Charcoal Design WeblogCharcoal Designhttp://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog2013-07-21T11:25:00ZBook Release
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/book
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/book2013-07-21T11:25:00Z
<p>iOS Core Animation: Advanced Techniques is now available for preorder from InformIT.</p>
Upgrade Pricing on the Mac App Store
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2012/03/27#upgrade-pricing
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2012/03/27#upgrade-pricing2012-03-27T21:46:56Z
<p>Will Shipley makes the case for upgrade pricing on the Mac App Store:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://blog.wilshipley.com/2012/03/mac-app-store-needs-paid-upgrades.html"
>http://blog.wilshipley.com/2012/03/mac-app-store-needs-paid-upgrades.html</a>
</p>
<p>It's a solid argument, but he fails to mention the solution already in place for this - in-app-purchase.</p>
<p>To release a paid upgrade to an existing app, the developer can simply make it available as an in-app-purchase within the original app.</p>
<p>This may be slightly awkward for new users, who then have to first buy the app and then pay for the upgrade, but this can be solved by making the app itself a free "demo" and having all users buy the "real" version as an IAP.</p>
<p>So the process is:</p>
<ol>
<li>User downloads the demo</li>
<li>User buys IAP to get the full feature set</li>
<li>When version 2 is released, version 1 IAP is disabled and version 2 IAP is made available</li>
</ol>
<p>New users just buy whichever IAP is enabled to get the latest version. Existing users can keep any IAP they've previously bought, but must pay again for the latest upgrade.</p>
Rainbow Blocks on Mac App Store
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rainbowblocks-mac
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rainbowblocks-mac2011-01-06T15:31:14Z
<p>Our popular iPhone puzzle game Rainbow Blocks is now on the Mac App Store.</p>
Rainbow Blocks 10K
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2010/07/31#rb10k
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2010/07/31#rb10k2010-07-31T00:13:13Z
<p>We've entered a cut down version of Rainbow Blocks into the
<a href="http://10k.aneventapart.com/Entry/27"
>10K apart competition</a>
</p>
<p>Enjoy! (and vote for us please)</p>
Rainbow Blocks Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rainbowblocks
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rainbowblocks2010-02-16T23:19:10Z
<p>Rainbow Blocks, our first iPhone game, now available to buy from the App Store.</p>
Singularity-Shmarity (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying About a Robot Apocalypse)
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/singularity
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/singularity2010-01-04T10:02:57Z
<p>AI isn't just around the corner and it isn't going to bring about the end of humanity.</p>
If it's Broke, Fix it
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2009/09/23#chromeframe
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2009/09/23#chromeframe2009-09-23T13:36:13Z
<p>So this is amusing:
<a href="http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe"
>http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe</a>
</p>
<p>Google have released a plugin for Internet Explorer that lets it render web pages using Webkit, the HTML engine used by Safari and Google's own Chrome browser. It's kind of like the final
<em>fuck you</em>
to Microsoft's consistently poor efforts at keeping their browser up to date with modern standards.</p>
<p>As amusing as this is, it doesn't really impact anyone though. Users who actually like IE (yeah, all five of you. You know who you are) aren't going to install it, and all other IE users either don’t know how to install plugins or don’t have admin rights, so I can't see that this is going to get much uptake.</p>
<p>Unless the idea is that Google are going to push IE users to install it with a "This page requires Google plugin, click here to download" message on the Gmail page or something, but I can't see them doing that just yet – it would pretty much be the last nail in the
<em>don't be evil</em>
coffin, even if it is for people's own good.</p>
<p>Now if Adobe ever bundle webkit with Flash, then we'll talk. Seems like a natural step for them given that it's already part of the Air runtime, but I imagine they’re too afraid of the big M to ever do something so cheeky.</p>
Choice is Good
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2009/07/08#chrome-os
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2009/07/08#chrome-os2009-07-08T08:42:31Z
<p>Google has
<a href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html"
>just announced</a>
<em>Chrome OS</em>
, a new web-based operating system for netbooks and smartphones, built on their Chrome browser technology.</p>
<p>Google is keen to stress that the aim of Chrome OS is to provide choice for consumers who use their machines mostly for web browsing, and it is not a direct competitor to their previously released Android platform, which is just beginning to gain traction in the industry.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>
Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>...</p>
<p>In related news, Apple would like to announce
<em>Safari OS</em>
:</p>
<blockquote title="This is a joke, duh"
>
<p>Safari OS is designed as a lightweight web-based operating system for running on mobile devices such as smartphones and wifi-enabled music players.</p>
<p>Existing iPod and iPhone owners and developers should not be concerned that we are dividing the market or confusing consumers because our analysis shows that the
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ"
>majority of consumers have a deep and complete understanding of the distinction between operating systems, browsers and search engines</a>
, and are in no way inclined to assume that the latest new shiny thing replaces the previous thing we announced that occupies the same space in the market.</p>
<p>Also, in response to the suggestion that we are copying Palm’s
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebOS"
>Web OS</a>
, we would like to say
<em>"pfft"</em>
.</p>
</blockquote>
I Can't Believe It's Not Google
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2009/06/01#bing
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2009/06/01#bing2009-06-01T10:57:52Z
<p>Microsoft have announced
<a href="http://www.bing.com"
>bing</a>
, a new web search engine.</p>
<p>I know what you're thinking - another poor man's
<em>Google</em>
, like MSN search and Live Search before it, right? Actually, no, it's remarkable. It appears on the face of it to be a
<em>slightly superior</em>
version of Google, matching it feature for feature (including all those little extras you like such as image search and a built in calculator/unit converter) but with extra bits too. In particular the video search with integrated preview on hover is pretty cool, and it contains a number of contextual search features - search for two destinations and it will give you travel times and recommendations, for example (mostly US only for now).</p>
<p>What lets it down is the branding. Not just the look and feel (it looks for the most part almost exactly like Google, but with a rubbish, irrelevant stock photo blended into the design), but if the pundits are to be believed, the name bing stands for
<em>But it's not Google</em>
! I mean,
<em>seriously?</em>
!</p>
<p>Initially I thought that this was one of those "Microsoft beta" side projects that will quietly vanish, but it looks like
<a href="http://live.com"
>live.com</a>
is now redirecting to bing, so bing really is the
<em>new face of Microsoft Live Search</em>
. So what the hell is with the branding? How do you build a brand identity around
<em>not being</em>
the current market leader? Why are they calling it "Not Google"? That's absurd! I'm surprised you can even trademark it. And what about all that money they wasted on the
<em>Live</em>
brand, is that going to all quietly dissapear now - should we expect
<em>Bing mail</em>
and
<em>Bing maps</em>
to be forthcoming?</p>
<p>It's hard to fathom how Bing fits into Microsoft's corporate strategy - or even if they have one. I fully expect them to now release a product called
<em>But it's not iPod</em>
to compete with the Zune.</p>
<p>Microsoft seems to have an alarming talent for getting incredible engineers to build amazing (if derivative) pieces of technology and then totally screwing up the marketing.</p>
Opt Out
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2009/04/24#optout
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2009/04/24#optout2009-04-24T11:49:12Z
<p>It turns out that a whole bunch of advertising companies you've probably never heard of have cookies on your machine and are tracking your browsing behaviour.</p>
<p>Of course most people know this in principle, but it's still a bit shocking when you see just how many of these faceless organisations have been keeping tabs on you. It’s one thing Google or Yahoo using a cookie to "improve your search results" or whatever, but just who in the hell are
<em>Undertone Networks</em>
or
<em>AudienceScience</em>
? I don't know them, but apparently they know me!</p>
<p>Anyway, you can find out just exactly who's been keeping tabs on you, and opt out of their snooping
<a href="http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp"
>using this page</a>
.</p>
Gaming in the Cloud
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2009/03/26#onlive
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2009/03/26#onlive2009-03-26T09:47:30Z
<p>Interesting new subscription gaming service:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.gametrailers.com/player/47079.html"
>http://www.gametrailers.com/player/47079.html</a>
</p>
<p>The idea is basically that you connect to the service via a web browser or a dongle for your TV and then play the games remotely. Input from your controller is transmitted to the server, the game screen is rendered on the server side and then transmitted back to you.</p>
<p>Consequently, you don't need to have a particularly fast PC or graphics card because all the game processing happens remotely. The performance is purely limited by the bandwidth of your broadband connection. And the games on offer aren't crappy browser games built for the service - they're standard off-the-shelf Xbox and PS3 games running at the other end.</p>
<p>It seems hard to believe that the latency wouldn't make any twitch-reaction games like racers and shooters unplayable, but they claim that anyone with a 1.5Meg broadband connection should get decent performance at regular TV resolution, and 5Meg or higher will give you full HD.</p>
<p>They've also got some really interesting community/social networking features, for example you can watch anyone else playing a game remotely before you buy or rent it yourself, and they seem to be aiming to create the concept of "celebrity" gamers, where people might develop a following of fans who regularly watch them play.</p>
<p>
<strong>Update:</strong>
Richard Leadbetter at
<a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/gdc-why-onlive-cant-possibly-work-article"
>Eurogamer</a>
says it can't possibly work as well as they claim. I hope he's wrong, but he sounds right.</p>
Pandora's Pests Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/pandora
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/pandora2008-12-30T08:55:12Z
<p>Koingo Software has released
<a href="pandora"
>Pandora's Pests</a>
, a game developed in collaboration with Charcoal Design.</p>
A Time for Reflection
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/12/08#reflections
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/12/08#reflections2008-12-08T10:24:17Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/30/50-beautiful-examples-of-reflections-photography/"
>Stunningly beautiful photographs</a>
created by exploiting naturally occuring reflections (or Photoshop, if you're cynical).</p>
Geek Fruit
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/12/08#geekfruit
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/12/08#geekfruit2008-12-08T10:09:20Z
<p>A Japanese Apple fanatic and orchard owner has come up with
<a href="http://www.weirdasianews.com/2008/12/04/apples-apples-talk-geek-fruit/"
>an innovative way</a>
to express his love of all things Apple.</p>
MSPaint Adventures
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/12/01#mspaint
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/12/01#mspaint2008-12-01T12:12:56Z
<p>If anyone ever played the LucasArts adventure game
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_&_Max_Hit_the_Road"
>Sam and Max</a>
,
<a href="http://www.mspaintadventures.com/"
>this is similar</a>
</p>
<p>Only linear</p>
<p>And black and white</p>
<p>And on the Web</p>
<p>And possibly even weirder</p>
Give Up and Use Tables
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/12/01#giveup
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/12/01#giveup2008-12-01T12:08:00Z
<p>
<a href="http://giveupandusetables.com/"
>http://giveupandusetables.com</a>
</p>
<p>Seriously though, don't.</p>
RBGL 1.6 and RBGL Sprites 1.2 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rbglsprites1-2
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rbglsprites1-22008-11-08T14:26:11Z
<p>We've released major updates to RBGL and RBGLSprites, including better performance and some exciting new features...</p>
Typetester
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/10/29#typetester
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/10/29#typetester2008-10-29T16:46:23Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.typetester.org/"
>Typetester</a>
is a brilliant online tool for web designers, allowing them to choose fonts based on what they will actually look like in a browser, rather than trying to guestimate the appearance in Photoshop by disabling antialiasing, etc.</p>
<p>Web typography is generally rather unimaginative due to the cross-platform constraints, but with typetester you can easily pick the best fonts for each platform and a default to fall back to, instead of just going with Verdana, Arial or Trebuchet, or doing everything with images as people have tended to in the past.</p>
Cocotron
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/10/29#cocotron
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/10/29#cocotron2008-10-29T14:41:31Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.cocotron.org/"
>Cocotron</a>
is a port of the Cocoa libraries to Windows, effectively allowing cross-compilation of Cocoa applications to Windows.</p>
<p>It's not perfect, but if this takes off it could do for Cocoa what Mono has done for .NET - turning it from a proprietary single-platform development API to a sensible choice for cross-platform development.</p>
<p>Glen and Ken Aspeslagh from Ecamm have written a
<a href="http://macdaddyworld.com/2008/10/27/adventures-in-cocotron/"
>postmortem</a>
of their experiences using Cocotron to port their FileMagnet app to Windows.</p>
PhoneGap
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/10/23#phonegap
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/10/23#phonegap2008-10-23T10:12:30Z
<p>
<a href="http://phonegap.com/"
>PhoneGap</a>
- an application container for building webapps for the iPhone that can access features of the native Cocoa APIs</p>
<p>Looks fantastic, but I worry that it violates Apple's "no virtual machines" policy.</p>
<p>Flash and Java are both banned on the iPhone because they would allow a backdoor through which developers could bypass the App Store and deliver applications without Apple's consent.</p>
<p>Obviously the iPhone already supports web apps through the browser, but exposing the Cocoa APIs through JavaScript seems to me like it's circumventing the spirit of the rules if not the letter, and Apple have a tendency to ditch such applications without warning.</p>
<p>Definitely worth a look, but be wary of investing a lot of effort into a PhoneGap app for the time being.</p>
Design Behind Bars
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/10/08#barcodes
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/10/08#barcodes2008-10-08T16:56:29Z
<p>Japanese product packaging designers have come up with an innovative way to
<a href="http://www.weirdasianews.com/2008/09/29/creative-barcodes-japan-unique-awesome/"
>work around the design restrictions imposed by barcodes</a>
.</p>
I think it's meant to be ironic...
