zard's Oddcast

Yesterday, I heard a couple of my lecturers talking about a page that one of them was trying to sort out. He was after, if I understood it correctly, a way of increasing the size of an area of the page or an image (so, zooming, in effect) whilst leaving the other areas unaffected.

So I sat about working this out, starting at about 1am. I did some basic work on it, before getting stuck on some of the logic, at which point I headed to bed.

This morning, returning with a refreshed mind, I was able to see where I was going wrong. Here’s a link to the working files.

What’s basically happening is that there are 5 divs that have been positioned absolutely – one in each corner and a fifth in the middle. When you hover over any of them, their size and positioning is altered and their z-index is upped (the font-size is also increased). It’s easy, really.

As you can see, it’s pretty basic, but it does the job. It can be used with sprites as background images and could prove useful.

If you read the site at zard.me and not in a feed reader, then you may have noticed that I’ve added a PayPal donate button to the sidebar. I’ve done this incase any of you like what I do and wish to support the show. I’m not going to push it in every blog post or podcast, but I reserve the right to remind you from time to time.

~zard

A quick edit: I should have pointed out that all donations will be greatly received and go towards covering the server and domain name costs here at zard towers.

So it’s only been out there for a couple of days but here are my views on Google Buzz:

It’s rubbish.

Here’s my reasoning. All it does is bring features from Google Reader into my GMail inbox. I don’t need that in my inbox because I have Google Reader. Don’t believe me? Well let’s look at what Buzz offers.

1. The ability to see what your friends are up to on other websites
2. The ability to comment on what your friends are up to
3. The ability to share 3rd party pages/content
4. The ability to see what’s going on locally via GPS enabled mobiles

Let’s take a closer look at each of those points:

1. The ability to see what your friends are up to on other websites

Way back in 1999 some people were working towards this magic thing that they called RSS. This magic allows people to get updates from websites, on another website! It’s true! Not only that but in 2005, Google announced a project that they had been working called Google Reader. It was a way of reading RSS feeds. It meant that you could get all the posts from your favourite blogs and news sites in one place. It’s still around today.

Take my tongue out of my cheek now. Just about every site you are a member of has an RSS (or ATOM) feed: Twitter, Flickr, Picasa even Facebook has RSS feeds. Saying that Buzz allows you to see what your friends is up to is just saying that it subscribes you to any new feeds that your friends come up with.

2. The ability to comment on what your friends are up to

One of the things that sets Google Reader apart from other RSS readers (in my opinion) is the ability add notes on whatever it is that you’re reading, which can then be read by the people that are following you. Well knock me down with a feather if that isn’t exactly what Buzz allows you to do.

3. The ability to share 3rd party pages/content

So Google Reader allows you to read RSS feeds from not only your friends, but from other places as well, whether it’s a news website, a tech site or a niche blog. Imagine then, that you come across a post on Lifehacker (for argument’s sake) something that you know your friend will find really useful. Google Reader has a simple link that you can click that will share that post with your followers, much like the notes, mentioned above. I’ll be damned, so far, we’re 3 from 3.

4. The ability to see what’s going on locally via GPS enabled mobiles

And here is the one thing that Buzz has that Google Reader doesn’t. If you’re on an Android 2.1 handset or an iPhone, then you can see what people nearby are Buzzing about. I can see that being kinda cool, but I really don’t know that many people will actually use it. Who knows? What I do know is that the kind of thing I’d want to see from “non-friends” that are nearby are the kind of things that can abbreviated into a 140 characters. Oh and look who rolled out a geo-location API not so long ago.

So what if you don’t use Google Reader?

What are you stupid? OK, that may be a little harsh. Seriously though, if you’re not using an RSS reader (whether it’s Google Reader or not), you’re wasting time. Pretty much every website that you read, can be read in a feed reader, meaning that you don’t have to visit each individual site to get their latest updates. More than that, you can get the updates right in your feed reader, when the site updates. No more hitting refresh, to see if something new has been posted. If you’re using a feed reader, you may as well use one of the best, from a well known company that is (largely) trusted.

Everything I’ve said thus far is just why Buzz is a nothing new. Why do I go so far as to say that it’s rubbish? Because I’ve only been using it for a few days and I’m already seeing a huge amount of redundant data, whether it’s somebody’s tweets or shared links from Google Reader, I’m getting a lot of data twice. What does this mean? It means that I’m spending longer keeping up-to-date, except that I’m already up-to-date because all the data is a duplicate of data from somewhere else.

Here’s a quick anecdote to wrap up with: My wife signed in to her GMail account this afternoon.
Her: What’s this Buzz thing?
Me: Oh it’s kind of like Facebook, but in your inbox.
Her: Why would I want that? It’s not like Twitter is it? Because I definitely don’t want that!
Me: …

I honestly don’t see this catching on, outside of the geek set, except the geek set, IMHO, don’t want that extra redundancy.

I live in what most people call Cornwall. It’s an amazingly beautiful area located in the far south west of the British Isles. It’s steeped in history. People from Cornwall have taken their skills all over the world. A certificate from the Camborne School of Mines is amongst the most prestigious and sought after qualification in the mining industry, even today. But perhaps the most famous Cornishman is King Arthur.

