Ben Fisherman’s JSNES runs entirely in the browser using nothing more intrusive than JavaScript. It apparently manages real-time performance within Chrome, but it works (if not playably) on an iPhone.

I wish the screen was resizable and that it supported iPhone compatible controls, but both of those assume that browser performance will improve enough to make it playable. Interestingly, though not surprisingly, the Safari JS engine is limited to consuming a single CPU (which it quickly does while playing JSNES).

Posted September 20, 2009 by Casey
Categories: Dispatches, Technology. Tags: browser-based, emulator, javascript, JSNES, NES, Nintendo, Nintendo Entertainment System. Be the first one.

Will Norris has discovered that iTunes 9’s interactions with the Store are more web-happy. I’ve been asking where the iTunes Store API was for some time, now I think I’ve got what I need to build one.

Posted September 16, 2009 by Casey
Categories: Dispatches, Technology. Tags: api, itunes, itunes music store api, iTunes Store, iTunes Store API. 3 Comments.

Situation: you’ve got WordPress Multi-User setup to host one or more domains in sub-directory mode (as in site.org/blogname), but you want a deeper directory structure than WPMU allows…something like the following examples, perhaps:

• site.org/blogname1
• site.org/departments/blogname2
• site.org/departments/blogname3
• site.org/services/blogname3

The association between blog IDs and sub-directory paths is determined in wpmu-settings.php, but the code there knows nothing about nested paths. So a person planning to use WordPress MU as a CMS must either flatten his/her information architecture, or do some hacking.
Read more…

Posted September 15, 2009 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information, Technology. Tags: cms, hack, hacks, information architecture, url path, wordpress, WordPress MU, wpmu. 6 Comments.

With AT&T facing lawsuits for not delivering MMS features at the iPhone 3GS launch, they kind of had to do something. I’m not sure if I’d be satisfied by this video if I were among the plaintiffs, but I think it does a good enough job. The stat about 300% annual increases in mobile data use is pretty powerful. I’d heard it a dozen times before*, but because I wasn’t in Austin for SXSW iPhone meltdown, I don’t have quite the same appreciation as some do. AT&T added capacity then, and they seem to have been scrambling elsewhere too.

iPhone users are said to be six times as likely as anybody else to watch video on their phones, and if WiFi aggregator JiWire’s report says anything about cell data, the iPhone has certainly changed the game. JiWire’s Mobile Audience Insights Report shows that over 97% of the devices on their network are either iPhones (about 56% of the total) or iPod Touches! And all the way back in 2007 in Britain, iPhone users were 33 times as likely as other phone users to send or receive more than 25MB a month.

It will be interesting to see what happens to other carriers as they get devices that encourage use as the iPhone has.

*Actually, I hadn’t heard the 300% stat specifically, just inspecific reports of increased usage.

Read more…

Posted September 7, 2009 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Technology. Tags: ATT&T, iphone, video. Be the first one.

Okay, I don’t want to watch all the movies depicted in this 100 year overview of film special effects, but I did just add a few to my Netflix queue.

Read more…

Posted September 6, 2009 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Books, Movies, Music. Tags: history, movies, special effects, video. Be the first one.

Situation: using WordPress MU (possibly including BuddyPress) on multiple domains or sub-domains of a large organization with lots of users.

WordPress MU is a solid CMS to support a large organization. Each individual blog has its own place in the organization’s URL scheme (www.site.org/blogname), and each blog can have its own administrators and other users. Groups of blogs in WPMU make up a “Site” and one or more Sites can be hosted with a single implementation. (I’m capitalizing Site for the same reason WordPress docs capitalize Page) Each Site has a defined set of administrators and options controlling various features. You might, for instance, lock down the plugins on your blogs.site.org, while keeping it open on your www.site.org. Or maybe you’d like to let your helpdesk staff create new blogs at blogs.site.org, but not at www.site.org. That’s what WPMU’s notion of Site can help you control.
Read more…

Posted September 3, 2009 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Technology. Tags: authentication, cms, cookies, hacks, sub-domains, wordpress, WordPress MU. 4 Comments.

I don’t know if it’s just the Mother’s day effect, but the top 10 online retailers for May 2009 were dominated by flower shops. The top shop is converting almost 40% of their visitors to buyers, though the average is just over 5%. Tim, meanwhile, claims he’s lowered his bounce rate to just 10%.

Posted September 2, 2009 by Casey
Categories: Dispatches. Tags: bounce rates, conversion rates, marketing, metrics, web. Be the first one.

Liam Lynch explains the origin of the video, but what was Dan Deacon thinking as he recorded the audio? Of all the free MP3 downloads he offers, Two Friends from the Acorn Master album may be the most, um, listenable.

Thanks to daily songsmith Corey B (Corey Blanchette) for the tip.

Posted August 15, 2009 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Questionable...funny. Pointless.. Tags: Dan Deacon, drinking out of cups, funny, Liam Lynch, music, spoken word, video. Be the first one.

The following was my email response to a thread on the web4lib mail list:

Okay, it must be said: you’re all wrong[1].

I can understand that news of a librarian being fired/furloughed will raise our defenses, but that’s no excuse for giving up the considered and critical thinking that this occasion demands.

Consider this: the principle’s blog reveals a reasonable person actively trying to improve academic performance despite crushing economic conditions. The communications show a level of transparency many of us can only wish for.

Unfortunately, many on this mail list seem to have come to the conclusion that this library was a stellar, but unappreciated example of everything that libraries should be, capriciously closed by a principle who secretly wanted to see the football team shoving bookshelves around on a hot summer day.

Go ahead, mock the story (and so far we only have one story about this) for suggesting that the books have been “re-organized” by subject, but the fact remains that this community didn’t think their library was organized in a way that met its needs. This suggests that either (a) it wasn’t well organized, or (b) the librarian had failed to educate the users and develop the finding aids necessary to help the community use the library.

Nobody here is banning or burning books. Nobody is suggesting that libraries are irrelevant. Far from it: this story about the modernization of a library to make it a more significant part of students’ academic activity.

News that a member of our profession has been furloughed is sad. But, news that a principle is investing time, attention, and money in the library is good. News that those two stories are one in the same should make us ask critical questions about how we and our libraries are positioned to serve our community.

[1]: Everybody but Robert L. Balliot, whose message has so far been ignored.

Posted August 6, 2009 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information, Politics & Controversy. Tags: Franklin High School, lib20, libraries, library 2.0, Milford MA, web4lib. Be the first one.

An amusing hacks-conference lightning talk-turned-blog post on web development: “Graceful Hacks” – UX, IA and interaction design tips for hack days. Martin Belam’s talk at The Guardian’s July 2009 Hack Day must have been both funny and useful:

• Funny: “However, I am given to understand that this is now deprecated and has gone out of fashion.”
• Useful: “the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library is your friend.”

Posted August 6, 2009 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Technology. Tags: design patterns, hack day, hacks, web design, web development. Be the first one.