I’ve never done a course in UI or UX, not have I thought about it in such great detail that it affected change in a product. However I do grant myself the opportunity to have an opinion on it. An educated one. This is because I have done computer science. I do work in IT, and I do use technology an awful lot. With that in mind, I think I’m astute enough to know what good or bad UI/UX is.

It’s something that bugs me a lot. When an application or website has no “flow”. Blogs have a very decadent way of flowing. It’s easy upon visiting this blog that the most recent (and usually, hence, the most important) thoughts are the ones at the top, and everything cascades downwards in order of time. This is a format that’s easy to understand. If I were to change the blog theme and have everything go sideways, it would be acceptable that the most-left post is the most important. These are design paradigms that we learn as children, and bring with us to everything as adults.

I don’t want to give specific ideas on design, UI and UX with examples because that would be unfair. However there is an increased number of very popular apps in recent times that have a design-over-usability issue. Sexy apps are sexy, but not necessarily usable and don’t necessarily have a point.

It’s kind of like child-proof caps on bottles. I understand why the bottle is child-proof. You don’t want kids overdosing on medicine. But is the problem the bottle design? Or is it the parent who let the kid near the bottle?

The parallel with technology is huge. A lot of apps have this huge overload of information that is more than just irritating. They overload just in case you miss something. But I think good UI and UX means I’ll never give myself the chance to miss something. I’ll find my way to the thing I want if I want it that badly. Social media apps are generally quite bad at this. I bar twitter because that flow is kind of the main point, and if you don’t like it then you shouldn’t really use twitter. Facebook, Path and even the new (and beautiful) Google+ apps all fall foul to this. They don’t know how to sort information for mobile at all, and instead try to make a browser experience on my phone.

I think it’s a bug in design. No one’s paying enough attention to the usage of the product, but instead making it as sexy and feature-filled as possible.

One of the best ways to get information on iOS is via notification. That information couldn’t be simpler. That little slide-to-get-more view says everything I need it to. If I need more, I can get it. If not, I can leave it. This is the finest example of UX. It retains the design of a bottle, without adding the parental guidance and tripping everyone else up.

I’ve no real conclusion to this post. I just kind of wanted to rant. I’m sure this was an utterly unsatisfying read, at least at the end.

One thing I’ve learned to love is Homebrew, which I had anyway for some reason or another, but using it now has been a joy. I didn’t need it for Ruby or anything, I actually wanted it to install node.js easily.

So what is Homebrew?

It’s a simple package manager for OS X that deals with the pain-in-the-arse prospect of handling UNIX packages (and beyond). No more “configure” or “make”!

The pitch from the creators is that if “MacPorts is driving you to drink, use Homebrew”. I’ve never actually used MacPorts (or Fink), but because any tutorial for anything I’ve needed used Homebrew it’s perfect. Beyond that, thanks to my use of Xcode and the OS X dev tools, I already had the only pre-requisite installed, which is the opt-in OS X Developer Tools package itself.

Future-proof

Homebrew is future-proof in the way anything else like it could be. By that I mean it’s not. Nothing is. But Homebrew is built in Ruby, so it’s infinitely extensible and infinitely flexible. This means that the Ruby community (which is remarkably active, and helpful) are behind it and work very hard and well at making sure Homebrew is the defacto standard for package managers.

I knew nothing of this film, and some careful conversations beforehand lead me to learn that this film stars an Olsen sister (not a twin). Moreover, it’s a remake of a film from Uruguay. This is a fact that shocked me. Uruguay has a film industry?!

The film isn’t that long, which is good in this case because despite my limited knowledge (or interest) in horror films it seemed to creep up on every cliché it could before ending in mellow-dramatic fashion. This is the emo girl of films. It thinks it’s a unique and beautiful snowflake, but it really isn’t. It’s also shot in one take. This is something that is quite evident early on, because the hammy acting points out every flaw in the film-making process.

