Craig K

Food for thought Mar 8, 2010 No Comments

This is a subject I am always ranting and raving about, and this week is no different. I present two cartoon/workflows which make my point rather well me thinks.

I live in hope that one day the entertainment industry will come to the conclusion that to get people to pay they have to offer more, not irritating paying customers into not staying paying any more.

Originally from: http://lifehacker.com/5475113/remains-of-the-day-why-piracy-works-edition



Originally from: http://www.bradcolbow.com/archive.php/?p=205

Computing misconceptions Feb 8, 2010 No Comments

As many people know, I know a thing or two about computers. If anyone asks my industry or my field I normally say computing. I say that for simplicities sake, because otherwise it leads to too many questions. However, of late I have come to realise that is akin to calling a shelf stacker at a supermarket part of the food industry.

While technically correct, it avoids the detail that makes the difference.

As soon as someone hears that I do web development and "build websites" as I put it, they want to know if I can help them with their computer. While as it happens I often can, in reality the computer is just a tool to me in my industry the same as it is to a secretary in an office. While you would expect them to be able to use the machine, you would not expect them to fix it when it went wrong.

People seem to think that everything to do with computers is all the same and that if you can do one thing in computing you can do them all. If only it was as simple as this.

To illustrate my point I'm going to explain something I was asked to explain the other day. I was asked how websites work. Remember to keep in mind as I explain what a tiny tiny fraction of computing this is.

Most websites begin with a database where all the data in the system is stored. This is accessed through SQL (1 language) which I then connect to with in my case PHP (2 languages) which then does all the processing of that data. In my environment I use CodeIgniter (1 framework) to do the main calls, process and validate the data and then pass it to Smarty (1 mark-up) to be displayed.

From there the Smarty template contains the HTML (2 mark-ups) which describes all the components of the page and what order they are in. That HTML is sent to the browser along with the CSS (3 mark-ups) which describes to the browser how all that HTML should look. The page might also contain graphics which need to be made in a graphics package of my choice (Photoshop for me). Once on the page there is then one final layer which is the Javascript (3 languages) which sits on top of the data, the HTML and the CSS and allows direct manipulation of that data including sending things back and forth to the server. As an added twist I write all my Javascript using jQuery (2 frameworks).

So all in all to create a simple website for me it requires knowing 2 Languages (PHP, SQL and Javascript), 2 Frameworks (CodeIgniter and jQuery) and 3 Mark-ups (HTML, Smarty and CSS) as well as one graphics programme on top of that.

Then for good measure I need to understand some Unix (operating system), some Apache (a web-server) and all the other techs that go with each of those. Oh, and having a good understanding of XML, JSON, IMAP, POP etc all help day to day too.

Now consider that each of these sections could be several years of learning and trial and error in their own right to truly master

So all this covers a small part of web development and all of this is evolving and changing on a quite literally daily basis and people wonder why sometimes I can't be bothered to fix their computer.

Not Banking on it Jan 27, 2010 2 Comments

I have been using on-line banking for not much less the time it has been around. It is more than just a useful tool, for many it is almost their only contact with their money

I understand people still have some security issues, but really, with a little common sense applied and the current tech that goes into banking like key generators you should be fine.

There is one thing however that I don't understand. It feels like it is being held back for no good reason. For something that has been with us on the web for some time, it feels no different.

I admit my main experience of this is NationWide, however from what I have seen, others are no better.

For example:

• Why do we not have nice shiny interfaces?


• Why can I not tag payments by type and draw graphs of them?


• Why Can I not put in regular payments and forecast savings?


• Hell, why are the views so cryptic and the interface so clunky?

I know there are a number of these tools on-line which address most of my issues, however they require you to give them your sign-in details which not only breaks the TOS with the bank, it also just feels wrong and breaks my common sense rule.

Where is the Gmail of on-line banking?

Make do and Mend Jan 25, 2010 7 Comments

I can't help but feel a sense of achivment and a sense of sadness this evening for something that seems to be a dying frame of mind these days.

Since I have been home this evening I have repaired 3 pairs of trousers and am working on my fourth. Nothing major, a couple of seems coming appart, a button come off and a hem that has come out in the middle.