Yet, it al lis not quite what it seems in this outwardly peaceful corner of England. Cornwall is the English name for what, in the local language, is called Kernow. This is the native name for this country. You see Kernow was never formally inducted into England. in 1508, the Charter of Pardon was signed, saying that no act of Westminster will effect Cornwall, without ratification from the Stannary Parliament. This act has never been rescinded. And as recently as 1616, Arthur Hopton, English ambassador to Madrid, described Cornwall and Wales as being separate countries to that of England. That was almost 400 years ago, what resonance could that possibly have in the early 21st century?

The Cornish people never forgot.

With 20th century advances in technology information came easier to come by. People started to spread ideas, no longer fearing reprimand from the English. With the foundings of Celtic leagues, Old Cornish Societies and political parties, it started to become clear that there was more to Cornwall than meets the eye.

Cornish people started to remember.

I’ve had arguments with people that have nearly come to blows, over the whether Cornish people should be called English or not. Should the topic come up, I will talk the ears off of anybody that will listen. Do I want Cornish independence? No, because I don’t believe that Cornwall can support itself as a country. Do I want Cornish people/council to have a greater say in what happens here? That would be nice, as it would be for all regions of the UK. Do I want people to know about Kernow and it’s history, regardless of whether it will change matters? Yes.

So what’s the point? Why do I feel so strongly about educating people to these facts, this hidden history?

Because if I don’t, who will?

It’s all to easy to keep quiet and let the historians debate the point. But if everybody thought like that, then ideas and thoughts become academic – they no longer have meaning for the common man. But by arguing and debating between average people, ideas stay fresh, they stay relevant.

I’ve not long finished watching the Tom Cruise/Steven Spielberg version of War of the Worlds, and thought I’d throw out a few thoughts on the film. First though, I think it’s probably wise to give you my perspective on the film so you can see where I’m coming from: the only version of the story that I’ve sat through, before tonight, is Jeff Wayne’s musical adaptation. I do plan on reading the original and listening to the infamous radio drama.

Did this film change Director of Photography part way through? Some were beautiful. Some weren’t. Some were so stylised that I was looking for clues as to what was about to happen. I didn’t like that, it broke the immersion of the experience for me. On a similar note, I thought that some of the sets were awful, looked like something from a bad 1970s BBC sitcom.

I thought Cruise turned in a pretty good performance, not about to say that it was his best, but certainly very good. His character was well written (that is to say, not greatly written, but above average) and Cruise did a good job on fleshing him out. When I started out with this film and I realised that Dakota Fanning was staring, I thought “Ah well, hopefully the aliens will kill her. Soon, hopefully.” I don’t wish this to sound like an attack on her, as I’ve not met her, I can’t possibly comment on her as a person. That said, she is often cast as characters that I would have no qualms leaving as bait for the zombies. She always seems to play a whiney little bitch. 5 minutes in to this flick, I thought that we were perhaps going to see a different role from her. Admittedly there is very little bitch, but there was just enough whine that it again broke my immersion.

The single most annoying thing for me, however, was the opening shot. Not Cruise working the docks. Not the weird cloud formations. The bacteria. HEY! SPIELBERG! I thought you’d made films before. I thought you understood foreshadowing. It’s not about giving away the answer in the first 3 seconds. It’s about crafting hints that subtly point towards what is to come.

This isn’t an awful film. It was an alright way of killing time, but I wont watch it again and I wouldn’t recommend paying good money for it.

I’m hoping that if you read my blog or listen to my (infrequent) podcast, that you know who Tee Morris is. He’s the guy that heard about podcasting and said “this would be a great way to get my fiction out in to the world.” It’s because of him that we have podcast fiction. It’s because of him that JC Hutchins, Seth Harwood and Philippa Ballentine started podcasting and ended up with book deals. So if you’ve ever listened to podcast fiction, he is the guy that you have to thank.

Sadly, Tee is facing a time of hardship. Natalie Morris, wife and mother of Tee’s child has passed away. Tee is not only left to become a single parent, but is having to foot the large bills that are sadly connected with this tragedy.

It’s with this in mind that, I would like you to consider contributing to a fund that will help both Tee and his daughter (Sonic Boom) through these tough times. You can do this by following this link or by using the widget below. I know that any and all support will be greatly received.

Warning: The following post below contains my thoughts on religion and spirituality and may cause some offence. I’ve never claimed that this blog is out to please everybody, so don’t be surprised by this.

Those of you who know me will understand my views on organised religion, for those that don’t I’ll summarise: I don’t like it.
Please take note of exactly what I have said. I do not like organised religion.
I don’t have a problem with people who have religion, I do have a problem with how some organisations have gone about their rise to power, and what they continue to do in the name of their deity/deities. But that’s not what this post is about.

There is a part of me that envies those with religion, those people that have put their faith in something that is truly outside my abilities of comprehension.