The acting throughout is flakey at best, but as a result provided a lot of laughs. Not tension-relieving laughs because the film is so terrifying. Genuine “who green-lit this crap” laughs. The creepy relationship between Olsen, her father and her uncle is more terrifying than the spooky noises she hears as the film progresses. The even creepier childhood friend that shows up at random provides a fantastic laugh with some of the worst dialogue interactions between two characters (creepy girl & Olsen) I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen The Matrix Revolutions.

The premise is simple: girl, father & uncle go to fix their ruin of a house to sell it off. Creepy girl is a neighbour. The house makes noises. People are murdered. The protagonist girl screams a lot. Then we enter the twilight zone where it all unravels.

I won’t spoil anything, not that many people will see this instead of the Avengers, but the moment when she manages to escape the house (which takes an inexplicable amount of time given the ruins the house is in – you can literally see her struggle against rotted drywood covering a window, which a 3 year old could tear apart) brought the best laugh. She runs away for a few moments in a scene I’m sure the director compared to the moment when Dave floats into space in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Then her uncle arrives in his jeep and they go back to the house, which is now the scene of a murder. “For fuck sake” was what someone in the audience said, quite loudly, bringing the entire cinema to tears with laughter.

This film is a poor effort. The hammy acting either got better as the film went on, or we just acclimatised to it. Having a single-shot film without using theater actors (or using bad theater actors) seems like a poor decision. As I walked in I was told this film had two directors, which is apparently “always bad”. I would have felt robbed if I had have paid €20 to go see this film in the cinema, even though it provided a fun time… but that was thanks to the audience, not the film.

I’ll be making changes on this blog soon, too.

Well, the main reason is because it’s not glorious. The reputation it carries is the kind of reputation football carried in the 70s in England. Full of “hooliganism”, violence and a general bad attitude. Of course now the English Premier League is a prestigious one, and one of the best in the world in terms of viewership, fandom and money generated. The LoI is nowhere near this, nor will it ever be because of its size, and the sheer size of our country.

Of 53 nations listed with domestic leagues, Ireland sits 31st in the UEFA rankings. 31st means that we have a league worthy of existence, but it’s not going to rival any big leagues, nor are we going to have a large showing in the Champions League.

As a kid I watched Shelbourne FC. Not religiously or anything. It was merely a case that my Dad liked them (probably because their stadium was closest to our house) and brought my brother and I to games here-and-there. It wasn’t exactly a platform to set us up as lifelong football fans or anything, as even with my limited knowledge of the game then, I knew I wasn’t watching world class stars. In fact, I’ve very little idea how I parlayed from there to Bundesliga. Watching Bayern Munich every week (and often more than once a week, given their success across multiple competitions) has turned me into a student of the game, almost. Critiquing tactical decisions by players and managers and doing a lot of armchair managing is something I couldn’t possibly have done with Shelbourne, or any LoI team. But that “armchair manager” stuff turns into actual management for some people… and it would be nice to nurture some talent that way through our league.

So how could we boost the league, both financially (crucial) and in terms of exposure, to get those armchair managers out and get fans of the top teams into the clubs both as players and fans?

Well, we’re now big fans and friends of the UK. So why not have the FAI strike a deal with the FA to allow our top club join their league? If you honestly means-tested it, our top team(s) would either languish at the bottom of the Premier League, or do reasonable in the top division below that.

What it means is that English clubs would have to come to Ireland to play games, which isn’t that big an ask really, which would help boost ticket sales, merchandise sales and so on in the LoI. It also gives smaller teams in the LoI a truly tangible goal. Perhaps, too, it would help boost private investment in clubs – because ultimately that business logo on the shirt could be seen by far more people if the team did well and reached England.

Similar success can be seen with the Welsh Swansea team.

Of course it’s not a clear-cut plan. What happens if the team who wins the LoI gets relegated from the English league a year later? I would wager it fair to allow that team to join our premier division right away. How you would judge a team good enough to stick in England versus a team here might be a sticky issue too as the teams wouldn’t be directly competing. That might be solved with the way our league structure is (as a summer league, beginning in March and ending in November to counter Premier League fixtures) but it would be very tiring for a team to play 12 months of the year, with some overlap. Especially an Irish team without major squad depth.

