Computol

Obscure C

criticallycorrect — Tue, 07 May 2013 08:01:20 -0400

For those low-level-loving developers out there, here is a look at some programming oddities, unconventional coding, and unexpected behavior in snippets of C code. All these examples are perfectly readable bits of code that upset compilers or produce unexpected output.

In a job filled with comfortable C#, JavaScript, and T-SQL, the low-level landscape of C and C++ feels dangerous - but it is always fun to revisit from time to time.

// Brandon

Baker Framework 4 Newsstand Subscriptions

criticallycorrect — Wed, 01 May 2013 09:00:56 -0400

Baker Framework is a fantastic platform for building HTML-based iOS apps. While its “standalone” mode is useful for building single-use, content-driven applications, the addition of iOS Newsstand support in version 4.0 plays to Baker’s strengths as a simple platform for periodicals.

In order to fully support all of Newsstand’s features, however, a critical server component is required - and Baker does not yet provide this robust solution for integrating issue and subscriber management with iTunes Connect. The whole Newsstand model can be slightly confusing, so for those working with Baker, here is an overview of how Newsstand and Baker work together.

Newsstand Basics

The iOS Newsstand is a special type of folder that lives on the iOS home screen. Your app’s Info.plist should contain the Boolean value “UINewsstandApp” set to true. This flag automatically places your application in the Newsstand folder and groups it into the Newsstand section of the App Store.

In the case of Baker, this flag is already set up to enable Newsstand support, and should only be changed if your app is going to be standalone.

The Newsstand Store Model

Newsstand applications must provide a subscription option and must periodically publish new issues. There is no getting around this, so at the very least, Baker must be configured to offer a free subscription. This will enable a “Subscribe” button in your Baker app that is required by all Newsstand apps.

If you wish to offer individual issues for sale (via In-App Purchases) or paid subscriptions, you must consider a few important points:

You may offer issues and subscriptions for sale via the App Store, of which there is the usual 70/30 revenue split with Apple.

You may offer subscriptions for sale outside of the App Store. This revenue is 100% yours. In this case, you must offer the same or cheaper subscription options in the App Store, which applies the 70/30 split for purchases made in that channel.

Apple only manages issue data for the App Store front end. You must track which issues and subscriptions users have access to. When a user purchases an issue or subscribes, you will receive a receipt of that transaction.

That last bullet point is important. It is up to you to manage user receipts, subscription status, and issue access. This requires a significant server application. If you intend to offer your own subscription option outside of the App Store, it is also important to consider that a sign-in mechanism is required to validate your users - something that Baker does not currently offer.

The External Server for Baker

At this point, basic issue information should be set up in iTunes Connect. Issue name, cover image, description, and a link back to the actual content is stored by Apple so that your periodical is searchable within the App Store. As stated above, the actual content of the issue is not hosted by Apple - that is your responsibility.

For a free subscription, you mainly have to host your issues (“.hpub” files) and Baker’s “shelf.json” file, which identifies all issues available for download.

For paid issues and subscriptions, you also need to handle App Store receipts, maintain user subscription status, and be able to reliably manage users who subscribe outside of the App Store.

Baker’s Expectations

In order to pull down new issues, update the shelf, manage In-App Purchases, and setup iOS notifications, Baker 4 has several RESTful API endpoints that it will try to hit. A robust server application should be able to handle all of the following:

Shelf JSON: Returns data about all issues that should be displayed on the Baker shelf, including the In-App Purcase pricing information, if applicable. (GET)

Purchase Confirmation: When content is purchased via an In-App Purchase, Baker sends the receipt information to this endpoint so it can be recorded. (POST)

Purchases: Returns a list of issues that a user has access to based on their purchase history or subscription status. (GET)

APNS: When a user agrees to push notifications, Baker sends a device token to this endpoint so it can be stored for later reference. (POST)

The Computol Solution

While Baker Framework 4.0 is a fantastic way to easily create HTML-based iOS periodicals, its integration with Apple’s Newsstand and technical requirements can be somewhat confusing.

Computol is currently hard at work creating a hosted Baker server solution that will allow content creators to manage subscribers, update issues, and handle App Store receipts with minimal fuss. Everything this article covers will be integrated into one application with full support from Computol.

In the mean time, feel free to send Baker-related questions or comments to hello@computol.com to see if we can assist you in any way with your Baker-Newsstand integration.

