering a new service for renting movies with 1000 movies on offer (Cherry, 2008). Amazon also offers its ‘Unbox’ video download service that works with any broadband connected Tivo. Sony is not staying back of this game and recently launched a new video delivery system on its PlayStation store, where consumers can download full-length movies and TV shows in either Standard- or High-Definition formats.

With all the new methods of watching television and movies, some believe that many consumers would not rebuild their video collections yet again. Why would consumers even bother investing in physical media and hardware when HD content streaming will become more available and common? Erica Ogg says:

“Blu-ray won’t enjoy the same decade-long dominance DVD did after it succeeded VHS. But that’s not because there will be other challenger physical disc formats. Rather, instead of buying discs from Amazon, Best Buy or Wal-Mart, people will begin getting their entertainment in the form of digital downloads in larger volumes.” (2008)

As the distribution of media evolves through growing technologies such as HD content and the Internet, companies are fighting fierce battles to control these distribution methods and formats along with the royalties that come with them. Streaming HD content and digital downloads raise the issue of managing rights for digital content. Digital content includes not only movies and television shows but also music files, games and software applications among others. The battle for Blu-ray format is also a fight for the future of the not-so-free world of video and visual content distribution.

Looking back at DVD technology development, region encoding and Content Scramble System (CSS) were implemented on the request of the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA) to try and combat content piracy (Zardis, 2007). The motivation behind this decision was to enable movie studios to keep control of where their products are distributed. However, region-free DVD players were quick to follow impairing the movie studios’ original intentions. DVD technology is just one example of digital content being protected by security measures, which simply act as an inconvenience to technically minded users.

Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD format war has slowed down the adoption of either technology. “Consumers have been hesitant to jump into the high-definition market, waiting to see which format wins” (Fischetti, 2007). Some analysts have argued that the format war could bring publicity, and therefore popularity, to high-definition formats (Weinman, 2007). Nevertheless, the existence of two imperfect formats made it less likely that the consumers pick either. Instead, the competition between the formats has left the consumers indecisive in regards to which technology to go with, while being concerned not to end up with the losing technology.

Moving from DVD to either high-definition technology means consumers need to upgrade to a new player and HD-capable TV set. Blu-ray and HD-DVD can be shown only at full resolution on high-definition digital displays while current Standard-Definition TVs will display a signal only a quarter of the resolution of the new high-definition format. As a result, both next generation video formats will be incompatible for hundreds of thousands of TV sets. Furthermore, both technologies produce equally sharp images. The quality of images as compared with that produced by standard DVD is not as dramatic as the improvement DVD provides over videotape and coupled with the fact that not many TV Networks offer HD content, not many consumers select to purchase the new required and expensive HD hardware.

One solution to the consumers’ problem is using backward-compatible players. Backward compatibility with DVDs is one of HD-DVD’s major plus points, which eliminates the need for consumers to stack two machines, or discard their old DVDs. The industry has prototyped backward-compatible high-definition discs and players that could read both formats. But having backward-compatible players does not encourage new sales of appropriate hardware or new movie discs.

There are many decisive factors that can affect the end result of a standards war. One such factor is business alliances. Through out the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-ray, Time Warner Brothers supported both formats but it was the one that eventually ended the formats war by choosing Blu-ray. In January earlier this year, Time Warner Brothers announced just before the Consumers Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas, that it would no longer release its movies in HD-DVD format. “In Hollywood, where the line between perception and reality can be thinner than a laser beam, this was taken as a complete victory for Blu-ray” (Cherry, 2008). A few weeks later, other major retailers, including Wal-Mart, gave up HD-DVDs shelf space to stock Blu-ray titles in their place. Toshiba, instead of announcing the fourth generation HD-DVD, cancelled their annual press conference and reception at CES. Not long after, Toshiba announced that its HD-DVD format would be discontinued and thus Blu-ray format became the de-facto standard for high-definition content.

