It's HTML5, Not Flash for Mobile Apps

Any Flash developers who still think that their work is in any way acceptable to the wider open web community are sadly mistaken.
~Tweet

Most people probably didn't know, and really don't care but the HTML5 v Flash competition for mobile app dominance has been every bit as intense as Beta v VHS or Bluray v HD. With this weeks announcement by Adobe that it will discontinue development on mobile browser Flash, and refocuses efforts on HTML5 indicates the winner.



Why is HTML5 better than Flash?

• Does HTML5 Really Beat Flash? The Surprising Results of New Tests
• HTML5 And Flash: Why It’s Not A War, And Why Flash Won’t Die
• Viewers Seem To Like HTML5 Video Better Than Flash
• Is HTML5 better than Flash?

Just a couple of weeks ago I began learning to write mobile apps in Flash. I am glad I did not invest too much time! But I know now that I can proceed with learning using HTML5 because once these battles are resolved there is no going back. (Remember laser disks? I didn't think so.)

Note: Tomorrow's post is sure to be "The new thing I learned today is HTML5."

Today I Learned How to Play Angry Birds

Something about the visceral, primal thrill of hurling disgruntled birds at houseproud pigs has struck a chord.
~Mark Brown

Yes, the premise is silly. So is the game. I needed something to keep me distracted from a very annoying person on a conference call, so I downloaded the app on my phone. I got the idea from a coworker who always makes it through these meetings with an (until now) inexplicable calm.

So far, I am not very good at the game. I only made it through the first ten levels of level 1.  I am also not very good at playing games on my phone at work, as I neglected to mute my phone before starting the game. ♪♫ ♫♪ ♪♪♪ My coworker and I laughed (silently) and he quickly muted the phone while I turned off the game. Oops!

It did make the meeting much more pleasant. I catapulted my angry birds and listened only vaguely to the discussion, making an occasional comment, "Okay," "Sounds good," "What?"

Note: This trick for making conference call meetings enjoyable cannot always be deployed. This instance is a rare time when only I and my fellow bird hurler are in the meeting at our location. But we do it twice a week. Maybe by this time next week i will be on a new level!

Something else I learned: Some of the birds have special abilities which are activated by tapping.

The Newest Sports Bar Spectator Sport: Video Game Competition

I thought I'd come here for a quiet beer after a crazy day at work
~17-year veteran of the bar

Geeks Beat Jocks as Bar Fight Breaks Out Over Control of the TV. Clever title, and true, even if a little misleading. 

It may seem weird that gamers would gather in groups at bars to watch video game tournaments, but there is precedent. I may be revealing a bit of my age here but I first learned of video games at bars. Asteroids, Pacman- those were the machines replacing pinball. I never really cared for pinball, but I did enjoy spinning that tiny little arrow shaped space ship in circles and shooting at the little asteroids.  The Ms. Pacman table game was probably my favorite. I wasn't bad at it either!

I digress...

Video game competitions are no less intense to gamers than football rivalries or World Cup competitions. Gamers, like any other fans, enjoy watching the competitions. There is an additional layer of entertainment when viewing with a group of like-minded fans - some cheering for one skilled player, some cheering for the other. 

Note: High tier video game competitions have large payoffs - 50K in the Starcraft competition referenced in the above posted article.

Something else I learned: The video game competition nights at bars are called "Barcraft."

Fingernails on a Chalkboard and Other Sounds That Make Us Cringe

Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation.
~Jean Arp

When fingernails scratch on the chalkboard, the pitch frequency of the sound is between 2000 and 4000 hertz. The human ear is most sensitive to this frequency because of the anatomy of the ear canal.

A study revealed that the physical reaction many of us feel when we hear the nails on chalkboard sound has learned elements to it as well. See the study overview here. I did listen to the audio file on the linked page, and I have to say that the recorded fingernails on the chalkboard did not bother me nearly as much as the image of nails on a chalkboard.