// Brandon

I Was an iPad Skeptic

criticallycorrect — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 08:01:42 -0400

I Was an iPad Skeptic:

The iPad was released in 2010 to just about every possible reaction: excitement, exhilaration, confusion, and mockery. Nearly three years into the “tablet revolution,” Ars Technica takes a look back at how the iPad has changed lives, affected workflows, and become the go-to device for all sorts of casual computing and light work.

Computol is a company filled with iPads, and we most definitely use them extensively. Gaming provides healthy competition among everyone, Trello’s fantastic iPad app keeps us on task, and countless meetings have been made easier with quick and easy access to emails, files, and presentations.

// Brandon

Framework Benchmarks

criticallycorrect — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:01:41 -0400

Framework Benchmarks:

Is your favorite framework on this graph? How does it rank? Some interesting results are found between the realms of JavaScript, PHP, and Ruby.

Also, LOL CakePHP.

// Brandon

We are hiring a Network Engineer

sestocker — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 09:45:00 -0400

We are hiring a Network Engineer:

We are looking for a hard working Network Engineer to join our Networking/Server Administration group. Apply through Monster or just email your resume to jeffhamons@computol.com.

CSS Fun for April Fools

criticallycorrect — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 08:01:15 -0400

CSS Fun for April Fools:

April 1, 2013 is upon us, and that means pranks and practical jokes are inevitable across American offices today.

For some subtle fun with your co-workers, check out these WebKit-based CSS tweaks. Once set up in Chrome’s “Custom.css” file, all websites or elements can be skewed, rotated, blurred, or flipped. Find your favorite effects and have at it!

// Brandon

PS: I took today off work. What the hell is wrong with me?

Designing a Responsive, Retina-Friendly Site

criticallycorrect — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 08:01:47 -0400

Designing a Responsive, Retina-Friendly Site:

The “Retina Revolution” is just about here. While the web has been transitioning over to mobile-first development strategies for a few years (championed by responsive web design, of course), the next major shift will come from high-resolution displays.

We are already seeing this thanks to a trend kicked off by the iPhone 4’s “Retina” high-DPI screen (326 pixels per inch). Android phones ran with this concept, as 2013’s flagship phones sport 1080p, 400+ dpi screens. Over the next five years, high-DPI screens will become commonplace among more phones, tablets, laptops, and (hopefully) desktop displays.

Paul Stamatiou runs through the process of building a beautiful, responsive, image-driven website that takes advantage of high-DPI displays. His design process is mobile-first and content-driven. He breaks down the pros and cons of major design choices (such as content priority), implementation strategies, and technical challenges for high-DPI-ready graphics. All in all, this is a fantastic, in-depth read that all web designers and developers should take in.

// Brandon

Reducing bad signup emails with mailcheck.js

sestocker — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 08:01:28 -0400

Reducing bad signup emails with mailcheck.js:

Ever have a user enter their email address into a web form and miss a few important characters (think “.co” instead of “.com”)?

mailcheck.js helps address these and other common email formatting mistakes. Using a little jQuery, mailcheck.js is easy to set up and integrate into your site as a fast and effective means of guarding against simple email typos.

// Brandon

Amazon's Mega Dropdown

criticallycorrect — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 08:01:43 -0400

Amazon's Mega Dropdown:

Amazon’s homepage features what I would typically call a design failure: a monstrously huge and complex nested navigation menu. One button, many options, and layered categories.

This should be a user experience nightmare, especially from a usability standpoint: navigating through a CSS-driven menu with a mouse can easily become frustrating. Using progressive enhancement and some intelligent JavaScript logic, Amazon cleverly avoids the most common usability issues at hand: losing place as the cursor moves from a parent item to its child submenu.

Check out this well-written look into how Amazon overcame a usability nightmare.

// Brandon

Why You Should Build A Sitemap Before Designing Your Site

sestocker — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 08:01:24 -0400

Why You Should Build A Sitemap Before Designing Your Site:

When building a website, how can a sitemap help the design process? As it turns out, a lot. Clarifying goals, avoiding duplicated content, and keeping everyone (developers, managers, and clients) on the same page are just some of the obvious-but-important benefits.

At Computol, one of the first steps in building a website involves building a content tree with the client: we want to understand all the content destined for the final website. This helps the client prioritize content and gives us an idea of how CMS integration will work or how many resources we will need to devote to development.

