Aim for the best, prepare for the worst.
Setting up letsencrypt can be tricky with different variations of apache vhost configs. Here is how to set up letsencrypt Apache vhost config correctly:
(Note: letsencrypt is now certbot. The environment I am using is apache2 by DigitalOcean for Ubuntu/Wordpress VPS, single domain name)
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I have been thinking about the issue of being too dependent on technologies. A few months ago, I decided to be more independent. So I deactivated Facebook and experienced the world without it. The experience is totally worth it and I learnt a lot. Continue reading
When I was JC2 long time ago, web app was simple. When I googled for a tutorial on how to build a web app, the approach that I came up with was:
Since the proprietary server has a JavaScript client, with very easy to use APIs, the development was quite easy. I thought I had known everything that I need to know to become a web developer, but I was so wrong. Continue reading
The idea of paradigm shift was introduced to me in secondary school English lessons. We talked about how a particular sector changed dramatically in a period of time. This pattern is actually observable in the technology industry.
In the IT world, we had a paradigm shift from functions to aesthetics.
In the earlier 2000s, when we first experience the power of IT on Windows 98, people were fascinated by the fact that the computers and other devices can do so many things. We replaced writing with typing, mails with emails, and we celebrated the whole range of functions that IT has brought to us. That was the paradigm shift from nothing to functions. Everyone was new to these functions and we were more than happy to have them.
Then we experienced time. In late 2000s and early 2010s, people got used to these functions, especially the younger generations who grew up with these functions. They did not experience the change in their lives, because emails and word processing “were already there” for them. Also, the new functions were developed but they were nothing compared to the breakthroughs during the first paradigm shift. All of these meant that there was nothing for younger generations to be excited about.
This prompted them to look for something beyond the functionalities. And surely enough, similar to any other industries, aesthetics became the focus. Therefore, we saw many software focusing on designing nice user interface and improving the user experience. These “aesthetically appealing” software quickly won over the market, despite the fact that they may be lacking in terms of functionalities.
We come to the reality now, as of 26 March 2015, it has become the default standard to have an “aesthetically appealing” software. Otherwise, no matter how good the functions are, customers will not buy them. However, this also the period of time where customers are “expecting” aesthetics as a norm from the IT industry. If we apply the similar argument above, this could be the time where we have the chance to experience our own paradigm shift, away from aesthetics.
But what could be replacement? Are there any precedents from other industries? Real estates, pharmaceutical, automobile… all the other industries are either improving on the functions and or the aesthetics. Maybe the answer is combing the functions with aesthetics. This seems to be trend now in the watch industries where the traditional “aesthetics-focused” companies are pairing up with smart watch companies. But do we stop here? Are functions and aesthetics the ultimate goals that we want to achieve? We are nearing the time where we can get one without compromising the other, so what happens after?
It has been almost one month since I bought LG G Watch, and I am happy with how it is changing my daily life.
The purpose of buying this watch is really just to try out how it is like to have a wearable gadget rather than getting a nice watch. And of course if I have some good ideas, I can use Android wearable API to develop apps that make use of this new technology.
Appearance wise, it really look more like a gadget-on-the-wrist rather than a watch. Wherever I go, people who notice this will instantly recognize this as something that has much more functionalities than normal watches. The watch performed beyond my expectation in terms of functionalities that it provides. In fact, my friends often joke about what happens if I wear this into exam venues.
Some functions are triggered by the events that happened to the phone, these are most likely notifications. The phone sends the notifications to the watch, and then the watch would display them in a nice way. By default, firstly, there will be a card(similar to Google Now on the phone) at the bottom of the display, swiping up will show the main message on the screen, then swiping to the left will show another screen that allows you to open the corresponding app on the phone whereas swiping to the right will dismiss the notification. This default behaviour is not very useful, so the apps that want to take advantage of the wearables need to implement more actionable screens for the users. For example, for the updated Whatsapp, the main screen shows a list of conversations, you can see the full details of each conversation if you swipe to the left once, and you can also reply via voice input by swiping to the left again. However, others told me that it looks very weird if someone is staring at the watch for longer than 3 seconds, so better check long messages on the phone.
Other than reading chat notifications, the function that I use the most is agenda.
By default, today’s events on the phone will be synced to the watch and displayed as a agenda card, swiping up will show more details such as venue, additional notes. Believe it or not, this saves a lot of time and frees up my hands from taking out the phone, especially on a crowded bus or during cycling.
It also comes with a simple step counter to record how many steps you have walk everyday.
You can set a goal and motivate yourself to walk more rather than taking bus. Personally, I find it pretty effective. There are times that I wanted to take a bus but decided not to after looking at the step count. (My goal is set to 10k steps every day)
Voice control system is very important for the watch, most self-initiated actions are via the voice control. Saying “Okay, Google!” will trigger the voice control. It may not be able to match Siri as a personal assistant, but there are still a lot of things that you can do, including setting up reminders, sending SMS and email, calling someone, asking a question or just simply performing a Google search. Apart from the default commands, “start XXX” will trigger apps that are specifically developed to run on the wearable device.
Other cool features are music controller for the phone, navigation(with google map).
Update: Recently in December 2014, the music controller is updated with useful functions to control volume and go to next or previous track. The UI is also pretty good.
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