Mark Power’s Posterous

@Emmadw I tend to go for Sandisk for speed & reliability. However, if you're not going to be shooting much high speed action, many cheap ones are ok tbh.

We've been talking at work about having cards/stickers printed for events we run, advertising the tag to be used in social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc..

Category Posts Widget

• Support for displaying thumbnail images via Simple Post Thumbnails plugin.
• Specify how many posts to show
• Set which category the posts should come form
• Designate how many of the widgets you need
• Specify whether to make to the widget title a link to the category page
• Optionally show the post excerpt

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/category-posts/

So...I'm making a website (for work) using WordPress. It's going to be built on pages, rather than posts.

However, I want the user (the owner of the site) to be able to add new, breaking-news-type items using posts...to be able to attribute a category to them and for certain pages to pull in these posts using the related category. You with me? No?

Ok...There's 3 areas: BSI, ISO & CEN. Under each area there'll be pages for existing standards, work in progress and general information. There'll also be a "Coming Up in bsi/iso/cen" page. These pages I want to make so that they pull in any post filed under the specified category (ie. "coming up in.."). That's my first thing to get round. I've found the following at http://www.hashbangcode.com/blog/create-a-page-of-posts-in-wordpress-1529.html

I've created the php page using the code given, now I'll have to get it installed tomorrow I think. Hopefully that will then display those pages how I want them to.

The thing is I came across a plugin that called List Category Posts. This creates a widget that you can display in the sidebar. But "oh no no.." I hear you mutter. That lacks the control I need, I know. I want the widget to only appear on those 3 pages.

Step forward...Widget Logic plugin :) Using that I can set which page/pages I want the widget to display in.

Only one problem. I kinda need to make this ONE widget into THREE widgets - one for each area (BSI, ISO & CEN)...each one pulling in the differently categorised posts.

Can I do that though?

It would seem not :( However, if you can think of a simple (painfree) way round this, I would be very happy indeed.

Some people dismiss iPhone users as "Apple Fanboys", crawling along in supplication to all things "i".

I don't doubt there are people like that, but I'm not sure they're any worse than the chest-puffing "Anything But Apple" crowd that refuse to touch it because they're scared they'll be viewed as fanboys themselves ;)

Me? I just love carrying a device that has all this functionality, wrapped up in sleek usability (mostly) and gorgeous aesthetics (so I'm shallow!)

This is my digital life.

         

Click here to download:

I_forget_its_a_phone_my_iPhone.zip (304 KB)

Things are starting to pick up now on the iPhone augmented reality front with today seeing the release of another browser, Wikitude.

I've been looking forward to this as I'd already been tagging locations as POIs (Points Of Interest) on the wikitude.me website.

Only just installed it but the 1st thing that strikes me is it suffers from the same UI issue as Robotvision, in that the data (apparently known as "augies") is displayed lying on top of one another.

It's obvious why this happens of course as you're looking into the distance but the fact is - for me at least - it does severely impact on the experience of using such an app. Still...I'm looking forward to having a play and it did show the POIs I added (whereas robotvision seems to be devoid of many of the flickr images I've geotagged).

I'll have more of a play later. Oh and I'll also look to post something on the other AR browser I got the other day - Layar.

Following on from the couple of quick posts I did while out and about today, I thought I'd follow it up by saying 2 things about Robotvision.

The first is something that will be relevant to location aware AR apps in general - and that's the presentation of the overlayed data on your real world view through the device's camera.

The screenshot below shows what I get when (lying on my sofa of an evening) I select the 'schools' category of the Bing search. As you can see, 20 locations have been identified, with a cluster of them being in the direction my device is pointed at. Not overwhelmingly helpful though is it. Multiple locations stacked like a deck of cards with you only being able to view the one on top.

So...there's a question. How are developers going to get round this issue? Sure, they could be fanned out but don't forget, these are small screens we're talking about...not a great deal of real estate to play with.

The 2nd is more app specific tbh and that's the lack of landscape view. Screenshot below shows the same scene but with the device on it's side. Again though, we're talking screen real estate.

I think it's fair to say that the area of presentation in AR will be absolutely critical when it comes to the success or failure of tools. A jumbled mess of bubbles might be viewed as 'cool' early doors (simply due to the obvious wow factor of augmented displays) but it won't take long for that to wane.

And let's face it, for every really good UI you've seen on the web and in software, I bet you can counter it with many many more poor ones.

That's why I'm already itching for more offerings from developers...

#ar #augmentedreality

I selected a bing search of coffee shops.

#ar #augmentedreality

This overlays Bing search results (you can either type these in specifically or select categories off a list of usual suspects - bars, restaurants, theatres, etc).

But what it also does is show you any twitterers within a given radius and flickr images that have been geotagged within your vicinity.

I walked along the Leeds - Liverpool canal this morning to come into Wigan (don't go there. No, seriously. Don't. Go. There). On the way I stopped and took a quick shot and uploaded to flickr, including the location (obviously).

Couple of hours later I'm in Starbucks and I decide to have a look-see at what images have been tagged near here. 1st one I see? Yours truly.

I like :)

#ar #augmentedreality

Started trying (yet another!) Twitter app on the iPhone last night. I had been perfectly happy with Twittelator Pro. However, it kinda broke this week so while the developer was fixing it I was using Echofon (formerly Twitterfon).

Anyway, last night I turn on Apple's 'Genius Apps' setting. This is where the App Store comes up with suggestions based on the apps you already use.

Top of the list - SimplyTweet (so you can see what I do most of all on my iPhone, eh!)

Kneejerk early reaction was that it looked good and feature packed but was sluggish and unresponsive. Blimey...I took back the criticism sharpish! Talk about a feature set! Address book, reply to multiple recipients with a finger swipe, build customised group views, search photos, support for img.ly ... Honestly...

Ladies & Gents...we have a winner. SimplyTweet.

The screenshot shows the 'more' page that opens up the customisation and search options.