Blogs on Tardigrada

How it’s made – Mobile application

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:35:55 +0000

It seems you can’t turn anywhere today without some mobile app hitting you over the head. As it became so common and used everyday, it’s definitely time to continue a well known series and to see how to create one.

Dusting off the workbench

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 02:00:35 +0000

It has been two months since the last decent post on this blog. We’ll try hard not to do that again. All we can say in our defense is that we were working on the Symbian mobile application for our weather service and some other projects (check the references). The mobile app is almost done and you can view what the fuss is all about on a short, but visually descriptive presentation.

If you’re interested in about finding out more about the app and be notified when it’s published, be sure to visit its page and leave an email.

Header photo credits.

Kad će Kiša wallpapers

Thu, 16 Dec 2010 12:07:28 +0000

If you are a Kad će Kiša user, you could be interested in some Kad će Kiša wallpapers. There are two flavors in three standard desktop screen ratios: 4:3, 5:4, 16:9.

Smooth and clean

Grunge

Credit for the grunge texture goes to the Dyrk.Wyst.

Flowella – accelerometer, timers and Qt Quick

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:48:13 +0000

Last month Nokia launched the improved version of the Flowella prototyping tool. The changes are not big, but are important. They can be grouped like this:

Bug fixes
New transition triggers
Export to Qt Quick

Bug fixes

A developer/designer tool can have all the features in the world, but if you can’t save and later continue your hard work the tool will be discarded very soon. Earlier version of Flowella sometimes had trouble saving your current progress. The workflow could be messed up after loading or the connections between frames could be lost - very frustrating. The new version doesn’t have any of those problems. Saving, loading and exporting works as expected.

New transition triggers

The old way to go to the next screen was to click on the specified area. Although this was sufficient for basic testing, it doesn’t really reflect the way people use mobile phones. New Flowella adds more triggers.

The first new triggers is accelerometer. The prototype can now respond to multiple motions. Just drag the arrow on the right side to the target screen.

The second new trigger. It is great for rudimentary animation and non-interruptible actions (updating, authorizing, etc).

Export to Qt Quick

Beside exporting to WRT and Flash Lite, you can now export to Qt Quick. Qt Quick is the new feature of Qt 4.7 and it allows you to create UI layout and behavior by using a language based on JavaScript. No C++, at least for the not-too-complicated stuff. If you’re familiar with web technologies, you’ll get around very quickly.

Here is the sample of the QML code generated by Flowella for one of the screens. It looks almost the same as the JavaScript object literal.

import Qt 4.7

Item {
   property string jumpToNode: ""
   signal jumpTo
   id: node
   focus: true
   Image {
      source: "Screenshot-20100930-165711.png"
   }
   Timer {
      id: timerTrigger
      interval: 500 /* Note: intervals must be > 0 for the timer to work */
      running: true
      repeat: false
      onTriggered: {
         jumpToNode = "3E579516-E275-5DF8-9AFE-99E9A6FC66B9.qml"
         node.jumpTo()
      }
   }
}

Some useful business resources

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:21:21 +0000

These are some of the posts a stumbled into the other day. I picked them because they gave me a lot of food for thought. I hope they make you think too.

Free Nokia N900 design frame

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 01:21:39 +0000

If you’re designing or prototyping an application for Nokia N900, this resource could be very helpful. N900frame_template.zip contains a SVG file with a N900 background (just like in the header photo), a status bar and a 800x480px workspace so you can easily export your work in native screen size and test it in one of available prototyping tools (like Flowella).

The frame was created in Inkscape, but you can easily import it in some other vector drawing program (AI, CorelDRAW) or use raster graphics in the bundle (N900 hardware and status bar pictures) in Photoshop or GIMP. All the sizes are pixel perfect so you can use it to create quick mock-ups or the final design.

The SVG file contains layers with normal and full-screen grids that are helpful for quick prototyping. Status bar can be easily removed so the full screen canvas awaits you.

Kad će Kiša new website – the geeky stuff

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:37:30 +0000

Today is a special day for us. Yes, we’ve redesigned and set the new course of our first company’s project, weather forecast Kad će Kiša. But beside that, there are a few technologies and draconian decisions we’ve used for the first time.

First, you can’t miss the full screen background image. It’s targeted for the wide screen, but scales gracefully for regular 4:3 or 5:4 screens. No matter how big or small your screen is, there will be no holes – picture is “full screen” in all cases. And it’s all CSS.
The user interface is done in HTML5 and JavaScript (jQuery) and relies heavily on modern trends and features. The forecast is visible when JavaScript is disabled because it is the main information on the site, but complementary content and effects are not available.
There is one particular problem with the first two points – they don’t work in Internet Explorer 6 as expected, so we have decided that we will not support it in this project any more. If you go to the site with IE6 (as some people already have), you’ll get a blank page with a short description why and where to install new and modern browsers. It’s time to move on and leave it to the past.
The server side was created with Python and Django. It is our first Python web project, trying something new beside PHP and ASP.NET.

The site is far from over. It needs some front-end improvements and new back-end features, and we’re working on them. But it’s a good feeling to deliver something new and receive some quality feedback.