// Brandon

Almost Flat Design

criticallycorrect — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:01:17 -0500

Almost Flat Design:

Microsoft’s ~~Metro~~ Modern UI design language introduced with Windows Phone 7 has made flat design popular. Solid colors, font-driven design, and responsive layouts are the new rage in 2013. This is a far cry from Apple’s skeuomorphic textures popularized by iOS, still the gold-standard in usability. Given this huge rift in design theories, what challenges await flat design? How can subtle hints of depth increase usability? Is it right for your next project?

“Almost Flat Design” looks into some of these issues and quite a bit more.

// Brandon

The Umbraco 4.10, 4.11 Publishing Bug

criticallycorrect — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:01:18 -0500

Umbraco, the open-source .NET CMS platform, had been giving me grief on a project for the last month. I ran into a relatively major publishing bug that would cause a YSOD (Yellow Screen of Death, of course) for all end users.

Content can be published in Umbraco two ways by end users: using a right-click context menu in the content tree and by a “Save + Publish” button in the content editor interface. This easier “Save + Publish” method had been throwing errors when publishing from the Home node. Hoping that the client would never update their homepage was an unrealistic option, so I set about investigating the issue.

After much debugging and frustration, a user on the Umbraco issue tracker found the core problem. The thread is full of well-defined suggestions for manual fixed, temporary and permanent script patches, and ultimately recommendations for upgrade paths to addressing the issue.

Although there are a couple of causes for this error, mine turned out to be deleted items: after deleting content items with a parent node, the publishing process would error only when using the “Save + Publish” button.

This was one of the more obscure issues I have dealt with recently. If you’re running Umbraco 4.10 to 4.11.4, you should consider upgrading to 6.0 or at least look over this thread to see if any issues discussed may apply to your setup.

// Brandon

The 30 CSS Selectors You Must Memorize

criticallycorrect — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 08:01:32 -0500

The 30 CSS Selectors You Must Memorize:

In case you missed it, CSS has a couple of neat selectors available. Stuff like “ul li” and “a > .external” are simple enough, but try some of the other 28 selectors available in this awesome list. While not every one may be useful on a daily basis, they may help solve some of the more difficult styling issues that you may come across.

// Brandon

Responsive Typography With Your Webcam

criticallycorrect — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 08:01:35 -0500

Responsive Typography With Your Webcam:

Here is a neat demo that blends headtracking with concepts of responsive design.

Using a JavaScript headtracking library, this demo by Marko Dugonjic uses your webcam to track the distance of your head from your monitor. Typography and text on the webpage is then adjusted in a responsive manner: more distance from the camera scales text larger, while being closer to the camera scales text to smaller sizes. This creates a somewhat consistent reading experience that is a neat thought experiment on what it means to be responsive.

// Brandon

The 2600Hz Kazoo API: Timestamps and Gregorian Time

criticallycorrect — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 08:01:19 -0500

We have recently begun integrating with the fantastic 2600Hz VOIP platform Kazoo. Kazoo provides a very clean and simple RESTful API for interacting with almost every facet of the platform. This will allow our team to write great applications for both us and our customers.

One interesting detail struck us pretty early on. Timestamps in our datasets looked a little like this: 63492595200. Being based on an open-source stack (including Linux), the initial assumption was to parse the timestamp based on Unix epoch time. That was wrong, and it should have been obvious: an eleven-digit number is larger than current Unix time.

After scrounging through Kazoo’s documentation, we determined that Kazoo uses Gregorian seconds as its common timestamp. Go ahead and Google “Gregorian seconds.” Long story short: Erlang’s calendar module is used within Kazoo, and thus uses the Gregorian calendar system. We found this a little odd in a world dominated by Unix time.

This presented a problem when translating Kazoo timestamps to C# DateTime objects. There is no native or .NET method of converting Gregorian seconds into a DateTime object, but there is a formula out there for it:

Gregorian seconds - 62167219200 = Unix seconds

This was sourced right from one of 2600Hz’s developers, Jon Blanton. Once translated into Unix seconds, it is trivial to convert to a DateTime object. The complete solution is below.

public static DateTime TimestampToDateTime(double gregorianSeconds)
{
    double unixTime = gregorianSeconds - 62167219200;
    DateTime dtDateTime = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0);
    return dtDateTime.AddSeconds(unixTime).ToLocalTime();
}

// Brandon

Subtle Patterns On the Go

criticallycorrect — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 08:01:39 -0500

Subtle Patterns On the Go:

Computol has a particular fondness for SubtlePatterns.com. This simple resource is a handy provider of simple, well-organized, and subtle tiled patterns well-suited to provided background textures in web designs.

