Archive for Technology Bits

Augmented Reality Games

// July 24th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Technology Bits


I’ve been interested in the concept of augmented reality for awhile now, but this video really pushed home the potential for gaming. I can just imagine something like what is shown here with zombie killing in a tower defense style with “Arghhhh” being applied to a multiplayer cooperative and/or competitive experience.

Hearing that this capability may be coming to the iPhone in 3.1 as early as September is very intriguing.

SunGardHE Case Study: Luminis Portal for Alumni at Plymouth State

// February 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Technology Bits

SunGard Higher Education recently completed a case study with me and our Alumni Director Joe Long about how Plymouth State is leveraging Luminis to engage alumni.

You can read the complete press release: Plymouth State University Leverages Luminis Platform to Strengthen Interactions and Connections With Alumni.

I have a few good quotes in the article. SunGard does a nice job writing these up.

10 Good PHP Principles from Nettuts

// September 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Technology Bits

The recent article from Nettuts.com, 10 Principles of the PHP Masters has some solid concepts that are worth reading about.

The description synopsis of the article is:


With PHP’s widespread adoption,it’s almost too easy to find a script or snippet to do exactly what you need. Unfortunately, there’s no filter as to what is a “good practice” and what’s, well… not so good when writing a PHP script. We need trustworthy sources, who have proven they have a solid grasp on the best practices of PHP.

We need PHP masters to show us the best principles to follow for high-grade PHP programming.

Good stuff.

Update: This article on CSS is equally valuable – 10 Principles of the CSS Masters.

Silverback – Usability Testing

// September 1st, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Technology Bits

I have always been very interested in doing serious usability testing of applications or web sites. However, it is complicated and associated software to make it easier is usually quite costly.

Silverback appears to change that.

I have yet to have a chance to put it through it’s paces, but watching the video demo, this has great potential. With only a $49.95 price tag, this will be easy to justify with our next major project.

Described by Clearleft as:

Spontaneous, unobtrusive usability testing software for designers and developers.

  • Capture screen activity

  • Video the participant’s reactions

  • Record the participant’s voice

  • Add chapter markers on the fly

  • Control recording with the remote

  • Export to Quicktime

Teleport For Mac

// August 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Technology Bits

For a log time I have been a reasonably happy Synergy user. However, I have also been working in a mixed Windows/OSX environment. Recently I replaced my Dell laptop with a new MacBook Pro. This opened up a new option for keyboard and mouse sharing in my environment.

I have recently learned that Teleport is a far superior product for a purely mac environment. Here are a few of my favorite features:


  • The setup has a great GUI that makes setup trivial.

  • You can establish a certificate on each host and have all the traffic nicely encrypted between them.

  • There is an option that requires you to hold a key whenever switching screens, handy if rarely used.

  • There are great indicators to what computer your keyboard and mouse are currently operating.

  • You can drag and drop files between machines.

  • Of course it also has the same kick ass shared clipboard that Synergy had.

There are probably a ton of other options that are useful, but these are my favorites. Synergy was great, but in a purely Mac based environment, I don’t see how teleport can be beat.

Sudoku v Sudoku for iPhone

// July 26th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Technology Bits

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EA Sudoku ($7.99)

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Free Sudoku


I like playing sudoku. I got hooked on it with the Nintendo DS version that is included with the first Brain Age. It’s a fun and challenging puzzle game that’s great if you are seeking a few minutes of distraction.

I was asked to do a review of the EA created iPhone Sudoku game. I wanted some casual games for my phone anyway, so why not?

Frankly, EA’s implementation of sudoku for the iPhone is wonderful. The graphics are polished and appealing. The game play is exactly what should be expected, with a few options to keep it interesting. Well worth the $7.99.

With everything there is room for improvement though. First, there should bs some social features to allow score sharing or puzzle sharing with friends. There were also some minor stabilty issues causing the game to crash a few times. I would hope that will be fixed I’m a future patch. Finally, I wish that I could save multiple partial puzzles. All considered, solid and enjoyable.

To adequately evaluate this, must also compare against the free sudoku iPhone app as well. Honestly, if you plan on playing sudoku for more than 15 minutes total, pay the money. The differences between these implementations is fun v frustration. Unless the free sudoku sees a major set of enhancements, do not waste your time.

WordPress For iPhone

// July 23rd, 2008 // No Comments » // Technology Bits

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The WordPress iPhone application has been released. It seems to work well. It supports the following features:

- basic blogging
- tagging
- categories
- password protecting posts
- adding images from phone or camera
- local drafts

A couple of significant restrictions:

- no rich text editing
- can’t add an image to a post adding an image to a post automatically puts it at the end
- no landscape mode

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