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/10/08#pdc2008
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/10/08#pdc20082008-10-08T15:13:04Z
<p>
<a href="http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/10/video-microsoft.html"
>The Microsoft developer conference 2008 promotional video</a>
</p>
<p>One can only assume that as a young nerd, Bill (or whoever approved this monstrosity) learned to ward off the school bullies by pre-emptively making fun of himself in the hope that it would leave the others with no ammunition left to mock him.</p>
<p>Unfortunately when applied to a multi-national, trillion dollar software company,
this approach doesn’t work. Even if you intentionally make yourself look ridiculous, everybody still thinks you’re ridiculous.</p>
Clever Umbrellas
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/09/25#umbrella
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/09/25#umbrella2008-09-25T11:03:57Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.crookedbrains.net/2008/09/umbrellas.html"
>An amusing collection</a>
of high tech and/or innovative umbrellas.</p>
<p>Sadly it seems that noone has yet managed to invent one that works even when you forget to bring it with you.</p>
NOPE.
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/09/10#hadron
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/09/10#hadron2008-09-10T13:59:44Z
<p>This is brilliant:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/"
>www.hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com</a>
</p>
<p>Those nerdy enough to view the source will also appreciate the JavaScript-based joke that controls the text. I would suggest that the following would have been funnier though:</p>
<pre>
if (typeof(world) == "undefined")
document.write("YUP.");
else
document.write("NOPE.");
</pre>
Esquire Brings <BLINK> to the Printed Page
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/09/08#esquire
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/09/08#esquire2008-09-08T17:36:52Z
<p>In a move that will bring the printed word bang up-to-date with The Web (circa 1994), Esquire's October 2008 edition will be the first magazine ever to feature
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKS12PMdJ6w"
>blinking content</a>
.</p>
<p>Some sources were
<a href="http://gizmodo.com/5028354/on-esquires-stupid-e+ink-cover"
>unimpressed</a>
by this technological revolution, but the potential of this E-Ink technology and the flat, flexible battery that drives it is huge.</p>
<p>I can't wait to see what the second and third commercial applications turn out to be.</p>
Parallel Processing
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/09/02#monalisa
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/09/02#monalisa2008-09-02T10:03:28Z
<p>Not the most technical demonstration of the benefits of parallel processing you'll find, but certainly the most entertaining:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://gizmodo.com/5043303/mythbusters-build-a-1100+barrel-paintball-gun-to-paint-the-mona-lisa-instantly"
>1100 barrel paint ball "graphics card"</a>
</p>
<p>Courtesy of Engadget.</p>
Google Chrome
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/09/02#chrome
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/09/02#chrome2008-09-02T00:58:34Z
<p>Google have announced that they're releasing a new open source web browser today. Using an innovative multi-process model for improved stability, and the Apple Webkit engine for fast, standards-compliant page rendering, this has a lot of potential. Read about it in their excellent
<a href="http://blogoscoped.com/google-chrome/"
>comic-book-style blog posting</a>
.</p>
<p>I suspect that it will be the death of Firefox. Firefox's user experience and browser technology is better than IE (though Microsoft is catching up fast) but worse than Safari. It's a bloated memory hog, with a quirky non-standard UI, and it only exists because it's open source, has great plugin support and is arguably the only decent browser on Windows for the discerning web user (Opera is too complicated and Safari is too alien for the average Windows aficionado).</p>
<p>Google Chrome is open source too, and historically Google have encouraged people to build mash-ups with their technology, so one would guess that it will support plugins.</p>
<p>Google is not quite Apple when it comes to user interfaces, but the design they've outlined for chrome is simple and elegant - more so than Firefox. Chrome will probably never look as good as Safari does on a Mac, nor will it be as ubiquitous as Internet Explorer on Windows. But for the comfortable 15-20% of Internet users who use Firefox on Windows, Chrome could well become the de-facto choice overnight.</p>
<p>
<strong>Update:</strong>
<a href="http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/chrome_market_share_leapfrogs_opera_day_1"
>Various</a>
<a href="http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/archive/2008/09/03/google-chrome-market-share.aspx"
>sources</a>
are reporting that Chrome's maket share has surpassed 1% after a single day. That's already more than Opera which has been around for
<a href="http://www.eskimo.net/~bloo/indexdot/history/opera.htm"
>nearly 15 years</a>
.</p>
RBGL Sprites v1.1 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rbglsprites1-1
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rbglsprites1-12008-08-29T03:07:11Z
<p>We've just released RBGL Sprites 1.1, a major update to our
open source 2D game engine for REALbasic.</p>
The Conversation I'm Always Having
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/28#conversation
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/28#conversation2008-08-28T17:16:20Z
<dl class="faq"
>
<dt>What do you do?</dt>
<dd style="border-bottom:none;padding-bottom:0;"
>I’m a web developer</dd>
<dt>A web designer?</dt>
<dd style="border-bottom:none;padding-bottom:0;"
>No, a web developer</dd>
<dt>What’s the difference?</dt>
<dd style="border-bottom:none;padding-bottom:0;"
>I don’t design sites, I build them</dd>
<dt>But you know how to make websites right?</dt>
<dd style="border-bottom:none;padding-bottom:0;"
>Yes</dd>
<dt>My aunt needs a website for her home business selling knitted jumpers for cats...</dt>
<dd style="border-bottom:none;padding-bottom:0;"
>If I build you a website it will look rubbish except in view source mode, take six months for me to build during my evenings and weekends and cost £2000</dd>
<dt>Erm... how about I pay you in beer?</dt>
<dd style="border-bottom:none;padding-bottom:0;"
>Sigh... OK</dd>
<dt>Oh and can you make it green with flashing
<em>Comic Sans</em>
titles and animated cat clip-art?</dt>
<dd style="border-bottom:none;padding-bottom:0;"
>No.</dd>
</dl>
Duck Porn
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/20#duckporn
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/20#duckporn2008-08-20T14:20:22Z
<p>Microsoft Adcenter
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/20/microsoft_adcenter_keywords/"
>demonstrates the advantages</a>
of inserting human moderators between user-generated content and customer facing systems, as well as providing an interesting answer to the question
<em>"who would use MSN Search instead of Google, and what would they use it for?"</em>
</p>
<p>It must be comforting for Microsoft to know that although Google is trouncing them horribly for general search mindshare, they’ve cornered the market in
<em>nude female midgets</em>
and
<em>duck porn</em>
.</p>
The Best Available Ampersand
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/15#ampersand
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/15#ampersand2008-08-15T10:12:30Z
<p>This man
<a href="http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2008/08/14/ampersands.html"
>really loves</a>
his ampersands!</p>
<p>Still, it's a simple trick and it looks nice so why not? I'll be using this on my sites from now on (when I remember to).</p>
The Great Divide
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/14#divide
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/14#divide2008-08-14T11:38:04Z
<p>A
<a href="http://www.bigcontrarian.com/2008/08/12/the-great-divide/"
>brilliant article</a>
about the importance of integrating engineering considerations at the design phase of a project.</p>
<blockquote>The idea of design divorced from engineering is laudable, but the way it so often plays out makes it implausible. Yes, in theory, the design team should come up with a perfect solution and the engineering team should be smart enough to figure out how to pull it off and neither should ever have to talk to each other. The resulting product would look exactly as designed and would work perfectly. Keep on trucking you radical dreamer. Here’s a quarter for the jukebox.</blockquote>
<p>I particularly enjoyed this:</p>
<blockquote>As an engineer, nothing infuriates me more than hearing a designer talk about something as “an engineering problem”. You absolute bastard. Why are you designing something that you aren’t even sure will work? Why bother opening Photoshop if what you’re producing is little more than a fantasy-world mockup? Do you have any idea how little talent it takes to envision perfect solutions?</blockquote>
<p>And on the flip side...</p>
<blockquote>Not to let engineers off the hook. Guilty as charged, the lot of them. Oh yes, that problem is very hard to code. I’m so sorry you can’t Google a solution for it. Amazon no help either, huh? Forced to come up with your own solution to the problem. Well, that must just suck. Actual creative thinking. Whiteboards and late nights. God forbid you work for your paycheck.</blockquote>
Greased Lightning
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/12#lightning
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/12#lightning2008-08-12T11:33:22Z
<p>Amazing
<a href="http://gizmodo.com/5034458/slow-motion-lightning-video-is-mindblowing-will-sell-a-thousand-slo+mo-cameras"
>slow motion video</a>
of a lightning strike.</p>
<p>The lightning can be seen slowly making its way through the atmosphere, searching for a conductive channel to the ground. When it finally finds the surface, a massive bolt discharges back up towards the cloud, following the ionised path of the initial strike.</p>
User Interface Design
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/04#ui
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/04#ui2008-08-04T10:34:15Z
<p>Old but brilliant
<a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/fog0000000249.html"
>post from Joel Spolsky</a>
on the subject of user interface design:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When you design user interfaces, it's a good idea to keep two principles in mind:</p>
<ol>
<li>Users don't have the manual, and if they did, they wouldn't read it.</li>
<li>In fact, users can't read anything, and if they could, they wouldn't want to.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
Shapeways
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/01#shapeways
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/01#shapeways2008-08-01T17:23:33Z
<p>Another company offering mail-order bespoke manufacturing:
<a href="http://www.shapeways.com/about/"
>Shapeways</a>
</p>
<p>I think it's safe to say that its only a matter of time before these 3D printing technologies become cheap enough to use at home. The jury is still out on how long it will take for them to be general-purpose enough to achieve widespread appeal however.</p>
<p>Still, I'm cheered by how much the technology seems to have moved on even in the few months since I made my
<a href="/articles/printers"
>bold prediction</a>
.</p>
Bright'n'Shiny
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/01#brightnshiny
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/08/01#brightnshiny2008-08-01T14:47:56Z
<p>This may be the most insightful thing I've ever read on Rands' or any other website:
<a href="http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2008/07/22/the_taste_of_the_day.html"
>The Taste of the Day</a>
</p>
<blockquote>Humans suffer from bright'n'shiny complex, where we’re titillated by the new. Think of it like this: have you actually done anything with that last domain you bought? No. You had the idea for it on Tuesday morning and you got all fired up, so you bought the domain the moment you got in to work. At lunch you furiously doodled your design in your notebook, fully intending to get home and get started on the HTML/CSS, and then you got home… and watched Lost.</blockquote>
Disarmed but not Defeeted
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/07/31#disarmed
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/07/31#disarmed2008-07-31T10:40:01Z
<p>Impressive display of dexterity from a Chinese woman with no arms:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.elegantbay.com/main/amazingwoman.htm"
>http://www.elegantbay.com/main/amazingwoman.htm</a>
</p>
Unnecessary Knowledge
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/07/30#unkno
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/07/30#unkno2008-07-30T03:09:56Z
<p>Fun little site:
<a href="http://www.unkno.com/"
>Unnecessary Knowledge</a>
</p>
<blockquote>Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.</blockquote>
<p>Just keep clicking refresh until you get bored.</p>
StupidFilter
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/07/29#stupidfilter
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/07/29#stupidfilter2008-07-29T12:50:46Z
<p>Similar to an automatic spam or profanity filter,
<a href="http://stupidfilter.org/main/index.php?n=Main.News"
>StupidFilter</a>
attempts to provide automated filtering of comments that fall below a statistically determined intelligence level based on deviation from standard English.</p>
<p>It might be more politically correct if they called it
<em>StupidOrForeignFilter</em>
, but then again it might not.</p>
RBGL Sprites v1.0 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rbglsprites
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rbglsprites2008-07-11T17:49:23Z
<p>We've just released RBGL Sprites 1.0, a replacement
for the now-deprecated REALbasic SpriteSurface control, used for making
2D games in REALbasic.</p>
Chainsaw Maid
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/07/08#chainsawmaid
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/07/08#chainsawmaid2008-07-08T16:25:10Z
<p>Gruesome (but awesome) claymation remake of
<em>Night Of The Living Dead</em>
:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6d-tNXxTRBA&e"
>Chainsaw Maid</a>
</p>
Algorithm Ink & ContextFree.js
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/07/07#contextfree
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/07/07#contextfree2008-07-07T16:32:45Z
<p>
<a href="http://azarask.in/projects/algorithm-ink/"
>Context Free</a>
is a Logo-like drawing API implemented in JavaScript using the now-standard Canvas tag originally introduced by Apple in Safari.</p>
<p>You can read more about the language on
<a href="http://azarask.in/blog/post/contextfreejs-algorithm-ink-making-art-with-javascript/"
>Aza Raskin's blog</a>
.</p>
<p>It's a shame that Safari support is a bit sketchy, aledgedly due to missing features in Safari's Canvas implementation. It seems kind of odd that Apple's implementation of the standard is less complete than Firefox 3's, given that they invented it.</p>
E.T.A.
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/20#eta
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/20#eta2008-06-20T17:17:10Z
<p>Brilliant animated spoof of the
<em>Alien(s)</em>
films:
<a href="http://junk.chown.dk/junk.-.eta.h264.mov"
>E.T.A.</a>
</p>
<p>Warning: The film is short, but the filesize is huge.</p>
Spore Creature Creator
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/17#spore
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/17#spore2008-06-17T16:36:14Z
<p>In advance of the hotly anticipated release of
<em>Spore</em>
- the follow up game to
<em>The Sims</em>
, which will allow players to create a whole species and lead them through their entire evolution from the primordial soup into space - Maxis have released a standalone
<a href="http://www.spore.com/ftl"
>creature editor</a>
, designed to give users a taste of what Spore will be like.</p>
<p>Requires Windows XP or an Intel Mac.</p>
Bug Fuel
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/17#bugfuel
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/17#bugfuel2008-06-17T15:29:08Z
<p>it sound almost too good to be true, but according to
<em>The Times</em>
,
<a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4133668.ece"
>scientists have genetically engineered bacteria that eat waste and excrete crude oil</a>
.</p>
<p>Of course one might argue that the last thing we need right now is a way to extend the usage of fossil fuels. But running cars off bugshit has got to be better than buying it from the middle east (and directly funding terrorism in the process).</p>
Sproutcore
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/17#sproutcore
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/17#sproutcore2008-06-17T15:16:29Z
<p>After
<a href="/weblog/2008/06/09#objectivej"
>we reported</a>
a few days ago that 280 North were using a Cocoa-inspired framework for their Keynote-like webapp
<a href="http://280slides.com/"
>280 Slides</a>
,
<a href="http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/06/16/apples_open_secret_sproutcore_is_cocoa_for_the_web.html"
>Appleinsider revealed</a>
that Apple has adopted a similar system called
<a href="http://www.sproutcore.com/"
>Sproutcore</a>
for their Mobile Me system (the replacement for .mac).</p>
<p>Sproutcore started life as an independent open source project, but like much of their technological foray into the Web (including WebKit itself), Apple has adopted it, hiring the lead programmer and taking development in-house.</p>
RBGL v1.1 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rbgl
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/rbgl2008-06-16T20:12:11Z
<p>We've just released version 1.1 of RBGL, our open source graphics
library for REALbasic that leverages the OpenGL library on Mac OS and
Windows for hardware accelerated graphics.</p>
Fabrication
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/11#gina
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/11#gina2008-06-11T10:47:18Z
<p>This is really cool – BMW have produced a concept car using
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTYiEkQYhWY"
>flexible fabric instead of metal</a>
for the bodywork.</p>
<p>The car is called GINA, which presumably stands for something. I love her "eyelids".</p>
Snow Leopard
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/10#snowleopard
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/10#snowleopard2008-06-10T16:22:41Z
<p>Few people were surprised by the new 3G iPhone announcements at the WWDC conference yesterday. With many news outlets talking about the new iPhone as if it were an actual product (as opposed to just a rumour) for weeks beforehand, some people were more probably surprised to hear that it had
<em>not actually been officially announced until then</em>
.</p>
<p>More surprising and in some ways more interesting was the low-key announcement of
<a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/snowleopard/"
>Snow Leopard</a>
, Apple's next major operating system release.</p>
<p>Billed as a kind of
<em>maintenance release</em>
, Snow Leopard is going to focus on predominantly under-the-hood improvements to the OS, boosting performance and hardware utilisation by increasing the use of preemptive threading and GPU processing throughout the OS.</p>
<p>The
<em>Grand Central</em>
and
<em>OpenCS</em>
concepts in particular are intriguing. It seems that Apple has grown tired of waiting for developers to figure out how to utilise the multiple processors available in modern machines, and so has decided to do most of the work for us. Consequently Mac OS may become the first platform to truly utilise the power of modern computer hardware effectively.</p>
Objective-J
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/09#objectivej
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/09#objectivej2008-06-09T10:35:06Z
<p>Interesting new JavaScript-based technology from an outfit calling themselves
<em>280 North</em>
:</p>
<p>Objective-J is basically an implementation of Objective-C language constructs on top of the JavaScript language (Objective-C is the native language used by the Mac OS X application runtime – kind of like .NET for Mac OS).</p>
<p>On top of this language they have basically re-implemented the Cocoa GUI framework as a web-based technology (they call it Cappuccino – they're evidently not tea drinkers). Their flagship application using this system is a web-based slideshow authoring program called 280 slides, which has already been compared favourably to the Macintosh Keynote program (Apple's competitor to Powerpoint).</p>
<p>
<a href="http://ajaxian.com/archives/an-interview-with-280-north-on-objective-j-and-cappuccino"
>There's an interview with 280 North here</a>
</p>
<p>
<a href="http://280slides.com"
>You can play with 280 Slides here</a>
</p>
A child is born
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/06#reprap2
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/06#reprap22008-06-06T08:01:16Z
<p>A few weeks ago we told you about the
<a href="weblog/2008/04/12#reprap"
>RepRap</a>
rapid prototyping machine.</p>
<p>Well, on 29 May 2008 the machine managed to
<a href="http://blog.reprap.org/2008/06/reprap-achieves-replication.html"
>print a replica of itself</a>
. One would assume that this just means it printed the parts which had to be assembled, but still, it's a significant step towards a general purpose, automated 3D replicator.</p>
Eco Zoo
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/05#ecozoo
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/05#ecozoo2008-06-05T14:20:51Z
<p>A cute little
<a href="http://www.ecodazoo.com/"
>3D Flash website</a>
. If you ignore the
<em>ecotard</em>
message, the popup book idea is very cool, although it's a pity the popups haven't been done in a way that could actually be made with real paper.</p>
<p>The site is significant because Flash still
<em>can't actually do native 3D graphics</em>
. Unlike web plugins such as
<a href="http://unity3d.com/"
>unity</a>
, Flash provides no 3D drawing commands, nor any way to leverage the built-in 3D graphics hardware in modern computers. The site was made possible by the
<a href="http://blog.papervision3d.org"
>Papervision3D</a>
, an Open Source 3D engine for Flash that implements 3D rendering and texture mapping from first principles.</p>
Widgets 2.0
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/04#widget
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/04#widget2008-06-04T15:46:22Z
<p>Has anyone noticed now that the term "widget" has become a catch-all phrase for describing more or less any software component? I now hear the term used to describe any of</p>
<ul>
<li>A user interface component or control</li>
<li>An application built using some nonstandard technology, e.g. JavaScript</li>
<li>A plugin for a web site</li>
<li>A panel or sidebar on another window</li>
<li>A web service for providing any or all of the above</li>
</ul>
<p>As far as I can tell, "widget" basically means "something I haven't got a name for", like doohickey, or thingamajig, or whatchamacallit. So why is it that Yahoo can announce a "widgets API" and we are supposed to know what that means?</p>
<p>Coming soon: Google doohickeys and Microsoft thingamajigs, for all your unspecified software needs.</p>
OpenLayers
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/04#openlayers
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/04#openlayers2008-06-04T10:50:00Z
<p>Interesting new
<a href="http://openlayers.org/"
>Open source JavaScript mapping API</a>
aims to break the coupling between the implementation and the data provider.</p>
<blockquote>As a framework, OpenLayers is intended to separate map tools from map data so that all the tools can operate on all the data sources. This separation breaks the proprietary silos that earlier GIS revolutions have taught civilization to avoid. The mapping revolution on the public Web should benefit from the experience of history.</blockquote>
SquirrelFish
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/03#squirrelfish
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/03#squirrelfish2008-06-03T10:49:27Z
<p>Apparently not content with having the fastest JavaScript engine on the market, the Safari/Webkit developers have just announced
<a href="http://webkit.org/blog/189/announcing-squirrelfish/"
>Squirrelfish</a>
, the improbably-named new JS engine for Webkit that is more than half-again as fast as the version included in Safari 3.1.</p>
<p>This speed bump is signficant not just for Mac users and the ~3 users of Safari on Windows, but for mobile Internet users, where Webkit is rapidly becoming the dominant browser platform. On mobile devices, where processors are slow (Safari on the iPhone, one of the most powerful handheld Web-capable devices, was
<a href="http://www.johnmurch.com/2007/07/01/iphone-javascript-and-spec-benchmark/"
>benchmarked</a>
as being 100x slower than its desktop cousin) this speed boost could mean that a whole generation of "Web 2.0" sites now become usable on today's hardware.</p>
<p>Apart from being great news for web developers and users, the article includes a facinating discussion of the engineering process for virtual machines and bytecode interpreters.</p>
iPlayer Downloader
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/03#iplayer
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/06/03#iplayer2008-06-03T10:43:30Z
<p>Handy open source program for downloading DRM-free content from the BBC's iPlayer service (Mac OS X only):</p>
<p>
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/iplayerdownload/"
>iPlayer Downloader</a>
</p>
Google adds common JS libraries to CDN
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/28#googlelibraries
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/28#googlelibraries2008-05-28T11:49:04Z
<p>Google has added a number of popular JavaScript libraries such as Mootools and jQuery to its CDN (Content Delivery Network).</p>
<p>These files can be loaded via the
<a href="http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxlibs/documentation/index.html"
>Google AJAX API</a>
, or directly by including the URL in a web page, e.g.</p>
<p>
<a href="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/dojo/1.1.1/dojo/dojo.xd.js.uncompressed.js"
>http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/dojo/1.1.1/dojo/dojo.xd.js.uncompressed.js</a>
</p>
<p>The advantages of this over using a local copy for each site are obvious: Not only do you save bandwidth by not hosting the files yourself, but files on the Google CDN are
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_computing"
>edge cached</a>
, meaning site visitors will experience much quicker downloads. Also, if they visit multiple sites that use the same library then they will benefit from browser caching as the files will be shared.</p>
Africa objects
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/28#africaobjects
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/28#africaobjects2008-05-28T11:01:05Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/27/ooxml_sabs_iso_complaint"
>South Africa have launched an objection against the ratification of the OOXML standard</a>
.</p>
<p>We've written a number of times about the travesty that is OOXML, and whilst it comes from an unexpected quarter, South Africa's sudden outbreak of common sense is a welcome one.</p>
DimP
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/28#dimp
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/28#dimp2008-05-28T09:58:11Z
<p>From the department of
<em>cool, but what's the point?</em>
comes
<a href="http://www.aviz.fr/dimp/"
>DimP</a>
, a system that allows you to fast forward or rewind video by dragging any moving objects that appear in the frame.</p>
3D Canvas
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/27#canvas3d
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/27#canvas3d2008-05-27T10:46:04Z
<p>More impressive technology from the guy who brought you
<em>JavaScript Mario Kart</em>
:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.nihilogic.dk/labs/canvas3dtexture_0.2/"
>Javascript/Canvas Textured 3D Renderer</a>
</p>
<p>Hard to believe but all these amazing JavaScript graphics and game demos seem to be the work of
<a href="http://blog.nihilogic.dk/"
>just one person</a>
.</p>
Mamma Mia!
