Today I followed the cue of the rest of the web and installed a new theme on my blog for mobile devices. If you are viewing this post on an iPhone, iPod or Android touch mobile device, then you probably already knew that. If not, check it out some time and let me know what you think
People close to me know how often I complain about websites which install mobile versions. “I paid $500 so I could have a device capable of viewing your regular website just fine. Why do you force me to use this broken, useless imitation of a website?”
Lifehacker.com is a classic example of a site which installed a mobile theme because it was trendy but which is also broken and unusable. All links in the original post are removed from the mobile version (wtf?) and images are gone too. To top it off they have a “view classic Lifehacker” link at the top but this takes you to the home page, not the post you were viewing. Clicking on the post from the home page then takes you back to the mobile version >.< I still go there on my iPhone from time to time, but a piece of me dies every time
You’ll be happy to know that my mobile version does not have any of these issues (if you find issues, please let me know). I am using a very well made Wordpress plugin called WPtouch which does a great job of handling the mobile version of things without effecting my primary theme. The best part is, if you don’t like the mobile version, you can simply turn it off (with the switch at the bottom) and you wont have to see it again
Did you know that NASA loves New Zealand? I didn’t either until my keen software developer eye noticed some recurring background features in their images of the International Space Station.
Yep, that’s right. In both the above images that little patch of green in background is New Zealand. You’d have to say that the odds of the same country showing up twice in IIS images is fairly unlikely. Having the same part of that country appear, with the IIS in the same orientation is just amazing!
I realize I’m digging pretty deep here, but this is as close as New Zealand is ever going to get to being part of the space program…
I came across a couple of Microsoft Word tips today which I found really handy. Hopefully you will too
Change the Color Scheme
You can easily change the default blue color of Office 2007 to either silver of black. To do this, click on the ‘Office Button’ (the pearl in the top left) and then click on ‘Word Options’ in the bottom right of the menu that opens. I changed my Word to black which looks better with the default Windows Vista Theme.
Hide the Ribbon
You can hide the ribbon bar by double clicking on the current selected tab at the top. Once the ribbon is hidden, a single click on the menu bar will open the ribbon bar temporarily, or double clicking again will show it permanently again. I find this to be a great way to save on vertical screen real estate when working on my laptop which has a smaller screen.
Do you have any tips which are better than mine? Let’s hear it in the comments.
Last week, Robert Scoble interviewed SmallWorlds co-founder Mitch Olson and discussed some of the revolutionary features which have been built into SmallWorlds. The interview covers a very good overview of SmallWorlds as a platform and covers features such as:
Disclaimer: While I do work for SmallWorlds, the views and opinions on this blog are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the view and opinions of SmallWorlds.
I notice that most online games (most large websites also) carry age restrictions around who can play or participate in them. Let’s not be naive here, the web is a dangerous place, and there are lots of things that younger people need protecting from. Recently however, I have been thinking about this strategy a lot, and I am starting to wonder whether blanket age restrictions really are the right way to approach this issue. (more…)
I finally got around to trying the WordPress blogging application for the iPhone. I am using it to write this post, and I have to say that I’m really impressed. If you check out their website however you’ll see that version 1.2 of this app will be coming out soon, and that looks even better (more…)
Earlier this week I blogged about the Internet Blackout Week NZ protest against a controversial new copyright law which was about to come into effect in New Zealand. You can find the background to this post there.
The law has been put on hold! Earlier this afternoon Prime Minister John Key announced that the controversial net Copyright Amendment Act is to be delayed until March 27th. During this delay work will be done to try and draft a voluntary code of practice which addresses the concerns of the public. If by then a suitable solution cannot be found, then the law will be suspended. If the law is implemented, then there will be a review held after six months to see how it is working out. (more…)
I have always been a fan of flickr. So many aspects of their site just work so well. In particular, the way in which you can edit the title or description of any photo you own inline really blew me away the first time I saw it. Recently however, I have been having some significant issues with them. Although to be fair, it’s not the fault of the guys working at flickr at all.
As background to my tale of woe, you need to know that I first got my flickr account more than three years ago and registered my account using a gmail email address. Some time later, flickr was purchased by Yahoo and their site changed to use Yahoo IDs for authentication. Despite this, my original flickr login continued to work fine. (more…)
Today I followed the cue of the rest of the web and installed a new theme on my blog for mobile devices. If you are viewing this post on an iPhone, iPod or Android touch mobile device, then you probably already knew that. If not, check it out some time and let me know what you think 
I notice that most online games (most large websites also) carry age restrictions around who can play or participate in them. Let’s not be naive here, the web is a dangerous place, and there are lots of things that younger people need protecting from. Recently however, I have been thinking about this strategy a lot, and I am starting to wonder whether blanket age restrictions really are the right way to approach this issue. 
The law has been put on hold! Earlier this afternoon 
