c. scott andreas

Design has improved across nearly every aspect of the web over the last decade - frontends, backends, web apps, desktop clients, widgets - you name it. And today, a bad UI is finally enough to kill an otherwise good product. We use a lot of sexy software.

But “intuitive” isn’t enough.  Many web apps push me away for one simple reason: they’re #&$*ing slow!

I’m wondering - are web apps driving obsolescence?

A few years ago, it was common to say of an old computer - “Well, it’s still good for word processing, e-mail, and browsing the web.” Less so, today.  Don’t get me wrong, of course - I love web applications and build them for a living.  But I do believe that there’s a place for native code, and a place for Javascript.

In this screenshot, I’m running Safari 3, top (a process management tool), and Activity Monitor. When I open GMail, Safari’s CPU utilization spikes to a whopping 67.8%. Opening, deleting, or tagging a message produces a similar spike. Playing Flash video ramps up the fans. And web-based office suites throw my browser into a seizure.

But what’s under the hood? Am I running Leopard on an SE 30? Read the rest of this entry »

On Thursday as I was preparing to fly from London to Chicago, the PowerBook G4 otherwise known as my right arm gave out.

While standing in line for security, I noticed the light on the front flashing wildly. When I attempted to turn it on, the speakers made a buzzing noise, the screen stayed black, and (alarmingly), a smoke smell started seeping out. You can imagine how much fun the hand-searching of my bag was.

While waiting to board, I made an appointment at the Chicago store’s Genius Bar. Upon arriving, the guy confirmed that the logic board was fried six months after my three-year AppleCare expired. The repair cost was about $700. Utterly saddened with the prospect of losing my laptop and having to buy a new one before MacWorld (heading back to the UK before new ones can/will be released) , I wasn’t sure what to do.

After a couple minutes, Ernest returned from “the back” with my PowerBook and made my 2007:

“Given the history of this machine, I’ve approved the repair at no cost to you. It should be ready in about a week and a half - we need to order some parts. We’ll ship it to you, wherever you’re at.”

Mega score for Apple, there. Until then, I’m gimping it with a PIII-900mhz Gateway that I bought 6 years ago. I can’t wait for Seraph to come back.

BUT, now they’re threatening Fake Steve Jobs and have forced ThinkSecret offline. There goes one of the few things that gives meaning to my mid-afternoon. Ugh.

You give and take away, Steve. You give and take away.

I dropped by Waterstone’s this afternoon to find a book on Flex (largest bookshop in Canterbury).  There were no books on Flex.

Instead, I took a picture of their PHP section.  Read the titles.  This shot is pretty emblematic of the web/dev culture here as a whole.

*Sigh*

I love the web. I love great web apps. I love making them. And I love using them.

I’ve got a lot invested in the “sematic web,” open source philosophy (and practice!), APIs, the late-90s dictum that “information wants to be free,” and still think “What is Web 2.0” is a great article.

We’ve been drinking the punch since the rise of the second bubble - and who wouldn’t drop by the open bar? It’s been damn good. But things are starting to change.

Remembering The Dream

I remember reading TIME Magazine’s 2006 “Person of the Year” article (”You”) with rapt attention:

“But look at 2006 through a different lens and you’ll see another story, one that isn’t about conflict or great men. It’s a story about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before…

It’s about the many wresting power from the few and helping one another for nothing and how that will not only change the world, but also change the way the world changes.”

I remember reading TechCrunch for the first time and checking out all the new startups that were cropping up. I’d read up on the latest mashups, spend hours playing with new APIs, and find ways to shoehorn unnecessary products into my workflow.

Flickr was really cool, YouTube was revolutionary, Google was cranking out new products developed in-house, and Facebook was the ultimate un-MySpace that spooked the giant from a Harvard dorm.

From “Mash” to “Mush”

But things have cooled down in 2007. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve spent half of my last three Saturdays coding and experimenting with new languages, APIs, frameworks, and the like. This weekend brings you a functional three-click videoblogging app for WordPress, Moveable Type, Drupal, and more.

To recap, earlier hackathons brought:

• A stable version of Phoreo Elements (with documentation). Launching very soon.
• ESV for iPhone, Mac OS X Dashboard, and Adobe AIR (Mac + PC).

This week’s pièce de résistance:

Three-Click Videoblogging. It’s really that simple. Open the app, click Record and bark into your iSight for awhile, then hit Stop when you’re done. Preview it if you like. Bang out a Title and Body content, then hit Publish to WordPress.

How’s it work? The app records video from your webcam via Flex / Flash, sends it off to a Flash Media Server to be encoded as an FLV, then communicates with your WordPress blog via XML-RPC to create a new post and embed the video automagically.  This is (mostly) sample code from Adobe that wasn’t functional (i.e., the blogging component did not work properly).  That’s been fixed, and this (along with some other tools, like WordPress MU) could form the basis of a really cool app.

The result?

Ultra-easy, brainless, painless videoblogging in just 3 clicks. Screenshot:

(I look like a total tool in this photo. Sorry. It was an early test - I was surprised that it worked.)

What went into it? ::

• Adobe Flex ( + Flex Builder 3)
• Adobe AIR / a web browser
• Adobe Flash Media Server
• A little XML + RPC magic
• A Mac / PC with a camera

It’s not ready for primetime yet, but it does work. Handy! Thanks to Mike Potter of Adobe for this week’s Legos.

But…my development / testing environment was a nightmare. Imagine a PowerBook G4 running Flex Builder 3 in OS X and Flash Media Server in a Windows 2000 Virtual PC session communicating with each other via a VPN tunnel looping from England to southern Indiana and back. Uh, slow. Painfully slow. Thanks, University of Kent, for your awesome IT policies. Bleah.

So here’s the new deal: Buy me a new MacBook Pro and I’ll make you something cool. Maybe a nice shrimp fettucine alfredo with a bottle Savignon Blanc or something.

Might be on hiatus next weekend - I’m headed to Cut & Paste London. Curious about this app or heading to C&P, too? Hit me up at scott att phoreo dawt com.

This morning’s experiment with Adobe AIR really got out of hand. I’ve created tools to access the English Standard Version of the Bible via your iPhone, a Mac OS X Dashboard widget, and an Adobe AIR app for Mac + PC (the original project). Pheew!

I’m not convinced that anyone needs all of this (or that it’s even useful!), but it was a fun project that involved coding on a Saturday morning.

Want ESV on iPhone?

Head to http://esv.phoreo.com.

Crave the Dashboard widget?

Click to install.

Intrigued by the AIR app (Mac + PC)?

Grab it here (and Adobe AIR if you don’t have it).

Hey non-profits! Good news for you –

Google Checkout is now allowing non-profit organizations to accept donations via their payment service without charging the standard merchant fees required to process credit card transactions, well, everywhere else.

Cool!

This service may not be free forever, but the GOOG has promised to honor it through the end of 2008, giving you at least 15 months of no-margin bliss.

Here’s the official word from Prem Ramaswami, Checkout’s project manager:

Today, I’m happy (OK, more like ecstatic) to introduce Google Checkout for Non-Profits — with this launch, U.S. non-profit organizations (IRS-certified 501(c)(3)s) now have an easy way to accept online donations, and donors have a fast and secure way to support their favorite groups. The best part: it’s completely free for the organizations. Through at least the end of 2008, non-profits will pay 0% + 0 cents in transaction fees for each donation they accept through Checkout. And that means donors can support these groups knowing that 100 percent of their donations will reach their charity.

Want to get started? Head to Google Checkout for Non-Profit Organizations.

(ht: Mashable)