Although Toshiba’s HD-DVD format was initially selected as the standard by the DVD Forum, it did not end up as the de-facto standard. Toshiba had the advantages of early market penetration as well as DVD format’s ubiquity and backward-compatibility. As with the Betamax vs. VHS and any competitive situation, many factors shape the final outcomes: superior technology, first mover advantage, complimentary assets, company’s brand name and perceived potentials, production capabilities, alliances and more. Furthermore, being the patent owner of the standard format, especially with digital content, encompasses substantial financial benefits and the fight to establish one’s format as the standard becomes intense than ever before. In any case, it appears that Sony learnt its lesson with the Betamax format and it did not repeat its previous mistakes. Sony’s tactics to establish its Blu-ray format as the standard reflects learning over the last four decades about standards wars, where a smart competitor may outmanoeuvre its rival by employing more than one strategy and in various markets to win the battle and to emerge as the winner, ready to enjoy the fruits of success.

Resources

Bell, A. E., (1996). Next-Generation Compact Discs. Scientific American, 275 (1) (Jul 96) 42-47
CD Computing News (2007). Blu-Ray Leads Adoption of Next-Generation DVD Players, 21 (10) (Oct 2007) 4-5
Cherry, S. (2008). Blu-ray’s Empty Victory. IEEE Spectrum, Mar2008, 45 (3) 16
Donovan, J. (2008). Standards Wars. Portable Design, 14 (2) (Feb 2008) 5
Fischetti, M. (2007). Blu-ray vs. HD DVD. Scientific American; 297 (2) (Aug 2007) 98-99
Flaherty, N. (2004). Battle of the blues. IEE Review, (April 2004) 50 (4) 48-50
Greenstein, S. (2006). Format wars all over again. Micro, IEEE, (Jan-Feb 2006) 26 (1) 7
Gunshor, R. L. & Nurmikko, A. V., (1996). Blue-laser CD technology. Scientific American, 275 (1), (Jul 96) 48-52
Hall, K. (2008). DVD Format Wars: Toshiba Surrenders. Business Week Online (Feb 2008) 4
Jakobs, K. & Wallbaum M. (2005). Scores of Rule-Setters – Co-operation and Competition in ICT Standards Setting. Presented at: SCORE Conference, 2005. Retrieved on August 27, 2008
Johnston, R. P. (2005). A Tour of Tomorrow’s Technology. Journal of Accountancy, (Oct 2005) 200(4) 95-97
Kelly, D.P.; van Gestel, W.; Hamada, T.; Kato, M.; Nakamura, K. (2003). Blu-ray disc – a versatile format for recording high definition video. International Conference on Consumer Electronics, June 2003, Page(s): 72-73
Luitjens, S.B.; Blum, M.W.; de Boer, B.M.; Fontijn, W.F.J.; van der Aa, M.A.H. (2003). Small form factor Portable Blue drive: power consumption considerations. IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, (Aug 2003) 49(3) 637–641
McCracken, H. (2008). The Nonstandard World of Standards. PC World, 26 (6) (Jun 2008) 11
Mishima, K.; Yoahitoku, D.; Itoh, H.; Yamatsu, S.; Inoue, H.; Komaki, T.; Tanaka, K.; Aoi, T. (2006) 150 GB, 6-Layer Write Once Disc for Blu-ray Disc System. Optical Data Storage Topical Meeting, 2006 Page(s): 123–125
News Update: Markets & Business (2006). The last of the format wars? Blu-Ray vs HD-DVD drives blue lasers, Elsevier Ltd, 19 (1) (Feb 2006) 9.
News Update: Technology: Optoelectronics, (2005). Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD–the battle rages on, Elsevier Ltd. 18(9) (Dec 2005-Jan 2006) 18.
Ogg, E. (2008). Digital Downloads will be Blu-ray Downfall, Cnet News. Retrieved on August 26, 2008
Perry, T. (2008). One Format War Is Over. Is Another Beginning? IEEE spectrum 45 (2) 9
Sauer, J. (2008). Nothin’ But Blu Skies. Computer Graphics World, 31 (4) (Apr 2008) 38-39
Traiman, S. (2007). Disc Manufacture Confronts The Digital Age, Billboard, 119 (11) (Mar 2007) 12
Valdani, E. & Arbore, A. (2007). Strategies of Imitation: An Insight. Problems & Perspectives in Management, 2007 Issue 3, p198-205
Weinman, J. (2007). Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD? Who cares? Maclean’s 120 (37) (Sep 2007) 89
Zardis C. (2007), How Companies Use Technology to Control the Marketplace, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton. Retrieved on August 27, 2008

I'm representing Australia at FullCodePress 2009!