This Subtle Patterns Bookmarklet is a great tool to preview the Subtle Patterns catalog in a live environment. Install the bookmarklet, navigate to a page, and click-and-preview away.

// Brandon

The Six Inch Gap

criticallycorrect — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 08:01:29 -0500

The Six Inch Gap:

The “Six Inch Gap” is closing the space between phones (3” - 5”) and tablets (7” - 10”). With 5.8” and 6.3” phones on the horizon, we are looking at a device landscape that covers every possible size: from 3.5” mobile devices to 100”+ projection displays.

I can’t think of a better reason to implement responsive interfaces in applications and web sites. Based on these diverse screen sizes that will be commonplace in the next few years, there may be little choice otherwise.

// Brandon

CodeMash 2013

criticallycorrect — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:01:00 -0500

The Computol team hit the ground running in 2013, and we have kept very busy at work. We were fortunate, then, to get away from the office for a couple of days in early January and spend time at CodeMash 2013 at Kalahari Resort. The Sandusky, Ohio resort is typically surrounded by cold January winds, but this year was an exception: a mild warm-up melted our biggest snowfall of the year and made for a pleasant experience both in and out of Kalahari.

While the weather cooperated for all those traveling to CodeMash, the action was most definitely inside the resort.

CodeMash has grown considerably since its 2007 debut. In our team’s collective 3 years of attending the conference, we have seen it grow from roughly 700 attendees to over 1,300 this year. This is in addition to the volunteers and Kalahari support staff that do a fantastic job of keeping everything running smoothly.

Between Wednesday and Friday of CodeMash, Scott, Tom, and I attended a wide variety of sessions and got to meet a lot of interesting people. I spent time weaving between Windows 8, content strategy, and UX design topics. Tom focused much of his time on iOS development. Scott found interests in management and mobile development.

I met up with Ben Callahan and the rest of the guys from Sparkbox in Dayton, Ohio for a while to talk responsive web design. Everyone had a chance to meet up with former co-workers and friends from the Toledo-area developer community.

The Computol team found Friday’s mix of sessions to be a little misaligned to our interests, but based on the foot traffic we saw, there was plenty of packed sessions right through the closing raffle on Friday evening.

One of the biggest takeaways from CodeMash this year is simply the conference itself. CodeMash is now a premier developer event that attracts hundreds of big names to northern Ohio every winter, opens up limitless possibility for networking, and features more brainy sessions than anyone could possibly take in at once.

We look forward to CodeMash 2014.

// Brandon

Computol @ CodeMash

criticallycorrect — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 08:01:54 -0500

This week will see the Computol development team scooting off to the hazy warmth of the Kalahari Resort in Sandusky, Ohio for CodeMash 2013. Organized and run by a fantastic group of volunteers, CodeMash is one of Computol’s favorite developer and technology conferences.

Although .NET and its surrounding technologies are typically a heavy focus at the conference, there is always more than enough variety for all developers. Android and iOS development, Ruby, development practices, business processes, design, UI, UX, HTML 5, and JavaScript are just a few of the other topics covered by the countless dozens of presenters.

Although the fantastic sessions are a great part of the conference, I would argue that CodeMash’s best feature is its people: roughly 1,300 student, independent, and professional developers and designers coming together under one roof. The access to talent and ideas feels limitless, and the potential for networking is huge. If nothing else, CodeMash is a great way to catch up with old friends while making plenty of new ones.

Because Computol will be at CodeMash this week, our Thursday post may be delayed in favor of some post-conference review. Stay tuned!

// Brandon

Starting Anew (Your Web Project) In 2013

criticallycorrect — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 08:01:35 -0500

Starting Anew (Your Web Project) In 2013:

As we kick off the new year, Chris Coyier over on CSS-Tricks provides some useful and practical advice on starting a new web project. His first bit of advice: consider mobile - your new site will need it. We couldn’t agree more.

Computol is starting the new year with a new client website, so Chris’ advice comes at a great time.

// Brandon