Not a Happy Ending Story

I want to be clear right from the start. As of writing this post, I haven’t found a jQuery plugin or a JS library that works right of the bat so as of right now, this story doesn’t have a happy ending, but please continue reading to see where I got and how tall the wall is we need to climb to reach this goal.

Lack of Browser Support

The only browsers enabling multitouch gestures right now are mobile browsers, but here we’re trying to tackle it with the trackpad in a desktop based browser, not mobile. If you want more info on that, I found a really good article on HTML5 Rocks about mobile browser support for multitouch gestures, written by Boris Smus. Short quote from that article:

Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets usually have a capacitive touch-sensitive screen to capture interactions made with the user’s fingers. As the mobile web evolves to enable increasingly sophisticated applications, web developers need a way to handle these events.

With desktop OS browsers on the other hand, the support for multitouch gestures is almost non-existent, with the exception of Firefox. Firefox enables a few gestures but they don’t seem to be customizable enough for the use case I demonstrated in the beginning of this post. For an example, you can’t do two finger swipes, but only three fingers. We could use the MozSwipeGesture function, but as the documentation says:

The MozSwipeGesture event is sent when the user uses three fingers to “swipe” the trackpad.

The only mention of using two finger swipe gestures comes when rotating, which can most definitely be useful for image manipulation and such, but not for the use case I’m searching for. Now, I could use the three finger swipe and simply return the events preventDefault() to force the browser to prevent OS X receiving the gesture, but that’s bad UX and would get myself quickly frustrated. On top of that, I’m not even sure the browser has priority in getting mouse gestures and so, that might not even be possible.

An Use Case Specific Idea

All the major browsers support multitouch gestures. Wait, didn’t we just acknowledge that they don’t?! Well yes, you can’t talk to the gestures in JS – but, the major browsers do enable you to go back or forward in your history by swiping with two fingers on the trackpad. Why don’t we just use that to move the viewport horizontally, essentially tricking the browser into thinking that he’s going back or forward in the history? By doing that, we would need to add something to the browsers history on page load, so that by going forward it would trigger the URL to change to another view, triggering the javascript that moves the viewport and moving the viewport to the right. Going back from there would then already be implemented in the browsers history, since the last view we had open was the one on the left, so that would happen automatically.

Again, this is a shit-mix idea only valid for my own use case. I’m sorry to bore you with this burst of brain spill, but hopefully it helps or enlightens you in any way. If it doesn’t, please write a letter and send it to Bessastadir 1, 101 Reykjavik. Thank you.

What Else Can We Do?

Right now, from what I can gather, it doesn’t look like there’s much we can do, except wait. It doesn’t look like multitouch gestures for the desktop versions of webkit based browsers are on their frontline roadmap. Firefox has a limited support for it, but I couldn’t find any evidence of that support expanding. With Opera I can’t find anything relating to multitouch gestures being forwarded all the way to the javascript engine and Internet Explorer – I’m not even going to touch!

What do you think? Have you found a JS plugin that ports multitouch gestures from the trackpad to simple functions? What would you use it for? Don’t hesitate to join the discussion:

Newlands by Justice

Helix by Justice

And, without a doubt my favorite, Canon:

Canon by Justice

You better believe it, this looks like a possible winner for the best techno album of the year! Holy motherless monkey balls, disco!

A Little Back Story

I started eating food advised in 4HB (The Four Hour Body) about a month ago. I’ve also been going to the gym at least 3 times a week for the last 3 weeks, so the logical step was to go for the PAGG and finish up the trilogy that is food, exercise and supplements. I’m no expert on any of this, I’ve once managed to go from around 240 lbs down to about 180 lbs and at that time I did it with a lot of working out, eating healthy and drinking protein shakes. This time, I’m going a similar route. I’m 230 lbs now and I want to get down to around 180, but at the same time stay healthy and do it without forcing my body down since that will only lead to the risk of gaining the weight back and even increasing it after that.

So my plan is to add PAGG to my exercise routine and list up, every week, what goes on in my head, body and soul. Here we go!

Week 1 - It’s All About I/O

Stats: 104 kg / 229 lb (-5 kg / -11 lb in 2 weeks) Total loss: 5 kg / 11 lb

Day 1: Input / Output. What comes in, must come out. Well, almost. I just took the first pill about 2 hours ago. We take an AGG before every meal and then PAG before bed. This is going to take some getting used to, but I’m pumped!

