Friday, April 15, 2011

Steven Sasson - Inventor of the Digital Camera in 1975

Check out the modular storage solution:

Inventor Portrait: Steven Sasson from David Friedman on Vimeo.

SOURCE:
http://www.broadsheet.ie/2011/04/15/we-owe-him-so-much/

What 8 Bit Video games Can Teach Us About Usability

Great article over on spyrestudios about the usability techniques that the 80's video games of our childhood employed, within the constraints of limited resources:

  • Use lack of colour to create atmosphere - Super Metroid
  • Use vibrant colours and shapes to convey futuristic themes - Mega Man 3
  • Use unconventional concepts to capture the imagination of the user - Super Mario 2
  • Use colour to convey status changes - Mega Man 3, Super Mario
  • Define a clear pathway of how the user progresses through the system - Super Mario

See the SOURCE link below for the full article.



SOURCE:
http://spyrestudios.com/what-8-bit-video-games-can-teach-us-about-design-and-ux/

Monday, April 11, 2011

ASP.NET CheckboxList Validation with RequiredFieldValidator

In order to use a RequiredFieldValidator with a CheckBoxList, you need to define your own CheckBoxList class that inherits from CheckBoxList , but also implements a ValidationPropertyAttribute  method:


    [ValidationPropertyAttribute("ValidateableProperty")]
    public class ValidateableCheckBoxList : CheckBoxList
    {
 
        public string ValidateableProperty
        {
            get
            {
                string result = "";
                int count = 0;
                foreach (ListItem item in this.Items)
                {
                    if (item.Selected)
                    {
                        count++;
                    }
 
                }
                if (count > 0)
                {
                    result = count.ToString();
                }
                else
                {
                    result = "";
                }
                return result;
            }
        }
    }


You can then create a ValidateableCheckBoxList and point a required validator's controlToValidate attribute to it.

SOURCE:
http://pedroliska.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/getting-an-asp-net-checkboxlist-to-work-with-a-requiredfieldvalidator/

Saturday, April 9, 2011

New Shock Wave Generation Hybrid Engine



The engine has a rotor that’s equipped with wave-like channels that trap and mix oxygen and fuel as the rotor spins. These central inlets are blocked off, building pressure within the chamber, causing a shock wave that ignites the compressed air and fuel to transmit energy.

SOURCE:
http://derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/2011/04/engine-sends-shock-waves-auto-industry/