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/27#jsmariokart
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/27#jsmariokart2008-05-27T10:02:25Z
<p>Continuing the recent trend of ridiculously awsome things done with JavaScript, check out
<a href="http://blog.nihilogic.dk/2008/05/javascript-super-mario-kart.html"
>JavaScript Super Mario Kart</a>
.</p>
<p>It joins the proud ranks of
<a href="http://blog.nihilogic.dk/2008/04/super-mario-in-14kb-javascript.html"
>JavaScript Super Mario</a>
,
<a href="http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/"
>DHTML Lemmings</a>
,
<a href="http://www.nihilogic.dk/labs/wolf"
>JavaScript Wolfenstein 3D</a>
,
<a href="http://canvex.lazyilluminati.com/83/play.xhtml"
>JavaScript DOOM</a>
(more of a tech demo really) and the venerable
<a href="http://www.wolf5k.com"
>Wolfenstein 5K</a>
.</p>
PHP Sucks...
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/22#phpsucks
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/22#phpsucks2008-05-22T12:31:46Z
<p>...but it doesn't matter - at least according to
<a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001119.html"
>Jeff Atwood</a>
.</p>
<p>It seems that a good proportion of all the most successful web apps are written in PHP (Facebook, Digg, Wikipedia, etc.). Not bad for a language whose primary fault is that it doesn't scale well to high-load applications.</p>
<p>The similarities drawn between PHP and Basic have nothing to do with language structure as far as I can see, and everything to do with bloated namespace. There are
<em>a lot</em>
of built-in PHP functions, most of which have silly names and use inconsistent naming and parameter conventions. This is curse because I find myself having to look up every function, but a blessing because nine times out of ten the function I want is in there somewhere.</p>
<p>For what it's worth, this site is written in PHP, and it it wasn't it would probably never have been written at all.</p>
SmallWorlds
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/22#smallworlds
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/22#smallworlds2008-05-22T11:45:43Z
<p>An intriguing new online virtual world:
<a href="http://www.smallworlds.com/"
>SmallWorlds</a>
</p>
<p>Currently in closed beta, but due to be released to the public at large on Monday, SmallWorlds differs from other virtual environments such as
<a href="http://secondlife.com/"
>Second Life</a>
by being based entirely within the web browser, and integrating with other social networking websites. In effect it is more like a 3D facebook than a traditional
<acronym title="Massively Multiplayer Online Game"
>MMOG</acronym>
.</p>
<blockquote>SmallWorlds is the first web-accessible, casual virtual world which is designed for mass market appeal ... for ages 13 to 103</blockquote>
<blockquote>One of the coolest parts about SmallWorlds is the close integration it has with other Web 2.0 services. You can buy picture frames that load up images from Flickr, radios that play stations from Last.fm, and billboards that let you post and view Twitter messages.</blockquote>
WiiWare Hits Europe
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/20#wiiware
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/20#wiiware2008-05-20T15:26:46Z
<p>Good news for indie game programmers and Wii owners alike,
<a href="http://tech.uk.msn.com/gaming/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=8338964"
>WiiWare</a>
is now available in europe.</p>
<blockquote>the new WiiWare system enables videogame developers - no matter how big or small - to create exciting new downloadable games for the Nintendo Wii console. </blockquote>
Helicockter
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/20#helicockter
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/20#helicockter2008-05-20T13:08:27Z
<p>At a summit protesting the Putin administration, chess grandmaster and guest speaker Gary Kasparov was
<a href="http://waxy.org/2008/05/garry_kasparov_griefed_by_flying_penis/"
>interupted by a flying penis</a>
.</p>
<p>It was noted that the incident, known in the VR world as
<em>griefing</em>
, was similar to an attack launched on a CNET interview hosted in
<a href="http://www.somethingawful.com/d/second-life-safari/room-101-vs.php?page=3"
>Second Life</a>
in 2006.</p>
This Will Make You Feel Better
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/20#wrinkles
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/20#wrinkles2008-05-20T10:43:39Z
<p>It turns out that celebrities have wrinkles too:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.fubiz.net/blog/index.php?2008/05/19/1616-room-post-production"
>Room Post Production reel</a>
</p>
<p>Who knew?</p>
<p>Seriously though, it's quite eye opening. Everyone knows that celebrity photos are airbrushed (Photoshopped), but I'd always kind of assumed that it wasn't practical to do this for full-motion video. Seems I was wrong.</p>
Hell of Sand
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/19#sand
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/19#sand2008-05-19T16:03:43Z
<p>Amusing particle physics game:
<a href="http://andyslife.org/games/sand.php"
>Hell of Sand</a>
</p>
<p>There's no goal as such, just play around with different materials, then set them on fire.</p>
<p>Pity it's a Java applet though. I'd like to see a pure JavaScript implementation using the canvas tag or some such.</p>
Cubescape
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/16#cubescape
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/16#cubescape2008-05-16T20:39:15Z
<p>Nice little Flash app for creating isometric pixel art-esque images:
<a href="http://www.themaninblue.com/experiment/Cubescape"
>Cubescape</a>
</p>
<p>Except that it's
<em>not</em>
a Flash app at all - this is all done with JavaScript and CSS. Amazing!</p>
Bat Hat
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/16#bathat
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/16#bathat2008-05-16T12:30:49Z
<p>Dr. Kevin Warwick from Reading University has developed an
<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/theoneshow/article/2008/05/mm_echolocation.shtml"
>echo location</a>
hat for blind people. Using the same principles as a bat, it allows them to navigate via utrasonic sonar.</p>
<p>For those not familiar with his work, Warwick is the guy who's famous for
<a href="http://www.kevinwarwick.com"
>using himself as a human guinea pig</a>
for microchips implanted into the nervous system:</p>
<blockquote>Kevin has carried out a series of pioneering experiments involving the neuro-surgical implantation of a device into the median nerves of his left arm in order to link his nervous system directly to a computer in order to assess the latest technology for use with the disabled</blockquote>
Games With a Purpose
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/16#gwap
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/16#gwap2008-05-16T12:17:08Z
<p>Interesting new site:
<a href="http://gwap.com/gwap"
>gwap.com</a>
, purports to solve difficult pattern recognition problems by repackaging them as a game and getting humans to do the work.</p>
<p>This is similar to something Google did with their image search service:
<a href="http://images.google.com/imagelabeler"
>Google Image Labeler</a>
</p>
<p>It's also similar in concept to Amazon's
<a href="http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome"
>Mechanical Turk</a>
, which makes micropayments to users in return for solving simple processing tasks.</p>
<p>This all seems like a brilliant idea - I really love the concept of seemless web services where you can't tell if a problem is being solved by a computer or a person. It's similar to a concept in Neal Stephenson's
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/014027037X?ie=UTF8&tag=charcoaldesig-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=014027037X"
>The Diamond Age</a>
, where a girl's story book automatically outsources voiceover work to an actor via the Internet.</p>
Flat Mac
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/15#modbook
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/15#modbook2008-05-15T18:02:55Z
<p>This is a pretty nice idea -
<a href="http://www.axiotron.com/index.php?id=modbook"
>a tablet conversion</a>
for the MacBook.</p>
<p>It's been under development for a while, but they seem to have refined the design a bit since it's inception.</p>
<p>People have been clamouring for Apple to make a decent tablet Mac since around the time that Jobs canned the Newton. The fact that Axiotron actually went as far as to build one suggests that the market for such a thing is a reality, not just a lot of hot air.</p>
<p>The only thing that puts me off getting one is the sneaking suspicion that if it's really any good, Apple will be releasing an official model any minute now, and if they don't, it's because it isn't.</p>
How to Buy a Mac
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/14#howtobuyamac
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/14#howtobuyamac2008-05-14T23:11:15Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.macworld.com/article/133150/2008/05/macbuying.html"
>Advice on which Mac to buy</a>
from Macworld.</p>
<p>Aimed at old-gen Mac users looking to upgrade, but probably applicable for Windows users looking to make the switch.</p>
<p>The important thing to remember when buying a new Mac is that even the cheapest consumer models are now pretty powerful machines - the
<em>Macs are expensive</em>
myth seems to have sprung up because PC users are used to buying over-specced machines to compensate for all the malware, anti-malware and other crap using up processor cycles.</p>
<p>If you want to, you can easily blow 10 grand on a Mac, but you'll be buying a server or a supercomputer, not a home PC. The only upgrades worth buying for your machine are a bigger hard disk and more RAM, and if you're smart you'll buy the latter from
<a href="http://www.crucial.com"
>Crucial</a>
, not Apple.</p>
<p>Follow that principle and most machines will leave you change from £1000 (~$2000).</p>
VBA's Back, Baby
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/14#vba
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/14#vba2008-05-14T18:12:25Z
<p>The Mac Business Unit (Microsoft's internal Macintosh development team)
<a href="http://www.schwieb.com/blog/2008/05/13/saying-hello-again-to-visual-basic/"
>announced today</a>
that VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) scripting would be making a return in the next revision of Office for the Mac.</p>
<p>This is great news. I'm not a huge fan of Office, but like Photoshop it's the dominant application in its field right now, and until something better comes along, I'd like the Mac version to continue to be the best it can be.</p>
Animated Graffiti
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/14#muto
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/14#muto2008-05-14T10:00:57Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/993998"
>MUTO: a wall-painted animation by BLU </a>
</p>
<p>This is an incredible example of stop-motion animation done on a grandiose scale. I particularly like how the creature interacts with its environment, kicking over objects and eating papers on the wall.</p>
<p>The artist seems to have taken his influence from John Carpenter's
<em>The Thing</em>
, as well as the "biomechanoid" works of H.R. Giger.</p>
<p>A
<a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jfcpa_x4Lg"
>shorter version</a>
was released under the title
<em>Fantoche</em>
a few months ago.</p>
Pair Programming
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/10#pairs
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/10#pairs2008-05-10T01:12:40Z
<p>Those who've delved into the
<a href="/oss"
>depths</a>
of this site will have noticed that my programming language/development environment of choice over the years has been
<a href="http://www.realbasic.com"
>REALbasic</a>
.</p>
<p>REALbasic is by no means a perfect language. A crude description would be
<em>Visual Basic, only cross-platform and with more bugs</em>
- hardly a glowing review.</p>
<p>But the reason I use RB, apart from the ridiculous ease of creating a program and compiling it for Mac, Windows and Linux, is that it keeps extending the language with fascinating new features, borrowing not only from Java and C++, but occasionally coming up with obscure but ingenious things found only in more esoteric languages such as Ruby or Python.</p>
<p>The latest addition is a new feature called
<a href="http://ramblings.aaronballman.com/2008/05/pairs.html"
>pairs</a>
, sometimes referred to in other languages as a
<em>tuple</em>
, but essentially a form of isolated hashkey/value pair.</p>
<p>I think any hardcore software engineers out their would be well served by taking a look at RB. For all its faults (and there are many), it is much more than just a buggy VB clone, and how many other languages offer the raw low-level structs and pointers of C, the classes, interfaces, introspection and automatic memory management of Java, the simple and accessible API of Visual Basic,
<em>and</em>
offer single-click cross-platform compilation from a common code base all in the same package?</p>
One for Pixel Art Fans...
