Richard Leggett

CalDAV Support Added to Google Calendar

I’ve been using Google Docs and Reader for a long time now. Reader is the only RSS aggregator that lets me whizz through hundreds of feeds fast enough to keep up to date and from various devices (tried feedburner and newsgator). Docs made it easy to share any document, presentation, todo list with a friend in 2 clicks, and now Docs and Reader have offline support (Google Gears) the worry about not having net access at any point is gone.

However, the subject of the post is Google Calendar, which has probably been the most useful app so far. I switched to using Google Calendar for all my calendar needs for several reasons:

1. Read/write access from any device at any time, including iPod Touch (fantastic support), or basic mobile phone
2. Subscribe to calendar in Apple iCal (or Outlook etc)
3. Automatic reminders via free SMS, email, popup and iCal alarm.
4. Upcoming events in Dashboard widget, and on my Google Homepage

The one limitation was that you had to visit google.com/calendar to add an item, but their intelligent new event creation made that easy (e.g. click new event, type “meet XYZ Tuesday 7pm at POSTCODE, hit enter it would automatically add the event, a reminder and a link to the map location).

However now Google have added CalDAV support, you can now add it as a CalDAV account in iCal for read/write access directly.

Instructions here:

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358

Via: http://blog.skitsanos.com/

Flash on the Beach Conference Passes.. on eBay

What a great idea from Flash on the Beach, there are now 5 three day conference passes are up for grabs on eBay, the starting price just £1. It will be interesting to see how much these end up going for. Whoever wins, I’ll see you there!


Ticket 1
Ticket 2
Ticket 3
Ticket 4
Ticket 5

Handset Detection (Mobile Browser Sniffing)

handsetdetection logo

A huge challenge when developing web sites for mobile phones, either as a separate entity, or as a gracefully degraded version of the “desktop” version, is sniffing just what features the device has. This might include support for XHTML, JavaScript 1.5, Flash Lite (standalone or embedded in a page) and so on.

I just caught a post on the Flash Lite Google Group regarding a new site, handsetdetection.com, which provides a free API for sniffing over 7000 devices. The API is available through XML or JSON and the list of features the API documents is exhaustive, from screen size and streaming video support to HTTPS and SVG capability.

Find out more at the website.

Unity3D on the Wii Now Official

Unity 3D, a high-end game development tool for web, desktop and soon the iPhone has announced they are now an official middleware provider for Wii.

Unity on Wii

From the site:

Unity’s game engine allows developers to create, modify and iterate on Wii game functionality with the following features:

  • Live Preview: The play button allows developers to instantly preview their game inside the authoring environment exactly as it currently exists, regardless of the development phase. Users can modify any object’s properties and see the results in real-time without pausing.
  • Scriptable Controller: Simple, straightforward, fully-featured Wii Remote scripting class lets developers read data from the Wii Remote controller, Nunchuck controller, and Classic Controller effortlessly.
  • Optimized Character Animation: Developers can create characters without special exports, imports, or modifications required. Files drop easily into Unity and the characters come to life with full animation on Wii hardware.
  • Scriptable Shaders: Unity’s ShaderLab system has been expanded to leverage the full power of the Wii graphics chip. Developers can use one of the built-in shaders optimized for Wii or write their own. They can script and modify any shader on any object.
  • Click to Publish: Developers can easily run their game on their Wii development kit, building it with one click.

Read the press release.

3D Zoo Site Raises the Bar

I just received a link to The Eco Zoo site and quite honestly this is a step above what we might normally expect from a web site. Using Papervision a custom 3D engine in a slick fashion, switching between 3D environments, the tree/world and the pop-up book specifically, the site explores some exotic creatures.

The Eco Zoo

There’s a lot of attention to detail throughout, from the butterflies fluttering around the tree and the simulated cloth to the leaves at the top blowing away and the pop-up book pages which you can rotate around and discover the artist has even taken the time to draw the reverse of the characters in the scene.

Superb site, check it out here.

