Rambling

My own meandering thoughts and rants. Stuff that might not go anywhere else

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Gadget Show 2011 – what I learntMay 27th, 2011

Android

2011 might be the self-proclaimed year of the iPad, but it’s also the year of Android. It’s everywhere when it comes to tablets: It seems to be the default not-an-Apple device operating system. Which is a shame, because it means theres less innovation going on and instead tablet makers are just slapping on some open source software without thinking about it.

And very often it’s just done really, really badly. I’m a self proclaimed Apple nut, but I love good technology more. There’s nothing more I’d like to see than something, or someone, beat Apple at it’s game. I think with mobile phones we’re now there: I like the HTC Desire1. But we’re not there with tablets. It seems manufacturers are getting scared of the iPad, churning out their so-called iPad killer, and using rubbish spec hardware.

I’m also surprised that of all the Android tablets I’ve used at the show, not one was using the version specifically designed for tablets. Most used Android 2.2 (the current version designed only for phones), with one even using 2.1. One salesman told me that their hardware wasn’t good enough to support Android 3. Tell me about it.

A note to manufacturers: it’s all about attention to detail and doing it right. If I have to swipe slowly to get your screen to react, you’re doing it wrong. Salesmen shouldn’t have to teach me the right technique to swipe, and it shouldn’t involve pressing down on a LCD touchscreen, breaking a few pixels while I’m at it.

A note to salesmen: when I ask you what the killer features of your tablet is (hoping to be blown away) dropping the lie that I want to get away from Apple/my iPad, the answer isn’t “it has Flash”. It really isn’t.

A note to the salesmen from Prestigio whose tablet I managed to crash (it was the PMP30848, if you’re interested). I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I think I swiped it the wrong way…

Ebook readers are now in colour

Wow. After my complaints last year about ebooks being naff, I’m so pleased that ebook reader manufacturers are finally starting to move to LED backlit screens. The hardware I tried is still a bit too slow for my liking, and I don’t really see the value in ebook readers (I guess I don’t take enough beach holidays), but the improvements in the last 12 months were staggering, I just hope the momentum carries on and next year I’ll be drooling over a slick touch-screen reader.

Watches

Vivifi Titan

Vivifi Titan, complete with Nokia style menu. Image
taken from company website. Sorry.

My guilty pleasure item. Almost completely pointless but the day I see a mobile phone watch I’m happy with that I can use, the day I can die happy.

Last year I compared them to 80s digital watches. I’m pleased to report that the watches I saw were no longer like this: instead they can be compared to 90s mobile phones, with the old Nokia 3210-style menus and everything. Ok, maybe not pleased. But one step at a time eh?

(Also, the problem with it being too easy to pick-pocket the phone off your wrist is still there)

Speech recognition

I’m really blown away by this. Admittedly I’ve not used speech recognition software in a long, long time, but I was genuinely shocked at how well it worked after seeing a demonstration.

Chargers

I never thought I’d be impressed by a charger. But I am. Recognising that people have more than one portable electrical device, iDapt have smartly created a docking station which allows you to plug more than one device in to charge. It’s a bit of a stepping stone between a plug per device and charging using wireless charging mats, and I’m not sure how good the quality will be (third party chargers generally being rubbish), but I was very tempted to buy one.

Internet TVs

Last year it was all about 3D; this year it was all about Internet connected TVs. I have to be honest and say that I’m pretty neutral about Internet TVs at the moment. Sure, it’s a good idea, but it needs that killer application (the replacement to the red button that makes an Internet connection worth it), and I don’t think YouTube is it.

Lack of Flip

There was a distinct lack of Fiip exhibiting this year. Which is a real shame.

Cheap accessories

It was a shame to see so many cheap accessories on sale at the exhibition. It seemed like it was a shame to have it detract from the genuinely good tech on show (a real problem in that environment where it’s very easy to get lost and even though you have the time it’s impossible to see everything).

The quality is also questionable. I saw a iPhone case labelled “4G”; or maybe I just missed an Apple announcement.

Get a decent sound system

Once more I was blown away by the sheer quality of headphones available: anyone using the earphones that came with their MP3 player is missing out. And I was amazed by the systems that Bowers and Wilkins demonstrated. It was also nice to be invited to plug your iPod into some headphones and see the quality on music you choose.2

And the killer gadget of 2011 is…

Er. Last year I could clearly say that 2010 was certainly the year of 3D TV. But this year? I guess it has to be the year of the tablet device. Or rather, the year of the crap tablet device.

