PIcking Your Javascript Mobile Framework: Part 4 - Coding

2014-11-17 9 min read Comparisons Marco

One of the differences between mobile development for sites and for browserified apps is that you don’t have to download the supporting files every time you start. That’s because they are typically packaged with the app and are right there with it on the device.

That’s a huge difference with respect to looking up mobile sites, because there every byte you can squeeze out is a byte you don’t have to download. While that’s not that important on WiFi or on 4G, it makes all the difference on 3G or heavens forbid 2G.

PIcking Your Javascript Mobile Framework: Part 3 - Minimum Functionality

2014-11-16 4 min read Comparisons Marco

If you are joining us now, this is a multi-part shootout of mobile Javascript frameworks. In the last instalment, we got a series of candidates, 77 long. In this instalment, we will look at functionality.

The Todo app pushed by the TodoMVC team is very simple, but pretty complete. In it you:

Create new todo items by entering them into a box
Display all available todo items
Alternatively, display only the active ones, or the completed ones
Mark a todo item as completed by checking a box to its left
Delete a todo item
Delete all completed todo items
Edit a todo item

Bindings and behaviors were refined further:

PIcking Your Javascript Mobile Framework: Part 2 - The Field

2014-11-16 4 min read Comparisons Marco

Right on the heels of the first instalment, here the second, where we will consider the options we have in mobile frameworks.

First of all,** the number of frameworks out there is simply staggering**. There are literally hundreds of them, from industry behemoths like jQueryMobile to one-man projects already abandoned by the creator.

Variety is the spice of life, but too many options make for big headache. Unfortunately, the web has zeroed in on the predicament of mobile developers and offers even more click-bait articles about the “Best Mobile Frameworks 2014” than you can possibly read. Most of them, sadly, consider it a “comparison” when you simply put up the name and the first paragraph of the web site description.

Picking Your Javascript Mobile Framework: Part 1 - Preliminaries

2014-11-16 5 min read Comparisons Marco

Mobile development is costly because it targets two completely different operating systems, each with their own idea of how to solve problems, down to the language used. For a small development shop, the only economically viable solution is to create a mobile-optimized web site that breathes Javascript on the front end. But for that, you need a good Javascript framework that understands mobile. Continue reading

Setting Up Kubuntu on a Lenovo Y50 - Data Immortality Edition

2014-11-06 12 min read Howto Marco

I am the lucky owner of a brand new Lenovo Y50. It’s a screaming fast machine, with a gorgeous screen (despite what naysayers complain about – mostly the yellows and the refresh rate). It’s meant for gamers, but a developer like me can like it, too. It’s just beautiful, and relatively lightweight, and did I mention it’s screaming fast?

But the big question was: How Do I Set It Up Most Efficiently?

Obvious

2014-11-05 1 min read Quotes Marco

Nothing is as shockingly disruptive as the perfectly obvious, when carefully examined.

The Highlight of My Academic Career

2014-11-03 20 min read Past Marco

It was the day of the Lord 12 February 1989, such as they count in the Old World. I was in the Old World that day, which I know precisely, because I found a trace of it in my keepsake box. Two days before Valentine’s Day of that year which brought about the Fall of the Iron Curtain, I was sitting in a giant lecture hall at the Rheinish Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen (short, RWTH) for the midterms in Theoretical Quantum Mechanics. In German, that’s called a Klausur, which is the local spelling of a Latin word that means, “sequestration.”

Ski Resorts (and Snowboard, too!)

2014-11-02 1 min read Alphabet Lists Marco

In honor of the opening of the ski resorts, here a list of places where you can go skiing and snowboarding, from A to Z Continue reading

SQLite Support in Joomla

2014-10-29 5 min read Joomla Marco

It’s been a while now that I’ve been eyeing the SQLite implementation of Joomla. There have been lots of teasers, so far, but never could I ever click on the “Select Database Type” field and enter, sqlite. Finally, I got sick of waiting on a release and decided to go solo. I would find out who was working on SQLite for Joomla, track them down, offer them encouragement and help, if needed cajole or threaten, and finally get a SQLite implementation that “just works.”

The Most Important Invention of the 20th Century

2014-10-19 4 min read Uncategorised Marco

Ladies and Gentlemen! Please join me in honoring the winner of the World’s Most Important Invention of the 20th Century!

Our candidates, first. In no particular order, I give you:

Automobiles
Airplanes
Antibiotics
Computers
The Internet

And the winner is…

A write-in candidate! It is the Fast Forward button on the remote!

OK, maybe I am exaggerating a little. But the FWD button on the remote has become my go-to tool for a while. I am a cord-cutter and movie theater fiend, which means all shows I watch are “remotable.” And my watching has changed a ton, in unforeseen ways.

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