5 Days in: It’s weird taking all these pills. It makes me feel like I’m doing something to my body that it doesn’t want or need but at the same time I’m confident this will help me lose weight and if not, I can at least say I tried. Today is Saturday, which is binge eating day, so I can eat what ever I want and drink what ever I like. It’s also a break from PAGG since Tim Ferris says so. “Skip PAGG 1 day every week and 1 week every 2 months.” I think the idea behind that is to trick your body into thinking it’s not just going to get these new nutrients every day and prevent it from storing it as fat.

On Day 5: I was warned this might happen. My piss just started smelling like asparagus. Oh well, I guess I’m the only one who needs to know about that. Wait, doh!

Week 2 - Gas

Stats: 103.3 kg / 227 lb (-.7 kg / -1,5 lb) Total loss: 5.7 kg / 12 lb

Day 8: The title for this week says it all. I don’t remember ever having this much gas, ever! It started around day 4 but today it’s just been hurting, non-stop, all day. Hopefully that goes away and hopefully it’s just the amount of beans I’ve been eating, since I’m doing the 4 Hour Body diet as well. I’m pretty sure that’s the reason but non the less, week 2 has introduced gas, and lots of it :-/

10 Days in: I weight in today and I’m a bit sad that I didn’t lose more than .7kg last week. To be fair, I didn’t go to the gym at all last week. I ate healthy and took my PAGG, but no gym, no exercise and no burning of the calories I took in (see week 1, i/o). I’m hopeful that this week will be a greater fat loss and to try and guarantee it I’ve set myself a rule: No binge eating until I’m under 100 kg! That means that this Friday, October 21st 2011, if I’m not under 100 kg, I won’t binge eat the day after, on my binge eating Saturday. Lets see how that goes …

Week 3 - It’s Working!

Stats: 101.9 kg / 224 lb (-1.4 kg / 3 lb) Total loss: 6.9 kg / 15 lb

Day 15: I’m happy with the results so far. I’m consistent in my weight loss, neither going to fast nor to slow. I feel good even though my binge eating days sometimes have the effect on me that in the middle of the week I get cravings for random, nasty, unhealthy stuff. Other then that, it’s going great!

- – This journey isn’t over! Tune in after a week and see my progress. – -

A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist.

The Idea

I got the idea from watching a guy on YouTube called Shay Carl. He was, at the time, documenting a project where he wasn’t going to shave his beard until January 1st, 2009. I’m not sure when he started but I really liked the attitude he had for the whole project, how he approached it and how fun it looked to be so totally out of the ordinary people actually recognized him for it. The growing of the beard became his trademark and I remember thinking; “Wow, this is awesome! I can do that!!”

A few weeks went by and I found the right moment to launch this project. At the time my little sister, Birgitta, was going to South America as an exchange student and I thought it would be a perfect time to do this. And so it began.

The Process

It’s not hard growing a beard. I mean, it’s basically just not shaving … that’s the whole task. I had the rule that I couldn’t even trim it, except for my mustache, so the beard grew wildly and all over the place. I loved it, for the most part. It worked as an icebreaker for every single person I met and I was getting approached by a lot more random people who wanted to know what the hell I was thinking. That being said, girls didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as I did myself. Don’t ask me why, but my honest guess is that I used the wrong colon that year, wore the wrong clothes or it might be the fact that I just scream, uncontrollably, when girls come up to me.

Hey, what’s your na … AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

So as planed, this went on for a whole year and since me and a few friends had the fantastic idea to create a web based TV show at the same time, called Dead Drunk but Trying, it gave me a mini-trademark of my own. I was recognized on the streets of Reykjavik, Iceland as the weird bearded dude from that awesome show on YouTube. It also gave me an idea for the next project I wanted to do, but that one is still in the works so I can’t tell you about it for now. I can tell you that it has something to do with time and music. No more! My lips are sealed!!

The Finale

A video says more than a year of growing a beard … or something like that. Please watch:

Conclusion

Would I recommend doing this? Yes, if you’re brave enough. Would I do this again? Hell no, I’m not brave enough!