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/06#pixels
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/06#pixels2008-05-06T14:19:53Z
<p>An
<a href="http://www.lovepixel.idv.tw/"
>entire city</a>
created using pixel art (drawn by hand on a computer with a limited colour pallete and without antialiasing. Similar in the style to videogames from the 80s and 90s).</p>
Broken Robot
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/02#modular
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/05/02#modular2008-05-02T16:01:09Z
<p>A modular robot that re-assembles itself when broken apart:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIn-sMq8-Ls&eurl"
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIn-sMq8-Ls&eurl</a>
</p>
<p>Not the most impressive demo I've ever seen; It seems to take a
<em>really</em>
long time, even with the speeded up video, and it's particularly amusing at the end when it stands up and then immediately falls over and breaks into bits again.</p>
<p>Still, it's one step closer to
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo"
>grey goo</a>
, and that's both scary and cool in equal measure.</p>
Quit IT
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/30#quit
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/30#quit2008-04-30T20:57:30Z
<p>An excellent article about quitting your job:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Up-or-Out-Solving-the-IT-Turnover-Crisis.aspx"
>Up or Out: Solving the IT Turnover Crisis</a>
</p>
<p>I think it rather nicely puts paid to the job-for-life, career-minded attitude of a lot of companies, and suggests that constant movement is a good thing in technical organisations because it avoids stagnation and encourages knowledge sharing.</p>
Euphoria
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/29#euphoria
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/29#euphoria2008-04-29T17:51:24Z
<p>Incredible new
<a href="http://www.naturalmotion.com/euphoria.htm#video"
>animation system</a>
that combines artificial intelligence with physics simulation to create lifelike character movement without the need for motion capture.</p>
<p>This is really impressive. The characters dodge projectiles and grab ledges to save themselves from falling. Check out some of the
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bKphYfUk-M"
>videos</a>
of Euphoria in action in LucasArts' upcoming games.</p>
99 Monkeys on 99 Typewriters...
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/29#99designs
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/29#99designs2008-04-29T10:51:51Z
<p>The evolution of the
<a href="http://stackoverflow.com"
>stackoverflow.com</a>
site is an interesting example of
<em>"branding 2.0"</em>
.</p>
<p>After selecting a name for the site by
<a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001095.html"
>polling the developer community</a>
, they have now enlisted the help of
<a href="http://99designs.com/contests/6774"
>99designs</a>
to come up with a logo (my money's on #141).</p>
<p>Normally I'm not a fan of the
<em>community design</em>
paradigm - it's too similar to design-by-comittee, and we all know that never works. But the 99designs approach avoids this issue because whilst the designs are submitted by the public, the voting is entirely controlled by the person or persons who intitiated the competition.</p>
<p>Looking at the quality of the submissions, I think this has got to be the future of branding. A company could easily pay $500,000 to an agency and get a worse design than some of the ones here. Jeff and Joel are stumping up a mere $512 for the winner, and get hundreds of choices.</p>
Nikko R2D2
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/28#r2d2
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/28#r2d22008-04-28T14:32:05Z
<p>Nerdy, but awesome:
<a href="http://www.nikkor2d2.com"
>R2D2 Projector & Webcam</a>
</p>
<p>This is a really nice piece of kit, it looks like it has pretty much every imaginable feature. In fact if it
<em>didn't</em>
look like R2D2 it might well be the best Projector and Webcam respectively on the market.</p>
<p>Realistically though, I suspect the Star Wars theme will put a lot of potential consumers off. Shame.</p>
It's Hip to be Square
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/25#watermelon
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/25#watermelon2008-04-25T14:46:48Z
<p>Not new, apparently, but I hadn't come across these before:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.snopes.com/photos/odd/watermelon.asp"
>Square watermelons (no, really!)</a>
</p>
<p>Apparently the idea is to make more efficient use of fridge space, as well as avoiding damage due to unfortunate rolling-off-table incidents.</p>
<p>I think it's brilliant - I wonder what other things we could make into cuboids for efficiency (or amusement). Square cows perhaps?</p>
Eastern Europe
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/25#easterneurope
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/25#easterneurope2008-04-25T14:05:48Z
<p>I love this:
<a href="http://dresdencodak.com/lj/00018.jpg"
>Visualisation of Eastern Europe</a>
</p>
<p>From
<a href="http://www.dresdencodak.com"
>Dresden Codak</a>
's,
<a href="http://dresdencodak.livejournal.com/5403.html"
>LiveJournal page</a>
.</p>
Chip Shop
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/23#chipshop
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/23#chipshop2008-04-23T10:10:28Z
<p>In a surprise move, Apple has
<a href="http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/23/apple-buys-chip-p-a-semi-chip-designer-intel-says-wha/"
>just purchased</a>
P.A. Semi, a microprocessor design company.</p>
<p>It's unclear how Intel are going to take this news - after cozying up to Intel for the past year or so, Apple's sudden decision to
<em>see other people</em>
is unlikely to go down well.</p>
Grand Theft Google
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/23#googledrive
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/23#googledrive2008-04-23T10:05:51Z
<p>Nice little flash game where you drive around a Google map:
<a href="http://www.phatfusion.net/googledrive/"
>googleDrive</a>
.</p>
<p>Reminiscent of the the old top-down GTA games (minus the cop-killing and exploding cars).</p>
Microsoft Drops Support for MSN Music
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/23#msnmusic
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/23#msnmusic2008-04-23T01:01:53Z
<p>Microsoft once again demonstrates its commitment to its valued media customers by
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080422-drm-sucks-redux-microsoft-to-nuke-msn-music-drm-keys.html"
>ditching support for the MSN Music DRM service</a>
. This basically means that anyone who bought tracks on MSN will not be able to play them on any future PCs they purchase.</p>
<p>The message here in case anyone missed it is
<em>do not buy media protected by DRM</em>
unless you have a clear path for removing it, or you don't mind losing the ability to play it at some unspecified time in the future.</p>
<p>If that's too complex,
<em>don't buy any media from Microsoft</em>
is probably a good rule of thumb.</p>
Airstrike
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/22#airstrike
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/22#airstrike2008-04-22T15:06:13Z
<p>LM3Labs has created
<a href="http://www.freshcreation.com/entry/interactive_hologram_leads_to_new_ways_of_communication"
>Airstrike</a>
, a gesture-driven hologram system.</p>
<p>I'm not quite sure what the point of it is, but it's all very
<em>Star Wars</em>
.</p>
I Want One
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/22#pet
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/22#pet2008-04-22T10:10:56Z
<p>
<a href="http://xkcd.com/413/"
>Some whimsical cuteness from XKCD</a>
.</p>
<p>Every nerd secretly wants a pet with a serial port (and that doesn't shit, shed, or chew on the network cables).</p>
Hooray for Bureaucracy
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/21#ooxml
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/21#ooxml2008-04-21T13:18:08Z
<p>Just over a year ago
<a href="http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/playsforsure"
>we wrote</a>
about Microsoft's OOXML format, a dreadful specification that they were trying to get ratified as an ISO standard.</p>
<p>Anyone who has been following this sorry and sordid story will know that after initially rejecting the spec on technical grounds, almost every party eventually gave in and
<a href="http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/02#iso"
>voted yes</a>
to the standard, despite the fact that none of their concerns had been addressed.</p>
<p>Now at least part of the mystery of how this happened
<a href="http://topicmaps.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/the-norway-vote-what-really-happened/"
>has been revealed</a>
. It turns out that (in Norway at least) an 80% majority of experts is overruled by one bureaucrat.</p>
REALunit
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/realunit
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/realunit2008-04-20T16:20:46Z
<p>We've added REALunit, a new open source unit testing framework for REALbasic to our open source software page.</p>
Paypal
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/19#paypal
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/19#paypal2008-04-19T19:08:47Z
<p>Paypal is apparently
<a href="http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/PayPal-Plans-to-Ban-Unsafe-Browsers/"
>planning to ban</a>
web browsers which don't provide anti-phishing features.</p>
<p>Since phishing typically takes the form of a site pretending to be Paypal to get user's details, wouldn't they somehow need to persuade the
<em>phishing sites</em>
to block these browsers?</p>
<p>Otherwise they'll end up with the ridiculous situation that the
<em>only</em>
Paypal branded sites that some users can visit on their browser will be phishing sites.</p>
The Videogame at the End of the Universe
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/19#milliways
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/19#milliways2008-04-19T08:45:03Z
<p>A
<a href="http://waxy.org/2008/04/milliways_infocoms_unreleased_sequel_to_hitchhikers_guide_to_the_galax/"
>fascinating account</a>
of the aborted development of
<em>Milliways</em>
, the sequel to the
<em>Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy</em>
adventure game. The best bits are the design documents, written by game designers who were evidently geniuses, but quite possibly insane:</p>
<blockquote>On Magrathea is a crater left by the impact of the whale. (You don't remember the whale? Then you'll be even more confused by the petunias...)</blockquote>
<p>Even more incredible is the tale of how the author came by this information - he's somehow gotten a hold of a complete backup of Infocom's company network drive circa 1989, including all the company emails, financial documents and source code for all their games.</p>
Your Session Has Timed Out
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/18#sessions
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/18#sessions2008-04-18T16:39:49Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001100.html"
>Jeff Atwood</a>
hits the nail on the head with respect to session timeouts.</p>
<p>This is a typical example of technology driving a usability consideration. Session timeouts are
<em>not good enough</em>
as a solution to this problem. We need something better.</p>
<p>Programmers doing the same stupid thing over and over again just because it's what everyone else does is exactly what's wrong with software interface design as it stands today.</p>
Now Requires Flash
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/18#dilbert
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/18#dilbert2008-04-18T14:30:54Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.dilbert.com"
>Dilbert</a>
has gone all "Web 2.0".</p>
<p>The prominent
<em>Beta</em>
at the top of the page hardly excuses turning a simple, fast-loading site into a processor-hungry JavaScript behemoth that requires Flash to be enabled before you can view the cartoon.</p>
<p>But that's just my opinion.</p>
Dreamworks Acquires Ghost in the Shell
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/17#ghostintheshell
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/17#ghostintheshell2008-04-17T14:32:02Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.variety.com/VR1117984029.html"
>http://www.variety.com/VR1117984029.html</a>
</p>
<p>If you can get past the toe-curling insistence of the characters to wax philosophical for minutes on end about the nature of humanity, the original
<em>Ghost in the Shell</em>
anime is one of the finest examples of the genre, and a gripping high-tech thriller in its own right.</p>
<p>By removing all the Japanese cultural elements that don't translate well to a Western audience, and converting to a live action format (which the intended "adult" viewer will relate to better than a cartoon), Spielberg could have real winner on his hands here.</p>
<p>Should be interesting to see how they screw it up.</p>
stackoverflow.com
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/17#stackoverflow
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/17#stackoverflow2008-04-17T11:53:06Z
<p>Intriguing new site from Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood:
<a href="http://www.stackoverflow.com"
>stackoverflow.com</a>
</p>
<p>Not much to see yet, but
<a href="http://joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/04/16.html"