Nonoba – Free Flash Multi-User Server, API, Hosting and $20,000 Competition

I’ve just received an email from Nonoba with information on their new multi-user offering, which includes an AS2 and AS3 API, but what I find particularly interesting is that they also include free hosting and execution of your game logic.

The aim appears to be to lower the barrier to entry for anyone wishing to create a multi-user game. These can include turn-based, or real-time games. They currently have some demos up on the site, and these include Nonoba Racer, Fridge Magnets, Multiplayer Asteroids and DrawPad.

Finally they are holding a $20,000 USD competition, with a first prize of $15,000 for the best game built on the new API.

Sign up for the beta here.

More information on the APIs here.

Nonoba

Adobe Sponsored Poker Event III

It’s that time again :)

The 3rd Adobe sponsored London Poker Tournament is now open for registration. The event is completely FREE and will take place on the 27th May at 7pm at the Loose Cannon Poker club in Cannon Street. Adobe are providing the beer and prizes as usual. This event is open only to those who use Adobe products professionally. Don’t worry if you’ve never played before as there are always lots of newbies and the dealers at your table will be giving you all 20 minutes of training if you need it. Go register at www.pokercoder.com and if you have any further questions, contact the organiser at sean@pokercoder.com.

Register at: www.pokercoder.com

[OT] Charity 10k Run – Shout out for Sponsors

UPDATE: It was raining cats and dogs but it didn’t seem to put people off. I ended up getting 45 mins 5 seconds so I’m quite happy with that and really keen to do another one soon!

On the 26th of May I’ll be running the Bupa London 10,000 charity event beginning and ending in St James Park, London. This is just a shout out to say I’ve set up a sponsorship page, so if you know me, you’ve found this blog useful in the past, or you just feel like helping a good cause please click the link below and donate anything you can.

Donate to the SHINE trust here.

I thought long and hard about which charity to choose, and I’m a strong believer in education being a primary facilitator in the creation of a more sustainable environment. In short, saving people’s lives is an incredibly noble cause, but we don’t want them to survive only to live in misery or poverty. Education can improve these things because someone who receives education will not only stand a better chance of making a good life for themselves and their family, but they are less likely to make the wrong decisions in the first place. The men and women at SHINE are dedicated to this cause, so I’d like to help just a little.

I got hold of a Nike+ kit about 10 months ago and I cannot recommend it enough if, like me, you’re in front of a computer for most of your day. And unlike the gym, it’s not boring! I was the kid at school who completely avoided any physical education, preferring to take in a GameBoy and play up the asthma. But what Nike and Apple have managed to do is nothing short of brilliant, bringing geekiness and health together in one nice little gadget. If you aren’t familiar with Nike+, it’s a chip for your shoe, combined with a chip for your iPod; together they record distance, pace, total time, provide audio feedback and upload data to a website to plot graphs of your runs. There’s also a social side, personal and group challenges, forums, iTunes mix’s and workout plans. All in all, even if you think you are never going to run more than a few paces, think again, you will surprise yourself if you give it enough time. :)

Escher-esque Game (Illusionary Physics)

My colleague Rick Williams just found an excellent game called Echochrome which is coming soon to PS3 and PSP. It is very reminiscent of Escher’s work, the difference here is that you must complete the illusion yourself by rotating the 3D-space to allow the inhabitants of the world to complete the puzzles.

Below is a video of the engine that forms the basis of this game… it’s called Objective Locative Environment System:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SM4BTpVikeI

Images Invert Colours When Using a Loader In Flash Player 9

Quick warning regarding loading images using the Loader class in Flash Player 9…

Image files that are saved with a CMYK profile will appear with inverted colours, this includes JPEGs. It might sound a random thing to encounter but it can happen if you are allowing users to upload images. So it’s probably best to re-save the images on the server using an RGB profile and also check for things like a high DPI, which is likely to also be the case with CMYK images that have been designed for print originally.

Should you want to do this in Flash after loading the CMYK image here’s an excellent resource to get you started:

http://www.nicknettleton.com/zine/php/cmyk-rgb-and-php