Inside View

Where Responsive Design Encapsulates Environmental Factors

Bernie Goldbach in Clonmel | Image of Kindle over coffee.

I WAS READING an interesting take on responsive design shared by Ade Oshineye and ended up thinking about how the Ambient Light Sensor API might enhance my time on Kindle.

This takes responsive web design to the device level, using the light sensor of a device to tell developers more about the current environment. My little Kindle doesn't have a light sensor, so I wouldn't expect a result but my newest phones have camera technology sensors built in that make the phone's flashlight function work better than the crude sensitivity levels of earlier models. In a more sophisticated world, one conceptualised by Tim Wright, the Ambient Light Sensor API would capture light level through an event called ondevicelight.

This API would return values in lux units (lx), giving an international measurement of light intensity and then perhaps causing better device-level support for text background colour or device illumination. This would be responsive web design for enhanced e-reading. Armed with light sensor information, developers could adjust color values, typefonts and screen flicker to optimise the on-screen reading experience.

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Tim Wright -- "Environmental Design with the Device API" on A List Apart, February 12, 2013.

Bernie Goldbach teaches emerging technologies in the Limerick Institute of Technology.

Social Media for Education

I HAVE USED several very powerful technologies inside the Google Plus ecosystem and will share my thoughts during a staff training day in the Limerick Institute of Technology.

I've made a deck of 49 slides that walk through some ideas worth sharing.

Social Media for Education

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Props to Steve Wheeler.

I Spent Most of February in 2008

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Mia with E90 and Peppa.

WHILE AWAITING REPAIRS on my Nokia Lumia, I pulled my Nokia E90 out of my gadget drawer and rewound my world.

The biggest thrill I got was dropping back into a two-year-old's world because I have several hours of video clips on the E90 that show some of the first running leaps taken by Mia as she discovered County Kerry for the first time. I haven't saved those cute clips anywhere and I realise that it's important to respect the process of routinely carving out time to preserve family memories.

The venerable E90 also delivered a generous dose of quiet to my life because it's not set up to monitor dozens of social networking movements like the Nokia Lumia. Not hearing beeps or feeling little vibrations associated with notifications meant getting more done with fewer distractions. Until my forced usage of an older phone, I had not respected the role of quiet time in my daily routine. I actually need that solace and will be shutting down my Nokia Lumia for part of the day as I prepare daily lectures in my day job.

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Bernie Goldbach teaches in a BYOD environment.

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In Memory of Dad

Bernie Goldbach in Ireland | Photo snapped after the 2003 funeral.

MY FATHER PASSED away 10 years ago today and I will always associate February with his memory.

I know exactly where I was seated when I heard of his death because I couldn't get out of my chair in Kilkenny after seeing an email with the subject "Sorry to hear the news." My cousin Debbie sent the email while working on a bridge crew with the Santa Fe railroad in Iowa. The outpouring of condolences from around the States kept the home phone engaged for hours. And when I finally got through to my mother, she was as stoic as ever.

We returned to the States to bury dad in the same cemetery as my grandparents. And Pennsylvania weather marked the occasion by burying our borrowed car under a fresh 22 inches of white snow. We'll never forget that week in February 2003. And we need to work out a way to visit Pennsylvania on the anniversary of George Goldbach's passing before the end of this decade.

We Miss You Dad

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Looking back on Dad is easier because I like keeping a journal.

And While You Were Busy Tweeting

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Foodie shot from G+  

WHILE MANY OF US remain content with the nests we've made in our favourite online spaces, the Big Letter G quietly refashioned social networking. You might have missed this subtle evolution.

Google Plus has quietly evolved into something bigger than Twitter. But because most social media mavens cannot move their minions into this new space, G+ continues to be labeled as using overhyped metrics.  It might feel smaller and colder--just like Twitter might have felt in 2007. But things are very different inside Google Plus spaces once you look around.

You don't have to look any farther than the Google Plus apps. In my experience, using iOS 6.1 and Android ICS, they're levels above in sophistication and stability than the native apps built for Facebook and Twitter. You can get a pulse of trending items--real newsworthy trending items--by swiping through G+ and because the character count isn't truncated, you get more contextual information on screen at every juncture. Plus you get coherent threaded discussion at every node.