And finally…

It was upsetting to see blond girls wearing next to nothing being used to attract people to stands and sell stuff. One particular stand even had girls doing a little dance routine (shame on you, Viewquest). We’ve moved on since the days of “only men are interested in technology and the best way to attract them is with sex”.

  1. Enough to get an HTC Desire S as a replacement to my broken-but-getting-old-anyway iPhone [↩]
  2. On a related note, you haven’t lived until you’ve listened to the Tron Legacy soundtrack on some noise cancelling surround sound headphones [↩]

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Computers are too hardMarch 22nd, 2011

Press “Start” to shut down your computer
But don’t turn it off without shutting it down

Update your browser to keep your computer secure
But only do it if you’re using a validated up to date version of Windows (you can’t use XP), and you have the permission of your administrator first

Choose between size 12, 14, or 16 font
Not small or large
Why shouldn’t you choose Times New Roman anyway? It’s there and it looks ok, doesn’t it?

Read all your email and reply by only posting under what the other person says. No top posting allowed
That is, once you have your IMAP, POP3 and SMTP settings right
But don’t click on emails from your bank

You can have a 2Ghz or 3GHz chip, with duel, quad or 8 core
But it will still take 5 minutes to turn on
What is a GHz anyway?

No wonder people are afraid to use computers

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From personal experienceMarch 7th, 2011

I’ve been having a lot of issues with my web hosts lately, mostly going back to a single event towards the end of last year. From time to time I do sysadmin duties, so I can’t help but feel that I should learn something from all of this.

There’s a real user behind that account

It might just be an account to me: a record in a table, a line in a config file. But there’s a person using that account. A person with their own bosses and customers. Who they then have to explain themselves to.

If I’m moving stuff, tell the customer

If I’ve been given the task of moving stuff to another server, tell the users involved. It might be a simple task for me, a case of just copying over some files and the right configuration – but something might go wrong. And when something goes wrong because I made a change without telling people, people get angry.

But when something goes wrong because I made a change and I told them, they might even be able to fix the problem themselves. If I forget to update a DNS record, and if they have access to update it themselves, they’ll probably just update it themselves thinking that they were expected to do it, and will probably forgive me.

Don’t just turn things off

Especially if I’m doing it to highlight who’s still using it (that’s what logs are for). Give some notice, and tell them again once it’s off. They might not have known you were planning to turn it off, find something is broken, then get annoyed at me.

Use the same address

So I’m moving everything from server 1 onto server 2. Can’t I just point the same IP or address to the new server? It would save me having to update DNS records, and missing one.

Use the same configuration

If I didn’t use SSL for email before, don’t suddenly start using it now. They might have a script which didn’t understand SSL, which might suddenly break. And upset people.

Check it out

If someone tells me they can’t connect to FTP, then the first thing I should do is try it myself, not ask for logs.

Don’t guess

If I don’t know the answer, don’t answer to the user with a guess. If they can’t edit a domain name when they should be able to, don’t guess that I’m not the registrar. Find out: they’ll only get more annoyed if they know I’m wrong.

Error reporting isn’t perfect

If someone reports a fault — even if it’s late at night — don’t just glance at my error reporting system, shrug, and say “works for me”. Check it out: am I seeing something different? The server might be up, but their account could be down. And I might be the only one who can tell.

Make my support system easy

For example, if I ask people for a log, let them upload a text file. Respond to twitter. Reply to all emails.

Don’t ask for passwords

Really. Especially if I don’t need it. If I need to log into something, create a new account if I don’t have one.

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The state of video on the webJanuary 16th, 2011

The backstory

In case you didn’t know, if you want to add video to a website you can do it in one of two ways: using a plugin such as Adobe’s Flash or natively playing it in the browser by using a new feature of the HTML web language, aptly called <video>. The latter technique works a bit like how including images on a webpage works. Remember this; it’s important

But video does have its problems. Just as with images (where you see JPEG, GIF and PNG) there’s several different file formats for video. You see, videos generally need to be compressed (both the pictures and the sound), and there’s different ways of compressing them. That’s what these file formats are. The big three formats are Ogg, h.264 and the latest kid on the block, WebM

Native video support (that is, not needing to use a plugin) is relatively new — it’s not official standard yet — so the different browsers have yet to agree on which format to use:

