Rediscoving my love for Open source software

I first discovered the concept of ‘open source’ software through the operating system Linux back in 1998. I had played with ‘free software’ before on various windows boxes but never really considered ‘open source’ as a development methodology.

I spent a lot of time installing various Linux distros, from Redhat (as it was then) to more recently the stunning Ubuntu Linux. I was also involved convincing editorial colleages for our in house magazine to stick the OpenCD on to a special edition a few years ago.

I have been lucky enough to have meet RMS himself, along with other advocates in this space.

So I am someone who gets open source.

However, more recently my passion for open source has been trumped by OSX (itself an OS based on free BSD). I still play with distros of Linux from time to time, but OSX is, without doubt, my platform of choice. I think the reasons why are obvious. But if pushed, there are two fundamental reasons why I use it:

1. Robustness
2. Elegance

But that’s not the purpose of this post. It simply provides a context.

The Joys of Open Source

As you will know I recently installed the excellent WordPress on my webserver. It now drives my blog. I am also developing a Joomla based CMS website at work.

I cannot begin to praise the quality of both systems enough. It staggers me to think that thousands of developers work tirelessly to develop, improve and fix code for these, and many other applications. They ask for nothing more than for us to use the software. The quality of technical documention is outstanding and technical support is everywhere.

I do not consider myself a web developer. Yet I have not struggled to install, develop and hack these applications. It is credit to the quality of the software – not my expertise.

As I develop, in particular the Joomla site, my gratitude and thanks to all those coders grows.

For the record I take my hat off to you all. And offer a genuinely, heart felt, thank you!

A new feature idea for iPhone

As I recently downloaded an app, that I would label ‘productivity’ related, it got me thinking. iPhone would really benefit from a feature which gives the user an ability to group or cluster apps by theme or category.

Sounds a bit anal. Perhaps. But hear me out. At the moment when an app is installed (not updated I might add) it sits next to the last app installed. If you are anything like me you probably have in excess of 80 apps sitting on your iPhone. Each rolling page holds 16 apps, so for me, that’s a lot of finger scrolling action. There have been occassions where I struggle to find the app I’m after.

I’m no software coder by I’m sure the Apple SDK would allow for two killer features:

1) Category and/or app tagging

Wouldn’t it be great if we, the users, could filter iPhone screen views by category. The SDK could require all developers to categorise their apps. In turn these would form the basis of filtering on the iPhone. For example Easy tasks, would be categorised as ‘productivity’ and would sit alongside similar apps. You get the picture.

A similar feature is already there in The Apps Store. However, I suspect it’s either Apple manually deciding where an app fits or the developers submiting where they want their app to appear.

Furthermore the user would be able to add/ amend categories.

2) Location aware categories

So in addition to filtering, why note take advantage of the GPS. The iPhone knows where you are, so why not have a feature that would auto filter apps based on location and/ or day of the week.

Imagine it knows you are shopping and up pops your shopping list app to the front screen. Or perhaps you are at home, watching tv, so a tv listings app appears. I accept this would be very tricky to pull of, as we do not necessarily use particular apps in particular places. Humans are unpredictable afterall. But much like the new ‘Genius’ feature in iTunes, after time, iPhone would begin to understand the location based habits of a user.

Perhaps this is one step to far, but if implemented correctly it might just turn iPhone into the most intuitive and smartest operating system ever.

So if you are reading this Apple, please note where the idea came from. I won’t ask for much. Just a shinny new 17″ MacBook Pro would be sufficient.

DFID gets all web 2.0

The Department for International Development has recently launched a blog. There are currently several authors from all over the organization including myself.

I am excited by this positive initiative by DFID. In my view it demonstrates the maturity of this new media as a dynamic and engaging platform for discourse and debate.

Go check it out and see what you think; http://www.blogs.dfid.gov.uk .

A round up of my favourite iPhone Apps

I have owned my iPhone since July 2008 and I can genuinely say it is the best mobile computing device I have ever owned. And I have had a few in my time, including the legendary Psion 5MX and, more recently it’s modern cousin the Nokia E90.

What makes it so special? Well aside from the obvious, form factor and user interface, it is the applications that never cease to amaze me. With that in mind , I figured i’d share my five top apps;

1. Twinkle
A location aware, Twitter app. It’s increasingly more popular than Twitteriffic and free to. My twitter client of choice. Over and above any OSX app I have ever used.

2. WordPress
Having installed WordPress on my website server, it is now my CMS of choice. The WordPress client on my iPhone enables me to blog directly on my iPhone. Sure this version doesn’t have all the features from the web based version but it can handle images and save draft posts.

3. EasyTask
My GTD app of choice. There are a whole bunch in the apps store, I have tried several but found myself coming back to EasyTask. It includes all the features you’d expect, projects, contexts and a nice ‘dashboard’ view. It also enables you to sync tasks to the cloud. Oh and it’s free.

