Google Chrome beta automatically updated itself this morning to 26.0.1410.12 beta-m which bought about some changes; which you can read about on googlechromereleases blogspot.
To my horror – “UI styling of menus on Windows”. In fairness it doesn’t look to bad, but the spacing between menu items is just too much. (Bookmarks just look ridiculous)
It would be awesome to see an option to change the spacing like on Gmail “comfortable, cosy, compact”.
Another addition to Google Play Apps, Big Bang Theory Soundboard!
While working on the development of my OpenGL game engine, I decided to take a break from that this weekend and expand my apps portfolio (as well as my admob portfolio) by developing a simple soundboard of The Big Bang Theory – it’s also been five months since my last app was published to Google Play so the engine development is taking a lot more time than expected.
The majority of the work with this project involved identifying and editing sound clips, after hours of searching and watching YouTube videos for “Best of Big Bang” I had around 50 sound clips which I then normalized and exported to MP3 using Audacity - free, open source cross platform, audio editing software.
Can’t be bothered to create a new PHP file on your server with the following line of code?
<?php phpinfo(); ?>
Not to worry! Simply SSH into the server, using PuTTY and use the command:
php -r "phpinfo();" | less
What could possibly be easier? 
man less
will tell you “f” moves forward one window, while “b” moves back and “q” to quit.
Night Night.
I fancied a fish finger sandwich for lunch, but alas we’re out of bread!
Hi Terry Probert,
UK PAYE Income Tax Calculator for Android was just added on FileDir.com
Awarded with “5 stars Reviewers’ choice!” You are free to display the award on your website.
Please put the following HTML-code on your website to show the award…
It seems that filedir.com is another mirror like service of the Google Play store much like androidzoom.com, androidpit.com & etc. 1
So I decided to post it here any ways, If anyone knows that the site “filedir.com” is considered spam, or in any other way bad for developers just leave a note in the comments.
Doesn’t seem it could do much harm for some promotion via a third party website.
[1] https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/android-security-discuss/5bSIKwS3fMw
After a long and tiresome stretch with attack of the sheep nomming demons, it turns out its just boring. There are of course elements that could be added to the game, logic tweaks here and there; but the bottom line is… you punch the screen with your finger you get points, then you game over. Its boring.
A lot of the code base can be reused to make a new game. Maybe even refactoring the code base to optimize polymorhism and ensure correct encapsulation which will create the basis of Arcal Game Engine; at long last – but that is probably not right now / may never be on the cards, only time will tell.
Have to be honest, I love the graphic assets i made of those those devious little guys; so they should definitely be reused too; or should I make a fresh start and dump the demons?
UK PAYE Tax Calculator updated to version 1.0.1
Minor fixes to manifest and API
Released app with debug reference to result activity which caused it to appear as a secondary application in the apps list
Added headers to force no-cache. Mobile networks were caching the results page, causing anomalies with taxable amounts and tax free amounts not updating
Added link to terryprobert.co.uk from options menu
This post comes a little late (over six weeks is more than a little); as my first App was released on the 29th June 2011, I had planned to write a post looking back now that one whole year has passed, but real life got in the way (or maybe Minecraft & Diablo 3).
What have I learnt? Has it all been worth it?
When I first planned this post I had a number of topics I wanted to talk about, so here it goes; I guess I’ll just crack on with it.
I have spent the past couple of days working on a new portfolio website for my Android Applications.
For the first time; I have taken advantage of WordPress as an excellent CMS (content management system) instead of creating my own basic CMS from scratch.
This has allowed me to develop the site extremely quickly, and focus on design elements rather than nuts and bolts coding (why reinvent the wheel?)
I have reworked the default theme; removing sidebars and widgets as I feel these aren’t required for a portfolio site.
I’ve added custom functions to grab different bits of data such as featured images, category links, all pictures etc – the WordPress Codex is amazingly detailed!
I have used two separate jQuery sliders; nivoslider for front page, flexslider for posts.
Only plugin used is AJAX Thumbnail Rebuild, because I was changing and adding different sizes of images during the development.
I’m very happy with how the site has turned out and can’t wait to add more apps!
It is about time I added new images to the random header at the top of the blog, so here they are; I also altered some CSS so the content is ever so slightly wider, and the sidebar is ever so slightly slimmer:
One – Clouds above Stratford-upon-Avon
Two – Rusty random thing in our garden
Three – Macro grass
Four – Ironbridge
Five – Foliage Macro
Thought it would make sense to show the header images that were already present
Robot Hill (by kim)
Awesome Terry Wallpaper (by kim)
Woven Silk
To Gnome Beginnings
Film Noir Det. Ch. Insp. USB Rbot
Off the beaten track – Amongst the Concrete & Tarmac
Washing
Xbox 360 Controller Macro
Wedding seating place card for Me
