According to TVTropes.org, sometimes a moral leaves no room for subtlety.

Widely considered a sci-fi classic, it has never been out of print since its publishing in 1960.

• Flash is buggy and unsecure.
• Flash is CPU intensive, which will hurt battery life.
• Flash is only good for frivolous purposes.
• HTML5 video is the future, not Flash video.
• Standards compliant design is best.

Flash is buggy and unsecure.

Flash is indeed unsecure. It has a pretty good history of exploitable vulnerabilities that allow a malicious user to hijack your browser. It is also buggy outside of security concerns, at least according to Apple. After all, they claim the vast majority of Safari crashes are due to the Flash Player plugin. Because Apple, who has publicly stated that they do not plan to ever support Flash on the iPhone, and wants to minimize its use as a web platform, would never lie, right? After all, they've specifically engineered later versions of Safari to isolate the Flash plugin so it won't crash your browser. Except it doesn't work. On three different computers, and three different versions of the Mac OS, I have never seen this work. I have, however seen plenty of Safari crash reports, which blame the Flash plugin... even when I'm not on a page that uses Flash. But Apple would never lie. As far as security? The biggest danger for web users is malicious Javascript, URL masking and plain old human engineering and phishing. The Flash player doesn't help or hinder either of those.

Flash is CPU intensive, which hurts battery life.

Watching a video on Hulu will use about 80% of one CPU core's cycles. This is higher than iTunes, VLC, or most other video players. The gap is significantly lower on a Windows PC. Why? Microsoft has allowed the Windows plugin architecture to have hardware-level access for video rendering, and in general higher performance. Apple? Not so much.

Should this matter to you? Nope. Why?

We're assuming that Apple and Adobe wouldn't work together to optimize the player pretty heavily. We're also pretending the iPhone users don't do anything else CPU intensive on their phone. Like utilize a 3G internet connection. Or watching video. Or playing a game. No one who uses an iPhone would ever do that, right? Of course, if you had to play every Flash banner you came across, it probably would be a problem. But, I have a solution for that (to be revealed later).

Flash is only good for frivolous purposes.

Facebook games. Marketing sites. Banner ads. Video and animation. Are those really frivolous? How many millions of people play games on Facebook? How many websites use Flash when HTML can't meet their demands? How many sites are free only because of banner advertising? Sites like Hulu.com are frivolous? No, those are big damn business. If they weren't, why are the canvas and video elements such large main draws of HTML5?

HTML5 video is the future.

Sure. Probably. Except the future isn't now. That's why it's the future. The powers that be still can't decide on which format to support, and Microsoft is off doing its own thing. So if you still want the widest user base for your video with a single format, use Flash. What about mobile users? Well, considering that's only a couple percent, at most, of your browsing audience (and they're apparently so concerned about battery life, they wouldn't dare use a 3G connection to stream a video).

You may have seen the Sublime video player. It uses only the HTML5 video element and Javascript. So, you get all the benefits of a Hulu-like interface, with the lower CPU usage and smoother operation of native video. Except you don't. As stated above, Hulu uses about 80% of one processor core on my computer. Sublime? 165%. 165% worth of stuttering interface animations, dropped frames, and general "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU PROUD OF THIS" anger. All this does is remind how bad Safari's Javascript performance is.

Standards compliant design is the best

Actually, I won't argue that point. For all of my complaining about Blue Beanie day, or big talk from people who design Wordpress templates, or think a "redesign" is a change in background color, standards are what have saved us from the dark days of Netscape and IE. But sometimes the standards fall short. And that's where plugins come in.

The Solution

Implement a version of ClickToFlash. There you go. Allow the option to play Flash content, but always default to the static content. Like the current Safari Mobile setup, nothing runs in the background. Sure, some things won't work right (there's no “mouse detection,” for one), but the content will be accessible.

I don't mean to be entirely unsympathetic to Apple. Flash has been abused in the past. It will use more CPU than a static page. And it completely subverts the iTunes/App Store model of getting music and video onto your phone. But I think it should be allowed eventually. Why?