1) It’s Not an iPhone 5

The hardware update, I feel, is a bit half-assed. You get a dual core CPU, oh so cleverly called A5 which is the same they have in the iPad now (sound familiar?). You get a minor upgrade on the camera, some speed improvements through some “breakthrough antenna technology” where it switches between antennas. 4G speeds, that is 14,4 down (from 7,2 in the iPhone 4) and 5,8 up (no change there) and some other minuscule things.

On top of this you get this thing called Siri, which is suppose to be the cure for talking to your device. Yeah, I’m not going to buy in on that until I’ve tested it in the rain, during traffic on the 405 screaming at it to call my best friend, not my mom. Also, if I’m not mistaken, this feature is only available for the 4S and not included in the iOS5 update, which sucks.

2) iOS5 > iPhone 4S

I think, since I currently own an iPhone 4, the major updates coming from Apple this fall with regards to the iPhone, iPod or iPad is the iOS5.

I’m really excited about that and feel, with what I’ve seen from the hardware update the 4S brings to the table, iOS5 will be more then enough for me to last another year on my already awesome iPhone 4. To be honest, the only real update I’m excited about is the notifications center, or what ever they’re calling it. The rest of the updates aren’t really that amazing, but Apple know how to market it so, for some reason, I’m also excited about that. Damned sorcery!

3) Two Phones in Between

My first iPhone, like I said, was the original iPhone. I didn’t see the need to upgrade through 2 upgrade of the phone and I feel it might go the same way this time. I’m going to need some breakthrough technology in the next iPhone for me to consider upgrading it. That being said, I’m not saying that it’s out of the question, I just don’t feel the jumps Apple make in their iPhone upgrade are worth buying a new phone every time. Every 3 times worked out fine for me last time, and I’m seeing a pattern emerging.

4) Money

Again, these are my reasons and since I’ve quite recently purchased the iPhone 4 (well, over a year now but …) purchasing a new one costs me too much. The reason I didn’t go through 3G and 3Gs was not only because I didn’t see the need, it was also because these mini-computers aren’t cheap. I’m not complaining, but for the time being it’s not going to be on my list for purchases since I need money for a MacBook Pro, want to get the Native Instrument’s Kontrol S2 and hopefully have some money left to buy food.

S) In Conclusion

In my opinion, only get an iPhone 4S if …

1. You don’t have an iPhone
2. You haven’t updated since iPhone 3G
3. You think video chat came with Facetime, reading books came with Newsstand and voice recognition came with Siri. And if so, dude – the fuck?! :-)

Switching IDE’s is nothing like switching underpants. EOD!
- Maggi Trymbill

1) Any OS Goes

I personally love the way Textmate looks and works, but that’s only for the Mac. While I used Windows I tried E Texteditor, which was suppose to be Textmate for Windows, but wasn’t. I then used the only non-java IDE I could find with built-in support for Python and found Komodo. That soon got bloated so I started searching again and found Sublime Text. To my surprise it’s available for every OS and it isn’t flawed on Linux like most of the IDE’s I’ve tried that say they work on every OS. So, any OS goes!

2) Textmate Bundles Friendly

Just like with E Texteditor, Sublime Text is Textmate bundles friendly. This means you can run through, for an example, the whole directory of awesome themes available for Textmate and use them with Sublime Text. Snippets also work well and this opens up a can of whoop ass for awesomeness.

3) It Looks Awesome

Need I say more?

By the way; I’m using the Twilight color scheme (included) and the Soda Dark theme. Looks cool, right?

4) It’s Superman-Fast

File switching, function crawling and jumping to lines is so quick I feel I’m cheating some law of physics when doing it. There must be some kind of magic dust in there that enables this, or perhaps, it’s simply because it’s not running on java (yes, I went there!). I haven’t used the folder tree for 6 months now since Komodo, the IDE I used before, had really nice quick-open functionality. Sublime Text takes that whole concept to another level.

Through a single keyboard shortcut (ctrl/cmd + P) I can access all the files in my project, even though the project holds over 50k files and Sublime Text doesn’t even show the slightest sign of hiccuping. With another keyboard shortcut (ctrl/cmd + shift + P) I can also access all my snippets, functions within Sublime Text, install packages, etc. It takes me away from my mouse, and I love it!