Version control for designers, part 2

Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:51:54 +0000

In the previous post we have talked about why you should use a version control software for your design work and explained a bit about how they work. Now we’ll use one of them to show how to set up a workflow and avoid common problems.

Using Maemo’s alarm framework with Qt – The basics

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 14:33:21 +0000

Whew, finally found some time to write another post. This time we’ll be using Maemo’s alarm framework to do, well, almost whatever we want at a specific time, or even repeatedly at specific times :) So let’s get to it.

Version control for designers, part 1

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:55:12 +0000

Version control, revision control or, in programming terms, source control systems are different names for one thing – a system that manages different versions of your digital work. In this article SCM abbreviation will be used to refer to it. In most cases they are used for source code (text files) management, but there is nothing limiting them from managing other types of files. Documents, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics are all viable candidates.

This article analyzes designer’s needs and shows how he or she can use SCM to help organize its work files. The first part shows why it’s good to use version control systems, explains what types of those systems exist and how they work. In part 2 we’ll use one to set up a few workflows that could be good for design work.

Using Maemo specific widgets with Qt

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 20:24:51 +0000

The N900 is a piece of work. A smartphone running Linux. What more could a geek want? Well, for one thing, leveraging an existing application framework (Qt… wink, wink) for developing cool applications. And we would also like to be able to use platform specific widgets and whatnot. Well, duh.

On happiness by the Zappos CEO

Tue, 07 Sep 2010 07:00:31 +0000

Tony Hsieh, the CEO who had led Zappos from a small start-up to a 1 billion dollar company sold to Amazon last year, recently wrote a Delivering Happiness book. In it he tells us about his entrepreneurial ventures, but mostly about Zappos, its world famous company culture and first class customer service.

One thing he mentions are what he thinks of as four pillars of happiness on a workplace, but also in life in general. For a person to be happy he or she must have:

Perceived control – A person has to have a certain level of autonomy and a right to make a decision, even a small one.
Perceived progress – A person should be able to see progress of its skills, positions, levels of autonomy, etc. The workplace should be arranged in a way to provide a regular feedback.
Connectedness – It is much easier to work with people who are treated as peers and friends, not as company’s resources.
Vision/Meaning – Nobody likes to work on something and than never to see it come to life or just watch it getting discarded without an explanation. A goal or at least a direction is something that can be a much stronger motivator than a paycheck.

Custom push buttons on the N900 with Qt Style Sheets

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:28:43 +0000

Standard push buttons on the N900 are functional and look good to boot. But let’s say you need something different for your next “instant-hit” app. Is there a quick and (relatively) painless way of getting that extra shine. Drumm roll, please. Enter the Qt Style Sheets…

Pre-autumn news

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:32:48 +0000

Hi everyone!

There hasn’t been much activity here during August except for the few funny charts and posters. It isn’t because we were on a vacation (although we would like that was the case), but because we’ve been working hard on two things.

The first one is our website. We have been in a beta state for too long now, but have finally found the time to finish it. The biggest changes are the texts on the pages and some visual improvements in services and people sections. Be sure to check it out and leave a comment (especially if you find some bugs and errors).

The second thing we are working on is a Nokia N900 application – a simple and powerful reminder system. The concept name was Ginkg-o-minder, but we decided that the production name will be simply – GOM Reminder. It will be finished very soon and published to the Ovi store at the end of September. The GOM website and more information will soon be available is available.

Enjoy,

the Tardigrada team

Location-based social networking

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:00:09 +0000

Image source

With the ever rising usage of location-based social networking services like Foursquare, Gowalla and, a very recent newcomer, Facebook Places, our own behaviour could be changed in a subtle, but dramatic way. If you don’t think so, you should check out Seth Priebatsch’s short TED talk about a closing social decade and a coming gaming decade where our own behaviour will be directed, if not controled, with these kind of services.

The poster above does not promote adultery. It merely points out that our privacy and casual everyday organization could be coming to an end. I’ll leave you with two examples:

If you live alone and publicly check-in 200km from your home, is your home empty and unattended?
When you politely decline an invitation from your friend to a party because “you have some important work to do for tomorrow’s meeting” and then, without a second thought, check-in two hours later at the cinema, how will your friend feel about it? How will you feel about it?

Do you have what it takes to start a business?

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:00:17 +0000

Of course! Sure. Probably … Maybe?

There are many questionnaires that can help you answer this question. They all test your skills, some of them ask you if you’re ready for low and unstable paycheck and long working hours. But many of them fail to show you what will you be really working on. And it’s probably not what you expect :)

I have created two pie charts to show you some common misconceptions people have when starting a business and the things you’ll be juggling a few months into the venture. For this example I have taken a very small IT company that is totally unrelated maybe a bit similar to our own, but the core business can be from any other industry. Have fun and leave a comment at the end telling us if you’ve found a way to run a business as the first pie chart shows.[Of course! Sure. Probably … Maybe?

The mobile browsing experience

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 10:06:41 +0000

Once upon a time I thought that the desktop browsing experience on the mobile phone is a possibility. And then I noticed…

Epic celebration

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:21:22 +0000

Photo by williamcho.