>on his blog</a>
, Joel describes the site as...</p>
<blockquote>a programming Q&A site that's free. Free to ask questions, free to answer questions, free to read, free to index, built with plain old HTML, no fake rot13 text on the home page, no scammy google-cloaking tactics, no salespeople, no JavaScript windows dropping down in front of the answer asking for $12.95 to go away"</blockquote>
<p>Sounds pretty good to me.</p>
Rockin' Our Sales
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/17#vistavideo
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/17#vistavideo2008-04-17T11:29:40Z
<p>There's something
<em>very wrong</em>
with Microsoft.</p>
<p>Here is a recent
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPv8PPl7ANU&eurl=http://www.adgabber.com/video/video/show?id=546804%3AVideo%3A91093"
>internal promotional video</a>
for Vista.</p>
<p>Don't get me wrong, I think it's great when a company can poke fun at itself. But to paraphrase
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krusty_the_Clown"
>Krusty the Klown</a>
,
<em>"it's only funny if the sap's got dignity"</em>
!</p>
<p>
<strong>Update:</strong>
In case you were thinking that this depravity was some kind of recent phenomenon at Microsoft,
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmEvPZUdAVI"
>think again</a>
.</p>
V for Vendetta
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/16#virgin
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/16#virgin2008-04-16T10:11:05Z
<p>Virgin Media has stepped over a line, and
<a href="http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2008/04/brand_dilution.html"
>Charlie Stross</a>
and
<a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/13/virgin-media-ceo-net.html"
>pals</a>
aren't happy about it.</p>
<p>Amid allegations of sniffing for router hardware and intentionally providing an inferior service to anyone using one, the CEO of Virgin Media has come right out and
<a href="http://torrentfreak.com/virgin-media-ceo-says-net-neutrality-is-a-load-of-bollocks-080413/"
>said</a>
that he's in favour of throttling the bandwidth of sites that don't pay a premium for data delivery.</p>
<p>And all this after the previous fiasco whereby Virgin
<a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/organgrinder/2007/03/sky_v_virgin_how_did_it_come_t.html"
>somehow managed to fall out with Sky</a>
, resulting in Virgin's customers permanently losing access to Sky One, and with it shows like
<em>Lost</em>
,
<em>24</em>
and
<em>Battlestar Galactica</em>
.</p>
Samorost
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/15#samorost
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/15#samorost2008-04-15T10:06:34Z
<p>Cool, quirky Flash puzzle/adventure game:
<a href="http://www.amanita-design.net/samorost-1"
>Samorost</a>
</p>
<p>Reminds me a little of
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Osmo"
>Cosmic Osmo</a>
and the other early
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard"
>Hypercard</a>
games for the Macintosh.</p>
Google TV Ads
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/15#googletv
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/15#googletv2008-04-15T09:57:31Z
<p>Google have just announced that they will be
<a href="http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6550924.html?desc=topstory"
>selling TV slots</a>
for their Internet advertising service.</p>
<p>Now anyone with a Google ads account (and a big budget) will be able to advertise their service on TV without any additional infrastructure.</p>
<p>It's a great idea, but it only serves to make me more certain that this arbitrary distinction between Internet and TV is
<a href="http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/broadcasts"
>destined to be very short lived</a>
.</p>
Five Minutes to Kill Yourself
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/14#fiveminutes
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/14#fiveminutes2008-04-14T17:58:39Z
<p>Original (if somewhat morbid) Flash game:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.adultswim.com/games/game/index.html?game=fiveMinutes"
>http://www.adultswim.com/games/game/index.html?game=fiveMinutes</a>
.</p>
Open Source Self-Replicating Printer
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/12#reprap
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/12#reprap2008-04-12T00:20:38Z
<p>A few months ago we wrote an
<a title="The Next Big Thing - our article about the future of replicator technology"
href="/articles/printers"
>article</a>
predicting
the impending rise of bespoke manufacturing technologies, specifically the 3D printer.</p>
<p>
<em>It's happening</em>
. An open source group split across the US, UK and New Zealand
has just announced the
<a href="http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/tech/2F5C3C5D68A380EDCC257423006E71CD"
>RepRap</a>
,
a 3D rapid prototyping system capable of printing its own components. It's a long way from
a general-purpose home manufacturing system, but it's definitely an important step closer.</p>
Google App Engine
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/08#appengine
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/08#appengine2008-04-08T09:26::4Z
<p>
<a href="http://code.google.com/appengine"
>http://code.google.com/appengine</a>
</p>
<blockquote>Google App Engine enables you to build web applications on the same scalable systems that power Google applications.</blockquote>
<p>Looks pretty sweet. Based on Python/Django, it provides all the back end services for building your web app + they'll host it for free (until it gets popular).</p>
Starcraft 2 "fansite kit"
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/07#fansitekit
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/07#fansitekit2008-04-07T15:11:10Z
<p>Blizzard are offering a downloadable "kit" of resources so that Starcraft fans can build their own fan sites:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://eu.starcraft2.com/downloads.xml"
>http://eu.starcraft2.com/downloads.xml</a>
</p>
<p>This is a breath of fresh air compared to the heavy handed tactics of other companies/individuals over the unauthorised use of their copyright material by fans (
<a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org/copyright/notice.cgi?NoticeID=6222"
>Apple</a>
,
<a href="http://in.ibtimes.com/articles/20071108/singer-prince-censorship-copyright-lyrics.htm"
>Prince</a>
).</p>
<p>Between the accessible and innovative use of technology on the Starcraft 2 web site (unobtrusive JavaScript and Flash, client side XSL), the
<a href="http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/07#innovation"
>innovative approach to product development and quality control</a>
and the friendly and encouraging attitude to fans, I’m absolutely blown away by Blizzard. I think a lot of companies could learn a thing or two from them.</p>
11 Innovation Lessons
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/07#innovation
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/07#innovation2008-04-07T14:10:22Z
<p>
<a href="http://innovation.freedomblogging.com/2008/04/04/11-innovation-lessons-from-creators-of-world-of-warcraft/"
>Innovation lessons</a>
from Blizzard (makers of World of Warcraft):</p>
<p>"9. DEMAND EXCELLENCE OR YOU'LL GET MEDIOCRITY"</p>
<p>They don’t say what to do when you demand excellence but still get mediocrity – still, seems like some good thinking here.</p>
Calligraphy
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/07#calligraphy
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/07#calligraphy2008-04-07T13:45:32Z
<p>Smashing Magazine
<a href="http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/04/07/beautiful-handwriting-lettering-and-calligraphy"
>mourns the death of hand-penned calligraphy</a>
.</p>
<p style="font-family:apple chancery,Edwardian Script ITC;font-size:2em;"
>If only there was some way to simulate beautiful calligraphy on a computer...</p>
<p style="font-family:apple chancery,Edwardian Script ITC;font-size:2em;"
>Oh well.</p>
Beautiful New Coinage from the Royal Mint...
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/03#coinage
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/03#coinage2008-04-03T10:20:44Z
<p>… and a new five dollar bill in the States that looks like a kindergarten finger painting experiment:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=93"
>http://www.typography.com/ask/showBlog.php?blogID=93</a>
</p>
Outside
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/02#outside
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/02#outside2008-04-02T16:02:49Z
<p>A
<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/70365/The-Myth-of-the-Media-Myth-Games-and-NonGamers#2063862"
>candid review</a>
of the popular game
<em>Outside</em>
:</p>
<blockquote>The physics system is note-perfect (often at the expense of playability)... The real fundamental problem with the game is that there is
<em>nothing to do</em>
.</blockquote>
<p>Brilliant!</p>
Oh... Bollocks
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/02#iso
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/02#iso2008-04-02T13:36:13Z
<p>Well that’s
<em>all</em>
we needed:
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/02/ooxml_iso_approved/"
>ISO approves OOXML</a>
</p>
<p>If only Microsoft had spent half as much money on actually fixing the giant, man-eating holes in their specification as they have on bribing state officials into ratifying it...</p>
Who Ate All the Pies?
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/02#fatwednesday
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/04/02#fatwednesday2008-04-02T12:12:39Z
<p>Today is officially the
<a href="http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2795654.html"
>fattest day of the year</a>
.</p>
<p>Funny, I don't
<em>feel</em>
any heavier...</p>
Quantum Sleeper
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/03/28#quantumsleeper
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/03/28#quantumsleeper2008-03-28T17:02:14Z
<p>
<a href="http://gizmodo.com/373321/quantum-sleeper-rest-well-in-the-face-of-terrorism"
>Rest Well in the Face of Terrorism</a>
</p>
<p>I loved this, from the comments below the article:</p>
<blockquote>In a really bad disaster we remain both superpositionally alive and dead inside the Quantum Sleeper until someone opens it up. Especially if you take your cat inside.</blockquote>
<p>Genius!</p>
BigDog: Amazingly Lifelike Robot Dog
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/03/20#bigdog
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/03/20#bigdog2008-03-20T11:47:37Z
<p>The motion of
<a title="Video of BigDog in action"
href="http://gizmodo.com/368651/new-video-of-bigdog-quadruped-robot-is-so-stunning-its-spooky"
>this thing</a>
is incredible</p>
<p>It does look ever-so-slightly like two blokes in a suit though.</p>
<p>
<strong>Update:</strong>
Seems
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJZVZFRFJc"
>I wasn't the only one who noticed</a>
</p>
The Big Word Project
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/28#bigwordproject
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/28#bigwordproject2008-02-28T09:17:06Z
<p>A kind of viral marketing dictionary... or something...</p>
<p>Pay $1 per letter for the ad word of your choice:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.thebigwordproject.com"
>http://www.thebigwordproject.com</a>
</p>
<p>Stake your claims now, it may be the next
<a href="http://milliondollarhomepage.com"
>million dollar homepage</a>
.</p>
Lego Universe
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/26#lego
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/26#lego2008-02-26T09:06:13Z
<p>Best idea for an MMO ever:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/02/lego-universe-l.html"
>http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/02/lego-universe-l.html</a>
</p>
<p>The best part is that you can take any model you build virtually in the game and Lego will send you the parts and instructions to build it.</p>
<p>Is it possible that Lego has
<em>finally</em>
found a way to make itself relevant in the digital age? I hope so.</p>
Castle in Colour: Optical Illusion
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/25#illusion
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/25#illusion2008-02-25T09:05:28Z
<p>This is a nice trick:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.johnsadowski.com/big_spanish_castle.php"
>http://www.johnsadowski.com/big_spanish_castle.php</a>
</p>
Source Fource
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/22#sourcefource
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/22#sourcefource2008-02-22T15:44:46Z
<p>Ill-conceived marketing concept from Microsoft:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/hero/sfbio"
>http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/hero/sfbio</a>
</p>
<p>Is it me, or do they look like Lego people? Only... you know... shit.</p>
<p>
<strong>Update:</strong>
It seems they've improved them a bit. You can see the woeful originals
<a href="http://www.slipperybrick.com/2008/02/microsoft-source-fource"
>here</a>
.</p>
Slow News Day?
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/18#darkness
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/18#darkness2008-02-18T12:39:28Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.theonion.com/content/node/45792"
>http://www.theonion.com/content/node/45792</a>
</p>
<blockquote>Millions of eyewitnesses watched in stunned horror Tuesday as light emptied from the sky, plunging the U.S. and neighboring countries into darkness</blockquote>
That's Not a Warning Message...
