take a stab at box-reflection in webkit
testing out webkits reflection with a simple gallery http://www.duketek.com/flipgallery
October 19, 2011 Leave a comment
A custom picassa gallery.
Started working on a custom picassa gallery, I thinking of using media queries,animations and transitions in CSS3. give the first demo a spin here
October 13, 2011 Leave a comment
Another Analog Clock with paper.js
My first experiment with paper.js, loving it so far.
October 2, 2011 Leave a comment
CSS3 pure animations
Awesome pure CSS3 Animations (works better in webkit based browsers)
September 27, 2011 Leave a comment
The Living room problem, our media content is locked down!
Here I am, year 2010, with four media-capable devices attached to my 37″ Tv yet still struggling with getting my content to the living room. I have personally given up on the idea of web content in my living but due to the recent Apple Tv release and Google Tv announcement I could not help it but give some of my thoughts on how these companies kept missing the whole point. The living room naturally is a meeting point for sharing and consuming media content aka music,photos and videos and in an ideal world, the format and source of these contents will not be restricted. When talking about the source of the content, I dont want the full web on my Tv neither, the tv was designed to be a lean back experience not a medium that I have to engage with a keyboard and mouse. I want to be able to stream music from my favorite service Spotify,Last.fm e.t.c in my living room, watch web videos,my own recorded videos, and other media content without restrictions. The ideal solution will not have me tethering to my home computer, why should it?, these media hubs are capable of going to the cloud to fetch their contents.
While the Xbox360 was not designed to be a media hub as it is primarily a game console, microsoft has marketed it as such. The media content that the XBox360 can handle is so limited, its almost not useful at all. The only way to get my content to the 360 is via a windows media center. There is Last.fm support in XBox gold, but I also have to be a premium subscriber to Last.fm and I am not sure even If that will work here in the scandinavia because I could not get last.fm on my mobile!. The Xbox 360 has zero connectivity to the cloud whatsoever for media content. This is a big FAIL.
The promise land called the Playstation 3 was a big disappointment in my experience. The Playstation 3′s media format support is no better than that of the Xbox 360′s, though the PS3 supports the UPNP protocol for streaming media from my computer , but web media are out of the question. The PS3′s web browser that was suppose to be a killer feature of the PS3 is another PC experience, or probably worse.Youtube.com is a no go area, the browser might just crash or simple freeze up the whole PS3. There is not support for any internet audio streaming of any kind, this is another standalone media hub. Big FAIL!
Here comes the magical Apple Tv, the box that was suppose to solve the issues. The Apple Tv is probably the most locked down, downright dumb device I have bought in a while. Though compared to the other media hubs, the Apple Tv is a lot better but thats due to the fact that its primary responsibility was to get media contents to my living room. The Apple Tv is locked to my iTunes and only the media formats that Apple iTunes support can be streamed to the device. The Apple Tv allows me to sync my media from my computer, thereby allowing me to detach it from the computer and it also has built in support for internet radio and youtube. The problem is that, every time I get a new video, I have to convert it to a format blessed by Apple. There are more media content out there on the web than youtube (which its implementation is good enough). Airplay is an interesting idea, but it is designed to support iDevices , in my mind its a step backwards. The Apple Tv is once again tied almost solely to other devices for its content. Outside of the United States, the Apple Tv is practically useless for media content consumption since we can not rent shows or movies. The boxee app has improved the situation but due to the sluggishness of the software on the Apple Tv, the experience is kinda broken.(not boxee’s falt though, the apple tv is underpowered with no hardware acceleration that I know of). The Apple Tv will not support 1080p, that is something I dont get and no Apps! , these folks should take a look at boxee and get some ideas. Another Big Fail.
My Digital box , well hmmmm, there is not so much to say about it. It records TV shows from my TV and thats about it. Its only connection with the cloud is the recorded shows. and thats about it.
So, at the end of the day, I am back where I started, locked out of content from where I want it and how I want it. The promise of the Google Tv sounds interesting.If I could find a video on the web, bookmark it and it magically shows up on my Tv box, or stream audio from it or just the fact of not tethering to my computer to get all my content will be awesome. If my media format is not restricted, that would even better. Doing a cross search of content providers from a single interface will be cool but Google , please no Keyboard and Mouse!, I hope the manufacturers will take a clue from the boxee remote control. Right now I will pass on everything out there called a media hub with hopes to get media to my living room.
September 4, 2010 Leave a comment