The iPad. Aside from being marketed to geeks, it's an excellent replacement for a computer for a parent or grandparent with limited computer literacy. A direct input method for those that are confused by a mouse. Simple, limited interaction. Only one task at a time. A limited ecosystem for app installation.

You're thinking that sounds like an excellent case for NOT using Flash, right? Wrong. These are the people who aren't going to understand why Hulu doesn't work, or Farmville won't load. All they will know is that something is broken - and they won't want to download an App for that.

I finally finished my fictional redesign of X-Plane for the iPhone. My first effort wasn't bad, but it was little more than a reskin. As I thought about it further, I thought of changes to both the controls and the organization of the app itself that would dramatically improve it.

As I stated last time - I do not have any connection with any X-Plane project. This is not something you should expect to see coming to the app anytime soon. This is just a design exercise.

The first thing the user sees is the intro screen. This is cleaned, even beyond what I initially designed. I feel this artwork gives the user a sense of freedom and space that the previous attempt doesn't. On a practical side, by not showing an actual photo of an aircraft, it saves a headache on licensing.

The pause screen has been further simplified by reducing the number of icons. You know see only 5 icons - Interior view, external view, map view, settings and help.

The flight controls have been simplified. The throttle remains a slider, but the elevator trim, flaps, and spoilers have been changed to position indicators, as their interaction and control has changed.

As stated, the throttle is a simple slider. One problem with such controls is that the user can cover the sliding mechanism with their finger or thumb, creating a imprecise control. Doubling the width of the slider when active makes it easier to see, while preventing clutter when idle.

Currently, the elevator trim adjustment (nose up/down control which removes the need for constant elevator input) is a slider. This isn't necessarily realistic. Many aircraft use either a wheel which one spins up (or down), or a switch (with up/off/down) positions. A better interaction is to press the control to active it, then drag your finger up or down, without letting go. Until you let go, the trim control continues to move.

Likewise, a slider is not necessarily the best model for flaps interaction. Most aircraft use either a up/off/down switch, or a slider with preset detents. Flight simulators have generally used a button based approach which moves the flaps up or down one notch at a time. A slider doesn't account for these because in the case of modern airliners, the initial detents may be at as little as 1 or 2 degrees. A better approach is to press on the control to activate it, then flick up or down to raise or lower the flaps a single notch. As long as the control stays active for a moment after releasing the flick, the user could easily raise or lower the flaps in a hurry.

The spoilers have a similar control mechanism to flaps in real life, and can be controlled the same way here.

In the current iPhone version of X-Plane, the user views the instrument panel by tapping an on-screen button which appears in the top-center of the screen. To reduce on-screen clutter, the user could simple swipe a finger to move the view down to view the instruments. To make the radios easier to manipulate, I have placed them on their own screen to allow room for larger controls.

One of the issues I pointed out in my previous redesign was the difficulty in understanding what the different view buttons did. I stuck with my previous solution of text-based descriptions. I also set View Flight Model as a checkbox, since it should be visible with any of the external views.

The options menu has been redesign to a more standard iPhone look. Tapping the Options tab will always return you to this screen. Tapping the Close button will close the Options screen and return you to the pause screen.

Similar to how Yahoo combines breadcrumbs and tabs to organize their TV content, I am using tabs to organize the options sub-menus. There's a definite advantage, particularly as you go through the multi-step process of choosing a new airport to fly too/from.

Here, you can swipe left or right to change your region.

All tower controlled airports would be shown in the scrollable list - the user could also choose an airport by tapping it on the map. Right now, you can only choose from a couple airports in any given area.

Here you can choose from any runway at your airport, and whether you want to take off from it, or land at it.

You can select your aircraft in the same style as the region selection menu. In a significant addition to the current functionality, basic specs for the aircraft are listed, giving you a hint as to how individual aircraft will fly.

Time can be selected visually, or set to your phone's clock.

