I have an iPhone and the Flash incompatibility drives me nutz. Personally, I thought Flash would be perfect for smartphones … well …I hope Adobe gets it’s act together because the mobile devices are taking over and it would make this Flash-Monkey (that is me) very happy (Snowball Sim for everyone!!!). Here’s a link to an article with a little blurb on the matter.
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Omari’s Sister Translations is Live
Omari’s Sister Translations is live at:
http://translations.omarissister.com
I have only posted the chapters 4 and 5 of “Zettai Heiwa Daisakusen.” I will post chapter 6 tomorrow and chapter 7 later. I’m currently in the process of translating chapter 8 (I’ve been slowed by putting up the website — hahaha!).
Anyhow, I got to play around with some Javascript. I used a modified version of the 3-state button code from the Negrino and Smith Javascript book and I did fierce battle with the tabbed panel script that comes with Dreamweaver. I started playing around with a drop down menu for the chapter selection, but I decided that wasn’t necessary and went with links in the right side secondary menu column. I felt it was better to get to the point, rather than have the user hunt around the UI looking for a way to read the chapter they want. Yep … I had to remind myself to keep it simple.
Next is the tough part because I have to do specific page layout styles to fulfill the assignment requirements. The current website uses a hybrid style. I still have to make a page in which everything is liquid and one that is completely fixed. My feeling is that form follows function so I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about matching functions for those forms. I think for the liquid layout I will modify an existing page for mobile devices. This makes sense to me because you don’t know how the different mobile browsers will render the page, so if it done as a liquid layout, the page will fill the width given. As for the fixed, the only thing that comes to mind is a “print friendly” page. So … whoo-hoo! A “print friendly” might be a good opportunity to play with PHP … hmmm …
Anyhow, check it out. I like the way it turned out :).
Movie Review: Watchmen
The movie “Watchmen” is a pretty rambling mess. I didn’t read the graphic novel, but I understand that it’s long and rambly too (which is why I didn’t read it) and that there is simply too much content to try to shove into a movie. Still, though, I felt there was about an hour of film that could have been left on the editing floor — in particular, most of the prison scene and the gratuitous full nude sex scene. I will give the movie credit for being really pretty and recommend it only for that. Also, the overall story is a very good moral tale that reminded me of “Code Geass: The Lelouch Rebellion”
Now some warnings to anyone thinking of taking their kids to this movie:
- The gore this movie is very intense in terms of content and theme. There were scenes in this movie that made me nauseous.
- There is gratuitous full nude sex scene in this movie
- Dr. Manhattan walks around without his undies A LOT, so there a rendered full frontal shoots of him and his man parts.
I’m surprised this movie wasn’t rated NC17.
Twitter Logo Artist Paid $6
Here’s an article from Wired about how the Twitter “Bird” was purchased from iStockphoto for $10 – $15. Apparently some graphic designers aren’t happy about sites like iStockphoto and crowdsourcing in general. This sounds to me like the same whining coming out of the mouths of developers upset about 99-cents iPhone applications. With respect to this, the Twitter artist, Simon Oxley said:
“I believe a designer can only be ‘hurt’ when they stand in line — instead of constantly seeking new inspiration and producing new things with their ever-increasing experiences.”
I couldn’t agree more. Sell your creativity. However, I do believe Twitter needs to credit Mr. Oxley for his design on their website.
2009 Expected to be a Good Year for Smartphones
At least somebody has something to look forward to this year. Garter expects with the new smartphones coming out of various manufacturers, sales of smartphones will jump 28% this year, despite an overall contraction of the cellphone market. I imagine given the tight economy, people who just want a basic cellphone are sticking with the ones they have (like my parents). However, as alternatives to the iPhone come out, it’s always nice to splurge a couple hundred dollars on yourself, even during these tough times. I imagine, also, that as people replace their cellphones, a good many of them will be upgrading to smartphones. With the exception of the cost of the handset, the cost of service isn’t that different and with a smartphone, customers really get a noticeable boost in the capability that makes up for the increased cost. Here’s a link to the Washington Post article with more details.
More Rambling 