Author Archives: john

Future of UI on the Web?

Posted by on November 13, 2011 No comments

HTML+CSS suck for building apps.

There I said it… I mean lets face it, building apps in HTML+CSS is pretty much like doing word processing in LaTeX.  What ever happened to decent visual tools? And I’m tired of dealing with weird quirky layout issues.

Don’t get me wrong HTML for building apps is definitely (eh) OK and it’s been proven that you can create applications at scale with it.  But I think you end up working around quirks in layout behavior way too much.  HTML was originally designed for making non-wysiwyg “rich” text documents. The ability to build apps is bolted on and feels like it.

Also I can’t help but wonder will the pinnacle of visual application design tools be Interface Builder or Delphi.  I don’t think we’ve really moved forward in terms of the visual tools used to build apps since the advent of these tools.  Rich Internet Application frameworks and plugins like Flash and Silverlight (along with FlexBuilder and Blend) tried to solve this within the browser.  But it’s looking more and more like these are going to fizzle out of existence.

So What to Do?

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Not exactly the Star Trek computer…

Posted by on October 24, 2011 No comments

I was a little slow on the draw ordering my iPhone 4S and so I’ve only had a couple of days to play with it. To sum up my experience so far, it’s been a great upgrade from my iPhone 3. The camera alone was worth the upgrade. But one feature… Siri… Uh not exactly the Star Trek computer. Seeming to be much like what I would expect from a voice recognition app given past experience. After a couple of Newton-like #fail demonstrations for friends and family, I was about to write that Siri off.  But…

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Google your evil is showing…

Posted by on October 15, 2011 No comments

Back in the day, whenever I heard someone utter “embrace and extend” I immediately thought of the evil that WAS Microsoft. Using their once formidable position to lead everyone around by their nose. But the more I see from Google, the more they remind me of the evil empires of the past.

I mean there are SO many things to love from Google… Chrome, Picasa, Maps, Search… But the problem is that we’re again seeing fragmentation limiting what the Web could become and perhaps even threatening its long term survival.

Google seems to be shifting it’s mission away from let’s “organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful” to one of let’s make “high impact products—the ones that improve the lives of billions of people“.  Maybe Larry fancies himself being the second coming of Jobs… and I’ll be the first to say…
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WebGL Sand Toy

Posted by on October 9, 2011 5 comments

Here is a little WebGL experiment I wrote in the form of a fun particle simulation.  Individual pixels from a photo are rendered as separate GL points.  The particle physics are done on the GPU using a shader.  Somewhat directly inspired by a little app that a friend of mine wrote years ago.  But this one is done solely in Javascript/WebGL in a browser rather than in native code.

Give it a try.

See my Experiment on ChromeExperiments.com

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I’ll Miss Steve

Posted by on October 6, 2011 No comments

A wave of nostalgia sweeps over me when I think about the passing of Steve Jobs (1955-2011).  The phrases “insanely great” and “and one more thing…” spring to mind.  The world won’t be the same without you.

iPhone 4s Launch Biggest Thing Since The Orignal iPhone

Posted by on October 4, 2011 No comments

iphone4sJust got done watching the much ballyhooed iPhone (5) 4s roll out.  I have to admit, I’ve been patiently waiting for the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4s has me yawning a bit.  I mean, I’ll probably still update from my crufty old iPhone 3… the camera looks good and the world phone part is great, but true to its name it really is just an incremental update.

I think the biggest news from this whole event and what the market seems to be totally missing is that Apple is giving away (with contract) the iPhone 3GS for FREE.  Tim Cook pointed out that the true opportunity for Apple is that they only make up 5% of the total mobile phone market.  The HUGE opportunity really lies at the low end.  I mean compare the iPhone to any other free (with contract) phone on the market.  The opportunity for app and music sales to this market segment is GINORMOUS.

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