Greenbelt

Greenbelt 2010

A feeling of calmness seemed to envelop Greenbelt this year. All festivalmakers and festivalgoers I talked with seemed to notice it. Curious and rather wonderful, especially considering the awful weather last week. By the time the festival started the rain had largely eased off (though we had a difficult night on Thursday as it pounded hard on our tent).

My biggest surprise this year came on the Monday as I was walking past a crowd at the grandstand. An elderly man came up to me and asked, "Are you David Bennett's son?" He'd known our family when we lived in Chorleywood but can't have seen me in thirty years so I was a little taken aback. Apparently he saw Dad's image in me. It was wonderful to talk awhile, especially since Dad never attended Greenbelt himself - the closest he got was driving me and four other teenagers the first year I went, in 1988.

Greenbelt , Tech

An Audio Guide

The most exciting feature for me in this year's Greenbelt Festival Guide app is now available in the very latest version from iTunes (version 1.4): the festival guide can now talk to you.

The entire app can now be driven using Apple's VoiceOver technology, making it accessible to those with visual impairment.

Here's VoiceOver reading a sample now/next page.

There are a few quirks, particularly the pronunciation of words such as "Skatepark" at the very end, but I think it's usable. I'm looking for a VI iPhone user to confirm or otherwise.

One delightful aspect of this development is how easy it was. The feature was completed in a single evening, which raises the question of why there are still apps out there which are not fully accessible.

Greenbelt , Tech

Next year

Dear Android users,

You are not being ignored.

As you can see, development is underway and despite my earlier frustrations, the current plan is to release a Greenbelt 2011 festival guide app for your devices too. Java ME folks? No promises, but I hope to support you as well - and yes that may even include the BlackBerry.

Thanks for your patience.

Greenbelt , Tech

Indulge me

A selection of responses to the app, from Twitter:

• Just downloaded iOS #gb10 app. http://bit.ly/bvsA1h (h/t @greenbelt) - awesome, especially on iPad! Well worth £3.49. I've marked my faves!!
  sadbuttrue

• Downloaded the #gb10 iPhone app, marked my favs, already have more than a weekend's worth of stuff to go to... excellent! :-)
  guitartim

• Oh @Greenbelt, you spoil us with the #GB10 app. It's beautiful.
  benjiw

• ... Now I REALLY wish I was off to @greenbelt ... The app looks great once again this yr #gb10
  fifiifif

• Just downloaded iPhone app for @greenbelt @gb10 and found it also has very cool Ipad version!
  andybmac

• App now successfully downloaded and looks really good - thanks @greenbelt !!! #GB10
  dodgerileydave

• In love with #gb10 app: have spent 2 hours totally engrossed and now need to know how to split myself 3 ways :)
  emmuk74

Add to that six ratings and three reviews on the iTunes Store all giving the app five stars our of five.

The software I develop in my "real job" may be used by four orders of magnitude more people than this, but no-one ever notices it. This is much more fun.

Greenbelt , Tech

This time next week

This time next week the festival will just be kicking off. And in what is beginning to be another regular signpost in the Greenbelt year, last night Apple approved the 2010 Festival Guide App.

The most obvious new feature this year is the reinstatement of code from the original 2008 prototype. When thinking about how to depict a complex schedule in a mobile app, a chart with time running left-to-right and venues running down the page seemed a good fit. Unfortunately it didn't work well with the limited screen size of the iPhone, but with the introduction this year of the iPad it found its perfect home.

Somewhat by coincidence the foundations of the iPad version were - like the original app - developed amongst Greenbelt friends on Iona. There's clearly something in the Hebridean air that aids software development.

More and more this kind of work looks like an attractive full-time opportunity.

Tech

Broken Android

"Why aren't there more apps for Android phones?"

Because the platform is fractured, the development tools are terrible and documentation doesn't match real-world experience.

About every six months I delve into Android development again, to try and get off the ground. But the sad truth is that it's just not ready yet. I would have thought things would have improved over the past two years, but Google just don't seem to be willing to draw developers to their platform and I've given up on them once again.

Android will remain nothing but a nice idea unless Google turn their ideas around. They may be nice phones but as a general platform they stink.

Music

Michael Been

Today I'll be listening to music by The Call and their lead singer, Michael Been.

Michael died of a heart attack yesterday.

His music was a key companion during my time at university. The drive of Let the Day Begin propelled me into the final decade of the twentieth century full of hope and opportunity. World on Fire from the little-known Light Sleeper soundtrack gave me voice when I needed to shout while the Red Moon pulled me back to earth.

I feel this deep down trembling in the earth beneath my feet.
It shakes the great foundations. I awake from my sleep.
I trust my life to providence, I trust my soul to grace
but nothing takes away this pain: I can't forget your face.
Now it feels like the world's on fire.
Yes it feels like the world's on fire.

Somewhere in this fascinating gel of blood and bone
I struggle through the day today, I brace against the storm.
Thoughts of you pursue me like an overwhelming tide.
There's something in the air tonight, it would do no good to hide
'cause it feels like the world's on fire.
Yes it feels like the world's on fire.

Night after night
like a fever it burns.
Night after night
the fever returns.

I deprive myself of feeling, both a blessing and a curse,
a love that can't be likened to a single thing on earth
Maybe I'll see better when the storm inside has passed.
Maybe I'll see better when I see your face at last.
'Til then I think the world's on fire.
Yes it feels like the world's on fire.

Tech

A bit bigger than that. Really.

How long is the Space Shuttle runway? BBC Dimensions, a new "mashup" website launched yesterday to answer this kind of question and put other measurements in context. It's a good idea, although the implementation is very sketchy (too much fanfare and hype coupled with an underpowered application that can't even put up a decent "sorry we're busy" page when flaked out).

But back to that runway. By default the website compares it to the Palace of Westminster. Immediately I was impressed: surely that's much shorter than any of the runways I've been on.

The mistake is clear when you overlay the indicative graphic on the actual shuttle landing facility: the website authors are out by a factor of ten. Instead of fifteen thousand feet long, they've depicted a runway fifteen hundred feet long.

Fair enough, the website is a demo. But this kind of mistake is massive. The lesson I learnt from it is that if you get just one key aspect of your site wrong, you risk tarnishing its reputation forever.

How big really? Quite a bit bigger.

2147: It's now been corrected on the site. Much more impressive.