  • Microsoft’s upcoming Internet Explorer 9 and Apple’s Safari only understand h.264
  • Firefox understands Ogg and WebM
  • And until recently Google’s Chrome supported all three

So, why the disagreement? Simple — h.264 uses patented technology (interestingly Apple and Microsoft are holders of one or more of these patents), while Ogg and (possibly) WebM are patent-free. Firefox have always refused to use h.264 for this very reason, whereas Apple has always said that Ogg and WebM are of lesser quality

Things were ticking along nicely, with the majority of browsers supporting h.264 and yours truly hoping that Firefox will see sense and include it too. But in the last week Chrome have decided to drop support for said format

I mentioned that it was important you remembered that images work in a vaguely similar way, and this is why: until recently, GIF was also patented — and the big difference is unlike GIF, nobody will have to pay to use h.264 on the web. People still used GIF files (the only reason we don’t nowadays is because there are better formats)

The problem

This all means that video on the web is at a worse state than it’s ever been. Sure, we can use a plugin such as Adobe Flash, but Flash just isn’t very good

I have to wonder why Google made this decision. The official line is similar to that of Firefox’s: that h.264 isn’t open, whereas Ogg and WebM is. That’s true enough, but remember that Chrome supports Flash, which also isn’t an open format. And Google Street View and YouTube (owned by Google) use Flash, as I’ve just mentioned isn’t an open format. Why the contradiction?

Is it a coincidence that Google created WebM? Is it coincidence that the most vocal proponent of h.264 also vocally attack Google and Adobe?

Of course, Adobe are happy about this, they will be. But it doesn’t add up. Neither h.264 or Flash are open, but at least h.264 is good. If we’re going to be dropping support for something because it’s closed, it really ought to be the one that’s full of problems

The state of video on the web

As a web development community we need to go one of two ways: we need to either decide on a single format once and for all (my vote, of course, goes to h.264) or we need to go the way of images: it doesn’t matter what format you use, it should just work

Last year when it was announced that nobody would be charged to use h.264 on the web, we went a step forwards. We all hoped that Firefox would use it — but so far they haven’t. Instead we took a step back, with browsers being split in half between those who support h.264 and those who support Ogg and WebM

The web shouldn’t matter what browser you use, what computer you use. You should be able to visit it on your PC, your Mac, your iPhone or your 5 year old Nokia. We should be past the stage of “Best viewed using” messages. There isn’t a desktop web and a mobile web. And there shouldn’t be a h.264 web and an Ogg/WebM web. I shouldn’t need to have to include one video for Internet Explorer and another video for Firefox when making a website

The web is for everybody to see, not just those with Flash plugins installed or the correct browser. This isn’t 1997 when the two major browsers conflicted, fought, and generally didn’t work together. It’s 2011, we should be learning from our past mistakes maturing as an industry, we should be working together to make the web the best it can be, not bickering over patents and openness and not using a certain technology because your rival helped make it

As a web developer and active(ish) member of the web community, I’m angry and upset that we’re not using our energy on more important things. The losers here are the people who have to make the sites and create two different versions of every video, and the visitor who will only get to see half a web if they don’t

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The problem with Internet mediaSeptember 19th, 2010

The great thing about modern technology is there’s a lot of different ways of getting TV and radio to you. If one technology doesn’t work, then there’s another more suitable platform just around the corner.

I want to use FM on my iPhone because my internet signal won’t be very good when walking down the street, and I use the internet when I’m at a desk. I can use DAB for the “xtra” type channels it provides when I’m not at my desk. In short, I care about the content. I don’t particularly care how I get it as long as I get it, and I get it conveniently.

But the problem with Internet TV (and to a lesser extent, Internet Radio) is there’s too many different solutions to the same platform — too many brands and too many set-top boxes. The platform shouldn’t be the brand — the platform should contain the brand. Why do I have to go to iPlayer to get BBC content and 4oD to get Channel 4 content? And why on earth is there the added complexity with Channel 4 content also being on YouTube? It’s the same platform, it’s pointless.

There’s too many TVs and set-top boxes out there giving you bits of the platform. You can have this channel but not that one. You want this brand for live streaming and that one for catch-up. Why I can’t I just turn on my TV, select “Internet” (or the appropriate brand name), and get a choice of “channels” (your traditional TV channels, plus any internet only channels who want to be on there and the likes of YouTube) both streaming and on catch up?

