Another great Reading Geek Night, I spoke to a packed Copa bar about Getting up and running with Titanium Studio from Appcelerator
Here is my Slide Deck from the night.
Among the other speakers tonight were: @DrJennyWoods & @marwoodchap
Thanks to @JimAnning as usual for organising the event
It is that time of the year again, when the application developers and startups descend upon London to discuss cutting edge techniques, social media strategies and general chit chat at the very popular FOWA (Future Of Web Apps) conference.
I’ve been twice in my history, 2009 & once before. The year slips my mind. A brilliant packed 2 days of web app data streams. If you’ve never been, its so worth it. Full of fun character, networking and above all useful stuff.
Watching my tweet stream flow past, its something we all do. I wonder if you notice those accounts that you follow that you know tweet infrequently. They are more noticeable when they send an update, as you brain spots them a mile off, as long as you are in the right place at the right time. Another good thing about those types of updates, is that you are more likely to pay more attention to them.
However , I found out that Balsamiq have just released an update and bundled a new font with their popular wireframing and prototyping tool. Its such a major shift forward. Ditching Comic Sans has breathed new life into the app and I love that they’ve taken the time to listen to user requests, and that the guys at Balsamiq clearly do not work for the MCP (blatant TRON references)
I’m going to get back to work this week on the SCI-FI-LONDON Festival app there are a few cool updates that I am designing in my head. The updates will bring around some stability fixes to the core codebase, but we will be adding audio and video capabilities to the app. Giving it a lifespan outside of the festival diary. We also have the Oktoberfest coming up, so look forward to a new schedule and in app updates…
Lots of exciting things. I’m taking a small lull in work right now, after the mega Surrey Police app marathon, to get some housekeeping done, such as making sure the Spirit Quest portfolio page reflects both the mobile apps i’ve built to date. So stay tuned.
I spoke at the London Titanium Meetup last month on how you can incorporate and build a Twitter app using oAuth libraries into a Titanium Mobile project.
The talk went well and I’m sharing the slides with you here:
I’ve been working hard on a Titanium Mobile project this year for Multizone Ltd.
A series of apps really, a utility app in essence to help bridge public engagement with local policing activities.
Resource links for the London Titanium presentation on Weds 29th June.
Ketan Majmudar is @ketan on twitter
All photos from presentation by myself
The SCI-FI-LONDON App is available from Apple’s AppStore.
For more information on the Surrey Police app – please look at www.multizone.co.uk
I finally got to visit the home of the British Codebreakers at Bletchley Park. Part of a joint venture between the Berkshire BCS and Reading Geek Night, where a coach of us travelled up to Milton Keynes on Sunday morning to visit the site.
Entrance to Bletchley Park
I have only ever heard about the place in reputation, through the movie Enigma, and more recently, through the hashtag #bpark on twitter. So to be a visitor and have a tour guide was a real treat.
Not only was this a place where important messages were intercepted and decoded during the war, but it was also pivotal in the development of modern computing. Bletchley Park therefore also the houses the National Museum of Computing.
After some complementary teas, our tour and began and the rich history of the site began to unfold. We were treated to the real actual replica of the Bombe used in the movie as well as a working replica, this was the machine created to decipher intercepted messages. We also saw a working Colossus computer used to help in breaking cyphers, it was kept under wraps for many years, even after the war.
Working Replica of the Bombe
Much of our tour consisted of the history and development of the technology used in helping break the codes that were intercepted during World War II, and how the centre operated.
Part of the exhibitions houses a memorial slate sculpture of Alan Turing as a reminder of all he contributed to our society. There are video documentaries, historic memorabilia, film clippings enigma machines and so much more.
Slate Sculpture of Alan Turing
I took a bunch of 3D images whilst there, but am still working through converting them into anaglyph images (that can be seen with red/cyan specs)
Group Picture in 3D Anaglyph
In the mean time I have 50 or so pics from my visit on my flickr site
One of the highlights involved a short journey back in time through the history of computing and real life class rooms of BBC B Microcomputers, a real treat for me as it was the computer I grew up with. All-in-all an amazing day, and so much more to see. I will have to visit again, as there is just too much too see.
Please support Bletchley Park by visiting them, its a superb day out, great for geeks, families and historians. You can find them on twitter @bletchleypark
