http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/ J2EE software engineer writing about working abroad, cultures and insights en-us Nucleus CMS v3.32 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.hietavirta.net/blog//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/ http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=330
Traditional web or mobile optimised version of the print publications wont cut anymore. Some publishers have announced their own iPhone application but many of them are simple page flipping applications. Not much difference to PDF reader. Seamlessly embedded videos and photo galleries are not that common as one would expect. Especially when new devices like iPad support much larger screen and computing power than previously so they should be able to handle them easily.

At the moment many of those magazine or newspaper reader applications are free with their content but paid content will definitely become more popular. Instead of subscribing or buying physical printed magazine you would receive an access to the extra content - all edited and formatted in a single package. Simple 'subscribers only' area with content snippets lying around might have been the way to do previously but now users are expecting much more elegant presentation. I see iPad and similar devices as premium content platforms and their users are already used to pay for applications, videos and music.

There are two sides of the iPad publishing - a CMS and a reader. Recent development on digital photography has enabled photo reporters to shoot both stills and video - actually they expected to do so now. Presenting this variety of media formats is not straightforward. Publishers had to find way to add all this content in to their sites and I can imagine how their CMSs are being pushed against the limits. Publishers need to have highly flexible content management system that handles vast amount of different media formats and is able to transform them to another (i.e. downscaling videos). The same content needs to be available for normal web, lightweight mobile devices, smart phones and now also for tablet. The extra effort and cost required for each platform version should be minimal.

The content reader can be either the standard web browser or a custom reader application. Publishing content for specific application allows much more freedom for layout and media formats. is an example of how a digital magazine would look like in the future. Developing such reader application is not trivial task but I assume iPad SDK has some new features supporting this. Unfortunately the documentation is available only for members of the iPhone Developer Program.

As Apple did not announce their own de facto reader for rich content there is now an open space for iPad developers to conquer. The solution offering the intuitive user interface on iPad, excellent performance and seamless integration with content management systems will be a winner.
]]> Bits and Bytes http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=330 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:54:00 +0200 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=330 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=329
I implemented this in two parts. The first part created the required directory structure:

import os

workPath = "/tmp/test/"
for a in range (0, 16):
   os.mkdir(workPath+hex(a)[2:])
   for b in range (0, 16):
      os.mkdir(workPath+"/"+hex(a)[2:]+"/"+hex(b)[2:])
      for c in range (0, 16):
         os.mkdir(workPath+"/"+hex(a)[2:]+"/"+hex(b)[2:]+"/"+hex(c)[2:])


The next part was to move files to the corresponding directories. This was also quite straightforward but I had problem with os.rename and I had to replace it with shutil.move. The original script worked fine on my home computer but the development server had the source and destination directories in different filesystems. Here is the final version:

import os
import shutil

sourceDir = "/tmp/files/"
destDir = "/tmp/test/"

filenames = os.listdir(sourceDir)
for filename in filenames:
   sourceFile = sourceDir+filename
   print(sourceFile)
   destFile = destDir+filename[0]+"/"+filename[1]+"/"+filename[2]+"/"+filename
   print(destFile)
   shutil.move(sourceFile, destFile)

These did not take too long to make and most likely someone who remembers Python libraries better would have done it in a fraction of time.

]]> Bits and Bytes http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=329 Wed, 9 Dec 2009 22:24:43 +0200 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=329 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=328
At work I am busy the soon to be released open source CMS. The content management UI is built on Ext GWT aka GXT so it looks pretty nice and it was quite pleasant to develop. The server side is usual EJB3, JPA/Hibernate etc... there is some REST API, website templates can written in Velocity and there is even possibility to add extra functionality with server side JavaScript. So bunch of cool technologies and it has been great learning experience.

Meanwhile we have been enjoying Scottish autumn weather and I have been trying out Android SDK. Tomorrow I will visit Scottish Open Source Awards - this time just as a spectator.]]> General http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=328 Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:09:46 +0200 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=328 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=327 DevDays in London and it was pretty good event. Most of the speakers were good and I think I learnt something new from every one of them. Unfortunately there was not too much time to network with other developers as the breaks were short and the catering was failing. I am look forward to attending it next year.

Some photos of the event]]> General http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=327 Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:40:27 +0200 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=327 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=326 Bits and Bytes http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=326 Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:22:46 +0300 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=326 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=325 Twitter accounts have received regular updates. This seems to be common among bloggers as it is so much easier to blurp couple lines for an update. But blogging is not dead because it is a medium for longer articles.

So, to summarise past month I could mention couple highlights. We made a trekking trip to Kingussie which was fun but we did not reach our goal. The route to the munro was way too muddy for our shoes. A pair of rubber boots would have been better.

Then we had an autumn holiday. I visited Finland and Dóra visited Hungary. My trip was mostly about hunting with very modest results. I did not have time to visit friends but I met my brothers and their families.

Among other things I have been dreaming about buying Canon 7D but I think it is a bit too expensive. And our Canon 450D is still doing pretty fine after 10K shots so there is no good excuse to spend around 1700 GBP... ]]> General http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=325 Tue, 22 Sep 2009 21:59:13 +0300 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=325 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=324
I think there are two things contributing to this. First of all, I do much more workout and outdoor activity than in Hungary. Visiting then gym with sauna two or three times a week keeps neck and back muscles fit. It also helps to relax after work and allows me to get rid of some code originated frustrations. The monthly fee of the gym is not too bad and I see it as investing in myself.

Getting a new computer to replace 12" PowerBook has helped as well. 20" iMac results in a much more ergonomic home setup and I think the bigger screen is better for my eyes as well. I picked a nice mesh back computer chair from a local store couple weeks ago so things have improved even more. I think the next step would be buying a bigger table with more space for all these items.]]> General http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=324 Sun, 9 Aug 2009 21:45:49 +0300 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=324 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=323 ]]> Culture http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=323 Sun, 2 Aug 2009 18:43:34 +0300 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=323 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=322
To investigate this I installed Fiddler to check responses sent by the server. It turned out that our JSON collections had an extra comma after the last item. This trailing comma caused IE to expect yet another item.

Such a small and easy to fix problem but rather tricky to find - but that is life of a programmer.]]> Bits and Bytes http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=322 Wed, 29 Jul 2009 20:30:14 +0300 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=322 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=321
I also had bad luck with cash ISA (tax free savings account) as I applied for higher rate account but First Direct introduced new lower rates while they were processing my application. I did not like that so I cancelled the opening - luckily I did not send transfer order before that.

But at least now GBP seems to get stronger against Euro. That is good because our trip to Finland is approaching... holiday I say!]]> General http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=321 Mon, 15 Jun 2009 17:42:05 +0300 http://www.hietavirta.net/blog/index.php?itemid=321