Of late (meaning the last two weeks), I’ve had religion and spirituality enter in to my life in unusual ways: Heroes season three (currently renting from LoveFilm) has a main character go on a spirit walk, Nathan Lowell’s Trader’s Tale series of books introduces a shaman somewhere in the middle (which leads to a spin off book), somebody I follow on Twitter has been tweeting about Buddhism and, most bizarrely, I was stopped in the street a few days back, by a monk (of the Hare Krishna variety), trying to sell books to raise money for local causes. I, being a sucker for a good cause, bought a book.
Within 5 minutes, I started to feel bad. I knew that there was no chance that I would read the book and that it may be serve somebody else. I tracked down the monk in the busy streets and gave it back to him.

But all this has me wondering and thinking about my previous flirtations with religion:

• When I was in primary school, I went to Sunday School and a mid week church based club.
• I wound up at a secondary school that forced me into chapel three times a week
• Several years back, I dabbled with Norse runes
• Most recently, I started reading The Teachings of The Buddha

I’ve been wondering if I do have religion, but I just don’t know what religion. Were I to put serious thought in to this, I’d perhaps think that I should belong to a shamanistic or Druidic society.

So what does all this mean, and why am I writing this post? I don’t think it means anything. The only reason I’m writing this is to get it off my chest.

Those of you that I know in real life had probably connected with me over Facebook. You’ll also, probably know, that I’ve deactivated* my account.

Here’s why:

It’s awful.

Load up your Facebook homepage and step back from your screen. Farmville or Mafia Wars posting crap to your friends feeds? Inane status updates from that relative that you’d feel guilty about unfriending? 1 dozen or so app or group invites that you’ve not yet cleared?

If not, you’re probably using Facebook Lite. Try posting a link in your status, or sending somebody a message. CAPTCHA much?

There are positive elements to Facebook: status updates, photos, video, messaging, groups, fan pages and events. Let’s take a closer look at these:

Status updates: Are not as well implemented as Twitter is.
Photos: You can now upload a metric crap-ton of photos to your account for free. At amazing(ly poor) resolutions. So, not as good as Photobucket or Flickr.
Video: I have no beef with Facebook’s video platform, but there are half a dozen other video sharing sites out. My wagon doesn’t need another wheel.
Messaging: Holy crap, what did we do before Facebook messaging? Oh yeah, there was that email thing…
Groups: are just a form of forums, just without half of the cool features or a quarter of the cool people.
Fan pages: most things that I am a fan of have an RSS feed. Or their on Twitter.
Events: are probably the most useful thing on Facebook. I’ve not found a service that handles things with quite the simplicity that Facebook does. But you can email me the details.

Everything else, yes everything, is rubbish. It only serves to distract you from what you should be doing. That’s when the service is working properly…

Think about that for a moment.

When was the last time that SuperUltraMegaPoke Deluxe II version 3 help you get that essay in on time? And remember that time that “What’s your stripper name?” saved you time and money? Yeah, I thought as much.

*Deactivated. Not deleted. Apparently you need to sign some contract with the Devil to find out how actually delete your account. Rumour has it that 60 days after deactivation it’ll be deleted. I guess I’ll update in late January with a yes or a no. In the mind time, if anybody does know how to delete an account, please email me.

Two days ago, the team behind Microsoft’s next browser, Internet Explorer 9, wrote a blog post.

If you read the comments, you can see that most people received this post in a negative light. Kind of understandably. If you write a post that proves your product to be at the bottom of the pile using industry standard tools, then belittle those tools and still manage to come across as the best thing since sliced bread, you’re going to experience a backlash. I could be wrong, but I think they could have come out with less of a tongue lashing:

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An Early Look at IE9 for Developers

We know that previous versions of Internet Explorer have not been kind to developers. You’ve had (and are still having to) develop several style sheets and use hacks in order to get your designs to display the same across all the browsers out there.

With IE8, we came forward leaps and bounds in terms of CSS compatibility (it was the first browser to fully support CSS2.1). But we’re not resting on our laurels. We know that we have a long way to go. We know that every day we’re losing ground to our competitors. We’re making steps to correct that.

Most of you out there will know about SunSpider, Apple’s JavaScript benchmarking tool. IE7 was slow. Very slow. IE8 was about half as slow and still far behind our competitors. Take a look at the following graph:

Yes, IE9 is still behind everything else, but we’re in pre-alpha at the moment. And look at the results: There’s less between IE9 and Firefox 3.6 than there is between Firefox and Chrome.

Another industry standard test is Acid3. Anybody remember what Internet Explorer scored when Acid3 was first released? Fourteen. That’s not a typo. IE8 scores 20, despite it’s CSS2.1 complience. IE9, in its current pre-alpha state, scores a less than impressive 32:

We are aiming to make this 100 by the time we come to release. We know that we’re currently a long way from that, but we are moving in the right direction.

Speaking of catching up, we’ve got a little present for you:

This is not only a bonus for yourselves, but for end users as well.

We’re working on other technologies as well, but we’ll save that for another post.

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That’s how I’d have written it. But then, I wouldn’t be working IE9.