The whole industry is awash with brands, and it’s starting to confuse even the biggest geek. I want to watch Doctor Who so I go to iPlayer… or do I choose BT Vision? Oh wait, is See Saw better? Should I buy Apple TV? But is it on YouTube? YouView? What the hell is YouView?? Is that some cheap YouTube knockoff??

Someone needs to bash together the heads of all the big TV content providers, and tell them to stop arguing with each other and stop threatening to get the competition commission involved. They need to work together for a change and come up with a solution to make Internet TV simpler. Because right now, it’s just getting more and more confusing, because more and more companies are coming up with their own separate solutions.

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Some mindless babbling about Gadget Show Live 2010 (part 2)May 7th, 2010

So, in my previous post about Gadget Show Live I was a little negative. There were eBook readers that were total rubbish, watches that can be nicked, and 3D tellys that were blurry given the wrong light.

But then I realised, there is a lot of cool new tech out there, you just have to wander around the exhibition space a bit more, open your eyes to what’s already around us, and watch what the professionals can do with enough time and money.

Firstly, sound. I’m a big music fan, and I’m one of those who believes that the quality of the sound has a big impact. By using cheap, low quality headphones, it just doesn’t sound the same. But I’m ashamed to say, I use Apple earphones. I’ve just never gotten around to researching anything better. Having gone to a headphone stand (Zino, if anyone cares) and tried out a pair, I realised what I was missing. All these top quality headphones, and I had my Apple blinkers on and didn’t bother researching if anything else could be better.

Secondly… sound. More specifically, sound around the house. The Sonos multi-room music system, which lets you play any song into any room. It can link to your iTunes library, last.fm, and Napster. And it can be controlled using a dedicated remote control or an iPhone app.

It’s the sort of application of computer networking that I love, it’s very clever and it doesn’t need any complicated setup procedure. It’s simple, does the job, and makes technology great. It is a little pricy though, £799 for a two room bundle is a lot of money when you can share an iTunes library between two computers. But the idea is just brilliant.

And finally, Architectural Mapping, which we were shown during the live show. There’s lots of photographs and videos of this technique in various settings, but it really does have to be seen in person to appreciate just how fantastic it looks.

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Some mindless babbling about Gadget Show Live 2010 (part 1)April 16th, 2010

So, last week I went along to Gadget Show Live, in a hope to try out some stuff I’ve never had the chance to play with before (such as 3D TV and ebook readers) and see what’s on the horizon when it comes to new technology.

In the whole, the sheer scale was overwhelming. There were thousands of people and it was hard to get near some stands. But I also have to say that I was pretty disappointed with the quality of what was supposed to be new technology. Not even new technology, but stuff that was being launched this summer or even things that was supposed to be making a big entrance to UK homes this year.

With the new iPad launching in the UK in the next week or so and doing amazingly well in America, eBooks are certainly the next big thing. They’ve been around for a few years now, and I’ve tried out the Sony reader but I’ve never been that impressed. Don’t get me wrong, the quality of the text is as good as ink on paper, but they’re just slow and very hard to use.

The eBook reader I tried out at the exhibition was just as bad. A confusing interface, slow response, and not something I’d pay money for. They had what looked like colour touchscreen models, but I soon found out to my dismay that they were just prototypes (plastic boxes showing either a rather confusing video, or a plastic box with a screenshot stuck to where the screen would go).

I asked a demonstrator how it would compare to the iPad — a reasonable question I feel, as it’s pretty certain that Apple are shaking up this market just as they did with mobile phones — but didn’t get a very clear reply. I think I somehow offended them by even asking the question.

I also stopped at two 3D stands early on. The first stand used the active technique and were mostly selling 3D projectors which I have to say I quite liked. They were cheaper than a 3D TV (even with a couple of pairs of the glasses), and could be attached to anything. Brilliant. It was also of reasonable quality. This was demo’d to me because I noted to the demonstrator that their TVs were flickering. To be fair my eyes are never very good at 3D, and as the demonstrator pointed out the lighting was harsh and was nothing you would get in a normal home.

I moved onto my second 3D TV stand, which used passive 3D (the type you get in a cinema). I had seen this at the cinema but never on a small screen, so to my surprise this looked very impressive. It was much better than the active 3D systems, and you didn’t have to be directly facing the screen. I’ve always questioned 3D TV, but I can now see why people are raving about it. I wouldn’t buy one myself just yet (being short sighted I would find having to wear a second pair of glasses whenever I wanted to watch TV or play a game annoying, and at the moment they are far too expensive for me), but for sports, gaming, or even films, 3D has a future in the next few years.

