Gareth Hughes > Blog

Virtual Planisphere

This is a project which I completed last year was to recreate an existing flash application using more modern web technologies. The application is for The Open University and is now live at http://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/physics-and-astronomy/astronomy/virtual-planisphere.

I was allowed to define the solution and technologies for this so I went for SVG. Originally I was going to develop just the Planisphere map section as SVG and the rest as Html and they could just iFrame in the whole thing but I decided pretty early on to make the entire thing one interactive SVG file. The images and data sources has to be reverse engineered and made to work in the new SVG version.

While I had some SVG experience this was the first commercial application I was creating with it. The final result came out well, it was supposed to look the same as the existing flash application hence the slightly retro design.

The difficulties were finding a way to create a printable version which works cross browser, Firefox being the most difficult to achieve, and dealing with the loading of potentially large image files. All in all a pretty successful project with 0 issues being raised from UAT.

This is the current live version running directly from the OU website (warning, fairly large images)

Do it with Zest

Another project completed, the brief was to develop a touch based quiz/competition for Zest. The idea was to develop a smooth web application that runs in IE10 and on iPads (Screenshots from the iPad version) with a lot of focus on the animations. After playing a short advertisement the users are prompted to answer several random questions before being given a score and then being asked to enter their contact details. The application is to run at festivals on a 1080p touch screen to gather contact details and was delivered in a very short timeframe.

The application was developed using HTML, JavaScript and CSS, the iPad version was created by scaling down the height and width then wrapping it in PhoneGap. It advantage of the excellent rendering speed of iOS and IE10. IE10 seeming to have by far the best rendering of the current browsers for CSS transitions and animations.. Application Cache is also used to make sure the application works in remote areas and the data can be collected later via an admin interface.

Technologies Used

• CSS Animations/Transitions/Keyframes
• HTML5 Video
• Touch Events
• Application Cache (Cache manifest)
• PhoneGap

Sydney Cycling

Now into month 3 in my year travelling currently working at ninemsn in Sydney CBD. I bought myself a new bike, a Trek Wahoo, which is a pretty good entry level bike. The plan is to cycle to work to save a little money and get a lot fitter. Managed it twice so far as well as 40km route to the Olympic Park and back. Cycling through the centre of Sydney was definitely an experience...

Inevitably it ended like this, and my bike needs a bit of attention too... Oops

Australia Month 2

Just about finished my second month in Australia. I was in Melbourne for the opening GP of the Formula 1 season and it was fantastic. I will definitely be going to more of them. Silverstone and Suzuka are high on the list right now.

I spent 5 days in Melbourne for the F1 and to do a little exploring other than that I've spent nearly all of my time in Sydney, after returning from Melbourne I went into Big Hostel while looking to start work. I've ventured north a couple of times to visit Newcastle with some people from Big Hostel and recently to a National Park to feed the wildlife which was amazing.

Probably shouldn't have given them pizza...

Other than that it’s been a few weeks of trying to get back into a normal routine. I started my new job at Ninemsn and moved into a shared house, taking a bit of getting used to, I’ve had my own place since I left Uni. My contract is for the next 6 months, after that I plan to do some more travelling. I would like to go to New Zealand and possibly Japan.

As far as personal projects go I’ve done a little maintenance on this site but very little else. I’m hoping to pick up the game development stuff again in the near future. I also have some potentially interesting freelance work coming up soon.

The work I did for the Open University recently went live too which is great. A purely SVG learning tool based on some legacy flash, one of the more interesting projects I've had in the last few years. Virtual Planisphere. I may write a more detailed blog post about this in future.

Sydney

I've now been in Sydney for over 2 weeks and starting the job search. Next week I'll be flying over to Melbourne for the opening GP of the 2013 Formula 1 season which I am really looking forward to. I think I'm finally getting used to this flying thing too.

Right now I’m staying at a hostel called Elephant Backpacker, it’s quite… shitty. I’m also booked in a hostel for the GP in Melbourne, what happens after that is still undecided, it depends on the work situation. I’m writing this sat in the State Library of NSW (it has free wifi) and relaxing in the sun.

While I'm absolutely loving it in Sydney I was not prepared for the cost of things here, things are crazy expensive. I do love the Sushi rolls here, I will be mostly living on these until I find a job. I'm hoping to find something in the next couple of weeks or at least get some interviews lined up. Luckily for me there seems to be a lot of Front End Developer roles available which is something I feel very suited for.

So far in Sydney we've been doing mostly touristy stuff, Bondi and Manly beaches, Sydney Zoo, Aquarium, Tower eye etc which has been great and a lot of fun. Also went for a hike in the Blue Mountains, went to see the Three Sisters and did a short hike in Birdwood Gully which was quite secluded.