Overall though, I think once the nitty-gritty is resolved, it could be a good idea to run and help the LoI out. Maybe one day we’ll see a strong league. We’re not talking about rivaling the Bundesliga here, but maybe enough to have something we’re proud of, and to have a good system of development for players that we build up a strong national squad and export great players around European teams.

Edit: After a brief discussion on twitter, an interesting consensus of opinion appears to have cropped up. People don’t think our best team could hack it with anything other than the English Championship (lower tier league). One option floated was the option of only submitting our best team to the FA Cup, rather than into a full league – which would yield similar results as before.

Totes.rand()
The original inspiration, based on south-siders’ inherent desire to shorten words like “totally” and “random”.

function AreYe (havinalaugh){ der bud; return true;}
“Are ye havin a laugh” typically means “are you taking the piss?”… while “bud” is colloquially used for “friend”, often in a derogatory sense!

willYaMeetMeMate(bool);
Another Dublinism is guys asking girls if they’ll “meet” (make out with) their friends. Obviously… Irish people are too shy to ask themselves!

I also noted that boolean statements should be handled by a class called stateOfYe()!

What about catch statements?…
would_ye_ever { } ye_can_fuck_off (Bollix e) {}

Thanks @agammell and @sciritai for the lulz!

Of course, as usual, legislators, elected officials and “interest groups” are caving and trying to force the people into something they (we) don’t want. SOPA was defeated because people put pressure on congress in the US to shelve the plans. Now ACTA has raised its ugly head because it was in development through secret meetings with politicians spurred on by special interest groups and businesses.

The reason it’s all remarkably ironic is because during a tour of Berlin we were pointed to the Reichstag, which is essentially the house of the government.

There’s a large, glass dome on top for visitors to check out the building. Even while the government is sitting and having debates, etc. It’s a cool concept. Not because it’s an iconic piece of architecture (which it is), but because of the message it holds. The architect built it this way to demonstrate a very real idea: the people are above the government. In this building, the people look down through glass to see the government in action.

True democracy does not involve the people electing people with agendas. True democracy involves electing people to uphold the peoples’ beliefs. Just because you’re elected, it does not give you a mandate to do as you please without the peoples’ input.

No one wants ACTA. It’s counter-productive to stoping copyright infringement. It’ll only spur on stronger, better and harder-to-trace software. When Metallica & the music industry stood behind a war against Napster, torrents came. Can you imagine what would come after torrents? And don’t for a second think that the people wouldn’t start their own ISP’s and network infrastructures to get around ACTA/SOPA types of restrictions.

The arab spring came about thanks, in part, to the organisational abilities the internet gave the people. It’s the spirit of this sharing, connection and community that embodies the internet. Bad things happen online, like illegal downloading – but as I linked above, if it wasn’t downloaded, it probably wouldn’t have been experienced in the first place (that is to say that I wouldn’t have paid for something anyway if I couldn’t have downloaded it).

I can’t imagine the anger if the internet was suppressed in the way they want to. It’s the voice of the people they’re trying to silence, not the copyright. It suits the government(s) to say that copyright and child porn is rampant and killing the economy – but that’s all a fallacy. In fact, the child porn argument is the most annoying argument I have ever heard. I’ve been using the internet since I was about 10 or 11, and not once, ever, have I seen child porn. I’ve never looked for it, but who in their right mind is?

Ultimately my point is that the government needs to represent the will of the people. There is no mandate for any government to try and shut down or change the way we use the internet. If ISP’s get tough then people leave them (just look at the state of Eircom, who bend over backwards for anyone). If ISP’s are forced to report my IP for merely visiting thepiratebay or similar, then it might be time to invest in private networks – for the people – outside of the governments’ jurisdiction.

The story
In the company I work for, a large portion of the business is comprised of a retail element. I’m not directly involved in this part of the business, but the aim of the business generally is to drive customers through the doors of the retail floors. The business sells Apple computers – generally perceived to be higher cost computers than your low-grade tack from other manufacturers.

