Tech: Blog

Any Android app that requires even a basic interface will need the basic building blocks of activities and intents to manage interface screens and the flow between them. In this video we look at the different activity types available and how we connect them with intents.

GoLang (generally shortened to Go) is the latest language-that-everyone-wants-to-learn-and-use. In this article, I'll provide an introduction to the language, its features, its potential, and whether you should care about Go or not.

A Chrome Extension Manifest file contains important metadata about your extension. From simple aspects like giving it a name and an author, to setting keyboard shortcuts and overriding browser settings. The Manifest file gives life to your code.

No application exists in isolation, in most cases it will frequently need to access external data and services to bring it to life. In this video we look at the principles of connecting to these services. We will cover the basics of APIs, REST and JSON in an Android app and play with some Marvel Super Heroes on the journey.

Android development uses the popular Java programming language. In this video we look at the basics of Java and the additions that Android brings to it.

If you've read some of my previous posts on SitePoint or elsewhere, you may know that I'm working on a board game. In the game, called Chip Shop, you get to run a computer company in 1980s America.

In this video I'll outline a history of Android versions, and explain whether we should still support them in our applications and, if so, how.

Versioning large files can be problematic with distributed version control systems like Git. Git Large File Storage (or LFS) is a new, open-source extension to Git that aims to improve handling of large files.

When a project is created in Android Studio it contains several auto-generated files containing skeleton code for our project. In this video we look at what function these files perform and when and why we would edit them.

Android Studio is now the official IDE for Android development. In this video we look at how to download and install it, tour the interface and look at some of the tools and features it offers.

We have had requests from many of you about the potential of running Crate on Azure cloud hosting and/or Windows. Whilst this was always possible with some exploration, we now have official documentation.

The main reason for a lack of small posts on the progress of Chip Shop is that behind the scenes we have been working on some large stumbling blocks to push the game towards play testing. We wanted to focus on getting those completed over all else.

In this video we'll look at understanding the differences between Android devices, system versions and the components that comprise the Android Operating System.

Powerpoint and Keynote are powerful, but also a dead-end for your data. I shows-off the growing power and flexibility of open source presentation tools.

A well functioning Crate cluster relies on its nodes being able to utilize service discovery to become aware of each other.

Sorry for the lack of updates in a while. There have been two main reasons for this, other commitments kept me busy and I've been reworking a lot of the technology stack that powers Chip Shop. I'd like to tell you more about updates to the later.

One of the best things about being an open source community is the unexpected contributions that appear.

Apache Mesos is a fantastic tool for abstracting CPU, memory, storage, and other compute resources away from machines (physical or virtual). This lets you program against your datacenter like it's a single pool of resources.

One of the main perils of the modern world is there is far too much to distract us. So many interesting blog posts to read, events to attend, crap-we-don't-need to buy and other assorted diamonds from the internet. I'm sure several days into the working week we look at our browser and find 20+ tabs open, all eating up memory and so cluttered you can't even remember what is what anymore.

The VoIPstudio Telecom system is a unique cloud system running on a large amount of servers in a wide variety of locations. Each data center has two basic roles: storing data in real-time and backup for other locations in the system.

Docker is currently one of the most spoken about tech projects right now and it's hard to believe that it's only two years old. As part of the celebrations, the Docker team decided to host more than a dozen open-source-a-thon parties around the World. Not only to help people learn how to contribute to the project, but also donating $50 for every contribution to the Oceanic Society.

One Day the World Ended is designed to be an open source and collaborative work of fiction. Most of this will come later when I have more material ready, but <a href="https://github.com/ChrisChinchilla/One-Day-the-World-Ended-Jekyll" target="_blank">the code of the website is on GitHub</a> and you're more than free to issue pull requests if you want to.

The mobile monolith that is Mobile World Congress is over for another year. I was lucky enough to get hold of a press pass and decided to spend the week in Barcelona. Soaking up the warmer weather, joining the 90,000 other attendees and preparing for the bombardment of marketing mumbo jumbo to unearth some gems for developers.

This week has been a fervent flurry of activity as I prepare for <a href="/its-all-change-again" target="_blank">starting my new job next week</a>.

The financial sector is an industry ripe for technical disruption. It is well-financed, has many multifaceted requirements and the vast majority of us need its services on a regular basis. The last couple of years have created a plethora of startups and product offerings to service the financial sector and the financial needs of consumers. It even has its own buzzword, 'FinTech', to really prove it has arrived.

My plan for 2015 was to spend another few months working on my various projects and then start looking for new full-time work opportunities. In the past month I made a few casual enquires to get an idea of what might be out there and ended up getting quite a few offers very quickly. Many of these I considered but weren&#39;t compelling or different enough (from past work roles) to be worth putting a hold on my own projects.

Yesterday I came up with the most phenomenal idea of how to get my writing workflow, ideas for ODTWE and tech stack in ‘perfect’ combination. Well, in theory (unsurprisingly).

Continuing my reviews of research I have just finished the classic "Kobold Guide to Board Game Design<img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=gregamamma-20&l=as2&o=1&a=1936781042" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important;" width="1" />" and can highly recommend it as a good overview of board game design advice. It is a collection of essays more than an end-to-end guide, so some essays will hold more relevance with you than others. However I picked up enough nuggets of advice to make it a worthwhile purchase and have a long list of 'todos. it includes essays from some stalwarts of the industry such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Garfield" target="_blank">Richard Garfield</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_(US_game_designer)" target="_blank">Steve Jackson</a> (who created large parts of my childhood) and is divided into sections of the design process. One of the encouraging outcomes of reading the book was realising that I am currently on track and already doing a lot of what was recommended, but also realised I have a long way to go yet!

Last week I spent time on creating some of the common elements that can be found across all of the Gregarious Mammal sites, this includes:<ul><li>Creative Commons notice</li><li>Mailing List</li><li>Financially contributing to projects</li><li>Git and version information</li></ul>