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/07#warning
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/02/07#warning2008-02-07T11:09:17Z
<p>
<em>
<a href="http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/THIS-is-a-Warning-Message!.aspx"
>This</a>
</em>
is a warning message!</p>
It's Fast, and it's Free
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/01/29#netnewswire
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/01/29#netnewswire2008-01-29T09:49:07Z
<p>Brent Simmons describes the creative process behind the UI for NetNewsWire's syncing interface:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://inessential.com/?comments=1&postid=3468"
>http://inessential.com/?comments=1&postid=3468</a>
</p>
<p>Interesting reading for UI junkies.</p>
NASA MMO
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/01/28#nasa
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/01/28#nasa2008-01-28T10:20:03Z
<p>NASA is making an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online videogame)</p>
<p>
<a href="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/nasa-seeks-inpu.html"
>http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/nasa-seeks-inpu.html</a>
<br></br>
<a href="http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/would-you-play.html"
>http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/01/would-you-play.html</a>
</p>
<p>First thoughts:
<em>Cool</em>
and... er...
<em>why?</em>
</p>
The 2007 Darwin Awards
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/01/14#darwin07
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/01/14#darwin072008-01-14T14:39:24Z
<p>
<a href="http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2007.html"
>http://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin2007.html</a>
</p>
<blockquote>Named in honor of Charles Darwin, the father of evolution, the Darwin Awards commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it.</blockquote>
Story of the iPhone
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/01/11#iphone
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2008/01/11#iphone2008-01-11T11:42:03Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone"
>http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone</a>
</p>
<blockquote>Engineers, frazzled from all-night coding sessions, quit, only to rejoin days later after catching up on their sleep.</blockquote>
<blockquote>A product manager slammed the door to her office so hard that the handle bent and locked her in; it took colleagues more than an hour and some well-placed whacks with an aluminum bat to free her.</blockquote>
Three Columns of Idiocy
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/17#3columns
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/17#3columns2007-12-17T09:22:32Z
<p>This is going to be unpopular, but the man has a point...</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.andyrutledge.com/bad-layout-conventions.php"
>http://www.andyrutledge.com/bad-layout-conventions.php</a>
</p>
Defending the Indefensible
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/opera
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/opera2007-12-15T20:07:22Z
<p>Many users and developers alike would like to see Microsoft improve its
browser, or replace it with something better, but should this really be a
legal matter? Is it right to force them to do this in a court of law?</p>
Infestation
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/14#infestation
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/14#infestation2007-12-14T16:52:29Z
<p>Eww...</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/14/wii_attracts_cockroaches"
>http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/14/wii_attracts_cockroaches</a>
</p>
<p>Who'd have imagined that leaving wii on your carpet would be a health hazard?</p>
Fun with Windows
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/14#con
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/14#con2007-12-14T16:48:42Z
<p>Here's some fun things that you can (or rather can't) do in Windows:</p>
<p>Try creating a folder called "con". Try it, anywhere on your desktop or inside any folder. You can't. Same goes for any of the following:</p>
<p>prn, aux, nul, com1, com2, com3, ... com9, lpt1</p>
<p>You can't make a folder with any of these names. Think that's strange? Try this:</p>
<p>Create a new text file and type "this app can break" in it without the quotes or any leading/trailing space.</p>
<p>Now open the file in Notepad (if you created it in Notepad, close it then open it again).</p>
<p>Weird huh?</p>
Corporate Blogging
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/10#blogcouncil
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/10#blogcouncil2007-12-10T09:24:10Z
<p>Airbag Industries discusses the new corporate blogging thinktank
<em>The Blog Council</em>
:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.airbagindustries.com/archives/airbag/fail.php"
>http://www.airbagindustries.com/archives/airbag/fail.php</a>
</p>
<blockquote>That's perfect! As long as you keep doing that, you'll always need your stupid councils to discuss why the cool kids think you're an idiot. Well played, asshats.</blockquote>
<p>Ouch.</p>
Jumpchart - Interactive wireframing tool
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/10#jumpchart
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/10#jumpchart2007-12-10T09:15:35Z
<p>This seems pretty cool:
<a href="http://www.jumpchart.com"
>http://www.jumpchart.com</a>
</p>
<p>An online tool for designing the structure and content of a web site without any messing around in Visio.</p>
<p>Once you're done, it exports a clean XHTML/CSS framework from which to begin building the site itself.</p>
Google Optimised for iPhone
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/07#google4iphone
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/07#google4iphone2007-12-07T11:59:26Z
<p>
<a href="http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2007/12/05/alook-at-googles-new-iphone-portal"
>A look at Google's new iPhone portal</a>
</p>
<p>Looks pretty sweet, but doesn't appear to work on the iPod Touch yet.</p>
<p>
<strong>Update:</strong>
I stand corrected. In the UK you just have to go to
<a href="http://www.google.com/m"
>http://www.google.com/m</a>
, otherwise it redirects you to google.co.uk, which doesn’t have the new interface (yet).</p>
An Analogue Lock
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/06#dmca
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/06#dmca2007-12-06T20:16:11Z
<p>A nice
<a href="http://www.wellingtongrey.net/miscellanea/archive/2007-12-04--DMCA/2007-12-04-on-the-digital-millenium-copyright-act.html"
>slideshow</a>
illustrating both the illogicality of software licence agreements, and the terrifying implications of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act when applied to the real world.</p>
Flickrshop
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/05#flickrshop
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/05#flickrshop2007-12-05T13:43:48Z
<p>Flickr adds photo editing tools:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://blog.flickr.com/2007/12/05/edit-your-photos-on-flickr"
>http://blog.flickr.com/2007/12/05/edit-your-photos-on-flickr</a>
</p>
<p>Nice.</p>
Not Invented Here
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/05#perlonrails
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/12/05#perlonrails2007-12-05T12:11:29Z
<p>
<a href="http://iamseb.com/seb/2007/12/perl-on-rails-why-the-bbc-fails-at-the-internet"
>Perl on Rails - why the BBC fails at the Internet</a>
</p>
<p>If the last 60-odd years of software engineering science have taught us anything, it's that software problems are hard enough to solve already without needing make extra work for yourself.</p>
<p>If a tool already exists that will solve your problem, use it. I'm sure Perl is great, but if you want to use Ruby on Rails then use it, don't rewrite it.</p>
Cheeky Mac Banner Ad
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/21#cheeky
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/21#cheeky2007-11-21T11:09:41Z
<p>Captured on YouTube:
<a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRAUlK8_2VE"
>http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRAUlK8_2VE</a>
</p>
<p>
<em>Note that I say this as a long-term Mac user:</em>
</p>
<ol>
<li>It is a very bad idea to advertise yourself by saying how bad your competitor's product is. People don't buy something just because an unrelated product is shit.</li>
<li>It is especially pointless since the Mac platform doesn't directly compete with Vista - they even advertise the fact that you can run Vista on a Mac as a selling point.</li>
<li>Leopard could have been a lot better - they really dropped the ball on that one, promising a lot and delivering very little (at least from a consumer standpoint).</li>
<li>The ad was still funny.</li>
</ol>
Software Thievery
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/15#thievery
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/15#thievery2007-11-15T09:12:09Z
<p>
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7094764.stm"
>'Virtual theft' leads to arrest</a>
</p>
<blockquote>A Dutch teenager has been arrested for allegedly stealing virtual furniture from 'rooms' in Habbo Hotel, a 3D social networking website.</blockquote>
<p>It's not that strange if you think about it, "stealing" virtual property is no different from "stealing" an mp3 file or a copy of Photoshop, and there are people serving jail terms for doing the latter.</p>
<p>In fact one might reasonably argue that the term "theft" is more accurately applied in the former case, since the rules of the game world make it impossible to copy someone’s sword without depriving them of it, whereas in the real world one can duplicate digital goods without depriving their original owner of their use.</p>
Human Pong, Tetris
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/14#humanpong
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/14#humanpong2007-11-14T11:31:54Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QNI3W8UB-s"
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QNI3W8UB-s</a>
</p>
<p>(Headphones or speakers needed for full effect)</p>
Facebook Ad Profiles
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/14#facebook
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/14#facebook2007-11-14T09:32:50Z
<blockquote>Coca-Cola, Dove and The New York Times are among a cluster of brands who have
<a href="http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/News%20Article.aspx?REF=652&IsArchive=false"
>signed up to a new ad system on Facebook</a>
which enables advertisers to have their own profile page.</blockquote>
<p>Apparently, the future of advertising is being repeatedly "poked" by a company until you agree to buy their product.</p>
The March of the Avatars
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/08#avatars
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/08#avatars2007-11-08T16:10:30Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.collings.co.za/2007/11/the-march-of-th.html"
>http://www.collings.co.za/2007/11/the-march-of-th.html</a>
</p>
<blockquote>Gives some credibility to the prediction by Gartner Consulting that by 2011, 80% of active Internet users will have an avatar.</blockquote>
<p>Okay, try to set aside the idea of Gartner having credibility for a moment. If 80% of people will have an avatar, does that extend to brands as well?</p>
<p>I have a sudden mental image of a virtual Ronald McDonald getting cornered in a dark alley in Second life and having the shit kicked out of him by the Burger King mascot.</p>
Domino village
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/08#guinness
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/08#guinness2007-11-08T13:29:45Z
<p>New Guinness advert -
<a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2414766965290456479"
>Domino village</a>
</p>
<p>I thought it was a bit disappointing to be honest. I much preferred the
<a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6006084025483872237"
>Honda ad</a>
, which was filmed as a single shot.</p>
<p>The Guinness one just seems to be a collection of loosely related sequences - it doesn't even appear as if there is any attempt at continuity.</p>
<p>It also completely spoils the message - "Good things come to those who wait... but we couldn't be bothered to wait so we'll just cut to the final scene".</p>
Stick Shift
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/07#carrot
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/07#carrot2007-11-07T13:04:50Z
<p>A driving instructor had a 12-inch carrot in his trousers when he gave a woman a lesson,
<a href="http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1810975.mostviewed.driving_instructor_hid_carrot_in_his_trousers.php"
>a court was told yesterday</a>
.</p>
<blockquote>The woman, who accused him of groping her breasts on three occasions between August 2005 and February last year...</blockquote>
<p>He must have been a
<em>fantastic</em>
instructor if she got in a car with him again after he'd groped her on two previous occasions.</p>
Three Legged Legs animation
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/06#threeleggedlegs
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/06#threeleggedlegs2007-11-06T14:31:08Z
<p> It's not exactly
<em>An Inconvenient Truth</em>
, but it's very nicely produced:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.threeleggedlegs.com/repertoire/humans"
>http://www.threeleggedlegs.com/repertoire/humans</a>
</p>
<blockquote>...we hate the human species. Really we do.</blockquote>
<p>You've gotta love militant environmentalists!</p>
3D TV becomes reality
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/05#3dtv
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/05#3dtv2007-11-05T15:31:54Z
<p>
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/jul/19/newmedia.guardianweeklytechnologysection"
>3D television without glasses or headsets</a>
</p>
<p>It’s annoying that there’re no pictures to go with the article.</p>
<p>I mean, I understand if Orange didn’t let them take photos, but they could have at least put in some pictures of an ordinary TV as an illustration – it’s not like we’d know the difference…</p>
Rimvertising
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/02#rimvertising
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/02#rimvertising2007-11-02T13:15:20Z
<p>Let no empty space go unsponsored:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://ledwheels.com/ledwheels.htm"
>http://ledwheels.com</a>
</p>
<p>...and a similar idea for bike spokes:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.ladyada.net/make/spokepov"
>http://www.ladyada.net/make/spokepov</a>
</p>
Sci-fi Wi-fi
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/01#eye-fi
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/11/01#eye-fi2007-11-01T13:38:00Z
<p>You can now buy a 2GB SD memory card with built-in wi-fi to upload/download your images:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/B000X27XDC"
>Eye-Fi Card, Wireless 2 GB SD Memory Card</a>
</p>
<p>Did I miss a couple of generations of technology or something? I mean, seriously,
<em>how is that possible?</em>
</p>
New Zunes
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/31#youmakeityou
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/31#youmakeityou2007-10-31T17:01:01Z
<p>Microsoft raises the bar in incomprehensible tag lines:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://zuneinsider.com/archive/2007/11/01/you-make-it-you-new-zune-ad-campaign-launches-tonight.aspx"
>"You make it you"</a>
</p>
<p>…I make what me?</p>
Ear, What're You Lookin' At?
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/11#ear
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/11#ear2007-10-11T17:04:29Z
<p>What is it with artists and ears? First Van Gogh, and now this...</p>
<p>
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7039821.stm"
>Performer gets third ear for art</a>
</p>
<blockquote>Cyprus-born Stelios Arcadiou, known as Stelarc, says his extra ear, made of human cartilage, is an augmentation of the body's form.</blockquote>
Human LCD
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/11#humandisplay
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/11#humandisplay2007-10-11T11:14:02Z
<p>Korea unveils its new widescreen display technology:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=453_1191345802&p=1"
>http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=453_1191345802&p=1</a>
</p>
Zero Punctuation
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/10#zeropunctuation
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/10#zeropunctuation2007-10-10T10:27:24Z
<p>Without doubt,
<em>the best</em>
review you will see of Halo 3:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/zeropunctuation/2304-Zero-Punctuation-Halo-3"
>Zero Punctuation: Halo 3</a>
</p>
How did THAT get in there...
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/05#nude
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/05#nude2007-10-05T09:54:11Z
<blockquote>Schoolchildren in the US state of Ohio were left bemused after images of nude women were shown in a politician's lecture on the legislative process.</blockquote>
<p>
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7028389.stm"
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7028389.stm</a>
</p>
<p>His eyes... my God,
<em>look at his eyes...</em>
</p>
Ballmer Sells Windows
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/04#ballmer
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/04#ballmer2007-10-04T09:01:16Z
<p>Would you buy a used operating system from this man?</p>
<p>
<a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk"
>http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tGvHNNOLnCk</a>
</p>
reCAPTCHA
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/02#recaptcha
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/10/02#recaptcha2007-10-02T13:39:01Z
<p>Nice idea - using spam CAPTCHAs to aid in the process of digitising old documents:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://recaptcha.net"
>http://recaptcha.net</a>
</p>
Technology of the Future
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/09/11#future
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/weblog/2007/09/11#future2007-09-11T11:31:01Z
<p>...from the point of view of the past:</p>
<p>
<a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4796674762025998102"
>http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=479667476202599810</a>
</p>
MagiCal 1.1 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/magical1-1
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/magical1-12007-08-15T02:21:14Z
<p>We've just released a major update to our popular MagiCal menu
bar clock and calendar. Almost every feature has been enhanced
and polished - even the icon!</p>
Parsing and Tokenizing Libraries
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/parser
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/parser2007-07-29T19:26:13Z
<p>We've added new open source libraries to our REALbasic source page,
including classes for tokenizing and parsing complex formatted strings
such as programming languages and structured data.</p>
An Unachievable Goal?
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/ai
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/ai2007-07-23T20:07:22Z
<p>According to Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple), "we never will see a robot
that makes a cup of coffee". Could he be right? Is it possible that AI is
an unachievable dream? That we will never see robots that can even perform
basic household chores, let alone outsmart us?</p>
The Forecast for Broadcasts
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/broadcasts
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/broadcasts2007-07-20T19:21:56Z
<p>Just as video killed the radio star, the Internet is set to
kill radio, TV, and telephone, or at least change them beyond recognition.
It's just a matter of time. This article details why scheduled broadcasting is
about to fall hard, and what we can expect to replace it.</p>
Where are the Widgets?
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/widgets
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/widgets2007-07-19T21:12:31Z
<p>When Steve Jobs announced that Apple had provided a 3rd party development
environment for the iPhone, he was met with rapturous applause. This soon
turned to scorn when he revealed that the "development environment" was really
just a web browser. But was this scorn justified, or are web apps the
future for the iPhone?</p>
The Drive of Progress
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/stross
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/stross2007-05-17T13:11:23Z
<p>Acclaimed science fiction author Charles Stross has published his
predictions for how our future will be shaped by technology. In his books he
describes a fabulous utopian future, but his vision of how imminent
technologies will change our lives demands a sacrifice of personal
freedoms that I find difficult to stomach...</p>
It's a Mini Adventure
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/mini
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/mini2007-05-11T01:20:57Z
<p>When Apple released the new line of Intel Minis a year ago I decided
to take the plunge and buy one for use as a media
centre or
<em>living room PC</em>
. In some ways it has surpassed
my expectations, and in others I've been bitterly disappointed.
Here is the good, bad and ugly of the
<em>Media Centre Mini</em>
...</p>
How the Mighty Have Fallen
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/microsoft
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/microsoft2007-04-11T19:55:01Z
<p>According to Paul Graham, Microsoft is dead. So if he's right, what killed them?
And what conclusions can we draw from this? Was Microsoft just too slow to keep
up with the advances around them, or was their vision of the future fundamentally
flawed from the start?</p>
New Bug Tracking System
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/bugtracker
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/bugtracker2007-03-23T01:30:07Z
<p>We've overhauled our bug reporting and feature request systems with a
brand new interactive bug tracking database.</p>
Spacial Awareness
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/spacial
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/spacial2007-03-20T18:13:02Z
<p>Mozilla has been used as the basis of a revolutionary web browser and email
client. Now it seems set to take on the operating system too. But is the Mozilla
brand of innovation really what is needed to inject new life into desktop operating
systems, or do we need to look backwards, not forwards to make progress...?</p>
Subscriber 1.1 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/subscriber1-1
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/subscriber1-12007-03-19T00:11:01Z
<p>Subscriber 1.1 is now out of beta, and comes loaded with a few new
goodies including full support for Intel macintoshes, and a shiny new icon!</p>
PicTiles on MacZot
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/maczot
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/maczot2007-03-16T18:25:39Z
<p>Our Popular puzzle game
<strong>PicTiles</strong>
will be appearing
on
<a href="http://www.maczot.com/"
>macZOT</a>
this weekend, at the
special discount price of $9.99!</p>
Patently Ridiculous
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/patents
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/patents2007-03-07T20:07:19Z
<p>For 500 years the patents system has protected innovation by allowing
inventors to capitalise on their ideas. But with the changing pace of technology,
and the rise of patents for software concepts and algorithms, are cracks
appearing in this venerable institution...?</p>
The Next Big Thing
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/printers
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/printers2007-03-05T20:07:19Z
<p>In the last 25 years we have seen a number of key technologies emerge that
have revolutionised how we work, play and interact with each other. Could these
innovations be part of a grander design? And if so, what's the next piece
in the puzzle...?</p>
Review on Apple Matters
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/applematters
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/applematters2007-02-28T21:55:39Z
<p>Apple Matters has posted a review of our freeware utilities
MagiCal and Shades, along with a mini-bio of Charcoal Design's founder
and chief software engineer Nick Lockwood.</p>
PicTiles 1.1 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/pictiles1-1
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/pictiles1-12007-02-02T00:35:31Z
<p>We've just released a major update to our popular PicTiles puzzle game,
which includes Intel processor support, as well as many other
enhancements.</p>
Standard Bearers
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/playsforsure
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/playsforsure2007-01-29T21:48:11Z
<p>For most of its history, Microsoft has relied on a mix
of secrecy and litigation to protect the workings of
its software and file formats. In light of mandates prohibiting
the use of proprietary formats for government documents, Microsoft
has pledged to change its ways... but has it?</p>
Viva Amiga
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/amiga
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/amiga2007-01-23T10:46:21Z
<p>The Amiga, a cherished computing platform from the 80s - 90s era, which
was finally killed off by the dominance of the PC market, may be
about to undergo a revival with the release of
Amiga OS 4. But is a new OS release really the best way to continue
the Amiga legacy?</p>
MagiCal 1.0 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/magical
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/magical2007-01-06T18:31:14Z
<p>We've just released MagiCal, a
<strong>FREE</strong>
menu-based clock
and calendar program for Mac OS X. MagiCal provides a range of time and date
display options, and can operate in conjunction with, or as a replacement
for, the system menu clock.</p>
Shades 1.1 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/shades1-1
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/shades1-12006-12-18T01:29:47Z
<p>We've just released a major update to our popular Shades application,
which includes many new features requested by our users.</p>
Shades 1.0 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/shades
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/shades2006-11-24T06:45:47Z
<p>We've released a new software product called Shades. Shades is a
<strong>FREE</strong>
utility for adjusting monitor brightness on your
Macintosh. It can be used as a compliment to the built-in brightness
controls of many Macintosh machines, offering a greater dynamic range
and finer control.</p>
Open Source
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/source
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/source2006-11-22T18:15:29Z
<p>We've added a new open source page to the software section of our site.
We believe that open source software is a great way to encourage innovation
and progress within the developer community, and for this reason we have
decided to provide the source code for our in-house tools and experiments...</p>
Just Say No!
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/ie7
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/ie72006-11-09T21:14:08Z
<p>When Microsoft announced that they were finally updating the
aged Internet Explorer with a new version, many were initially
skeptical. Could this be a glorious turn in the road for the world's
worst (and most popular) browser, or would this be just another
rushed-out bodge job like IE6 before it...?</p>
Six Word Limit? That's Easy, I'll...
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/sixwords
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/sixwords2006-10-26T06:13:37Z
<p>Wired recently ran an article in which they challenged some
contemporary sci-fi and fantasy authors to produce interesting
literary works in a maximum of six words, with some amusing
results. I thought it might be fun to join in, so here are my
efforts...</p>
A Hard(ware) Act to Follow
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/hardware
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/hardware2006-10-23T21:48:13Z
<p>Gartner, a prominent industry analyst believes that Apple
would be better off if it abandoned the hardware business
and concentrated on selling OS X to the established PC user
base. Is this really the way forward for Apple? And if not, why
do people keep thinking they know how to run Apple better than
Apple does...?</p>
Pink for October
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/pink
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/pink2006-10-13T12:11:06Z
<p>
<a href="http://pinkforoctober.org"
>Pinkforoctober.org</a>
has been set up
in order to bring attention to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, get people
talking about breast cancer, and raise money for research. Like many
others, Charcoal Design will be adopting a pink hue for the duration of
the month of October...</p>
Web Site Relaunched
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/relaunch
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/relaunch2006-10-13T02:22:21Z
<p>We hope you all like the new-look site. After languishing in development
hell for several years, and after several redesigns which never saw the light
of day, Charcoal Design is now officially open for business. The new site
features a number of enhancements, which we will be adding to over the next
few weeks...</p>
Pipette 1.0 Released
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/pipette
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/news/pipette2006-10-07T22:00:11Z
<p>We're proud to announce the release of a new product called Pipette.
Pipette is a
<strong>FREE</strong>
utility for web developers
and digitial artists that allows you to take colour readings from anywhere
on the screen, and return the colour value in the right format for pasting
into Photoshop or any web page. Download it now...</p>
Read it and Weep
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/reader
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/reader2006-09-27T19:02:01Z
<p>Sony recently unveiled its new e-book reader, imaginatively
entitled the
<em>Sony Reader</em>
. I have to admit that when I
saw it my first thought was that this was the coolest thing
I'd seen. Sadly, a closer examination reveals a lack of
design forethought - a shame because it is clear that the
technology has real potential...</p>
So Wwwhat's the Point?
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/www
http://www.charcoaldesign.co.uk/articles/www2006-09-14T21:32:49Z
<p>No-www.org have taken a stand against the largely redundant
requirement of many websites that you prefix their domain with
www. While I applaud their efforts to save us all several
characters worth of typing every day, I believe that they
have missed out on some more subtle benefits of the www
prefix...</p>