JADBOX: Web Application Musings » Lifestyle

Now=new Year(2010)

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:24:20 +0000

As the new decade begins, millions of people reflect on their situation and ponder how to proceed into the future. In many ways, 2009 was a game changer for the multimedia industry. We have seen Unity and the Unreal engine open to their doors to free indie developer licensing. This illustrates that corporations are realizing that even a great multimedia software infrastructure can be shoved aside for lesser alternatives that however have the strong community around its platform.
We have seen also a greater focus on one language compiling to multiple platforms. Adobe is pushing for Flash to compile natively to the iPhone and pushing the Flash player to all other mobile devices. Unity also aims for compiling to PC, Mac, and iPhone with little changes needed to the source. Microsoft continues to push XNA that has the boon of both PC and XBOX360 support. Of course, haXe continues to gain in popularity as it is a single language that translates into other platforms (Flash, PHP, Neko, and C++ SDL).

Over at Bill Sander’s blog AS3 Design Patterns, he talks about his journey into design patterns and that his New Year resolution is “Improve nailing down relationships between classes in design patterns.” This year I have expanded my knowledge of design patterns in areas that I do not normally require in my everyday work, but just learning their existence has given me the enlightenment of not just how the design pattern works but ‘why’ it exists and what would happen to a system built without it.

My personal development New Year’s resolution is: “Learning to prototype quickly while keeping modular using loose coupling.” Being able to produce a skeleton of a system quickly helps to a keep the momentum of a project going and to isolate design flaws. However, rapid development can cause a system to be become stagnate and locked into a certain implementation. However, wise programming decisions like using the acquaintance relationship between classes and employing design patterns like strategy or template will make my prototypes open enough to evolve into the final product without infrastructure rewrites.

Update: While technically the new decade starts in 2011, I find the debate mute as people will refer to this era as the “2010′s“.

Image (c) to mattthesamurai.deviantart.com

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Us versus “Them”

admin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:53:23 +0000

Labels are dangerous when used improperly regardless if they were created in good intentions. The present day world is filled with named factions that rage verbal or physical war on each other for nothing more than self affirming the dominance of their party. This is somehow deeply ingrained in our human nature… to provide loyalty to our clan and subvert others to establish dominance. If you’re not quite sure where I’m going with this, I am hinting at the fruitless debate between the American political parties.

Democrats and republicans have evolved to hated enemies of each other… no longer remembering that they were formed to work in harmony over national issues. In my opinion, there is one major entity to blame for this downfall and social dysfunction of the parties. That would be the American media. Regardless of the national media network you watch, you are being spoon-fed DAILY about the ‘evils’ of the other party that that media network is associated with. I can’t watch any of the big three news networks for more than an hour without being told why one party is better than the other. This is a shame that they choose to demonize and point fingers rather than focusing on the core of the issues at hand.

Should matters like health care regulation be shunned because it ‘sounds’ like a certain party’s agenda? On another separate issue, I heard from one news network that a certain bill wasn’t worth looking into because the originator happened to be from the other party so the bill could be linked to promoting that party’s cause “somehow”. This is the kind of blind hatred that has caused our political degradation. So what do I propose? I would merge all political divisions… democrats, republicans, and the other 3^rd parties. Why can’t a person have a mixture of beliefs instead of being forced to conform to only the stances their party supports? The fact that someone who tends to be liberal is only going to feel at home in a democrat party versus someone who is more conservative in their views will have few options but go republican is a sad commentary on how the parties have outlived their usefulness.

The only person who benefits from this segregation is not the voter but the news networks. Controversy sells and the media has turned our political system into a kind of dark entertainment art form. Let’s spend less time worrying about if new policies fit the agenda of our party… and instead focus on what is “right” and benefits people the most. I normally don’t blog about political matters, but I find this dilemma in need of more attention than what it currently gets. Anyone else feel the same way?