So onto watches. Or rather, cool digital watches with touchscreen and phone capabilities. I’ve always wanted one of them. It’d be so cool to be able to have a proper LCD (or better) screen on your wrist that shows you the time and date, your calendar, your phone numbers and anything else you want. I was pretty excited when they started to come out a couple of years ago. I was excited to see one on exhibition. There! Ready to buy!

But… no. I couldn’t get over how bad it was. I really do hate being negative over technology because I love it when new and innovative stuff happens. But this was very 1980s (even a fellow visitor mentioned this). The screens were large and bulky (80s), you had to use a stylus to use the touchscreen… assuming that even works properly (80s), and the strap was cheap plastic which would be very easy for the most amateur of pickpockets to steal under 5 seconds. Dreams completely shattered.

But not everything was bad. Some tech — mostly related to sound — really impressed me when I honestly didn’t think it would. There’s also some future developments that won’t be in the homes just yet, but to see it was encouraging. And there were a lot of future developments that I’m pleased to say is with us already. All of this I’ll speak about in my next post.

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Why I think the Google phone was a bad ideaJanuary 7th, 2010

The Nexus One: known by its friends as The Google Phone. Let me explain why I don’t get it.

It was hoped to be an iPhone killer. The first phone designed by engineers at Google. Something that would shake up the mobile phone industry. It wasn’t just a smartphone, it was a superphone. What happened? It’s designed and manufactured by HTC, it has no real killer features, and Google’s involvement seems to be that they provided the operating system and are selling it on their website.

The Nexus One was a let-down. There’s nothing new or groundbreaking there at all, save for the voice recognition, the media were wrong when they said that Google engineers designed the phone, and this new entry won’t shake up the industry one iota. Having an ad-supported cheap phone would have been the answer, as many people simply won’t pay £400 for something that they can buy for under £100, or get for free on a reasonably priced contract.

Let’s face it: we’re getting too many phones that are being touted by the media as being “iPhone killers” whereas in reality that just means “it has a touchscreen display”. Design elements are blindly copied from the iPhone, innovation seems to come solely from Steve Jobs and co, and we’re back to before 2007 when mobile phone manufacturers just stopped coming up with new ideas and churned out phones that simply looked good and had a 10 mega-pixel camera.

I might be a big Apple fan, but I’m also a big technology fan. If there was a phone as good as the iPhone I’d be all over it like a child in a sweet jar. I still think the Palm Pre is a great phone, I was happy to forgive the shortcomings because it innovated with its operating system and the designers copied the iPhone screaming “We can do better than that!”

But instead, the innovation we get from the Nexus One is that it’s only being sold online. I wouldn’t consider that innovation: I’d consider it a step back. Technology is meant to be felt. It’s meant to be used. It’s meant to be part of your everyday life and you’re supposed to enjoy using it.

So why can’t we try it out first?

Again, Apple has this right, and I’m pleased that so does o2. Retailers should not only be putting their products on display, but customers should be encouraged to try them out. The screensaver shouldn’t be password protected and the phones shouldn’t be demo models that don’t actually work. I care much more about how easy it is to use a device than I do how it looks tethered to a shelf. I want to be able to choose my purchase with confidence that I know how it works, and that I won’t be frustrated a month down the line when the menu system is awkward to use and it takes longer than it should to write a text message. But I have to deal with it, because it cost me £300.

A Google Phone in principle is a great idea. Google are full of great ideas and they’re always trying to make things better. But with the Nexus One, I think they’ve dropped the ball.

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Twitter with AspergersOctober 24th, 2009

This week’s article is a guest post by Sarah, a web designer, blogger, Twitter fan and Girl Guide troop leader from Hampshire who has Aspergers Syndrome

Disabilities can hinder progress people make in the world and it is crucial that they are not misunderstood when they communicate.

Some disabilities really can not be made considerably better because they may have some physical problem. However ones that can sometimes be un-noticed can appear as sheer rudeness. I am talking about Aspergers Syndrome.

Aspergers Syndrome is about people who appear normal, but don’t always understand the world around them.

My main idea of this post is to find out if having access to social networks, like Twitter can help conversation. Or is Twitter one network to avoid.