The other day I had a few meetings in one of the locations, where we have retail space and offices above. I spent most of my day in the offices above other than having a chat with some of the staff downstairs. After I was done myself and one of my colleagues went for a pint. This is where I heard the story…

Keep in mind it wasn’t told with any malice or even slight anger – but more bewilderment. I certainly was blown away by the audacity of the characters involved.

In Dublin we have, like most other major global cities, an “occupy” movement. The aim is to highlight and force change in capitalist regimes with corrupt banking systems, etc. You can read more about that on Wikipedia, if you don’t already know what it is. Here, our version of the movement is a make-shift tent/wood arena outside of the Central Bank of Ireland on Dame Street. Hence the name generally given to it is “Occupy Dame Street“.

Some of the campaigners, who appear generally to be fairly quiet and non-confrontational (it must be pointed out) dropped into the retail store in question. They wanted to know from the manager if it was possible to get a Mac from the store to use during their campaign. The clear answer here is generally going to be “no”, as the company has its own quiet charitable efforts that it does and it’s certainly never donated machines to political efforts. Nor will it ever, I would imagine. This isn’t a huge company with vast coffers of money to throw around, so dropping €900+ (the cheapest Mac price) on the Occupy movement makes no business sense. It’s easier to just have people employed for that price instead.

Instead, the manager decided to see if he could get his hands on a second-hand machine. Sure, it’ll be old, a bit rusty and won’t have up-to-date software – but it’ll do the simple things fine. Word processing, internet, email/browser, etc.

This is where the story gets a bit strange. The manager didn’t manage to release this stock. Probably for the same reasons he couldn’t release a new machine either – because it’s not worth the business risk. The problem here is that no one dropped around to the Occupy movement HQ to tell them. They decided to get angry. And when protestors get angry, they shout.

A few of them decided to take it upon themselves to drop into the retail store (when it was quiet, apparently) and chanted that the company was “part of the problem”. Once they had vented their anger they went off and were never heard of again.

This is where my opinion comes in. These guys went into a place asking for some of the most expensive computer equipment you can buy, and then kicked up a stink when they didn’t get it. In essence, they threw their toys out of the pram when Daddy wouldn’t buy them a new Spiderman outfit. I don’t know how they could justify asking for a Mac from a small business that employes a lot of people (but, remember, is “part of the problem”). Everyone in their is doing their bit to help themselves by earning a wage, paying tax and getting on with it. How they are the problem is ridiculous.

Did these guys consider going to a skip or a huge business that might have old computers waiting to be binned? Was their first port-of-call the fancy Apple stuff? I wouldn’t even mind that they asked. Sometimes when you chance your arm you can be surprised by the reaction… but to demand/expect that you get what you want for free is ridiculous – and symptomatic of the middle class Irish rich-kid attitude that these guys displayed.

I’m no more happy with the Irish banking/political system as anyone else. It irritates me that the super-rich get away with blind murder and rape of the state, but I’m just getting on with it like most other people. Things like this make the Occupy Dame Street movement look more like the children of “the 1%” than anything else. I also find a great sense of irony that their camp on Dame Street is ring-fenced. It’s not an open peoples movement because you can’t just park yourself next to them. I’m sure there are security issues involved, but those issues wouldn’t be there if there were more people behind this movement.

I wasn’t necessarily against this movement before, but I certainly am now. When can we get this shanty-town shut down?

Christmas was lovely because all I did was go back to my parents’ house and drink their wine while eating their food. Once I had gained enough weight I left. A nice quiet Christmas was what I wanted and needed… and it was certainly what I got.

New Year’s was another thing altogether where myself & Gem went out and got messy. We hadn’t done it in a while and owed it to ourselves to drive our bodies into the ground. The single and only resolution I made for myself was to part-take in project365; an idea I saw a lot of people do last year and the year before that. Basically you just upload a single image per day that you shot and edited that day. I’d love to say I’ll be dragging my 50D around with me everywhere but I reckon a lot of images will come off my iPhone… which is fine. However it has inspired me to look at the world like a photographer again – to think about framing, colours, people, etc.

