Roger Binns — Fri 08 June 2012

When an Android app gets installed via the Android Market/Play Store/Finsky it gets told who the referrer was that resulted in the install. This is very helpful for app publishers since they then know who to credit (or blame).

Unfortunately testing this as a developer is quite difficult. It would be impractical to round trip each development build through the market/store, so the next best resort is a way of simulating the behaviour.

Enter referraltester, an open source app written by giago which does that simulation. However it turned out not be accurate, and also had a few usability quirks, so I have scratched the itch and produced an enhanced version at the github link below which includes a list of all the changes and enhancements.

The developer at Google who decided to only call one broadcast receiver despite the platform default behaviour being to call of them owes me many hours of my life back.

Category: gplus – Tags: android

Roger Binns — Sun 27 May 2012

For the racing fans - A somewhat melodramatic film about Audi's 2011 Le Mans race, narrated by Jason Statham.

Category: gplus – Tags: f1

Roger Binns — Tue 22 May 2012

It is interesting to see how various online services react to multiple user accounts. This is especially important when you keep your work and personal data and life separate. Consider what email address is attached to an account, where messages containing data are sent, and what happens when people move on.

For example I have 3 Google accounts, one personal and two for two different startups. Google has done a pretty good job - you can login to all 3 in the web interface and switch between them as needed. Some of their products don't work (eg Analytics) but the most commonly used ones do.

On Android you can register all your accounts with the system and on the whole things work well, although G+ doesn't support multiple accounts. Google's apps on iOS don't seem to have multiple user support at all.

I'm currently dealing with Dropbox who seem completely oblivious to the problem. Their support is comical over the issue, and they will lose a paying customer the moment Google Drive works on Linux. Trello is a great tool, but it too suffers from the only one account problem.

For those of us implementing online services this is another thing to make sure we get right.

Category: gplus

Roger Binns — Fri 27 April 2012

I'm now a member of the 1%. By that I mean the 1% of Android folk who are running the latest version (ICS/4.0). Doing Android development means that on my desk there are 5 devices running 1.6, 2.2, 2.3, 3.2 and 4.0.

The phone is nice with my first reaction being "holy cow that is big". It is probably only as big in my hands as regular phones are for other people not as tall as me (I'm apparently in the 1% for height too).

Google happily restored my usual apps which turned out to be a half gigabyte download with various random inclusions and omissions. Unfortunately they don't restore the position in the launcher (I like the left most screen to have games, the next one developer tools, the middle one things I use most, right one Google apps etc). Widgets aren't restored either. On my tablet the main screen has a widget "Problem loading widget". It was important enough to put on the home screen, I don't remember what it was, don't want to delete it but haven't spent the time to work out what the widget actually was.

The Android market happily shows every app I have every installed, including those I tried once and didn't like. If only it had some way that I could only show those I've used or rated or some similar way of filtering out the junk.

Category: gplus – Tags: android

Roger Binns — Mon 23 April 2012

I finally have a solution for the number one problem affecting the USA. That of course is the continued lack of adoption of the metric system, with a small side order of "use 24 hour clocks".

The solution is mandatory service in the military or NASA as picked by the people affected. Both organisations use metric and 24 hour clocks, so the blight of imperial units can finally be wiped out (and I no longer have to ask "which 8 o'clock did you mean?").

There are other benefits. It will help alleviate the high new- graduate unemployment rate, help more people understand the budget spending (~20% goes on military, ~0.5% on NASA), get more youth to vote since they will be affected by politics, wars, science etc and finally help with education since kids will know they need to prepare for their choice. A flawless plan!

Category: gplus – Tags: humour, metric

Roger Binns — Mon 23 April 2012

Another fantastic talk by Neil deGrasse Tyson. The passion is amazing and the message is spot on. I really wish everyone on the planet could see this. (His talk starts 6 minutes in.)

Category: gplus – Tags: space, neil degrasse tyson

Roger Binns — Fri 20 April 2012

Flowers, mammals and the ocean

An afternoon in the Santa Cruz area

Category: gplus – Tags: santa cruz, photos

Roger Binns — Wed 04 April 2012

There is QuickOffice app on Android (it comes preinstalled on some, and is also available on other platforms). Be aware that if you use its cloud storage functionality that an access token is sent to one of their servers which then accesses the actual cloud server (Google Docs, Dropbox etc). This is not disclosed in any way.

What it means is that when their servers get hacked, the hackers will have full access to any storage you provided the credentials for. For all you know, they already do.

I've been back and forth with their support, with their latest statement being this nonsense: "However, I've been told that we are doing our cloud storage access in a very secure way, even more secure than accessing same cloud storage via web browser or native application."

Be afraid, very afraid.

Category: gplus – Tags: android

Roger Binns — Thu 29 March 2012

Refuse to be terrorized. Do not let your own government amplify the very little the terrorists did in the first place.

Category: gplus

Roger Binns — Mon 19 March 2012

Not for the arachnophobes. See also http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/03/pictures/110331 -pakistan-flood-spider-trees-webs/

Category: gplus