I combined the sky and the weather scrolling settings list with revised controls. This is both more familiar to iPhone users and gives more control. The option to download real-time weather has been available to iPhone users for several versions - and given the network connectivity of an iPhone, should be an option.

The weight and fuel controls have been streamlined to match the rest of the interface, and the user is now warned when exceeding the maximum weight for an aircraft.

The angle you hold your phone at can vary significantly depending on where you're using your phone. This functionality already exists in X-Plane (and most other games that rely on tilt controls), but I've made a point to streamline the appearance.

The iPhone version of X-Plane is fairly simple. But the purpose of the flight controls may not be clear to people who aren't well versed in aviation.

By tapping on a control, you can view a short description of what a control does, and how to control it, with animation. This is also generally educational - you can show a nervous seatmate what exactly is happening on landing when the flaps extend, and the wing appears to “come apart.”

But I had six Bank of America projects, one Merrill Lynch project, a Chrysler design study, and one bit of pitch work for Budweiser to add to my site, and now is as good a time as any. Check them out at danielboyle.net.

There are some interesting trends visible. With the exception of Dubai (OMDB), all of the airports are in the U.S., Western Europe, or Eastern Asia.

• The U.S. has the most airports on the list (nine).
• China has two (three if you count Hong Kong).
• Most of the airports are old – Hong Kong International Airport (VHHH), Suvarnnabhumi Airport (VBTS) and Guangzhou Baiyun (ZGGG) are the only airports under twenty years old. VHHH replaced an older airport (Hong Kong Kai Tak International Airport), leaving only two genuinely new airports on the list.
• This may reflect both the entrenchment of air travel in the developed world, and the increasing wealth and travel coming out of Asia.
• No airports in Central America, South America, Africa, or Australia are on the list.

Sources:
Travel Statistics: http://en.wikipedia.org Airport Information: http://en.wikipedia.org (Various Pages

Full size download available (2550x1650 uncompressed .png)

Note:
Some time has passed since I grabbed an incomplete listing of 2008 passenger totals from Wikipedia. Final numbers for 2008 have since been updated. This graphic has not been updated. Generally speaking, some airports have changed position, and passenger totals are significantly higher across the board. An updated graphic will come eventually

Fear is the mind killer.

Forget David Lynch's... unfortunate... failure. Forget anything Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson touched. Frank Herbert's grand epic (and thinly veiled metaphor for oil) still stands as one of the great literary achievements of science fiction, as well as one of its wierdest.

A Fremen stillsuit may lose only a thimbleful of water each day. A 190 lb. male body contains approximately 114 lb. of water, or 13.65 gallons. Assuming a thimble holds 1 tablespoon, or .004 gallons, this person would lose approximately .028% of their body's water each day in the open desert.

Of course, engineers are pretty sure the suit (as described in Herbert's novels) would end up cooking its wearer. That said, the series couldn't exist without stillsuits and the Fremen who wear them.

It's a fantasy series that has little to do with traditional high fantasy. The only true wizards are so unbelievably powerful, that they are never directly encountered. Kings and Queens wouldn't dare stoop to the level of congregating with mere mercenaries. Maybe because of these things, the world, and our specific group of 'heroes' seem all the more realistic. In fact, military veterans often remark that the book's portrayal of soldiers is among the most realistic of any fiction novel (fantasy setting excluded).

To this point, what if The Black Company was about groups of soldiers in modern-day Afghanistan? Burqas and bullets come together with Soulcatcher's skull mask in this re-imagining.

I love this game on the desktop, and starting up the mobile version and flying a couple approaches in a great timekiller. It feels remarkably similar to the desktop app, widely regarded as one of the most realistic flight simulations available. Unfortunately, it shares some UI design issues with desktop application.

To make things clear - I am not involved with the creation of X-Plane - that is Laminar Research. I'm a fan only. If you want to learn more, go to X-Plane.com.

If you want to learn more about the issues I have with the design of this App, and my solutions (and promise not to get mad/sue me if you're involved with the creation of this App), click the more button below.