Scrivener Workflow

I HAVE ALWAYS felt that one if the best things I can do is learn how to work with the same things over and over again. I now feel that way about Scrivener.

Most people buy the package and then bang away with it to produce written material for reading on screens. It is a very handy program for creating iBooks and Kindle products. But as I have discovered, Scrivener can also help produce sophisticated documents, engaging presentations and grant proposals. Part of its secret capabilities lies in the way Scrivener manages its file relationships.

I am just scratching the surface of Scrivener's elegant management of documents shared via Dropbox. It also helps me to surface items on several external drives, giving new life to course materials I have written more than a decade ago.

Upcoming Audio Disruption of Audio On Air

A NEW SLIDER inside Google Hangouts could disrupt social audio services. Specifically, Google has shipped two new features that allows you to tweak a slider that lets participants select an audio-only mode.

Tim Blasi of Google explained that you can "choose this mode to send and receive audio only, and thus, significantly reduce your bandwidth requirements. Other participants will only see your profile picture, but they’ll hear you loud and clear." This will keep Hangouts running when I'm walking around inside old ruins near my home in County Tipperary, Ireland--if I walk about with a laptop. The service doesn't show the sliders on a mobile device.

Scrivener Table of Contents Bug Squashed

Bernie Goldbach in LIT-Clonmel | Screenshot from a large Scrivener Project.

SCRIVENER FOR WINDOWS has a Hot Fix that squashes a bug in compiling empty tables of contents in e-books. This was the biggest headache I had with the program.

After many months of beta testing, Scrivener for Windows version 1.5.2.0 appeared as a free update to my Windows laptop. Besides fixing the empty TOC problem, it also runs faster, imports my podcast listening lists (and other OPML files), imports/exports Mind maps in freemind .mm format, exports CSV files and does other things that help keep projects ticking to completion.

I am trying to run Scrivener with creative multimedia students as they manage functional Scrivener Projects. It's helpful to see Scrivener printing index cards, outliners, and that project presets extend all the way to the Compile dialog.

Students will save several hours in practical sessions because it is now impossible to delete Scrivener project files within the directory of an open Scrivener project. I also like the added ability to see submenus and to sort snapshots.

As e-books become more of my semesterised work process, it's good to see Scrivener handling CSS support throughout the editing process. And it's also nice to know that Windows 8 won't reject Scrivener since the program is Windows 8 compliant.

Over in the Scrivener forum, I read about continuing progress with Scrivener for Android. It would be an excellent addition to our Nexus library of applications.

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Bernie Goldbach teaches Scrivener in the creative multimedia degree programme at the Limerick Institute of Technology.

Download Scrivener for Windows [52.4 MB exe file]

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Pen & Pixel Exhibition Set for 23 May 2013

Pen & Pixel Promo produced in the Limerick School of Art & Design in Clonmel, Ireland.

PEN & PIXEL, the annual creative multimedia exhibition in South Tipperary, is set to open on Thursday, May 23, 2013 on the Clonmel campus of the Limerick School of Art and Design.

Power Cut in Irish Snow

Bernie Goldbach in Cashel | Light from a single candle.

IT IS UNUSUAL to lose power in Ireland but at 4AM on 5 February 2013, we reverted to candlelight in our home because of an apparent fault in the ESB Network.

My immediate concern is my laptop power. It never runs more than two hours with WiFi and my USB 3 drive attached. I doubt I'll get to 6AM without reverting to my Nokia E90 for as my stand-by laptop, connecting it to the Hauwei E586 dongles that are still working on their integral batteries.

Since my standby phone doesn't have the suite of apps I need to get things done, I'm truly reverting to Old Skool while trying to wrap up details related to a full day's worth of third level lectures.

Back in my hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the Old Order Amish get by with life unconnected to the Mains. But they're ready and willing. They have little things like hooks in ceilings to hang propane lanterns. I don't even know where our five-year-old has hidden our battery-powered torches. And I can't even make a hot cup of coffee since we've no gas-powered hob.

Living and learning.

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Bernie Goldbach teaches creative multimedia for the Limerick Institute of Technology even when there's no power.