All of these trousers are perfectly fine except from a few stitches coming undone in some fairly important places. One of them I will admit is quite worn, but I like it that way. The total amount of money it would have cost to replace these particular trousers would be somewhere around the £100 mark (one pair is a fairly long standing and hard living North Face pair I have had for a long while which don't come cheap).

I will admit to using a cheap small sewing machine Demelza got a year ago or so to do all this, and while I could have done this even more cheaply by hand, my hand stitching is not quite up to par in some places (what is it about a straight line that is so complex!). The point is, even using a sewing machine, in this one instance we have in effect saved £80 (£20 sewing machine for thoese who can't keep up).

A few years ago with rationing still ringing in their ears the general public at large would have considered this not only easy to do, but also the only sane choice. These days people seem more than willing to part with yet more money to replace something which was far from gone.

I will admit that several years ago I was probably the wrong side of the line, but a couple of years living with Dan (who is one of the ultimate "Keep Calm And Carry On" people I know) and I was soon on the right path.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting spending all waking hours tending to the vegtable patch or clothes with more patches than sleeves, but just a little more bias towards mending and making do.

This of course does not just apply to clothes. Never would anyone in their right mind in computing let an old dead machine go to waste. Of course it will be thrown out, but first it will be stripped for parts, anything that might come in handy and save a trip to PCWord and the land of silly prices.

Lost in translation Nov 16, 2009 1 Comment

Take a classic track such as Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain". A priceless track which has never gets old.

You have it on CD which has a bitrate of 1411.2 kbit/s

This is a nice quality recording. OK, not the quality it was recorded at, but the best you will get.
Actually, to be fair this is the two channels for stereo, so really it is 705.6kbit/s.

But you can't play a CD on your iPod or better MP3 player so you have to import it onto the computer first.
This gives you maybe a 128 kbit/s or 192 kbit/s file in something like MP3, AAC or WMA. These apps can be set higher, but they are default settings, it is always best to go with those... right?

Then you add it to your iPod or better MP3 player through something like a USB cable (no fear, data can't leak out of the cable).

You could play it at this point, but if you want to hear it you are going to have to connect it to some speakers or earphones.

Are you still using the earphones that came with your player? Were they nice and white and did they look pretty and stylish? Did you ever think about the audio quality on them? No, you were just too busy standing out from the crowd with the same earphones as everyone else.

Maybe you want to listen to your music at home too. These speakers with iPod docks seem to be everywhere and don't cost too much, I mean, they are a little steep, but they look good right?

Of course you never notice that the cones on this stylish player are about 10cm's across and have about the same output range as a dead rat.

So, what have you paid for the privilege of listening to sub standard music?Next time you want to listen to some music, do yourself a favour, consider a cheap CD player, cheap AMP and a couple of bookshelf speakers, if only for the sake of the music!

(Blog inspired by: some video on the BBC site that I now can't find...)

The myth of intuitive Jul 21, 2009 No Comments

Today in a description for a Bluetooth headset I read the following line:

"Intuitive, single-button control"

To me this reads as something of an oxymoron. How can something with multiple functions and only a single button to achieve them with ever be called intuitive?

Intuitive is a word that gets thrown around rather a lot in IT. Normally it is used to describe something people can just pick up and use with no training or instruction. Apple likes to use the word a lot in in relation to its devices and software. But tell me this, on the iPod, does the idea of moving your thumb round and round a dial ever equate to an up and down motion? Does three diagonal lines in the bottom corner of a window on any OS suggest to you that this is where you click to change its size? Does a circle with a line breaking it in the vertical suggest on and off or power?

The simple answer and conclusion from this is that there is no such thing as an intuitive interface or control mechanism. An easy to use interface is simply one that builds upon knowledge you already have.

To return to my Bluetooth headset, the one I was looking at was a few models up from the one I have now. It has the same one button structure as my current headset. Although I would not describe this interface as intuitive, if I ever was to use this new device I would assume double tapping that single button will call the last dialled number, pushing and holding for 6 seconds will change to pair mode.

These are not intuitive interactions, but they do come from knowledge I already have.

Tinker time Jul 21, 2009 No Comments

We are always so scared about children getting hurt we never give them the chance to find out for themselves...

This is just a short presentation by a guy who runs a "Tinkering School" for kids where they are given real tools and real materials and actually allowed to do things. What they achieve is really quite impressive.