Unfortunately, the desktop version still needs UI polish, and the iPhone version has its own set of problems to be ironed out.

Different versions of the iPhone app exist, with different focuses - airliners, extreme planes, general aviation, and others. The UI differs slightly, but the changes I've made to the airliner version would carry across.

The startup image is confusing. Is this a space simulator? It's re-used from the desktop version of X-Plane 9, but that doesn't make it any better.

A better option is to actually show a relevant aircraft. Some of the style was borrow from vintage airline ads.

The game starts off paused, which is good, but the information overload is bad.

Reducing the on-screen text to a minimum clears things up, and makes the purpose of the 'paused' state clear - to show the menu bar.

It's hard to tell what these menu buttons actually do. Some change the view, one brings up the options menu, and one pauses the game. This last option is strange - why not just pause the game when the menu is visible, since it takes time to decipher the buttons. In addition, 'pause' isn't really an option - just a game state. Why place it here?

We know from studies that iPhone users are trained to expect certain design choices - such as menubars along the top or bottom of a screen (and in a consistent location within an app). I've move the buttons to the bottom bar, and given them clearer purposes - HUD/forward view, instrument panel, external view, flight model view, options, and instructions. In the case of this screen, text descriptions for the external views are given to show their purpose.

Throt? Sbrk?

Illogical abbreviations don't help an already cluttered interface. There are some things we can remove, though. The speed and altitude tape can go, and the airspeed, Mach, altitude, and vertical speed condensed. Also, the slider controls get representative icons, and hints on the bar backgrounds themselves. The compass, VOR/ILS and gear/brake buttons have been cleaned up as well.

The instrument panel just doesn't work. I'd recommend pressing the knob you want to turn, then dragging up or right to increase the value or dragging down/left to decrease.

Selecting an airport is also a challenge. You only get a couple airports per region, and only a few runways per airport.

Instead, I think it's a better solution to break the selection process into steps - a scrollable list (with the movable map behind it) populated with all tower-controlled aiports, then allowing you to set your position on or approaching a runway.

Perfect? No. But it's an improvement on what is an incredibly fun iPhone App that just needs some polish in the UI department.

This was a great little toy to remind myself how to use PHP, MySQL, and teach myself some more uses for JQuery. The basic rules are fairly simple - if there's a group of cows on your side - add one to your total. If there's a cemetary, your cows die (your total becomes zero. Obviously, it requires honesty - the drive is at a huge disadvantage, and there's a gray area as to what constitutes a cow siting - one cow? A large herd? What if there are multiple groups? Do you only count right along the road, or off into the scenery? A little human intuition is neccesary, but the basic logic is pretty simple.

The great thing about JQuery (and other AJAX scripting libraries) is that it really simplifies building lightweight sites that still have rich interactions. This was doubly important, because I wanted it to work on my iPhone on a drive from New Jersey to North Carolina, then to Tennessee, and back. AT&T's 3G data connection is OK, but there's no need to push your luck if you're stuck on EDGE in the middle of nowhere (I believe that's an actual town you pass on I-81 in Virginia. If it's not, it should be. If saved a ton of time reload the entire page, and instead just making calls to and from a database.

I have one major bug fix - and it's the first user interaction you should check for - "Idiot Clicking." Essentially, you need to know what's going to happen when someone clicks a button 20 times in a row when the site freezes, or your data connection hangs because you went into a dead spot between some mountains. And, of course, this is the first thing my wife discovers. It's not a big deal - I simply need to disable the buttons and show a "working/please wait" message of some sort.

We also got creative with the rules (we were in the car for over 24 hours this weekend). You constantly pass rather large crosses on hills when you get out past the Mason-Dixon line. Should they count as something? Maybe, if you have no cows, you get some back from the dead. It would've helped me - every time I'd get close, I'd hit a graveyard. The closest my wife got was a monument of some sort. Do Chick-Fil-A billboards count? The cows aren't live, but they are pretty funny.

Once I fix it up, and secure it, maybe I'll put it live somewhere.