Fri, 01 May 2009 22:51:33 GMT

I am responsible for the HTML/CSS mark-up at the FullCodePress event in Sydney this May. As a six-person team, we will be developing a complete website over 24 hours. And we are competing against Code Blacks, the team from New Zealand that won last time. Read more about FullCodePress.

The FullCodePress will happen live at the CeBit ’09 conference in Sydney, 12-13 May.

I am very grateful for the opportunity and looking forward to it all but a bit anxious about the 24-hours no-sleep issue. Hopefully with all the excitement and adrenalin, it will pass too quick to even consider it.

In any case, I think we have a great bunch of people on our team, which I am very happy to be a part of.

Review: Designing with Type 5

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:00:31 GMT

An excellent introduction to typography—useful to students learning typography, graphic design but also anyone else who handles type (off and online). The book seems to be designed to accompany James Craig’s teachings.

The book’s chapters are divided into:

Basics of Typography
Five Classic Typefaces
Designing with Text Type
Designing with Display Type
Color
Projects
Traditional Skills
Type Specimens
References and Resources

Although there are many more typefaces and styles, Craig believes that by studying in detail the five classic typefaces—representing distinct stages in type evolution—that one can learn to discern typographic subtleties in typeface design over the centuries.

The book is also a good introduction to the field of press and printing and includes a very useful glossary. There is also a very comprehensive accompanying web site at: http://www.designingwithtype.com/5/

An excerpt from the book I liked:

With this new wealth [methods to create visual designs] comes responsibility and the need for good judgement in selecting and setting the appropriate typeface for any given job. Designers can no longer rely upon the expertise of outside typesetting services and editorial input. Decisions that contribute to typographic excellence, such as spacing, kerning, hyphenation, and proper grammar have now become the designer’s responsibility… Today it is a challenge for designers to be avoid being seduced by technology. As sophisticated as computer applications may be, they are only tools or the creative mind. Truly successful designs begin with ideas and concepts. As you execute your designs on the computer, your knowledge of typography combined with your trained eye and aesthetic judgement, will provide the path to the most creative solution.

Designing with Type: The Essential Guide to Typography

Author: James Craig
Press: Watson-Guptill Publications
ISBN: 0-823-01347-2

5 Tips for Web Success

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:43:00 GMT

Spend time up front to find out what your customers really want and need from your website.
Make sure your content is up-to-date, brief and answers user’s questions.
Markup your page according to web standards and include keywords and appropriate terminology people might use to search for your products or services.
Provide an about page and current contact information. Answer all email enquiries within 48 hours if possible.
Your website is not a static medium and required constant maintenance.

10 Principles of Successful Navigation

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:58:19 GMT

Navigation should…

be easily learned
remain consistent
provide feedback
appear in context
offer alternatives
require an economy of action and time
provide clear visual messages
use clear and understandable labels
be appropriate to the site’s purpose
support user’s goals and behaviors

Randomize Script

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:17:44 GMT

This script randomises a quote (in this case) to only show one quote at a time, which changes on page refresh/reload.

The script goes through each <li> element in an unordered list with an id of “quotes.” If the element’s number matches the random number, it gets added a class “selected,” otherwise it gets added a class “hide.” The actual display on the page is controlled with CSS. If you check the “Source” view, you can see all the quotes are still on the page for better SEO.

Check out the demo to see the script in action.

This script is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation. This script is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but without any warranty. Let me know what you think.

Download

Randomize.js (.zip, 4kb)

Credits:

Two functions in the script were taken from DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith.