Month: January 2010

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iPhone web dev class, wk4

Creative Techs is looking for a studio or freelance designer in Seattle to spiff up their page. (Sounds like what they really need is a UX person.)

I’ve been fiddling around with the homework from 2 weeks ago, plus some of the tidbits I got from the beginning of last week. (can’t remember how first-child works!!!!)

Interactive Scripts… (oh, and apparently this is actually week 3: the first week doesn’t count, I guess.)

More audio weirdness. Today, it’s not losing audio, but adding lovely piano tunes, very much like the music at Nordstrom’s. 🙂 Whoa, got kicked off. 🙁

Not thrilled with this background image/absolute positioning concept for the photo album. And all the animation comes with browser-specific CSS extensions. I’m finding this really baffling, honestly…why not all the animation in JS? wacky effects on loading the page. I can really see why you’d want to use a library!

touch events are analogous to the usual JS events. (srsly, could they have gotten a finger with nicer nails?!) so build a listener same as if it were onClick, etc. but the touch events are specific to the iPhone. (is it patented?)

whew, that’s too much JS to type along, unfortunately. but she’s got some good interactivity built into the exercise. I wonder if using those super-abbreviated variables is making people more confused. it’s odd, she’s assuming a lot more JS expertise than CSS expertise out of the box. unless there’s stuff I missed last week, which is possible.

and then even MORE JS…I guess this would be the reason to buy the package.

I’m *still* confused why you’d want to use webkit animation extensions vs JS animation. I guess the simplicity of notation in CSS is a big plus. (and I actually asked the question. let’s see if gets answered) someone asked about diagonal, and yes you can do that, which is kinda cool. lots of questions and speculations about the “unicorn” (can’t remember who I saw call it that on twitter: fakebaldur?) iTablet. there’s something about this that feels very much like “old school” pre-standards advocacy coding. very fragile.

got distracted looking up jQTouch…I guess I’m kinda antsy to actually DO something now.

chopin scherzo #2 in b(flat?) minor?

iUI — to keep the chrome away, keep all the content in one file.

I jumped away from the class to start playing with an idea. also, I’m hungry. really wish this class didn’t overlap with lunchtime.

Ok, too hungry to pay attention, plus I got distracted tracking down Drupal-related ideas. Going to come back and play with this stuff after lunch.

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bored with this already

Alas, I got started on this design idea and now I’m already bored and disinterested. At least it’s readable, and I finally updated the little headshot photo. Plus I’m figuring out the whole “widgets” thing in WordPress.

Maybe I’ll wait a week or two and come back to it after I see some crazy thing that gets me all inspired. We’ll see.

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futzing

I’m having one of my occasional hankerings to redesign. This time I’m kinda doing it on the fly, using the sandbox theme as a starting point. So things might look funky for a bit, since it might take some time to do this in amidst everything else. But with any luck I’ll end up with a new look that I’m happy with.

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on the sparkling beach

I used to be in a writer’s group, about 10 years ago. One fall we decided to have our own little writers’ retreat and rented a suite in a rundown motel in Long Beach. There were eight of us, IIRC, crammed into the two rooms (plus kitchenette) for a long weekend of lots and lots of writing. We did some exercises and some reading. It was all great fun.

But at night Kat, Joe and I walked out to the beach, which really is a “long beach” — an amazing expanse of long flat sand. It was a clear night, and the sky was glittering with stars. Strangely, the sand was glittering as well: lit up with some sort of luminescent something.

We stayed up late, walking and talking, but what I remember most is the feeling of a vast and fascinating universe. I don’t think I really have words for it. I’m not even remotely a religious person. But this was an ineffable experience.

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to help a headache

I tend to get the occasional sinus headache, and in the main it seems to be an issue of hydration. Counter-intuitively, headache formulas that include caffeine seem to be the only thing that works. And even better on top of that is a coffee-based beverage, like a mocha. Just opens my head right up again.

Several years ago, I suffered from excruciating and frequent headaches, including the worst of my entire life, one that sent me home from work in a freaking cab. I was given some medication that knocked out the headaches, but knocked me out too. Massage helped, chiropractic not so much.

And then they went away. I don’t really know what happened. (Well, I have a reasonably good idea, but it’s just a wild hunch.)

So I’m happy to just get ordinary headaches that I can deal with in ordinary ways.

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Two white breads

1) English muffin bread. OMG awesome.  Rose really well, tastes fantastic. Not that you’d immediately say, “English muffin!”, but it definitely has a distinctive flavor and texture that’s English muffin-line. I took most of the first loaf to a party, where it was a big hit. Makes great toast, and was the first bread I’ve made so far that I used for an actual sandwich. (Ham & cheese, nom nom nom!)

2) Country fair white bread. I may have messed this one up a little by leaving it on the 2nd rise for too long. Seriously, I put it in the microwave — not on, but with hot water for a accelerated rise (!) — and completely forgot it was there while I was doing yardwork. It seemed a little more dense than I was expecting, and that may have been why, but I’m not 100% sure. In any case, it too has a good taste and texture — made for good toast with jam this morning. Tomorrow I’m going to see what it’s like as a sandwich bread, which is one of my ultimate goals in bread-making: to replace store-bought bread. It was a little more complicated than the other breads I’ve made — before the 2nd rise adding butter, egg and powdered milk. (Actually, the English muffin bread also had powdered milk added before 2nd rise.) But not particularly difficult in any case.