5) Package Control

A guy with the name of Bond, Will Bond (he probably doesn’t get enough of that) created this amazing package control add-on to Sublime Text. It simplifies the task of finding, installing and maintaining packages available for Sublime Text and makes it idiot proof and quick.

6) Side by Side Editing

I’ve never been a big fan of side by side editing. Probably because I’ve never seen the need to use it.

After I started using Sublime Text I messed around with all the features it’s got and I found the split screen editing works really well. It’s smooth and lean and with the zoomed out overview (a.k.a. Minimap) on the left hand side it becomes much more visual. Which brings me to my next reason …

7) The Minimap

The Minimap is a fantastic tool. It gives you an at a glance overview of the file you’re looking at. If you’re searching for something within the file, you can see the phrase highlighted in the Minimap also, giving you a sense of how many instances there are of that phrase or word. It also makes scrolling directly to a function you know very well easy, from 10,000 feet away, since you know the layout of the code around it. That being said, I’d always use the keyboard shortcut ctrl/cmd + R to access definitions / functions quickly.

8) Distraction Free Mode

I know this is a minor feature and a simple one to say the least, but it’s one of the reasons I love Sublime Text.

It simply throws away everything, except my code. But, how do you access the folder tree then?! You don’t. But, how do you see a list of all the definitions or functions in the file that is open?! You don’t. But, how do you get out of it?! You don … oh wait sorry, yeah that’s simple, shift + F11. With the super fast quick-open feature built in Sublime Text, this way of coding has become the way to go for me.

9) It’s Not Finished

Sublime Text 2 isn’t finished and I think that is definitely a good thing but might also turn out to be a bad thing. If the development of this awesome IDE keeps going in this direction, it’s easily going to replace Textmate, E Texteditor and other competitors in this category of the IDE market. But my concern is that it might get bloated, since keeping an IDE feature rich but at the same time fast and minimalist hasn’t been accomplished yet. Well except for VIM, but we’re not going into that discussion now.

What Are You Waiting For?

Welcome to the 21st century, IDE’s aren’t bloated, slow nor only for a certain portion of the OS’s out there. Sublime Text 2 is the way to go, it’s got the Trymbill approval stamp (not an official stamp, yet)!

1) I’m a Developer

I’ve been a developer for over half of my life now. I started messing around in HTML when I was 11, I found it really interesting only have found out what the Internet was a few years earlier. I built a website for my moms company at the age of 12 with some help from the horrendous software, Microsoft Front Page. I’m pretty sure that damned thing slowed my learning process down quite a bit instead of helping me understand what I was actually doing, what that HTML element did and how I could manipulate it in code, instead of context menus.

As a developer it’s important for me to work in the same environment as the servers I talk to every day. I haven’t touched, when it comes to server side software, IIS, MSSQL or anything else stamped with Microsoft for over a decade now and I feel it was holding me back, running Windows as my main OS but running code or talking to servers that were running UNIX-like Linux. I would love to be able to keep using Linux, as I’ve done for the past year now, but having to switch over to Windows (dual booted) for simple Photoshop, Illustrator, Premier or even Sony Vegas tasks is boring, takes time and makes me want to throw up a little bit in my mouth. On top of that, I can’t play real games on Linux, it simply doesn’t work.

With a Mac and the UNIX based Mac OS X, which by the way looks and feels amazing, I think 1) My workflow would change for the better, 2) I’d not have to spend time switching over to the dreaded Windblows for use of Adobe software and 3) I could play games from time to time which is one of the things I haven’t been able to do for a while now on my own personal machines due to lack of hardware power and software design.

2) I’m a Designer

I might have touched on this in the first reason, having to move from Linux to Windows for the good ol’ Adobe Suite of amazing software that simply doesn’t work on Linux (and yes, I’ve tried Wine … it doesn’t fly). But being a designer doesn’t just mean I need access to software that gives me tools to design. It also means that I like everything I work on to be clean, neat and good looking. I don’t get that with Windows and I most certainly don’t get that with the hardware from IBM, HP or any of the other major PC manufacturers. They simply don’t have that X-factor that Apple has developed over the years when it comes to hardware design.

