Mobile applications are an increasing theme at work where our SAP customers have lots of Data and Logic in there ERP systems that they want to make available to their employees on the road. The new smart phones are a great user experience platform for displaying and doing simple interaction with this data.
I did a quick example application for a service technician that mixes data from the ERP system with the functionality of the phone. This was so much fun and quick to program once I got the hang of the Android platform. My company even did a video of it which has come out great.
I am tempted to do an IMCA application but I can not think of anything that would be useful. Maybe a measurement form, regatta manager, boat info lookup.. however it seams better to do this stuff in a web application which will then run on all devices. I started this with the mobile news and blogs page. The stats say that 7.24% of the visitors are mobile devices but the mobile page only get 1.50% of the views. I would be interested to know what you users think of this? Are you interested in more Mobile initiatives or is the site OK as it is?
Friday, 22 October 2010
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Wings rant.
After my therapeutic rant yesterday on the Mach 2 forum I will try to be a bit more pragmatic and respectful today. I guess that Internet forums are a poor mans shrink.
I think that solid wings are in the spirit of the class that has been around since 1928. They are potentially the next step of the change. A lot of people are tempted to build them and they look awesome. The class has been around since 1928 because it has been open to evolution. The concept of a development boat is far more important to preserve than current commercial interests. Wing sails, like foils, like racks, like carbon, like plywood... are not going to change the world overnight they are all part of an evolution.
What I do not think is in the spirit of the class is the multi element rigs. Does Adam have a 2 sail boat? This is a gray area as each element consists of structural solid bits and soft membrane bits. 2 sleeve luff sails are not OK so why are 2 solid sails. Is Adams rig the same as a wing mast and a soft sail or is it the same as 2 sleeve luff sails? This I think is an interesting issue.
Will solid sails be so much better than soft sails that it is no longer fun to race moths without one? I think it will be more fun to race soft sails because you avoid a lot of hassle. It may reduce numbers if people perversive it as an excuse to exit out of a competition that they are not capable of wining anyway. Look at the current commitment levels of the top sailors, who the hell can I afford to compete at that level (pretty much full time) without making dramatic compromises in their normal life?
The Moth class does not need protection from itself but the concept of choice to innovate is far more fragile. Please think about who is getting hurt if you ban innovation, and who is profiting from status quo. If people want to build solid wings then they should be allowed to choose to do that in the Moth class, where it belongs.
If you like your current boat as it is then go sail it as it is. This is what I plan to do and my huge ego will just have to get over the fact that Bora or Adam have put a lot of hard work in and are potentially faster than me. I was never going to beat them anyway, where you?
Mach 2 do not need to worry about there business model as they have shown that they are capable of producing great quality products that people want. Restricting evolution has nothing to do with the good of the class it has to do with fear of change.
I think that solid wings are in the spirit of the class that has been around since 1928. They are potentially the next step of the change. A lot of people are tempted to build them and they look awesome. The class has been around since 1928 because it has been open to evolution. The concept of a development boat is far more important to preserve than current commercial interests. Wing sails, like foils, like racks, like carbon, like plywood... are not going to change the world overnight they are all part of an evolution.
What I do not think is in the spirit of the class is the multi element rigs. Does Adam have a 2 sail boat? This is a gray area as each element consists of structural solid bits and soft membrane bits. 2 sleeve luff sails are not OK so why are 2 solid sails. Is Adams rig the same as a wing mast and a soft sail or is it the same as 2 sleeve luff sails? This I think is an interesting issue.
Will solid sails be so much better than soft sails that it is no longer fun to race moths without one? I think it will be more fun to race soft sails because you avoid a lot of hassle. It may reduce numbers if people perversive it as an excuse to exit out of a competition that they are not capable of wining anyway. Look at the current commitment levels of the top sailors, who the hell can I afford to compete at that level (pretty much full time) without making dramatic compromises in their normal life?
The Moth class does not need protection from itself but the concept of choice to innovate is far more fragile. Please think about who is getting hurt if you ban innovation, and who is profiting from status quo. If people want to build solid wings then they should be allowed to choose to do that in the Moth class, where it belongs.
If you like your current boat as it is then go sail it as it is. This is what I plan to do and my huge ego will just have to get over the fact that Bora or Adam have put a lot of hard work in and are potentially faster than me. I was never going to beat them anyway, where you?
Mach 2 do not need to worry about there business model as they have shown that they are capable of producing great quality products that people want. Restricting evolution has nothing to do with the good of the class it has to do with fear of change.
Friday, 1 October 2010
New IMCA Mobile Home Page
With the growing number of smart phones and mobile devices out there I though it was time to do a version of the IMCA site for mobiles. I have designed a one page view to be an easy fast access to the last 14 days of News and Blogs.
Check it out here:
http://www.moth-sailing.org/imca/faces/mobile.jsp
Here is the URL encoded in a 3D BarCode.
Please let me have your feedback in the comments section below.
I have not been sailing or bloging since the Euros. It is a bit late to do a Euros review now but I had some of the best racing ever. Flat water and a big Moth fleet with good thermal winds made some excellent racing. I was pleased retain my middle of the fleet status as my new boat is now one of the oldest out there. Maybe it is time to think about building another...
Moth sailing is really taking off in Austria. There was a well researched 2 page spread in the big sailing magazine here about the Moths at the Euros. I say it was well researched because the author was not fooled into thinking I was Austrian. I hope that tomorrow the wind Gods will smile on the now 5 moths we have on the lake, and we will get our "fleet" in the air!
Check it out here:
http://www.moth-sailing.org/imca/faces/mobile.jsp
Here is the URL encoded in a 3D BarCode.
Please let me have your feedback in the comments section below.
I have not been sailing or bloging since the Euros. It is a bit late to do a Euros review now but I had some of the best racing ever. Flat water and a big Moth fleet with good thermal winds made some excellent racing. I was pleased retain my middle of the fleet status as my new boat is now one of the oldest out there. Maybe it is time to think about building another...
Moth sailing is really taking off in Austria. There was a well researched 2 page spread in the big sailing magazine here about the Moths at the Euros. I say it was well researched because the author was not fooled into thinking I was Austrian. I hope that tomorrow the wind Gods will smile on the now 5 moths we have on the lake, and we will get our "fleet" in the air!
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