All posts by old posts

Technology

App.cat – iPhone app maker?

4 Comments

I’m a fairly regular user of Twitter. I’ve recently started following someone who tweets about curry recipes. Anyway, yesterday, he tweeted that:

Let me say right here that I have nothing against Mr Curry Guy. I’ve yet to try any of his tips/recipes but the pictures he tweets look delicious. The link he provided, really is free to download – so the full link to get it is http://app.cat/apps/81ae387e3a10c3044d0a6de441ca4d58

If anything, I was intrigued. Has he paid someone to code him an app? From his other tweets, it seems his son made it for him, but maybe his son is an app developer?

After looking into it in a bit more depth, I’ve discovered that app.cat is an iPhone app creator. It’s not entirely as it seems though, so I thought I’d write this blog post about it. Continue reading App.cat – iPhone app maker? →

Technology

Digital Newspapers and Magazines

Leave a comment

I was reading this news today about Apple losing their appeal regarding the Galaxy Tab being too similar to the iPad. A court has ruled that Apple couldn’t claim some “characteristic elements” of the iPad were Apple’s, due to the fact that someone else made a video in 1994, which features a device with the same elements. 1994! Continue reading Digital Newspapers and Magazines →

Random Silliness

(Hideous) Antiques Roadshow

Leave a comment

So a week or so ago, while I was waiting for the BBC’s Sherlock to start, I caught the very end of the Antiques Roadshow. This was the last item they looked at in the episode.

See if you can guess at what point I shouted obscenities at the television.

The complete profanity was something along the lines of:

“Fuck. Off. For that ugly statue of a bloke riding a sheep!?”

I may have said “pirate” at the time. Well he’s got the hat for it.

Gripes, Travel

Airline Safety Announcements

Leave a comment

I was browsing the web this morning, one thing led to another, and eventually I ended up watching airline safety announcement videos.

This reminded me that when I flew last (Nov 2010) with First Choice, they had a really really bad safety announcement. It wasn’t done by humans, but a video. And the video was bad. Imagine if a primary school made an airline safety video. That’s exactly it. Continue reading Airline Safety Announcements →

Gripes, Technology

Upload CV in .doc format?

Leave a comment

I’m back to applying for jobs at the moment. I notice a lot of job websites want it in Word format. But I’ll just say it now – Word formats are a bit of a pain in the arse.

I’ve written before about the problem you get when you open a Word-format .doc file in LibreOffice, OpenOffice or NeoOffice with keeping bullet points and web links consistent between Windows and Mac. It can’t look great to receive a CV from a potential applicant where all the bullet points are different sizes and/or have been replaced with Mercedes badges (unless you’re applying for a job at Mercedes). Continue reading Upload CV in .doc format? →

Daily Life, Gripes, Technology

Government saving – plain English?

Leave a comment

I’ve been thinking recently, that is the government wants to save money, they could do so by making their documents easier to read.

A few days ago I received a letter from HM Revenue and Customs. I say letter – it was one piece of paper, about half the size of A5, in an envelope. On both the front and back of the envelope, it told me I could arrange payments online, via Direct Debit.

Inside, the piece of paper said: Continue reading Government saving – plain English? →

Daily Life, Technology

Shit Web Design

Leave a comment

I’ve only noticed the wording of this recently, and coupled with the stupidity of the design, it really stands out to me now.

Fail.

“ALWAYS clear the tick box”? What, every single time?

So instead of making people tick the box once if they do want to remain signed in, you’re making everyone who doesn’t want to remain logged in, untick it every single time they use it.

Despite this, you only remain half logged in anyway. Even with the box ticked at home, while it remembers my name and shows off everything I’ve looked at recently, every time I try and get to my account details, summary, recently bought items, etc. I have to put the password in again.

You could get around this “keep me signed in” nonsense by using Google Chrome Incognito, or Safari’s private browsing, etc., which then wouldn’t save any of your details or keep you logged into anything, but that’s not the point. It’s poorly thought through design.

I think I started thinking about this because I received a link to this “How to make your shopping cart suck less” thing this morning. While it’s a bit over-ranty in places (I don’t have a problem seeing tiny asterisks), they’re totally right for the most part. Go and check it out if you haven’t seen it already.

Daily Life, Technology

Make your own merchandise

Leave a comment

My housemate has got a real obsession with the TV show Mongrels, BBC Three’s adult puppet comedy series. We had pre-agreed not to buy each other Christmas presents this year (she didn’t know what I wanted, and I’m totally broke), but it’s her birthday several days after Christmas, and last year, she paid for me to go to The Gadget Show Live in Birmingham, so it seems like I couldn’t not get her anything, no matter how broke I am.

I figured I’d get her some merchandise from Mongrels. Easy, eh? Well it would be, if not for the fact that they don’t make any. Lovable as the characters are, you can’t buy mini versions, or cushions with their faces on, or…well..anything. There’s nothing to buy from the show except series 1 on DVD. That’s a bit boring, isn’t it? Continue reading Make your own merchandise →

Daily Life, Food, Mr Fussy's Marmalade

Mr Fussy’s Marmalade

Leave a comment

“One man’s (albeit slightly late) foray into cooking food more interesting than oven chips and beans on toast” – old strapline, 2007.

This blog didn’t exist 4 years ago.

What did though, was a food blog I started called “Mr Fussy’s Marmalade”. The basic premise is that I went through most of my teenage years not wanting to try new food. At some point in my mid 20’s, I had nothing else much going on in my life, so figured I’d try some of the foods I’d never eaten before while (sorta) learning to cook. It contained almost no pictures (which is a bit odd for a food blog, isn’t it?) ran for about 20 posts, then I got bored, and my mind wandered off onto other things (I’m still not a very good cook).

I’ve finally got around to adding those posts to this blog though (I’m not selling this very well, am I?), so if you fancy reading the sort of crap I was typing 4 years ago, then check out the new OLD category: Mr Fussy’s Marmalade.

The oldest post in that category explains it better than I’ve just done above (and also why it’s called “Mr Fussy’s Marmalade”).