Learning to DJ
I’ve been tinkering with the DJ thing on and off for quite a long time. I just never had the money or could justify the cost of buying the equipment. But now days, things are a little more affordable and when I think about where I waste money, this hobby could save and possibly make me money. Anyhow, just wanted to post a short clip of one of the ‘better’ segments of a 1h15m set I put together one night.
Just learning how to spin and DJ
Windows 7 UAC & “Drag and Drop” Issues
So apparently Microsoft is at it again– providing some of us with hilarity and leaving the rest scratching our heads as to just WTF they were thinking. So apparently when you leave User Account Control (UAC) on even on a lower setting, you’re unable to “Drag and Drop” items onto applications. For example, I’ll typically open a file in Textpad by dragging the file over the Textpad window and Textpad will happily display the file contents. Another common task I perform is using WinSCP to copy files up to my server. UAC strikes again and I’m unable to drag files to the WinSCP ‘Explorer View’ making it nearly impossible to even use the application. So, anyhow– Long story short. If you’re used to dragging items over the respective application to open them and you’re getting the ‘No Access’ mouse icon, disable your UAC!
Note: If you prefer not to disable UAC, you can go into:
Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security Policy -> Local Policies -> Security Options and Disable the “User Account Control: Only elevate UIaccess applications that are installed in secure locations” option
Android UI Collaboration Community
I’ve been really unhappy with a lot of the Android apps and their UI. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen is a simple input line for a username or password where pressing enter makes the input line expand. Another issue I’ve seen a lot is when a configuration/settings screen doesn’t auto-format when in landscape mode. How are such simple UI mistakes made?
I’d really like to get community feedback on the best practices for UI development. Make this a common ground and ‘go-to’ place to help out developers who aren’t so ‘UI-savvy’.
By creating common behaviors users can anticipate what’s going to happen next because– well, it’s the same across all applications. This is one of the reasons why iPhone apps pretty much rock. The UI is silky and things ‘act’ as the user expects them to. There’s no guess work involved. Android needs this to become a stronger platform and even more popular across hardware vendors.
For those of us who’ve been following the ‘Android/G1 hacking scene’ have witnessed some of the UI development that HTC has produced. (Rosie/Hero). None of that would be slick if it weren’t for HTC taking the time to think about the users experience.
So, please help me in getting the ball rolling and lets begin defining the specs for Android UI development!