Is Google really the best search engine? Jun 11, 2009 No Comments

Some of you (tech foo dependant) may have seen that Microsoft have released a new search engine to replace Live Search called Bing.

This in itself is not that interesting. It does have a couple of nice features in things like the image search and the drilldown on each item in your search results. I do recommend that you have a go with it, if only to have tried Google's competition.

What I would much rather talk about is a service called Blind Search.

It is pretty simple, it takes the query you enter and comes back with three columns, each containing the results from either Bing, Google or Yahoo. To find out which results go with which search engine you have to vote. This is actually a pretty cool idea, it takes branding away and forces you to base your decision on the pure results. What I find really interesting about this is you would assume Google to be on top of this...

In fact I found Google to come back with my least favourite set of results pretty consistently.

This was not something I was expecting at all. According to the 30 or so searches I have done on the site it turns out I prefer Yahoo.

I have no plans to switch to Yahoo in the near future due to them having the most cluttered homepage known to man, but it is still interesting to see how poorly everyone's saviour Google can perform.

What is clutter? Jun 11, 2009 2 Comments

So I'm moving out of the house in Brighton this weekend. I have lived down here for the last two years and in that time, although my living has been fairly spartan there is still a fair bit of stuff in my room.

Turning into a neat freak has certainly had a hand in helping me stay fairly organised, but it doesn't seem able to stop the clutter... well, maybe it has, I don't think I'm really sure what I regard as clutter.

For example, I am always fixing computers and picking up spare parts. Every time I am about to throw some random bit of hardware that doesn't work I take all the screws off it and add them to the (sorted) box I have. I hate having a screw that just fits when I could have one that really fits. The same applies to bigger bits of hardware such as MODEM's and graphics cards. To that end I currently have 5 spare graphics cards and 3 spare MODEM's in my room. OK, now it doesn't take a genius to know that is too many, but exactly how many is the right number? Fine, one lets me help one person with that problem, but I don't get new graphics cards every day. It would be really annoying for everyone involved if I ended up needing two.

This sort of problem, however small, seems to apply to a lot of my stuff. I like to keep things around that would be handy to have in the future, but at the same time I don't want to be surrounded by stuff that never gets used.

I do something similar with clothes. When something is old and worn out it just moves into another pile so it's kept for events (mainly Scouting based it has to be said) when I want something I don't care much about.

How about magazines. I pick up PCPro fairly religiously each month if only for the DVD of software it comes with. I regularly find myself going back a year or so in magazines to find some article or bit of software they talked about. OK, so I could throw out everything older than a year but I guarantee the day after I do that I will want something from 13 months ago....

I want less stuff in my room, I want less clutter, but what will it cost me in convenience to do that?

They're just kids! May 4, 2009 No Comments

What is childhood? As a society we seem to have got it into our heads that it is a magical time of fun and play, a safe and secure time where you are free to be "a child". We protect "childhood" with the sort of diligence that would cure cancer or stop Aids, yet what is it we are actually protecting?

From time to time the media harks on about how children grow up so fast these days. The parents lap it up and double their efforts of protection. But don't we want them to grow up fast? What is childhood if not a time to learn and progress into being an adult?

If I remember correctly common wisdom says our ability to learn begins to decline from the age of 8, yet we want to waste this time with false truths and pointless ideas. The more false truths we tell them the more we stunt their ability to make logical leaps of their own and push their own learning boundaries.

For example, it is very common for parents to avoid the question of where they came from. Now I'm not saying tell them all the details straight away, they are still young and learning is a process (journey not destination etc), but at least don't lie to them. Give them enough to let them ask questions and learn at their own pace.

A few years ago my little brother was about to start the sex education part of the national curriculum. There was a parents evening to explain to the parents what they were going to be taught etc. Several of the parents objected to the meagre information being dished out to the children, citing wanting to protect them. I feel for those children and the harsh realities they will face one day. Besides, kids have a habit of knowing something well before their parents think they do.

The irony to all this is that not that long ago children were down the mines and working the fields to earn a living and provide just like everyone else. Now I'm not calling for a return to those times. I still want to protect childhood, but I want to protect it for learning and development and not to fill it with falsehoods and half truths.