The 5th is my birthday so after a quick turn-around after 2012 rang in I had more celebrations. This time much more subdued, just a few pints with friends and that was that. I also decided that after pining for one for so long, I would buy myself a Christmas gift with a Kindle 4. So far I’m loving it but I haven’t properly delved into reading on it yet because I have a real physical book to finish first.

Ideally now would be the time to get back into the swing of things but no – on Wednesday I go on holiday to Berlin for 7 days.

I’ll update this blog a bit more once I get a chance but so far things are going swimmingly in 2012!

• You do not talk about the Bechdel test
• You do not talk about the Bechdel test
• If it’s your first night at film school, you have to fight

These aren’t the exact rules. In fact these are the rules related to when a man (for example, me) brings up how much bullshit is associated with the actual rules. The actual rules are:

• A film must include two women (at least)
• These two women have to talk to each other
• The conversation has to be about something other than men

These rules seem easy to follow, and should be easy to find a film that follow these rules. However, think about it… there are very few films I can think of that follow these rules.

The rules aren’t meant to be feministic or anti-men, either. They’re simply a barometer for how half of the worlds population are treated by one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the modern era.

Alien passes this test, as does Aliens (or Alien 2, for the retards). This is a good example. It features a strong female lead, and even other women… some of which converse with Ripley about something that isn’t a man! Amazing. But apply these same rules to The Stepford Wives and it still passes. While Stepford tries to be social commentary, I watched it and thought it was grossly anti-women and clearly written by a man with an attitude problem. Boys Don’t Cry passes too. I don’t think I need to go into why this is a ridiculous example of why this is a highlight for the test.

Apply this same rule to games and, even though I can find plenty of games with strong female characters, often they don’t have other females to talk to about anything other than men. Uncharted… for example. There are incredibly strong women but I’m not sure if they talk together about much else other than Nathan Drake. I don’t actually remember if Lara Croft had female friends, too.

What does this say?

Well, women will tell you that it says that women are grossly under-represented in film. I would agree. But anything after that sentence will lead anyone to believe that all women are crazy, politically minded, feminist anarchists who hate men and anything men do.

I disagree with that last bit and think that it shows one thing and one thing only: not that women are grossly under-represented in film, but that men are the main source of entertainment in the world. Men write and direct more films than women. I think with game developers, if a woman walks into a developer office she’ll light up in a ball of flames like a satanist in a church.
(my girlfriend told me to note here that I mean that I doubt women work in game development studios)

What’s the problem? And what’s the solution?

The problem is that the film industry is like banks. It’s run by bottom-feeding pieces of dirt who favour nepotism over talent. There are millions, literally millions, of talented women who belong at the upper-echelons of entertainment. Particularly at the writing and idea side of things. I’m sure they would write strong female characters that talk about things other than men easily as long as they didn’t feel inhibited by the rules of film.

The fact is men don’t even notice when two woman are in a film. Not in a negative way. In fact, I think in a positive way. If there were 15 women in a film it would be fine as long as it doesn’t scream “I’M A WOMAN, HEAR ME TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT AREN’T MEN”… The film industry plays to rules that don’t matter to most people. Women are only out of place in gay porn and Batman (largely the same thing) and that’s fine, men are out of place in clothes shops and decent restaurants.

The solution? Same as my solution for banks. Dissolve them. Not the institutions, the people who run them… in baths of acid. Then start again with young, modern, crazy, new age thinkers. It’s those young, crazy, new-age thinkers that brought the technological revolution we’re enjoying today. Why not the entertainment revolution? It needs a kick in the ass anyway. The fact that some gimp decided that a comic book-to-film adaptation of The Green Lantern was a good idea is a prime example of why we need to be stocking up on human-dissolving acid already…

I’m not talking about quotas, that’s more anti-women than anything else. I’m just saying that on the face of it the bechdel test stinks of feminism, and that drives men away from an idea. Ideas drive men towards ideas. Old fucks who sign off on The Green Lantern stink anyway, which is a clear sign that women aren’t under-represented in film as much as they’re just not given a shot at showing talent in an equal auditorium.