Now=new Year(2010) As the new decade begins, millions of people reflect on...

at&t: Why Bureaucracy and Technology Don’t Mix

admin — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:45:47 +0000

Old-school pyramid management can severely cripple an organization’s ability to adequately adopt and help their customers. Today the story I have to illustrate this problem is about at&t’s service and support departments. First off, let me state that the actual DSL service I had with at&t has been nearly flawless with 6mb downloads with 768k uploads. I am definitely a power user (online gaming, downloading, video and audio streaming, and working at home) and never hit any kind of service-capping or times that the network connection from slow. However, this story isn’t about the ‘product’ but the customer service and internal processes that occur…

I’m currently in the process of moving and called into at&t about 5 weeks before moving to get my services transferred over. I talked to the billing lady on the phone, and she set up my account to be disconnected and reconnected at my new place on the same day of moving. Well, two days later, my internet went dead. Here’s what happened next:

(45 minutes on hold) I called at&t tech support and was told they have no idea what happened and that maybe it was a Billing dpt. problem (was there no notes on the account on why it got pulled?)
(30 minutes on hold) Billing dpt said that my account was disabled… but only the ‘new’ Billing dpt would know and they would have to transfer me again. (umm… okay…. if you can’t see even notes on my account, shouldn’t the ‘old’ department be shut down or upgraded)
(40 minutes on Hold) The “New Billing dpt.” said that “someone” pulled my at&t service way earlier than they should have for me moving (why isn’t this a more automated process instead of a manual procedure that someone could make a mistake on?). She said she would put a rush order in for me and call me back later that day. (24hrs later, no call)
(20 minutes of Hold) Called the Billing dpt back and was told that Provisioning Dpt could help me expedite the new service order to re-issue internet connection.
(15 minutes of Hold) Provisioning Dpt says that in “their computes” that they have no order for a new DSL connection for me. They have to call someone in Billing to confirm…
(5-10 minutes later) Both a Provisioning and Billing manager talked on the same line, they say that the original new order was ‘invalid’ and they have to put in a new one. However, it takes 24 hours for new orders to go through so I will have to wait… then call back to have it escalated. (why can’t they just remember this conversation and get it escalated themselves when it comes through?)
(10 minutes on Hold) After 24 hours again, called Billing and was told that they can’t complete the service setup because its considered a “new” order and new orders can’t be put on an account that’s closing in the future (it’s considered ‘closing’ even though I am just changing addresses). I am now being transferred to Resolutions dpt (?) for further help.
(15 minutes on hold) After talking to the department, I currently have a lady who is trying to bypass this and continue the order, but she does not know yet if she will be successful even with management help.
(Update) After 2 weeks without internet (by a bug caused on their end), I finally have it back up. My thanks goes out to all the AT&T people that helped in the process. However, it was very disappointing that such bugs couldn’t have had a faster turn-around time with the use of technology. The very nature of this problem of how it occurred illustrates a broken and dated system in place.

It seems now that I might not even get the internet back by the time I move which is such a shame considering that this was a error on at&t’s side. If it wasn’t for the good history I have had with their internet package itself, I would never consider using them again. On the flip-side, there isn’t a mainstream ISP out there that doesn’t have horror stories and dedicated hate websites that I know of. Is servicing customers just a low priority for executive management to refine in order to make improvements and efficiencies? One of my favorite things about t-mobile is that when you call technical support, THEY will call you back instead of keeping you on hold. This saves them money from having a line open, and it saves me time plus phone bill cost.

However, this post is not about complaining, but about the opportunity for improvement. How many times can you see that they could have made these internal processes more reliable and easier to service when something in the process goes wrong? One thing, for example, is that every action taken to an account should have a “version-ed” state as well as a noted technician name appended to it. If this was done, my account could be “rolled” back to its correct state and the person who made the error in disconnecting my service found and corrected. However, it seems now that even when my issue is fixed, no one will ever know who exactly made the mistake… who could continue making the same mistakes for years to come and never know.

No related posts.

