Monthly Archive for July, 2009

Indy Gaming & Destroying a Platform

Published on 11 July 2009 in gaming, information media and Tech Labours. 0 Comments

This post started off as a comparison of two of the most prominent methods of indy game distribution on the web today – app stores & social networks – but has morphed into something of a warning shot to platforms who allow their open networks to be ridden roughshot over by games ruthlessly seeking distribution above all else.

I had hoped to discuss some numbers taking both leading Facebook & App Store games as a jumping off point. But one look at my Twitter homepage this morning aroused some angst.

To their credit the realtime stream networks have opened up their far-reaching update networks to 3rd party developers without holding much back. Photos on facebook and throttling search on twitter are by and large minor holdups which would presumably have grave performance issues to overcome first anyway.

But this power in the hands of developers doesn’t come without responsibilities.

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Friday Linkdump

Published on 10 July 2009 in linkdump. 0 Comments

notification adverts
not really a fan of this from a ux pov, wonder what general feedback is

better than paypal for micropayments?

facebook cpc click fraud controversy – reading the WickedFire board was fun

cool tool

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Double Dip Redux

Published on 8 July 2009 in Financial Markets. 2 Comments

Things are idling along at the moment. But it’ll take jobs to move markets from here. Perceived wisdom sees the job report as a trailing indicator, assuming the count will pick up as companies get back to selling.

Like most financial models, this is fine when in median times. We’re not in that comfort zone yet.

So what happens when a historical anomaly upsets the apple cart? Who knows. We could compare it to the Great Depression, but it would be incorrect not to point out the massive government intervention poured into the economy this time round has not skewed realities somewhat. This may still, somehow & unbelieveably, work out. Upbeat future guidance is an interesting quirk of a variable to be gauged over the coming earnings season.

Massive and sustained job losses will stop a recovery. Governments have already thrown everything we’ve got at it. We are not immune to what may turn out to be government mismanagement. Future growth has been mortgaged in this respect.

So if things do go the way of the early 30s – the development of a 2nd dip – the warning sign to watch will be more job reports like those of last week.

Step by Step Guide to Creating a First Facebook App

Published on 5 July 2009 in Facebook and Tech Labours. 46 Comments

I’ve seen some how-to guides for getting started writing facebook apps on the web but none really cover everything from start to finish. Even Facebook’s own documentation is somewhat disappointing. So to help others find their way around Facebook markup and the life cycle of a Facebook application here is a simple tutorial.It is a very basic app which aims to display a web image of the user’s choice a) in miniature on their profile, and b) in full on the application’s own canvas page. What is a canvas page? Simply the main page of your application that the user sees each time they click on your app.

Prereqs:
What you’ll need – an account on Facebook and a web hosting provider who will run php scripts and allows you to set up a database. I use mysql in this guide, but you can safely leave out the db steps if all you want to learn is the facebook-specific work flow stuff.
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