Alex Hardy

I decided to splash out at the weekend and bought myself an Xbox 360 Elite and Bioshock, which I had been eagerly awaiting.

Prior to that I’d been playing the occasional game on my PS2 and boy, was I out of touch! The graphics on Bioshock are so good that it took me a moment to realise that the introduction had ended, and it was my turn to take over the controls!

There isn’t much I can say about Bioshock that hasn’t already been said elsewhere. Beautiful. Nervewracking. Game of the year, I’ve no doubt (yes, I think it will prove itself better than Halo 3). I’m not a huge fan of first-person shooters, but this is something else.

My experience of trying to get the PC demo was so time-consuming and frustrating that it clinched my decision to buy the Xbox. As I play it on my humble telly it’s amazing to think that what I’m doing is a travesty, and that if I had a decent HDTV it would look so much better. It’s on the shopping list…

The Xbox itself is a nicely designed (if a bit noisy) piece of kit, and the Xbox Live service is a triumph of seamless integration that even Apple would struggle to outdo. Downloading demos in particular is a breath of fresh air. Just select the game from the list, and the Xbox will politely let you know when it’s ready. Nice.

My PS2 has since been traded in for credit so I’m looking forward to Mass Effect

It’s been brought to my attention that some invisible files from Mac OS X had stowed away in the simpleContact ZIP file. These files (called .DS_Store) hold Mac folder information such as the position of icons. Since they mean nothing to the Windows file system, they were visible in the folder as files of an unrecognised type.

The bottom line: simpleContact’s functionality is tested rigorously before a new version is released. These files were merely unnecessary and completely harmless. They have now been removed from the download.

I’ve decided that before I take this website much further forward it needs to move. People often presume that having a dot com address is somehow bigger and better when registering a domain, but unless you are based in America it can send a misleading message.

I think the web design industry in the UK is bursting with creativity, but lags behind America in terms of community and entrepreneurial spirit (see Ryan Carson’s thoughts on the matter). For my part, placing my own efforts within a geographically-vague space doesn’t help.

So I have registered alex-hardy.co.uk. I’ll transition this site over to that domain in time, where I’ll set up permanent home. The prices of my services will be quoted in £GB pounds (with approximate $US dollar and € Euro conversions). It just seems more honest somehow.

This won’t happen overnight: I have made certain technical commitments to this domain and I need to experiment a little to make the move go as smoothly as possible. A bit of htaccess redirection should ensure that any bookmarks and links out there continue to work. My RSS feed URL will remain unchanged.

Now, I think I’ll go and have a cup of tea and a biscuit (cookie).

While I was playing around with colour palettes from my photos I thought it would be kinda fun to put some wallpapers on my site. Some of them work pretty nicely in portrait format so here are three to be going on with:

If you’re hungry for more, then check out the iPhone Wallpapers Flickr Group and Pixelgirl Presents.

I think between Flickr and COLOURlovers I have discovered a new addiction!

When you work as a developer full-time, it’s easy to feel that your design skills are wasting away. One reason I started this website was to give myself a creative outlet. I enjoy reading about what’s happening in web design on sites like Styleboost and Web Creme, but it’s more stimulating to be actively creative, even in a small way.

I found the COLOURlovers website over the weekend and joined it right away:

COLOURlovers™ is a resource that monitors and influences color trends. COLOURlovers gives the people who use color - whether for ad campaigns, product design, or in architectural specification - a place to check out a world of color, compare color palettes, submit news and comments, and read color related articles and interviews.

I’ve started out by visiting some of my favourite photographs and drawing inspiration from them. After all, the best palettes are in nature, no? I think the next design for my website will start here

… for my Technorati Profile. As you were…

Lights Off bills itself as “the first native iPhone game”:

The objective is to switch all of the lights out. Tapping a light toggles it, along with the four adjacent lights. Once you switch all of the lights out, you’ll advance to the next level!

It looks simple and fun, exactly the kind of game that works on a portable device. Installing it looks like a nightmare. Where does this leave Apple? With their heads stuck in the sand, that’s where…

Apple needs to release an SDK for iPhone. Their justification for saying “just build a website” is that it is essential to preserve the stability and security of the device. I suspect the truth is that they simply haven’t built one yet and they’re stalling for time.

But here’s the fact of the matter: Enterprising hackers will fill the breach. Emulation and video conferencing on iPhone, RSS reading on AppleTV etc are fledgling realities, whether Apple likes it or not.

If there’s money or kudos in it, then developers will find a way to build whatever they want. Without proper tools, documentation and support they are liable to make a mess. Apple needs to legitimise and embrace native iPhone development. An iPhone Software Store must surely be inevitable?

I promised an update for “early August”, so here it is with a day or two to spare

simpleContact 1.1 is available now to download. It adds the following features:

• Improvements to email validation
• Now uses PHPMailer. You can give a from-name and reply-to address
• Inbound messages now appear as being from the user’s name and email
• Mailing list un-subscribe form
• Group actions in inbox: “delete message” and “remove from mailing list”
• Web address field for contact form
• You can turn off the * required indicator, in case you want to require every field
• Logout screen with feedback options
• Update check (nothing is logged, it simply reads an XML file)

Several of these additions are the result of user feedback, so thank you to everyone who got in touch. If there are other features that you’d like to see in a future version, please feel free to contact me.

Yes, it’s true. I don’t sit around all day thinking of things to post on my blog. In fact, I have a day job! I work for The Foundry Communications Ltd – a design agency in Altrincham, Manchester.

The Foundry is currently interested in hiring two mac operators to help support its busy creative department. These permanent roles are as follows:

Senior mac operator

“Excellent typographical and organisational skills, photoshop, illustrator etc would be a bonus.”

Junior mac operator

“At least 3 years experience, enthusiastic, loves type, doesn’t want to be a designer, willing to listen and learn.”

The Foundry has an strong list of clients including Scholl and Scottish & Newcastle and is home to some of the most talented people I have ever met, who produce consistently great work. It routinely outdoes agencies much larger than itself.

The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed with a hard working team spirit, and you can’t ask for much more than that. I’ve happily worked here for over four years.

If this sounds good to you, you can either contact me or contact The Foundry directly.

Disclosure: There is a bonus for any employee that is instrumental in filling these positions. If you contact The Foundry directly, please do me the courtesy of stating that you found out about them here.

The long-overdue redesigned iMac is here. I like the design, based on what I’ve seen in pictures. Once again Jonathan Ive has come up with the goods.

I’ll be out to buy a new Mac when Mac OS X Leopard is released in October, so I was curious to see what these would be like. Now that I know, I’m a little surprised (disappointed, even) by what I see:

(It’s too big)

I’d like to know how sales of the previous iMac split between the 17, 20 and 24 inch models. I like my 17 inch iMac G5 – it feels exactly the right size for my desk. I don’t want anything bigger in my bedroom, and it isn’t for want of space…

When I first got the iMac, my only complaint about it was that since I’d upgraded to it from an iBook, the loss of freedom hurt. I’d gotten used to using my computer where ever I wanted. A desktop felt like a ball and chain.

I occasionally take the MacBook Pro I use at work home, and I’ve re-discovered surfing the web while lying on my bed. Working at my dining room table while my sound system plays music far better than an iMac’s puny little speakers could.

I’m not sure a new iMac is the answer for me. I’ll have to check one out in the flesh.

Oh yes, there is one more thing… Glossy?!?

[Update] I’ve seen one now at the local Apple Store. It doesn’t look as big as I expected. The black border around the screen helps it to feel smaller.