T-mobile G1 impression and Flash

admin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:45:52 +0000

Well, I finally took the plunge and got my first smart phone! I’ve looked at several choices over the past year like the Blackberry Bold, Storm, Apple’s acclaimed iPhone, Diamond Touch, Envy, and the LG Dare. However, after measuring the pros and cons, I decided on Tmobile’s G1. Why, you might ask? For one, I do like the full slide-out keyboard, touch screen, and trackball features. However, the G1′s biggest asset is of course Google’s open source Android operating system that it runs on. Android will allow even intermediate Java developers to make applications easily and publish to the market for other users to use. Examples of current applications are: barcode scanner and local prise comparison, parking spot locater on a radar display, social networking integration including direct camera posting, use mp3s as a ring tone (iPhone requires a painful hack for this to even work), remember-the-milk task reminder, weather display, and much much more. Heck, if I can find enough time, I will start writing applications for it.

Also, the cost of the phone is cheaper (its $170) and the monthly contract is about $25 cheaper than the iPhone (which the savings alone is as much as my internet home service). Overall, I have had the phone for over a week and can say nothing but good things about it. I did have some issues with the T-mobile service line… but to be honest, most of the tech support reps have not even seen the device since the G1 is sold out across the US right now.

My two wishes for the phone are longer battery life (with RC30 bios and 3G disabled, I have 80% battery by noon with lite use) and for Adobe to bring Flash Player (preferably 10) to the Android Market! I assume if Flash Player 10 where to ever to hit a cellphone device- that it would be the G1 since Adobe has been a well known Java centric company internally, but FP is written in C, if I remember right, so it will need to be transported to Java OR run as a Linux app directly on the G1 outside Android.

Note: RC30 update now has a viewer for most of the Microsoft Office formats.

Update #1:
At the Adobe MAX 2008 conference, Turner indicates that an “Android port” [of Flash Player 10] is coming!

Update #2:
Flash Player 10 confirmed for Android (with video)!

Countdown to Mobile Flash Player 10 Adobe announced that this years MAX event will be one...

Living in the [virtual] Cloud

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:12:40 +0000

I have always strive to keep things organized and in arm’s reach. People expect, with the rise of the Web 2.0 boom, that services should be fast, easy on the eyes, accessible on desktop/web/mobile systems, free/cheap, and have a reliable up time. With the tools that are available now, I have completely replaced the need to use (snail) mail and feel that now, more then ever, I can exist in a true service cloud. Below I have compiled a collection of sophisticated online services that can increase the level of simplicity and zen in most everyone’s life:

Daily organization (notes, weather, other): www.google.com/ig (must have homepage)
- Google also has an amazing calendar, notebook, and doc/presentation/spreadsheet services
Bookmarking: Delicious.com
- For those who are new to social bookmarking, it allows bookmarks to be saved directly to an online account. I would recommend getting the Firefox toolbar for faster access. Also note that you can add igoogle gadgets that sync with your delicious to display different categories of links that you have bookmarked.
Misc Data backup: https://www.getdropbox.com/ (2gb free)
Photo backup: Google’s Picasa Web (250mb cap I think…need to find a better service here!)
Documents: convert to Google Docs or store in a data backup (see above)
Music backup and streaming: lala.com (syncs music to an online locker that can streamed or downloaded)
- Honorable mention of finetune.com, mp3tunes.com, Pandora Radio, and last.fm
Videos: obviously youtube.com
General needs
- Organizing recites and manuals: mystuff.com
- Easy tax filing: turbotax.com (online)
- All traveling needs: orbiz.com or Travelocity.com or expedia.com
- Bank/Financial monitoring: mint.com
- Most utility and billing companies now have direct automatically online payment options
Fast news lookup: originalsignal.com, addictomatic.com, or of course digg.com
What others have I missed? Please comment if you have another service that has made your life that must easier!

Other great links to read on this subject: top 80 sites and best of web

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zoom Zoom zoom

admin — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 16:07:34 +0000

Well, my old Mercury finally kicked the bucket. The water pump went out on the highway, and my engine seemed it was about to bust under the heat. Anyway, it was time for a new car… I actually have been planning on getting a new vehicle for almost two years now. After much research, I finally decided to go with a Mazda3 as it seemed to have the best performing engine, interior quality, and lifespan than any other car in its class. My second option was a Honda Civic 2008 but the markup on those cars because of the rise in gas is crazy.

Rise of the languages This month has been a very interesting/exciting for programmers of...