Sony have always dropped bombs at E3 with most of their biggest announcements being at this show. They have also shown a trend to release things within 24 hours of the announcement such as the video store which was released the very same night they enlighten us all.

With a lot new technology in the mix such as motion controls and 3D video games it will be a very dynamic press presentation. Like previous events it will most certainly be kitted out with the latest Sony tech, previous events have seen mega giant screens and a video wall made of hundreds of Sony Bravia TV’s. Following this trend I would like to see an array of 3D TV’s used for presentation – this is unlikely however as the Sony 3D TV’s are still a way of the market a more likely scenario is a range of their net TV’s in use, which leads nicely into my first prediction.

Social Networking

With Facebook and Twitter being added to PS3 games and the ability for the PS3 system to post updates about what you have purchased I would expect Sony to push this further especially since it ties in with their new Internet enabled TV’s.

I would expect these to be used as part of a large video wall, but with a few dedicated to live Twitter remarks maybe? However, since Sony is developing more and more Bravia apps for their TV’s I think Sony’s way forward with social networking is to blend these app’s into the PS3 for added functionality and consolidation – moreover these could easily be re-jigged for the PSP.

It is likely that an XMB update will occur and more of these features will be included, or at least the existing tools will be enhanced.

With Sony continuing to work closely with Google we may start seeing more location based services, or more enhancements to the Life With Playstation software. YouTube integration already seen in some games maybe enhanced also.

Unlikely to happen is for Twitter updates and Facebook chat to be built into the XMB, however not impossible since Facebook recently allowed this type of protocol transfer.

Games

With a strong first party lineup expect to hear some details about:

• Killzone 3
• Uncharted 3
• DC Universe Online
• Final Fantasy 13 Versus
• Final Fantasy 14 Online
• Gran Turismo 5 (and Gran Turismo TV)
• Media Molecule Sequel

Expect to see actual live footage of:

• Socom 4 (with motion controls)
• The Last Guardian
• inFamous 2
• The Agency

The way out there choices could be some old school reinvention

• Destruction Derby
• Lunar for PS3
• G-Police
• Poy Poy Online
• maybe even a space Sim such as Colony Wars

Are all vague possiblities however I would expect to see some well founded games in 3D

• Wipeout 3D (Wipeout Rush)
• Gran Turismo 5
• Uncharted 2 (already has a depth engine built in)

You can also be guaranteed to see many Move titles

• Generic Party Games
• Motion Fighter
• Resident Evil 5
• Little Big Planet Add-On

But since the motion controllers have triggers and they can be held up to the screen for one-to-one tracking, using two could nicely replicate a paddle shift gear box…

Sales and Number

Sony always like to start with sales and numbers to get this out of the way, so expect a lot of this at the start with pretty bar graphs and 3D modelled Playstations. However I would expect price reductions in the developer SDK’s for the 3D engine as it’s expensive at the moment.

Kept Quiet

The move system using the eye camera supports directional audio capture, and the move controllers work in the XMB according to the SDK documents when you enable debugging – however this has never been mentioned, why?

Do Sony plan to allow for some sort of minority report type interface with voice cue’s, or move supported applications – move browser anyone?

Would be nice, be still not likely

We all want cross-game voice chat, will we ever get it, most likely not. If we do it will be in the form of Skype.

Mobile phone support over blue-tooth would also be beneficial but even if Sony did bother with this it would most likely only work with Sony Ericsson phones.

Background patching, not likely due to limitations of memory when playing games, even with the recent increase.

Premium Service

With issues surrounding wallets on the PSN it is likely that Sony are getting ready for a premium service – maybe even with premium streaming TV channels…

All in all it will be a very interesting E3!

The Wii 2 hasn`t been officially announced and from what I can see is not really on the radar. This is backed up by this interview in Edge.

There is the fact that Microsoft and Sony are obviously looking to take marketshare off Nintendo (and each other) with there current developments. The PS3`s Move seems to be getting good feedback from early reviewers – saying how much more accurate it is then the Wii controller.

The Xbox 360`s Natal seems to be either shroweded in secrecy,

faked…..

…….or not working very well.