I think this might actually be an even more important reason for me to switch over, then being a developer. I haven’t seen a single designer here in San Francisco using a HP, an IBM or any other type of horribly designed hardware. Am I scared of being left out, being an outsider and not like the cool folks? No, but my reasons hold the same ground as theirs and, as far as I can tell, I’m the only designer here using a HP ThinkPad running Ubuntu. OK, I might be a little bit scared, but at least I’m not crying … *sniff*

3) OS X vs. Windows

I’ve used Windows most of my life. Only recently did I see the light and switched over to Ubuntu. A combination of frustration with Windows and the fact that Ubuntu was starting to look really good led me down that road. But comparing OS X Lion to Windows 7, in my mind, is like comparing the quarter back from San Francisco 49rs to a retard. It’s just not fair.

Windows have been dragging behind for a few years now and their next release, Windows 8, which looks like a big fail already, simply doesn’t make me want to hold on to that operating system. Also, history has shown us that every other Windows release has failed. Windows 95 – Windows 98 - Windows 2000 – Windows ME – Windows XP – Windows Vista – Windows 7 – Windows 8 … need I say more?

Hey, I’ve got an amazing idea! Let’s take a buzz word, HTML5 will work, and somehow convince people that Windows 8 runs on it. Yeah, that will get them! Muhahaha!!

4) Maybe Three is Enough …

Sorry to disappoint, but I’ve ordered a Mac Book Pro already. It boils down to this:

• Writing this post drove me nuts: Not mentally or anything, don’t worry I’m all right. That being said – simply listing up these 3 points got me thinking; “Why am I dragging this on? I want a Mac. Let’s do it!”
• I’ve waited 5 years already: I almost don’t remember when I started talking about wanting to switch over to a Mac, it’s been so long.
  
• These 3 points were enough: I’m not one to quit on tasks like these, I dislike more than anything to be a quitter. But the fact is, for me personally to make the decision, these 3 reasons was all I needed.

Conclusion

I’ll be sure to write up on how my experience with a Mac will be. I feel that the bridge I’ve used to compromise for the fact that I had a PC, being Ubuntu 10.4, has served me well. What an amazing accomplishment Linux is, I must say. The fact that the developers behind this masterpiece are surpassing, without asking for a dime, a multimillion dollar giant, dinosaur, retard, is incredible. Give credit where credit is due! If it wasn’t for that piece of operating system I probably would still be struggling with everything I’ve mentioned above and not be switching over to Mac anytime soon. Thanks for showing me that an operating system can – excuse my French – not suck!

How about you? Have you made the switch? What are you waiting for?! Tell me in the comments below.

Free Parking

All the good parking spots and all the meters are “out of order.”  I don’t have to pay for parking, anywhere I go.  This saves me a bunch of money in the long run and it saves me time because I can easily park closer to where I’m going.  On top of that, there aren’t any cars in the best parking spots, because everyone’s sleeping.  I can easily park in the best spot in the lot, at every lot!  This, I love.

No Traffic

And I’m not only talking about car traffic here.  Any store I go into, any road I drive on, any sidewalk I walk on.  No – Ones – There!  Don’t get me wrong, I like waiting in lines, sitting in traffic and being cramped into places just as much as the next person.  Oh no, wait a second, I don’t!  With no traffic and allot fewer people in general, I’m not bothered by these things.  This, I love.

Darkness

Even though I live in Iceland, which means that during summertime, at night it’s actually daytime, I like the darkness.  I like it because it doesn’t hurt my eyes, it soothes me and relaxes me during my waking hours.  I know the sun gives me vitamin D, but I can get that through pills or daylight lamps like the one we have at our office.

So during summertime, it doesn’t really matter when I’m awake.  But during wintertime, I like the darkness because it soothes me.

Smart People Sleep Late

Robert Bolizs at Semmelweist University, and his coworkers, have shown that encephalograms during sleep illustrate how sleep elements are directly related to “wakeful cognitive performance.” Studies by researchers H. Aliasson and colleagues show the timing of intervals of sleep “correlates closely” with student academic achievement. (http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/smart-people-sleep-late-82486792.html)

Bing bang boom, that’s how babies are made!

- – -

All in all, I just don’t care anymore.  The procedure of trying to correct my own timezone, in accordance with the timezone I’m currently in, is just to much of a hassle.  So for now, I’m just going to sleep when I’m tired, and wake up when I don’t need to sleep anymore.  Lifestyle fit for a king!