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Written by Kelsey
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Thursday, 01 February 2007 |
 I'm working on a fairly large real-estate project at the moment which uses some interesting methods for displaying tabular data. Rather than going with the usual technique of alternating between two colours on the table rows, we're using a graduated colour scheme for the most important data; dark to light over the course of five rows, the better to highlight the sorting of the user's data. Those colours also need to fit in with the general look & feel of the site and there's lots of little information widgets which need styling.
With a layout this complex, I eventually realised that I wasn't being as consistent as I'd like with the colour settings across all my widgets.
For years I've been using the technique of putting a little 'colour chart' at the top of my stylesheet, basically an index of the major and minor colours, and a short description of where they go.
The problem with this is that in a really long stylesheet, you've got to scroll all the way to the top to reference your colours, and even then you only get the descriptions and hex values - you can't actually see the colours.
So instead, I'm now using a colour chart that shows every colour I'm using in css. How it works, after the jump:
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Written by Kelsey
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Thursday, 18 January 2007 |
If you're an Australian with eyes, you can't miss Telstra's relentless campaigning on the behalf of their broadband services and NEXT G network.
Telstra, Australia's oldest telco, has bucks to burn and a massive mindshare. Everyone knows who they are. But even owning most of the physical telecommunications infrastructure in the country that other providers must lease doesn't mean they are willing to offer customers value for money.
This week Justine and I have been agressively pursued by Telstra reps to switch to both their landline and mobile services. The interesting thing about this is that I've had a mobile since 1994 and I've never been a Telstra customer, raising interesting implications about Telstra's privacy policy in the lead-up to the introduction of the Australian Do Not Call Registry early this year.
That aside, we spent a little time running the numbers and found something interesting: Despite such aggressive tactics, we'd be far, far worse off switch to Telstra than sticking with our current providers.
Find out why after the jump.
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iPhone: Australian carrier speculations |
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Written by Kelsey
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Wednesday, 10 January 2007 |
 So the big news of this week is the iPhone. Virtually everyone I know, geek or otherwise, is talking about this thing.
And let's face it - what's not to talk about. In most of the western world, this kind of device is revolutionary in terms of technology convergance, design and elgance. Japan, perhaps unsurprisingly, is less than impressed.
Despite the hype, my own desire was little muted by the acknowledgement that we won't be seeing the iPhone in Australia for at least a year.
To my thinking, this is probably a good thing. Much as I like their products, the old agade "Never buy version one of anything" holds true as much for Apple as any other technology company. Every true geek has learned this law at great personal frustration - if not expense.
First-generation fear isn't the only factor working in Australian's favour, however.
The current iPhone is only quad-band compatible, meaning no 3G. While this is probably due somewhat to the extra strain 3G use places on batteries, it's more likely that the generally patchy 3G coverage of Cingular (now AT&T, the only phone company currently slated to sell iPhones in the US) was the major contributing factor.
The rest of the world, however, likes 3G - or at least the idea of it. I don't know anyone who regularly makes video calls. I've tried, but never been able to acheive a connection on my Sony Ericsson V800i, supplied by Vodafone. But with Hutchinson's '3' network dominating the airwaves, no self-respecting telecommunciations firm can afford not to claim 3G network capability.
I think we can assume that in some form or another, there will be a 3G iPhone.
So the real question: Who will partner with Apple in Australia?
The choice of Cingular in the US is telling. A big carrier, not regarded as a particularly revolutionary company, the US-based firm was willing to overhaul the way their network operates to accomodate Apple, the first example of their collaboration being visual voicemail. No doubt more will be revealed closer to the release of the product.
Another clue lies in understandng the importance of Cingular's EDGE network to Apple's plans. While far from being the fastest wireless data network in the US, it's certainly the widest, with the largest coverage of any telecommunications offering. So while you may not be able to get online faster than everyone else, you'll be able to get online in more locations. Let's face it - there's not going to be an Apple proprietary BitTorrent widget (please don't make me eat my words on that!), so mass-downloads aren't the order of the day. Ubiquitous access to web, email, maps and chat is vital - and for this, most users would forsake a little speed for a lot of coverage.
All of which combined gives us an idea of who Apple might choose to partner with in Australia.
Let's run down the list:
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