But I will give it the benefit of the doubt on that one. Time will tell when the final version is released. There also seems talk from Sony and games developers on releasing proper 3D games. Along with Move this could be awesome. So whats the current talk of Nintendo. Well they made a DS with a bigger screen (personally I think – if it needs a bigger screen, why didnt they do that in the first place!). There has been talk of a Wii 2 – with HD added for instance. But as per the article earlier – doesnt sound like its happening any time soon. In terms of the technology and what you can do with it – they seem to have stagnated. I personally dont feel it will be too long before Microsoft ands Sony will have there Motion Capture offerings on the table and they will probably both surpass the Wii in its on unique selling point.

Now bear in mind – I have and LOVE my Wii. Its brilliant! What concerns me is that where other companies seem to be moving quickly – Nintendo seem to be sitting watching the world go by.

As always views, comments, and suchlike welcome.

Dan

However due to the open source nature of the Google Android system there are a wealth of applications for free on the Android market place, so which ones should you try first?

Facebook for Android

With a desktop widget for quickly sharing and browsing and a one touch link to a slick version of the website – the Android Facebook app is a no-brainer for anyone with a Facebook account.

It naturally integrates with your phone, along with Twitter and YouTube meaning simply browsing your contacts you can see all of your friends updates in one place. It also allows for background alerts of new Facebook updates.

The picture gallery is where this app shines, allowing you to flow through anyone’s gallery in a sexy lightbox environment.

The application is a complete Facebook experience able to display text and images just like the full website in an easy to scroll interface.

Seesmic

The best Twitter client for Android, it’s quick, easy to use and most importantly has a cute icon.

It features widgets for your dashboard with the ability for one touch composing, viewing replies and automatically scrolls through your timeline for you.

However Seesmic as an application is feature packed allowing for multiple Twitter accounts, background alerts, and a neat tab display for all the options Twitter has in it’s arsenal.

Easily flow through your time line, view replies, messages and update your profile. All the links and keywords also work allowing you to view them in your default browser.

beebPlayer

This unofficial app, yes that’s right, allows you to use all the features of the BBC iPlayer on your phone.

It’s very nicely laid out, smooth to use and supplies options for high and low quality watching.

Watch BBC programmes, listen to radio you have missed, browse categories perform searches – it really is the iPlayer in Android form.

The latency seems low, meaning streaming is quick even down your mobile network. With options to view recommendations, A to Z listings and the ability to listen to radio live via the web, the application is fully featured.

It will be interesting to see what is added to this app and if there will be an official one released, however one thing is for sure – the future for mobile TV on Android phones is very bright indeed.

Last.fm

Got a Last.fm account, well what are you waiting for – download this app!

With a very functional widget allowing you to listen to any of your stations from your desktop and with a background information viewer this app is a great way to listen to an nearly unlimited collection of tunes for free and in high quality.

With the rich functionality found on the full website, discovering new bands or old gems couldn’t be easier. The app gives you unrestricted access to the stations you have created, allows you to create new ones and perform searchs.

Layar

Layar by augmented reality (also on iPhone) allows you to look through your camera and see real events, notifications and information overlaid. For instance you may wish to view people Tweeting around you, or use a Google local search to direct you to a restaurant in real time, and since anybody can create new “layars” for you to use their are some superb, strange and fun layars already ripe for the picking.

The interface is again slick allowing to view the most popular layar’s, the hottest or the newest and of course perform a search.

Due to the flexibility of the Android system the app is able to use all of the senors on a phone to really make tracking accurate. On an HTC  Tattoo, Hero, Legend or Incredible the tracking will follow even the slightest move giving you a real sense of 3D and perspective. The app can also be used as a first person view on giving directions, or switched to a bird’s eye view for a real understanding of what is around you.

Google Shopper

Currently in Beta this app allows you to search for Books, DVD’s and Games but interestingly not only by keywords but by the cover or bar-code.

Yep, point your camera at the cover of a game, book or dvd –  or the bar-code and within seconds Google shopper will give you the best prices around, combined with Amazon allowing for mobile ordering it really is a great app for proving those price matching offers wrong.

