So my prediction is that in the future there will be one of these in most homes.

Today I read about CSS3 animations with great interest, “Wow Roger have you turned pure-geek over the Christmas holidays?” you may ask.

Well, no, in fact I think as the technology develops I understand less and less about its intricacies but as they say you don’t have to understand how electricity works to use a light switch so I continue to be interested in developments on the web without having to worry about exactly how it works.

So why are CSS3 Animations of such interest?

Well I liken this development to the time when the accountants were first shown spreadsheets and marvelled at how they could automatically recalculate huge amounts of numbers by just changing a single value, they were astounded.

CSS3 Animations have the potential to be as astounding as demonstrated in this article by DWUser.

This tutorial animates a little scene of a wind turbine and clouds using only CSS3 animations. Although it’s only supported by the most recent browsers it offers endless possibilities  and this time next year there will thousands of websites using this technology as we move towards the future where each website has the potential to become a complete media publishing channel, like a TV station.

Previously to create an animation such as this on a webpage you would have had to create hundreds of lines of code but this animation is made up of only around 100 or so lines of code.

What’s more, if you were the client for who this masterpiece had been created and you then said, “yeah that’s great but can you make the clouds go slower?” the developers would have slowly pulled their hair out and said yes under duress, and gone away and re-coded the entire thing and come back a week later to proudly show you the latest production.

The client might have then said “Great, but can the big cloud move more slowly than the the others?” at which point the developer would have pinned the client up against the wall by the throat and explained quit clearly that if that wasn’t in the original spec then they will have top pay for the extra development, etc, etc.

However, with this CSS3 animation code, you can actually change the speed of the big cloud by changing just 1 number, the medium sized cloud by chanign another number, etc, etc, all within the 100 or so lines of code.

If you want to have some fun and pretend for a moment you are a programmer, visit the code page at http://jsbin.com/etises/55/edit

To change the speed of the big cloud, find the line that says

.lrg {

and assuming you are using Google Chrome browser change the number in the line that says

-webkit-animation-duration: 50s;

so it contains the number of your choice and see what happens.

This is the future of animation on the web and if you are a young person looking to get into this line of work you could do a lot worse than start learning this stuff. In comparison to what you would have had to learn ten years ago it’s easy, if you do learn it, and keep learning it, ten years from now you’ll be amongst the most talented web developers in the business!

If you’ve got a CSS3 animation requirement then get in touch as fortunately I have guys that are already amongst the most talented web developers in the business that can help you with this!

So if you REALLY want to know what the world will be like when we’re all cyborged-up with our Google Glasses (Other Augmented Reality Systems May be Available) then check out this video, it is hilarious, well it tickled me anyway!

One of the things I wanted to introduce on this version is the QR image, that is the Quick Reference 3d barcode that you might have noticed springing up in various places like posters, BBM instant messaging, mobile website adverts and all sorts of places. Recently they announced they are to even introduce an invisible version to US bank notes to help prevent counterfeiting.

So having looked at various examples one of the things I realised is that most QR’s are being vastly underused. By that I mean the majority are not taking full advantage of the maximum amount of information that they are capable of containing, some just being used to contain a single web address, that’s a bit of a waste in my book!

So having tested a QR generator that can make a QR containing ALL of the contact details found on my business card, I then wanted to see if there were any customisation options. You may have seen or heard the phrase ‘QR Art’ which looks to push the fault tolerance to the max by creating all sorts of weird and wonderful QRs, some have even gone so far as to not even be recognisable as actually being QRs, so I decided that was past what I wanted (and anyway the firm I contacted about customing my QR never got back to me, fail!)

So, I decided on a simple insertion of the www acronym within the QR combined with a change of colour to match our company logo orange and voilà our custom QR was born!

If you have a QR scanner please let me know if it for any reason it doesn’t scan for you. I must however highly recommend the i-nigma QR scanner which is so good you barely have to show it a QR and it grabs the data instantly it is amazing, you can even grab QRs off screens and tiny printed ones too, that all work when other scanners might not work.

Of course if you would like help setting up your own QR’s then just get in touch and I can point you in the right direction. More interestingly our printer is also offering a facility exclusively to our clients where you can have a free print on demand web service that once set up will let you update your QR’s and other data in your artworks for each batch of cards or other printouts (normally reserved for larger clients who regularly want to change menus and that kind of thing). Contact me if you would like more details about this exclusive offer on 0115 822 4546 or just scan the QR of course!

So here is the official Google Glass page (apparently its singular not Google Glasses but Glass)

I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about a technology. The ipad maybe? Nah. Music sharing sites perhaps? Well maybe. Super fast broadband? No. Video conferencing? Well kind off. Watching my first email and attachment get delivered? Yes I suppose so. Loading up my first ever web page on Compuserve? Yeah, almost. This one is a real game changer though.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+projectglass/posts

If you’ve got a pair, tell me all about them please!

Here is a quick follow up post, I’m not sure if this video comes before or after the one above, but it is a cool intro to Google Glasses, or is it going to be called Google Eye now?

Hi there, my name is Roger and from about age 10 I used to do a lot of windsurfing. Back when I was 14 (1984) I drilled a hole in one of my old skateboards and fitted a windsurfer sail to it, and the landsurfer was born!

I used to take it out on one of the country roads that runs along the top of a hill near my house which had great wind, I will never forget the look on that old couples face as they drove round the corner to find a 14 year old boy windsurfing towards them! ha ha priceless.

Anyway, some 25 years later I decided to revisit my youth, bought a mountain board and fitted my windsurfer sail to it and took it up to the old aerodrome, awesome.

However, now 5 yeas on I am offering for sale my under used land surfer as I really don’t have time to get out on it any more like I used to as these days I am just focussing on my retirement, and that means focussing on my business, so the Land Surfer really doesn’t get a look in any more!

Here are a couple of pictures and videos of it in action.

If you are a keen windsurfer and have access to a large tarmac area you can have hours of fun on it and you wont even get wet!

Please contact me using the form below if you would like to have a go on it with a view to giving it a good home, I am in Nottingham.

To view the video larger then you can click here

Price includes mountain board and rig, plus optional foot straps which I took off.

£199 Or Near Offer

18-09-12 Sorry but the Land Surfer is now SOLD