Refactored Draw Code in SlickJS (Again)

Late last week I refactored the draw code in Slick JS (http://github.com/sidelab/slick) again. I’ve been pretty frustrated that I didn’t get the drawing logic right first time, but I think I’ve come to terms with it. Here are the major changes.

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Introducing Two Javascript Libraries: Slick and Grunt

I’ve been particularly quiet on the blog and twitter of late, primarily given I have been working very hard pulling on two javascript libraries (well it was one, but I’m separating them – you know they were causing trouble). While I won’t go into a lot of detail here, as there is still a lot more work to do, I will try and give a brief introduction to both and why on earth I’m writing yet another javascript library.

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Come on Brisbane – Let’s RHoK Sydney

Through the wonder’s of twitter I found out about the Random Hacks of Kindness event that is going down in Sydney in about a week and a half’s time (Saturday June 5 – Sunday June 6). Personally, I think this is one of the better hackathon’s I have seen organised as it’s not only about talented devs getting together, but also about building apps that can potentially make the world a better place. Something I’m sure we’d all like to get involved with.

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If I Could Forget a Programming Language

As I get back into “coding for money” again after a couple of years of being paid to manage people, projects, technology, etc. I am once again diving into different languages to look at what are going to be the truly productive and innovative languages over the next few years. As I do this, I reflect on some of the syntax and library clutter in my mind from having coded in a number of languages over the years, and wonder which of those I’d be most happy to forget (Johnny Mnemonic style) to make room for the new ones…

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Google’s Wifi Data Scraping – Impact to Developers

While many would argue that Google’s recent issue with accidentally collecting wifi packet data from public broadcasting networks will have minimal impact to developers, I disagree.

Having just left a corporate environment in which I would occasionally get to chat with the CIO regarding the pros and cons of some current technology trends, such as cloud computing, which would also include discussions around the enterprise suitability of those solutions, I can tell you – accidents like this are going to have an impact.

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Cross Platform Mobile Mapping Challenge Results – Part 1

Last week I started a 5 day exercise to re-evaluate the various frameworks that are at the disposal of developers for the purpose of iPhone and Android cross platform mobile development. This time, the focus was on what the various frameworks had to offer if I was to build a mapping application for multiple different mobile platforms.

This is part 1 of the wrap up from that week – a comparison of the native bridges for cross platform iPhone and Android web app development.

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5 Day Cross Platform Mobile Mapping Application Challenge

Well, I’m now officially out of the corporate world and Sidelab has been in business for a week now . On the cards for this week are 5 days of non-chargeable work (eek) that I have allotted to determine whether a mobile mapping application can be implemented using some of the iPhone and Android mobile development toolkits that are currently available (PhoneGap, AppCelerator, RhoMobile, etc). Targeted platforms at this stage are iPhone and Android only.

To add an extra layer of complexity I will be doing this using the deCarta Mapping Platform rather than Google Maps, as I’ve had some experience with the deCarta platform in the past and found it to be technically very good.

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Mobile Phishing Scams – A Business and Consumer Blind Spot?

While businesses and security professionals have done a great deal of work to educate consumers about online security, it seems to me that processes used by business are not of the same standard for the mobile channel.

This feeling was confirmed for me today when I received an SMS titled “**IMPORTANT MESSAGE**” from my bank saying I need to contact them. While I’m not going to tell you who I bank with (it was one of the big four banks in Australia), I will take you through my experience and attempt to highlight the weak points in the approach, as well as suggest what I think could be done to improve the process.

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Cloud Computing Australia – Amazon EC2 available in Singapore

Today is a fantastic day for advocates of cloud computing in Australia (and the whole Asia Pacific region actually). Finally the Asia Pacific region has a presence for cloud computing (not just cloud content).

Great job Amazon. In the past few years the lack of a geographically close (and thus virtually closer) hasn’t worried me too much, but as I am now starting an Australian software development company that provides services in the cloud – it does.

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Google AppEngine Language Performance Comparison Followup

After writing a post that has recently sparked some controversy, I felt that it was only proper to offer up some more observations about the way various languages perform at a baseline (yes – read hello world style applications) on Google AppEngine. The primary purpose of both this post, and my previous post on comparing Google AppEngine language performance is to show that while Google offer Java on AppEngine, the performance of Java Applications for low-traffic (or growing) sites may not be what you are expecting on day one.

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