The Danosphere.

Flex Developers, We’re Hiring! Where for art thou?

Dan — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:28:05 +0000

I know a lot of developers read my blog, and more specifically lots of Flash/Flex/AS3 people. If you are one of those types, have some skills, and are looking for work, DecisionLens (http://decisionlens.com) may be the place for you.

We are looking for some skilled AS3/Flex developers with an eye for design and useability. Click this link: http://bit.ly/flexjobinfo for more info. Make sure to pass it along, developers usually have other developer friends! Thanks!

Using Pulse News Reader for CollegeBlender, Tech News, and Beyond…

Dan — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 18:47:10 +0000

Great article by Karen Nga on how I use the Pulse News Reader to keep on top of tech and higher-ed news for CollegeBlender and beyond. Had a great time doing the Q&A, Karen was very nice! Big thanks her and the Pulse team!

Click Here for Full Article

New blog feature! MT @pulsepad: Pulse Profiles. Currently featuring @collegeblender's Dan Wasyluk http://t.co/EitaSva2 cc @danosphere

November 3, 2011 2:29 pm via webReply RetweetFavorite

@knga

Karen Nga

Screen Measurement / Hex Color Picker for OSX Lion [PixelStick]

Dan — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:30 +0000

OSX Lion is… interesting. On one hand it offers lots of cool new features and gestures and stuff, and on the other hand many of the new features are half baked, or less (aka: LaunchPad). On top of the half-baked problems, there are issues with app compatibility, function and more. For instance- the Digital Color Meter app in Lion no longer provides HEX color values. HEX being the color system used by just about every web designer on the planet. Do a quick google search and you’ll find that this feature of DCM, a critical designer tool, was simply removed without warning by Apple (a design heavy company, whose products are used by many, many designers). It makes no sense.

Another tool commonly used by designers- screen measurement is also hard to come by in Lion. You may find some stuff on the Mac App store, but reviews are mixed, and all that stuff is BUY before you TRY. Never a paradigm I liked. Any many of the apps are not yet Lion compatible.

Luckily I came across a solution for both problems. This tool called “PixelStick” allows you to not only measure screen areas, but it also gives you a quick and easy HEX (yes!!!) color picker, all in one tool, and all for free (so far, I can’t tell if I’m using a trial or something, but its worth buying either way). Checkout their site for more info: PixelStick: Measure Distance, Angle and Color- anytime, anywhere on Mac. Slogan says it all.

Here is a quick screencap of the tool in action, I turned off the circular guides as I did not need them, but this shows how it can quickly measure and pick colors, all from one easy tool, very useful for designers transitioning to Lion.

New Web App: Coffee Check (Jonathan’s Card)

Dan — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 17:37:33 +0000

Yesterday I came across an interesting experiment, it appears some kind fellow has publicly released a loaded Starbucks card, and he’s just letting people use it at their convenience. People can get free coffee, people can give free coffee. It’s pretty intruiging, and it’s called “Jonathan’s Card“. The guy (Jonathan Stark) even set up a website, twitter account and API around the idea. For all the details check out the site: http://jonathanstark.com/card/.

As much as I hate to admit it, I drink Starbucks… rather often. So I went to try and use this experiment at my local ‘bux, but everytime I got there, the card was empty! Not only that, but it took so much time to check the balance (via the twitter stream) and then flip over to my photos app, find the photo of the card, and scan it- by the time I had done everything what little balance was on the card, was gone. So I thought, this can be better.

Coffee Check by Dan Wasyluk

Using the APIs provided by Jonathan, I’ve created “Coffee Check“. Coffee Check is a bare bones web app designed to do one thing, check the balance of Jonathan’s card. If there is cash- you get the card image right there, and don’t have to fumble through switching apps, swiping through photos and so on. If it’s empty… it’ll let you know, and may just prompt you to add some cash to it . Very bare bones, but functional, and targeted toward mobile users (should work on any browser though). Make sure to add it to your home screen (it has a pretty iOS home screen icon and everything). Now all you need to do it press the icon from your home screen and voila! Enjoy

*Update*: How to Add to Home Screen

1. Load up http://thedanosphere.com/coffee in Safari on your phone.
2. Follow the instructions located here: iPhone 101: Add Mobile Websites to Home Screen.
3. Now you can access ‘Coffee Check‘ just like a normal iOS App!

The Most Epic Beer Commercial… Ever.

Dan — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:36:16 +0000

Just had to share this!

Apple Backstabs the “Open” HTML5/JS Web App Ecosystem via iOS 4.3

Dan — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:24:42 +0000

Apple Intentionally Slowing HTML5/JS Apps on iOS Homescreen to Favor Native Apps? http://reg.cx/1Ncf #sleazy #apple #throttlingless than a minute ago via webDan Wasyluk
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