General – Page 3 – Liopic on Tech

You can even find “plants 2.0”

While my plants grow and grow, and are eager to the arrive of summer, Rubén told me about a website, a la 2.0, to keep track of your gardens and plants: My folia, where I’ve created my garden profile. There are too few people at the moment, so the magic of 2.0 doesn’t work still. And I’m not sure about their business plan (if they didn’t build it for fun).

Anyway I found it interesting as a place where I can investigate the growing process of a 2.0 website. I’m preparing the launch of my own website 2.0, focused on strategy turn-based games, so every single detail I can observe in other places could be interesting.

A PDA with Linux

I’m used to read PDFs while in bed, on my Acer PDA. But its tiny resolution (320×240) didn’t help a clear reading, therefore I started to look for a bigger device, it must be easy to hold but not too big. So I avoided those e-readers, and focused on PDAs with bigger resolution. And then I stumbled upon a Nokia 770 review… it is supposed to be a “Internet tablet”, but the thing that caught my attention was its screen resolution: 800×480. Luckily I have a friend who owns one, so I had a look at the device… it was interesting indeed.

I thought “Ok, I can use a N770 to read PDFs, and my Acer n50 for the rest of things (do sudokus, see pictures and record Go games)”… because I read some comments on Internet saying “it’s just a web browser, not a really PDA” (really?). I found a offer on ebay, and bought it for just 102 euros.

What a machine! The default factory configuration was a bit short of features (I reinstalled the lastest OS), but then you configure some program repositories, start to add open source applications, and discover the real power. The OS is a version of Debian. This means you can have an xterm with most of the usual commands. Moreover the graphical system can hold GTK-based programs with an easy porting. I installed some games, CGoban to record Go games, and some utilities (including a Last.fm player).

The cons are that its CPU (252 MHz) is too slow, so sometimes it stops to respond for a while; and the battery lasts less than a normal PDA (actually, similar to a laptop, around 3~4 hours). So its a device for patient users (or if not, try its successor, the N800 and N810, with double speed CPU and webcam).

I can even play a game of Freeciv!

Renfe.es: a bad UI case

In the last year I flew 24 times. Too many times, according to those ecological footprint quizs. So I decided to give another try to the train, for my usual Barcelona-Alicante trip. Unluckily in Spain the train’s company, “Renfe”, is really prehistoric: there are always delays, tickets are expensive (domestic flights are cheaper and quicker), and is the focus of a lot of political scandals.

Last Christmas they announced a new web, with a new modern system of buying tickets, and discounts up to 60% in the normal price. So far, the reservation system was terribly bad. Can they evolve into something “normal”?

I tried to buy a return ticket, Barcelona-Alicante. Firstly, the old fares are still there. Actually there is a new thing, a Captcha that gives you access to the classical fixed prices… whenever you want to do your trip, the prices are always the same for the same trains, so why do they need to hide them under a Captcha?

But the best part is to arrive… If you want to get access to the new “web fare” (60% off), you must choose “One way” ticket at the first form. This means: you must do the process 2 times, one for your going ticket, and one for the return ticket. Later you have to find a small combo box that let you choose among the fare list… the default is the most expensive option.

Finally a frame with you bank web is opened, to verify you credit card details. You press “Ok”, and suddenly Renfe.es says “this train is not available”… at the end of all the process. Monkeys do better jobs.

After 2 hours I accomplished the mission, I got my ticket with a cheap price. But I suspect that it has been deliberately implemented in this weird system. I imagine people, elders, in the marketing department of Renfe, smiling at the time they say “hehe, we have offered a modern look, but we are not going to let anybody a cheap price ticket”.

Chinese stealing my code

This page was part of my last project which I developed in my company: Buff catalog.

And this page was part of the website of our client’s competitor in China, recently published: KranGear catalog.

The funny thing is that their javascript files even include MY comments, in Spanish.

The idea was to use a thermometer as the scroll bar, reflecting the different temperature protection of every product. The original page was developed around December 2006. I spent a couple of weeks tweaking the details, to get the smoothest result. I think it was an innovation, because the design department wanted to make it with Flash, and I showed them that this can be made with just javascript (including the zoom-in effect when you pass over the designs). And now a Chinese competitor copies me… hence I did a good job (even I could have done far better, but we were in a hurry to publish the website).

This reminds me of another UI effect, made with javascript, which I programmed for the Whisher home page (now they have a new website, but my work can be seen, without images, at webarchive’s capture). The idea was some kind of quick movement between slides, and I spent a couple of days creating the correct framework (divs, css, and javascript) to make it alive. Now it’s a quite common effect, that most javascript libraries have (like this example), but in those days it was new stuff.

Curious, because my most innovative work was in this area (javascript), when my position at the company was more server-side focused (php + mysql, mainly).

Category: General