July 27, 2015 · 11:07 am

Book Review: The Devil’s Star, Jo Nesbo

The Devil's StarThis is another Harry Hole thriller from Jo Nesbo. There’s a clear chronological order to the books in this series – this one is the fifth and comes after his partner Ellen has been murdered. Harry is pitched against his nemesis Tom Waaler in an investigation into another serial killer.

As well as the excitement of the plot, Nesbo graphically depicts Harry’s fall into alcoholism as it threatens to destroy his relationship with Raquel and his career. The good news, though, is that this book isn’t as grisly as some of his other works.
Four stars

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June 25, 2015 · 5:27 pm

Video: Introducing WatchKit OS2

Catching up with this Intro to WatchKit OS2.  I found the following points interesting:

  • ClockKit has templates for watch kit complications, matching the different shapes and sizes available on the various watch faces
  • Complications should be immediately up to date when viewed, so watch kit allows you to bulk upload e.g. a timeline for a calendar widget that changes during the day.
  • Watch connectivity allows data sharing between phone and watch
  • CoreMotion, CoreLocation, MapKit and HealthKit APIs are available on the Watch

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June 23, 2015 · 8:35 pm

Video: Designing for Apple Watch

I watched this excellent video about Designing for Apple Watch from WWDC.  Some interesting take-aways:

  • Interaction with the watch is expected to be 5 seconds.  Any longer, you should steer the user towards the iPhone (e.g. via hand-off).
  • Notifications on the watch are much more noticeable, so should be kept to a minimum
  • The force-touch provides a context-sensitive menu whichever screen the user is on.  Although it’s less discoverable, it avoids the need for multiple swipes to reach an action screen.
  • The watch has a bezel!  But it’s only visible if your app doesn’t have a black background.  Interestingly, one of their recommend Apps, Toby (a cute dog) has a blue background that breaks Apple’s own guidelines.
  • Their are guidelines for the haptic/auditory feedback for events such as Notification, Up, Down, Success, Failure, Retry, Start, Stop, Click.  For consistency, Apple need *every* developer to use the right effect with the right event – otherwise, users won’t intuitively know the meaning across different App contexts.
  • The click event is interesting – it gives granularity to adjustments, but could easily be over-played – so it’s recommend to exercise restraint.
  • There are templates for glances – and they should “deep link” to the main App for more information.  Again, consistency of layout between the glances for different Apps is important to the continuity of experience for users.
  • Sessions are available for longer interaction with a watch app, intended for fitness apps (e.g. a period in the gym). Yet again, it’s easy to see App developers over-using this feature to avoid the watch returning to the time screen.

Much relies on Apple policing these guidelines, which could be a lot of work.

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June 21, 2015 · 6:44 am

Swift: Tutorial

swiftHaving recently purchased an Apple Watch, I’ve decided to learn Swift so that I can write a couple of Apps. So far, I’ve been very impressed with the language.

Here’s the link to the tutorial.

However, I’m completely bemused by the rules for named parameters. Unlike in F#, which optionally supports named parameters in calls to function if you want to use them, Swift 2.0 enforces that you must use them (except where you mustn’t, like the first parameter in the call). Seriously? I understand that, for functions with multiple parameters of the same type, it can be helpful to name the parameters – but making that a requirement on every call will seriously reduce productivity.  And what about refactoring – if I change the name of a parameter, will I have to change its name at all call sites as well?

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June 21, 2015 · 6:21 am

Book Review: The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly

TheLincolnLawyerThe story stars Mickey Haller, a defence attorney with a complicated personal life (he has two ex-wives and a daughter). In this story, he has an innocent client – the question is, which of his clients is it, the highly privileged real estate broker, or the Mexican against whom there is cast-iron evidence? There’s also a nasty shock for his investigator, Raul Levin.

I picked up this novel having enjoyed the excellent film starring Michael McConaughey – I think the book is just as good.

Four stars

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June 4, 2015 · 1:30 pm

Book Review: The Target, David Baldacci

The Target by David BaldacciThis is the first book by David Baldacci that I’ve read in a while. I enjoyed the early books in his King and Maxwell series, but thought they tailed off by the end. This book features CIA agents Will Robie and Jessica Reel, who have a tainted past with the agency, but are still at the top of their game. The real star of the book is a North Korean agent, Cha Chung, who has unmatched combat skills and an unshakeable character in the face of adversity.

This is a decent read and I may track down the earlier books in the Robie series, particularly The Hit which comes before this one.
Three and a half stars

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June 4, 2015 · 12:16 pm

C++: std::make_array (N4315)

I read in May 2015’s CVU that there’s a proposal for std::make_array, a utility method in the same family as std::make_tuple and std::make_pair.

This would be a useful shorthand:

// Existing usage
std::array<double, 3> a = { 1.1, 2.2, 3.3 };

// Proposed usage
auto a = std::make_array( 1.1, 2.2, 3.3 };

The obvious benefit is that you would no longer need to specify the number of elements in the array, making the code more maintainable.

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May 14, 2015 · 8:43 am

Flash Crash – Mystery trader charged

Here Is The City reports that a trader has been charged with fraud and market manipulation related to the Flash Crash of May 2010.

This story has been featured heavily in the press, particularly because the trader himself is so different to the usual trader stereotype (he lives in a pretty ordinary semi-detached house despite being worth £millions). He also protests his innocence and believes he was just good at his job.

I wonder if this guy will be the next subject of a block-buster Michael Lewis book?

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May 14, 2015 · 8:35 am

Book Review: The Quest, Nelson DeMille

TheQuestI’ve written before that DeMille has written several one-off books which are terrific, as well as his John Corey series. This book is another one-off, introducing Frank Purcell, Henry Mercado and Vivian Smith. They are journalists/photographer following the war in Ethiopia in the 1970’s, and this book follows their quest to find the Holy Grail after it’s existence is revealed to them by a dying priest.

The story behind the book is itself fascinating – apparently, DeMille wrote it as a contemporary novel early in this career, but decided to re-write and re-publish it in 2013. The narrative is unmistakably by his hand, and there’s more than a hint of the character of John Corey in Frank Purcell. I’d be interested to know whether the original book had Purcell enjoying the same sense of humour or if that’s part of the re-write.

As with other DeMille books, this one is a book to relish rather than a page-turning thriller. It’s about enjoying the journey – and that seems appropriate for a book called The Quest.
Four stars

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May 14, 2015 · 8:21 am

Book Review: Foundation Trilogy, Isaac Asimov

FoundationTrilogy
Having read several other books set against the background of the Foundation saga, I decided to go back and read the original books. I was impressed by the pace with which Asimov tells the stories – where David Brin’s sequel is 430 pages, each volume in Asimov’s trilogy is about 230 pages. Yet none of the passages in Asimov’s books feels rushed – it’s just that he tells a part of the story in beautiful prose, then moves swiftly on to another period/place. The gaps that he leaves give other authors the space to fill in their own stories, which is how the sequel trilogy fits in. In fact, I enjoyed Asimov’s trilogy much more this time having recently read the others.
Five Stars

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