There are various sounds that set people's teeth on edge. It seems to be an individual sort of thing. There are certain sounds that drive me to distraction (and sometimes the edge of sanity!). Nearly everyone I know can't stand fingernails on a chalkboard. I cannot find an explanation as to why some people cannot stand the sound of styrofoam, a fork scraping across a plate - or my own personal sound aversion: certain types of fabric or material that have a smooth/highly grooved surface when scratched make me shudder.

I was unable to find a definitive answer. Maybe everyone suffers a little from misophonia - a form of decreased sound tolerance.

Note: It seems like sound aversions could be related as much to texture as sound.

Something else I learned: it may actually be mid-range frequencies that are the worst for people to hear.

Яндекс (Yandex) - The Most Popular Russian Search Engine

The world became more enticing
wider – then they were in motion.
~Aleksándr Blok, Russian Poet

The vast majority of visitors to this blog are, by far, from the United States. That is no surprise, it is an English language blog written by an American blogger.  The thing that is a surprise (to me, anyway) is that the next largest group of visitors I have, according to my blog stats, come from Russia.

приветствую моих гостей из России!

Shortly after launching this blog, I noticed there was traffic from Russia, and I vaguely wondered how they were getting here. A little digging reveals that the traffic is sent from Yandex ( Яндекс) a Russian Search Engine.

Launched in 1997, Yandex is the biggest search engine in Russia. They have 64% of search traffic in Russia compared to Google's 22%.  Yandex earns high praise for it's ability to create algorithms that work with the complexities of the Russian language.

Note: the name Yandex is derived from the phrase "yet another indexer."

Something else I learned: Yandex had an extremely successful IPO on the NASDAQ in May 2011.

Commenting Out in CSS

blockquote {
display:block !important;
padding:10px 20px;
text-align:justify;
font-family:Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif;
}

blockquote p {
font-style:italic;
color:#0;
display:inline;
}
blockquote p:before,
blockquote p:after {
color:#0;
line-height:0;
font-size:5em;
}
blockquote p:before {
content: open-quote;
padding-right:10px;
vertical-align:-27px;
}
blockquote p:after {
content: close-quote;
font-size:5em;
line-height:.3;
vertical-align:-37px;
}
~Geek Humor


Put /* */ around the entire section that needs to be commented out.

Example: /*this gets commented out*/

I have never had cause to comment anything out on a style sheet, so when someone asked me how today, I looked it up and now I know!

Note: There is a lot more about Cascading Style sheets (CSS) I need to learn.

Something else I learned: You can get free CSS templates.

Why Does Skin Wrinkle When It Gets Wet?

All we need is a meteorologist who has once been soaked to the skin without ill effect. No one can write knowingly of the weather who walks bent over on wet days.
~E. B. White

Hands and feet, when left in water over a period of time, gets prunish. Why?

Skin has two layers, epidermis (the outer layer) and dermis (the inner layer) Epidermis produces, sebum (an oily substance intended to keep water out of your skin). Extended time spent soaking in water causes sebum to rinse off. As the sebum decreases the epidermis begins to absorb water. This causes the surface area of the skin to swell. The Epidermis is tightly attached to the dermis so the epidermis compensates for the added area caused by the absorbed water by wrinkling.

OR~

There are 4 layers of epidermis -the outermost layer of which is the stratum corneum - the layer we see and feel. The stratum layer contains dead keratin cells. Extended time spent soaking in water causes the dead keratin cells to absorb water. This causes the surface area of the skin to swell. Because the epidermis is tightly attached to the dermis, the epidermis compensates for the added area caused by the absorbed water by wrinkling.


But... why is it only hands and feet that wrinkle?

Either because hands and feet have the lowest amount of sebum, or because hands and feet have the most dead keratin cells.

About skin. 

New research suggests that narrowing of blood vessels in water may contribute to "after the bath prune skin."

Learned: No definitive answer to the prune skin question.

Note: I can't stand it when I am wearing enclosed shoes with socks that get wet. That is a guaranteed wrinkly skin scenario, and feels totally icky!

Something else I learned: There are 20 calories in a dried prune