RSS feed back-end change

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 10:13:41 +0000

We have to inform you that we did some changes to our RSS back-end. Those who have used FeedBurner’s URL for their feed agregator are advised to change it to /blog/index.xml or follow the link on the right to the new URL. The old URL will be closed on Saturday.

Tardigrada team recommends the first method because it adds layer of indirection (removing you from the horrors we can do in the future) and you’ll show good programming practices :)

Flowella – rapid prototyping tool for mobile designers

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:17:49 +0000

Flowella is a simple but powerful tool by Nokia that lets you create application prototypes directly from design suites or even scanned hand-drawn sketches.

Web development environment

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:30:34 +0000

We all know that the need for external resources while doing our development is a pain. We all want the utopia of taking our laptops and sitting somewhere nice (forest, meadow, glacier, …) while developing Carpal tunnel syndrome. So let’s get a step closer to this image while doing our web thing. For this we need to build a completely self-sufficient development environment on our machine. It’s actually a lot easier than it sounds.

10 ways to stay awake (without the drugs)

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 19:40:21 +0000

The deadline is near. It doesn’t matter if it’s a website development, an exam, a marketing strategy or a science paper – you’re too tired to sit and type anymore. Coffee’s gone and it had no effect at all. You’re afraid that taking something stronger could get you see more colors than there is in the color spectrum. If you need to squeeze few more hours, here’s what you can try.

Streamlining your admin duties with Fabric

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:56:34 +0000

We’ve all been there at one point or another. You need to do some complex but repetitive task for the x-th time (where x tends to be a very high number indeed). And since I am a firm believer that everything I need to do more than about 2 times I have to do it with a click, or key-press, or some other similar simple feat of manual dexterity I will discuss some one of the solutions to this problem.

Are you failing enough?

Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:20:07 +0000

If not, maybe you should. In this day when everything is visible and privacy is lacking, everyone tries to look as successful as possible. Failure and mistakes are viewed as negative things that should be avoided at all times. But is that the right approach?There are two ways you can look successful: you can really be good at something or you can avoid mistakes. And here lies the problem. You can’t be good at something without a learning period in which you WILL make mistakes.

Pimp my widget: Object Oriented school

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 09:01:54 +0000

In my previous post we looked into equipping or WP blog with widgets to give it a new look and hopefully make it a little more pleasing to the eye. Today we are going to take a step further… hopefully. Since object orientation is the best thing that happened since the wheel (or so I hear ;)) we should try to tap into some of that godly nectar and ambrosia. So, we will be giving our RSS widget introduced in my last post an OO makeover.

HTML5 template

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:55:37 +0000

With all that HTML5 buzz lately everyone wants to try it out. So if you’re one to shoot first and ask questions later, here is one simple template.

Widget-up my blog

Fri, 28 May 2010 14:08:16 +0000

Let’s talk widgets. More specifically WordPress sidebar widgets. So why should you care about this particular type of widget. Let’s start from the beginning…

Copy/paste to and from the system clipboard in Vim

Mon, 17 May 2010 20:22:55 +0000

Users accustomed to CTRL+C/V keyboard shortcuts may find themselves reaching for the mouse when using gVim or Vim in a terminal because aforementioned commands do not work by default. So, how to do it?

Short answer would be to select a text in a Visual or Select mode, type "+y and you have the selected text in a system clipboard. If you need to paste, position your cursor where you want it and type "+p. "+ is just a register, so you can use different yank/put commands with it like "+6yy or "+gP.

Long answer would be … well, long. Vim uses registers "+ and "* to communicate with other applications. How it does that depends on the operating system Vim runs on.

The essence of being a programmer

Fri, 14 May 2010 09:24:49 +0000

A few days ago I came upon an interesting little bit of writing in a book called Assembly Language Step-by-Step: Programming with Linux by Jeff Duntemann. What interested me is that the author, in a few short sentences, nails the idea of what being a programmer really means. So here’s the quote for your (and mine) pleasure:

Being a programmer is one thing above all else: it is understanding how things work. Learning to be a programmer, furthermore, is almost entirely a process of learning how things work.

I guess now we know why curiosity maybe killed the cat, but it certainly made it a better programmer in the process.

Short usability overview of a Nokia N900

Fri, 07 May 2010 21:44:31 +0000

On March 15th Tardigrade had won on the Maemo Challenge that was being held on first Mobile Monday in Croatia. The winning application was Ginkg-o-minder (concept name) and the reward was N900 device to build and test the application on. There are many reviews of N900 spanning from a few to a dozen pages long containing all the technical details you can imagine. I will not talk about that, but will give you some usability information. Here is my opinion after playing with it for a while.

Another one bites the dust

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 21:11:33 +0000

So here we are, another blog on the “blogsphere”. Why should you even bother following us, why should you care… Well, we are a young company trying to make a living, oh yeah, and we are based in Croatia (that’s in the SE Europe). If that is not crazy enough than I don’t know what is. We are also primarily software and web oriented, so if you like reading about technology and enjoy scary stories about young enthusiasts trying to succeed in a hostile environment you came to the right place ;)