I have gathered some ideas since joining Twitter a year ago in 2008. This is based on my own experiences as I have AS myself.

Problems faced by being on these networks:

Thousands of people are able to see what you write on Twitter so write facts and make sure you can explain your reasons.
Write what you know. You will get more respect if you broadcast truth and fact.

Don’t be rude.
When making a comment about someone or something refrain from swearing or judging them because you think they are wrong. Many people with AS often say the wrong things but don’t mean it like they said it. If you wouldn’t say it to their face don’t say it at all!

Don’t boast about how many followers that you have.
One bad thing is boasting and it is not good on social networks. You may lose followers or people just wont talk to you anymore. You can tell them it is great to have friends but not to boast that you have more than someone else or more followers than the amount of people you follow.

Don’t put out private information. (e-mail, House name/number, mobile number, land-line number, personal finances details etc)
As nice as it is to have lots of friends and contacts. Don’t put all that info in your Tweets because you may end up regretting it and getting phone calls and e-mails that you don’t want. A throw-away email address is great if you get hassle.

Great rules for a positive Aspie to follow:

If you like people to know that you have a disability then great.
The idea of letting people know that you have AS or a different disability is by explaining that you have it and then people will usually understand if you put out a quirky message. I personally enjoy telling people I have AS because I like to talk about it and help others. Promote awareness for us!!

Try and interact if you can and make friends.
It may help you to have a better conversation. The main reason to join social sites is to have fun.

If you want to have interaction outside of Twitter with someone DM them when you know they are genuine people.
If you get on with someone really well there is no problems sending a DM to them so they can contact you in other forms of social media. STILL be careful of who they are though! And you could even make a false email address to make sure they are genuine. Then you have no worries if they turn out to be strange. (check with the e-mail provider that you can have throw-away addresses)

Express your talent if you have one.
You may be interested in photography or website making for example so Tweet about that and you may find some people who also share your hobby.

Go follow people that have your interests.
Gain knowledge and experience from professionals and other people who may be interested in the same subjects as you. If you like photography, go put the keyword in the search box and see what happens.

Closing remarks

To be on a social network you have to be very careful and maybe check with a friend/relative before you join so they can look out for you and help you. There are many positive things about the social networks but don’t get fooled by it. There will still be bad people out there who want to take advantage.

If Twitter/Facebook/Myspace etc is used sensibly you should have no problem and get a really good experience out of it. I sure have had a great experience since joining and I hope to see you on soon talking to me at @GoldChoiceUK. I’m a (female) web designer and I have Aspergers so come and ask me some questions about anything you have seen on this post.

I think that the positive things are far better than the problems of being on a social network such as Twitter.

This concludes the blog post about Twittering with Aspergers!

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phpnw09: a quick overviewOctober 16th, 2009

Last weekend I attended phpnw09, which was my first phpnw conference having missed the first one last year. And I was glad I went, having met lots of friendly people and learned things I didn’t know and more importantly what I didn’t know. Needless to say, I’ve come back with a head full of things to research and learn.

Sadly I missed most of the first talk, so the first one I attended was Passing The Joel Test in the PHP world. I found it one of the most useful talks of the weekend, as there’s always something that every developer can do better whether it’s making automated build scripts or having a chair and keyboard that you find comfortable. I learnt lots from this, and it’s spurred me on to improve my own practices.

I also attended Getting a website out of the door by Rob Allen, a talk that puts project management into practice, so one to make lots of notes in, and one which everybody who does project management should watch.

API documentation with phpDocumentor, Making your life easier: Xdebug and Introduction to Yii were all well presented talks which were about things I knew nothing about before the weekend, and now I’m aware of them (and how they work), they’re things I’ve noted down to look into in the future.

Getting Involved with the PHP Project was a nice final talk before the free bar, something which isn’t too heavy on the brain, and it’s always nice to learn how the php project works and hear from a few members (as heckles, of course).

Sunday was a nice informal day with lots of hangovers, coffee, and tiredness, with some interesting talks with an introduction to UTF-8, OOP, the latest version of php, and jquery. These were more informal sessions which were less heavy on the brain, perhaps for the best after the free bar the night before. This extra date made a great addition to the weekend, and also gave opportunity to hang around afterwards to meet some others.

Thanks to the organisers, all the speakers, and the sponsors for making the event happen. Here’s looking forward to phpnw10!

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