None of these have been what you’d call difficult, really, which is what makes it such a wonderful thing. The hardest part is working out the timing. I have to have a few hours at the end for the 2nd rise and baking — although maybe next time I’ll try the delayed 2nd rise (4-24 hrs in the fridge) since then all I need to do is let it get to room temperature…I’m assuming it can do that while dinner is cooking and then bake after.

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iPhone web dev class, wk3

Jumped in 10 mins late…watching at the library on my laptop because I have FOL board at noon. But hey, I got in right at the start.

Oh shoot, I didn’t do the homework. 🙁 Also, this computer doesn’t have an iPhone simulator installed. Yay for not being prepared? Some pretty examples.

Today I don’t think I’m going to be playing along, unfortunately, between what’s installed on the macbook and the limited screen space. BUT, this has been a pretty good class, am thinking about getting either the downloads/video or her book.

Missed a chunk dealing with something in email. Going over basics of creative techs app page.

What, no alt attributes?

Logo is png – transparent with alpha (?), can’t remember the name of that thing that works in everything but IE. 🙂

Starting to muse about how to put together an actual mobile (smartphone) site for work.

Contact page and main page are different files.

Don’t forget about conflict between borders and rounded corners. Need to find a chevron image like that.

Basically, similar style for each page that has lists, although this video page has visual icons, included as actual file. I wonder if you could make it a background image on either the li or the a? (The A has the chevron as a background, so probably the LI, then alter the padding on the A to fit? Would need to fiddle with it myself.)

Form page — no action on the form? And no button? Interesting looking picker for select element, I wonder what happens on Android, Blackberry, Win Mobile? Ah, someone asked that very same thing! Wish C were handy so I could test. “Pop-up select menu” sez audience member (or was that staff?). Ok, she’s going over basics of the html for the select. Interesting that select/option text is teeny…is that an issue with the native browser or is it not covered by the existing CSS?

iphone interface guidelines as a starting point. are those on Apple site? apparently so. yep: huge long URL, will be on CT website.

Q: much that’s iphone specific so far? not really. (getting some hiccups in the video.)

Q: incorporate stuff from RSS feeds?

question about whether to use div — I would think that you could use h1 or h2 in a couple of these cases for semantic goodness. but she definitely has a reasonable argument.

video skipping out again!

looking at html again — a class=”list” ? 🙁 could you get away with ul#rounded li a?

iphone fonts? daring fireball has a list, apparently.

some srs “not getting the point”? the server-side doesn’t matter to the display.

arg gnarg. probably going to miss all the interesting bits. 🙁 darn friends of the library board meeting!

href=”tel:1-123-456-1234″ does the phone call thing. will it also work android et al? pretty cool. apparently should work in other apps. yay! (is w3c?)

ok, gotta close up and move.

launching email is the basic mailto, while just a regular maps.google.com link opens the maps app in iphone?

(honestly, a little sad to have missed the 2nd half of the class for the FOL board meeting.)

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The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia

author: Peter Hopkirk
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1990
rating: 3
read at: 2010/01/03
date added: 2010/01/19
shelves: history, non-fiction, politics, religion
review:
One of the books recommended by the folks of Ask Metafilter, when I asked for books about the British in Afghanistan. Stupendous huge book chronicling about 100 years of conflict between the British and the Russians in Central Asia. A little overwhelming in the sheer mass of data, but fascinating nonetheless. Could have stood for more (or more readable) maps, or possibly a cast of characters section. Don’t think I could pass a quiz on most of the details, but I have a pretty good sense of the broad movement of the history of that region in that time.

Both of the non-fiction books I’m reading/have read from those recommendations are pre-9/11. This one is from 1991, and so the preface is all about the collapse of the Soviet Union. Gives an odd sense of presentiment to say the least.

(Update 1/19/2010: the maps in this book were much better than the ones in Tournament of Shadows, IMHO.)

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Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game & the Race for Empire in Central Asia (Cornelia & Michael Bessie Book)

Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game & the Race for Empire in Central Asia (Cornelia & Michael Bessie Book)

author: Shareen Blair Brysac
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.75
book published: 1999
rating: 3
read at: 2010/01/19
date added: 2010/01/19
shelves: biography, history, non-fiction, politics
review:
I’m vacillating whether to go with 2 or 3 stars — parts of this book were fantastic, great narrative, crazy crazy characters in a vast story. Maybe that’s the problem: the story was a little TOO vast, so there was no single theme that seemed to hold it together, just a chronicle of one thing after another.

I will single out the maps as a particular irritation: the book has lots and lots of locations which are likely to be unfamiliar to the general reader, and the maps were just not good enough to keep track of where all the players were going; neither the inside cover map nor the smaller maps in the text had enough place names. There was much gnashing of teeth every time a place was mentioned, and I flipped to a map, and: nope, not there.

On the other hand, it was interesting to get a slightly different angle on the events in The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, and to go a little farther forward in time. The combination of the two books gave me a much better understanding of the backstory of Great Game era empire messing around with Afghanistan (et al), which these days is a damn good thing to know.

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Crypt of the Moaning Diamond (Forgotten Realms: The Dungeons, #4)

Crypt of the Moaning Diamond (Forgotten Realms: The Dungeons, #4)

author: Rosemary Jones
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.74
book published: 2007
rating: 4
read at: 2010/01/02
date added: 2010/01/19
shelves: d-and-d, fantasy, fiction
review:
So help me, I really enjoyed this. (C checked it out of the library.) Somehow managed to be both accurate to D&D mechanics and a rollicking good story. Strong narrative POV from the main protagonist, both consistent and engaging.