I'm an IT Manager based in the UK, undertake freelance web projects, mountain sports and am a husband & a father. Here I blog about web apps, all things Apple & life in general. I also highlight my posts & status updates from around the web.
Firstly I should state that I come from a Microsoft background, developing both Windows and web based solutions using a variety of their products, attending their conferences, doing their qualifications etc etc etc. However over the years I have come to think that although their products are very impressive, my experience has shown that in many cases the bells and whistles their products are launched with are soon followed by disappointment and frustration as you start to use them.
That said it was with an open mind that I attended Remix UK yesterday in Brighton UK. This event, aimed predominantly at designers has 4 tracks covering developer, design, business and usability topics. It was interesting to see Microsoft trying to engage with the design community, which before the launch of their Expression range of products, they generally ignored.
The main Microsoft presentations still had the feel of being preached at in church but the topic range was very good, with two presentations providing an introduction to Silverlight and a technical overview of the new ADO Data services available in .NET. Bill Buxton gave two talks and sat on a design panel, where he discussed the importance of design and the use of sketching in this process. For those familiar with user centric design this approach won’t be new but it was interesting to see an influential Microsoft…
0 Comments / Read article in full ...HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.
VLC media player is a highly portable multimedia player supporting most audio and video formats (H.264, Ogg, DivX, MKV, TS, MPEG-2, mp3, MPEG-4, aac, ...) from files, physical media (DVDs, VCD, Audio-CD), TV capture cards and many network streaming protocols.
It can also convert media files, transcode and act as a streaming server over unicast or multicast and IPv4 or IPv6. It doesn't need any external codec, program or codec pack to work.…
The new version of QuickTime included with Snow Leopard (called QuickTime Player X) is almost a complete overhaul of the previous version, from the look and feel of the application windows right down to the preferences menu (or lack thereof). If you were looking to change some options but don't know where to start, our Preference Pane can help you enable or disable many of QuickTime's features. It is currently at version 1.2. For more…
Screen Grab Utility With Bite
Web Snapper lets you capture web pages - exactly as they appear in your browser. You can send them to a file, as images or vector-based, multi-page PDFs. It captures the whole web page - eliminating the need to cut, paste and crop multiple screen-shots when trying to create an image or PDF.
Rocketbox is a powerful, new way of searching your e-mail in Apple Mail.app. It's never been faster or easier to find what you need.
Caffeine is a tiny program that puts an icon in the right side of your menu bar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. Click it again to go back. Right-click (or ⌘-click) the icon to show the menu.
ExpanDrive acts just like a USB drive plugged into your Mac. Open, edit, and save files to remote computers from within your favorite programs—even when they are on a server half a world away. ExpanDrive enhances every single application on your computer by transparently connecting it to remote data.
The Easiest Way to Build your First iPhone App:
If the idea of learning Objective C brings you out in hives, then if you’re a web developer this may be a easy alternative
You can read more of my random thoughts at My Brain Drain Tumblelog on Tumblr, read articles I've enjoyed through my shared articles on Google Reader or find more interesting links through my delicious.com profile.
Hi, my name is Giles Thurston and this is my personal site.
I'm based in Ely, the second smallest city in the UK just north of Cambridge. I have over 15 years commercial software development experience, spending the first few years as an application developer before moving into web development and consultancy. I've led teams, managed multi million pound contracts and have a number of years of business development experience. My day job these days tends to focus on IT management and in particular Business Development but I keep my hand in by undertaking personal web development and design projects.
In 2008, after 16 years using Windows based PC's, I made the switch to a Mac and boy was it worth it! Although I continue to use PC's on a day to day basis, my personal preference is always to go with Apple products and I hope to blog about my experiences as a switcher here on this site, with various hints and tips which may be of use to anybody following me over the fence from Windows
Away from software development and technology, I am a husband to Leanne and father to Arlo James, who joined our family in April 2009. I'm a keen sportsman and enjoy a variety of mountain sports, including mountaineering, climbing (rock & ice) and mountain biking. I've recently got back into running and am hoping to do my first triathlon in 2010.
On this site I hope to blog about web apps, all things Apple & life in general. I also highlight my various posts, links & latest twitter updates from around the web.
Feel free to get in touch and give me your feedback on the site. You can contact me directly through twitter or the other networks I use regularly, links to which you will find below. Alternatively feel free to join the discussion and comment on my blog posts, all contributions are welcome!
not sure what all fuss is about sniffer apps being dropped from the app store, the iphone makes a create wifi sniffer in its own right ;)
Just got Rucksack for Mac OS X completely free. Nothing paid! Really awesome! But hurry, only until March 23rd at http://www.macbuzzer.com
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