It’s strange how sometimes people are very aware of the battery consumption of some applications but put all concerns aside when it comes to applications that use the internal accelerometer. Is it because they are all nice or because the application does not really give the impression of running in the background all the time? Not all applications are the same but I’m not just talking about GUI differences here, I’m talking about how the application was implemented and how the battery and performance is affected by the application.

[Read more →]

Whoooa, I was going to write about how compelling are becoming Web2.0 online applications compared to self-hosted solutions and another big player just beefed up their online solution: Adobe. The new service is Adobe Photoshop Express and can also be used to edit pictures (similar to Picnik in Flickr) but this is completely flash, so you can imagine quite well how good the interface is…

[Read more →]

Two issues not related to each other but just wanted to very quickly comment few things.

Regarding blogging I found this nice pic in a post from microblogging.it (in Italian). The red part is my modification…isn’t blogging the platform which covers all the quadrants and likely be the core idea in future communications platforms? My guess is yes. Sure it will take different forms: a blogging platform on a mobile phone, a cool application somewhere in the web or a new window in outlook… it won’t really matter. We will also blog more things more easily; show exactly where we went step by step, send links to a gallery full of videos and pictures… actually scrap that, we are already doing that … anyway hopefully we will soon make use of the other 3 senses (I don’t know which one is going to be first: touch or smell?) . Finally we will be able to specify our audience; no more one2one vs broadcast, we’ll just do a very clever multicast. I really wish someone (like Google) will add another dimension to this: originality or value of the topic… Anyway.. it was supposed to be a quick post…

Next one: photography. I was just playing around using some photos from last year and tried to apply the tilt-shift miniature fakes technique…have to say, it’s not easy (ok I was limited by the type of pictures I had from last year ). Anyway, surprisingly, the picture that I took with my N95 during a short stay in Munich came out really well (the others are from my digital camera)… Here’s the results.

svgallery=Tilt-Shift-Test

…I wanted to give the award to the best hidden feature in Excel 2003… I often copy charts as part of my job and I have to say that this feature is great if you know how to find it in the Edit menu…

The best part about this feature is that Microsoft thought it should be used only by advanced users, so they didn’t gray out the feature…they simply hid it [Read more →]

Lately I saw a post discussing how the strength of Google search results were not the only reasons Google is the first search engine for a lot of people. The conclusions: the deals Google is making with Firefox, Opera and others are helping this growth and dependence… [Read more →]

I still remember when I started with Nokia and I was given a brand new black laptop: a IBM T41. I didn’t like black laptops and I didn’t like IBM….

However, after more than 3 years I can honestly say that T41 was one of the best machine I have ever owned. I really mistreated my laptop, dropped it twice, but it was solid build and never let me down!

Unfortunately, the 6th of March my subconscious decided that after all these years of good service my T41 might have been thirsty so it (my subconscious again ;-) ) spilled a full cup of tea on the keyboard. T41 decided that it was unacceptable behaviour and decided to go on strike and stopped working

It was 6 o’clock so BI (not sure what it stands for but it is basically the IT department) could only log the call…I decided to go home and try some sort of resuscitation.

[Read more →]

I’m receiving some emails regarding the source code of my recent Python application…Just wanted to say that I have no problem sharing the code as long as you don’t distribute it as yours and don’t charge if you make an exact replica of my program. Just drop me an email and I’ll send it to you (or you can unsis my program and save your request for another time )

If you want to start programming with Python there are a lot of resources, but I found few of them to be the most useful: [Read more →]

Trying to blog using Flock. Switched today from Firefox to test it and I have to say it looks nice (well, the Blog Editor has some weirds fonts… it seems like a resized version of the original editor and it looks difficult to read)… By the way, if you are a Firefox user and import everything from it you can be up and running in literally 5 minutes…
Initial impression:

• Search box. It opens up a drop-down list where you can select a different search engine. Currently in firefox you have to select the search engine first, type and press enter…Also, it shows your bookmarks (although it did not seem reliable enough) and live yahoo searches…Flock is definitely better and faster to use.
• Tags in bookmark.
• The media bar seems nice, i don’t know how much I would use
• The initial memory footprint was higher then Firefox, but I read that supposedly it does not have the same memory leaks as Firefox does (when using tons of tabs). I really hope so
• Web Clipboard seems nice, however it does not seem to have the possibility to save flash video… pity
• It claims to be the social browser, but sometimes i just want a simple browser like Firefox without too much clutter. The only thing I would like is to have some sort of workspaces I could switch through using CTRL+space for example… a workspace like Firefox without all those media buttons, another like Flock, etc…
• The blog editor seems nice, but I would not use it as my main editor… too many missing features (you cannot add images unless you know the whole http path, which means you have to upload the image first; categories cannot be added, Tags… well I’m testing tags now ). Next one in the list is Microsoft Live Writer…

All in all, I would recommend it.

-Reda

Update: (using WordPress editor not Flock ):

Tags are Technorati tags by the way.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: Flock

It’s been a long long time since I posted but was really busy with work. Anyway, I had some spare time yesterday and decided to play again with Python for S60… The good about Python is that you can really really make a small application in few minutes (or hours if you are not very good at Python like me )…

The application uses the built in accelerometer to increase the minutes, just shake it (or press up/down, or go to options -> Set Time Manually). The app will also say when it’s “al dente” ; i.e. when there is 1 minute left and … well you’ll see if you install the app )

Special thanks to Pietro from www.jaspp.net for his icon!

The App is clearly beta (I did it in few hours and only tested on my N95), unsigned and I accept no responsibility for anything install it at your own risk. Also, please note that it must be installed on memory card:

Update 2:

Managed to get everything in one file (almost ), now you just need to click yes all the time and install everything in C:. All the files, except one are in the following:

PastaTimer_v1_5_1_selfsigned_standalone.sis

and you also need the following if you want to minimise the application in the background (although it’s not necessary to have it):

appswitch_selfsigned.sisx .To install it, you need to change the date to say 02/03/2007 and it will install (that is the reason I could not combine everything in one package. I.e. it would fail the whole installation).

Further Screenshots:

Update:

New file with additional requested features…last one hopefully (it was supposed to be a 1 hour hobby ). All the files are self signed and should work (they do on my N95). Please make sure you install everything on C: (Python should be installed in C:) . Order of installation (unless you have some files already installed)

• pythonfors60_1_4_2_3rded.SIS in C:
• n95accelerometerplugin.sis in C:
• axyz_3rd_n95_1_0_2_selfsigned.sisx in C:
• appswitch_selfsigned.sisx in C: ( you might need to change the date of your phone to install this)
• CookPastav2_v1_5_0_selfsigned.sis

If you get an update error, uninstall the file and install it again.

Files:

cookpastav2_v1_5_0_selfsigned.sis

PastaTimer Additional Files.zip

Change Log for this version:

Fixed small bugs (changed sensitivity during countdown)
App now plays file located at E:\\FinalWarning.mp3 when countdown is over
All ‘read’ warnings can be changed
App can be minimised

Old Files:

CookPastav2_v1_3_0.sis

File you might need:

pythonfors60_1_4_2_3rded.SIS

N95AccelerometerPlugin.sis

aXYZ_3rd_N95_1_0_2_selfsigned.sisx / aXYZ_3rd_N95_1_0_2_unsigned.SIS

Anyway here’s the result:

Merry Xmas and a Happy 2008!!