4. X-Plane
It’s not always work on the iPhone. Far from it. This flight simulator was ported from OSX. Put simply. It’s stunning. The graphics, use of the iPhone’s acceloromator, frame rate and rendering make this, without doubt a must for any flight sim fan.

5. Mail
A core Apple app out of the box but it’s simplicity and functionality is both intuitive and crisp. With push and fetch enabled, I’m never more than one minute away from my email.

I literally have six slide screens worth of apps. Most of which didn’t make my top five cut. However, pretty much all of them are top class. I’ll post again, with a further five.

Given the interest in the platform I’ll also post regular app reviews.

New Apple Notebooks next Tuesday 14 October

It would seem that the latest rumours of a new Apple notebook line up are true.

For the best part of this week a series of leaked photos have made their way to Engadget and others claiming to be genuine images of a radical new notebook. Labled ‘the brick’ , not due to it’s design, but rather describes a new Apple patented manufacturing process.

Apparently, each new notebook is ‘crafted’ out of a single brick of alluminum. Rumour has it , this process does away for the need for screws and hinges.

An additional rumour is that the two different apple notebook lines ‘pro’ and regular macbooks will be unified as one line up.

An invitation from Apple inviting journalists to a major notebook annouement next Tuesday 14 October has been released.

It’s about time Apple focus on their notebooks. I for one can’t wait. Roll on next Tuesday.

Developing for web 2.0 stage one

Introduction
A significant chunk of my ‘day job’ at the moment is both developing and project managing an all new website.

The current site is very much old school web 1.0, developed using a dated HTML authoring piece of software. Maintaining the site is slow, clunky and inefficient. It also falls way short of our ambitions in terms of the direction we would like to take the site.

To bring the clients site up to today’s standards I have taken to developing an all new website driven by a content management system.

Joomla
Of course being a open source kind of guy I opted for a MySql / PHP based CMS. After a bit of research Joomla came out trumps.

The vision is to turn the site into a modern web 2.0 platform that is robust, easy to maintain and collaborative in nature. There are a host of other requirements to, which I won’t bore you with. But needless to say they involve developing login based acess to a sizable community of users.

By keeping the development of the site in house I believe both parties gain for the following reasons;

1. We retain the knowledge of running and developing the site in house.

2. We save on expensive consultancy costs.

3. I get to practice and expand my knowledge of the area.

Progress blogging

As I develop the new site , I wanted to capture progress (if only for my benefit). So I figured why not blog regular updates.

Day one

1. I created a subdomain and ftp’d Joomla to it.

2. Following the excellent installation guide I made sure our Linux based server was configured correctly.

3. I then ran the web based installation file and away we went. I struggled a wee bit on where the configuration.php should sit in the root directory. But I eventually cracked it.

3. The installation went without a hitch. Vloilà ! Joomla installed.

4. I begun familiarizing myself with the site and have basically now started to develop it.

One tip! Buy the book! I went out and bought an excellent manual on Joomla. It helps no end!

Next steps….further understand the features of Joomla and begin data migration. Watch this space.

A curve ball in the 'cloud' from Microsoft

With all the hype around cloud computing these days, particularly with the focus on Google, it came as a surprise to many today that Microsoft  announced a forthcoming cloud based OS.

Steve Balmer revealed that the new OS, labled ‘Windows Cloud’ (for now),  will be launched later this month.

“We need a new operating system designed for the cloud and we will introduce one in about four weeks, we’ll even have a name to give you by then. But let’s just call it for the purposes of today ‘Windows Cloud.”

Popular opinion these days is dismissive of Microsoft. The growth of Google and the market gains of Apple make it easy to take cheap shots at an apparent ailing giant from Redmond. Many believe they have lost their way.

But to dismiss Microsoft is reckless and naive. If they are entering the cloud computing space, I believe it is a step in the right direction. I also genuinely believe cloud computing is the future. So now Google and Microsoft have stepped up to the challenge. Mr Jobs – what next from Apple?

You can read the full story over at the Register. Full article here :

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/01/steve_ballmer_windows_cloud/

I for one, can’t wait to see it.

Website transition complete

After a few days of development work my new website is up and running.

Having used mobileme for hosting, developed through iweb, I must confess I was not impressed. I felt uncomfortable that I was teathered to my Mac for any postings or updates.

What’s under the hood?

Go Daddy! host my site. I opted for a Linux shared server running mySQL and PHP 5.. The blog itself is powered by WordPress 2.6.1.

Installation of WordPress was a breeze, much easier than I thought. After a bit of playing around with WordPress I can now post updates on my iPhone. This is a deal breaker for me. The ability to blog from anywhere with a device that travels everywhere with me is great.

It is ironic that despite the Apple ecoystem around me, Apple does not offer any way of posting to blogs to MobileMe via iPhone.

I will not be renewing my MobileMe account next year.