Google Voice Search

Surprising this work really well. Simply talk to your Google voice search app and with the magic power of Google software it will analyse your voice and figure out what you said.

We have tested this with helium, noisy offices and even a Scottish accent and surprisingly it worked every time – bravo Google.

Honourable Mentions

WordPress for Android
Google Sky Map
Spotify

Here is my list of PS3 sequels that I will not hesistate to buy.

Uncharted 3
Possible Code Name: Uncharted 3: Hidden Journey

Where it started

Uncharted 1 was very good, Uncharted 2 was very very good and without a shadow of a doubt Uncharted 3 will be very very very good.

With Uncharted one the core mechanics were spot on, cross breeding a intuitive cover system with gun play and fighting mechanics all merged into an action adventure frame work. The developer Naughty Dog no stranger to creating Jungle environments from their Crash Bandicoot days focused on this and only a couple of other environments in their first game. Without a doubt the game turned out to be exceptional thanks to the shine of the graphics and superb voice acting and motion capture.

Uncharted 2 built upon this and blew the box wide open by providing far bigger environments with a vast range of scenery’s. The game play mechanics were supplemented with better hand-to-hand combat, more robust climbing techniques and a bigger focus on the ability to perform stealth attacks. The game also presented itself with far bigger and breath-taking set pieces and of course an online mode that was both addictive, balanced and above all extremely fun.

The Sequel

Uncharted drakes fortune focused on trailing Francis Drake, among thieves trailed Marco Polo. As a guess Christoper Columbus could be next – but how could the game improve?

Well the game is pretty much perfect – simply creating a new story and new environments would satisfy most fans but a few nice features could be added.

For one a coop mode that is part of the single player campaign would be nice, not just separate missions. Also a few more cover moves such as lying down flat or hiding would be beneficial.

Finally a big change I would like to see is destroyable environments which would add a completely new dimension to the game – and create more challenging puzzles.

Grand Theft Auto 5
Possible Code Name: GTA V

A little back story

Grand Theft Auto has ascended from top-down game-play to fully 3D – each time the maps becoming bigger and more detailed.

The latest version saw Liberty City (AKA New York) with a potential population of 8 million souls, making it feel like you really were traversing New York city or at least it’s inbreed cousin.

With cover mechanics, moral choices and numerous side missions (such as vigilante, cab, pizza delivery and tour guide) and the ability to upgrade your home, your appearance and your weapons coupled with a fully immersive and organic life-like city – Grand Theft Auto has turned into to almost a game city simulation, but how can the next one be better?

Going forward

So far we have seen GTA in various Americana like settings. For a new version it would be nice to actually travel the globe, visiting open towns, densely packed cities with underground networks (London) or a high tech metropolis complete with magnetic lifted monorail trains and robotic law enforcement (well maybe that’s going to far).

The police in GTA games have always been bit to easy, so why not make the police real people, the bad guys real people and have a truly dynamic game-play. The police can get rewarded for catching criminals without damage to the city or it’s population or for performing specific operations (such as drug raids) and the bad guys get rewarded for completing their missions successfully without getting found out. With this type of mechanic I truly believe GTA would ascend to a whole new level.

Killzone 3
Possible Code Name: Killzone 3 (duh)

The previous version

Killzone 2 still today is the prettiest console shooter out there. With unmatched detail such as every bullet casing having a unique sound effect depending on what it hits and particles that actually vortex near turbine engines – Killzone 2 became the new bar for console FPS’s.

However the environments in Killzone 2 were very atmospheric which is another way of saying there were all dark and grey. On a few occasions you would be treated to a change such as manning an anti-air cannon or travelling in a walking mech but these were sparse.

The online was well constructed and although I liked the realistic speed and team play reliant objectives many didn’t. The maps (except maybe 1) were also quite confined, which was good for creating fire zones but often felt cramped.

What to change

First off, we have had Earth and Helgan now lets have something in between. In Killzone 3 I would like to fight in many different environments from jungles, to asteroids and meadows to the high sea’s. Also more vehicles would be nice, as well as more equipment such as the ability to create turrets in single player or use C4 at will.

Online the maps should be bigger – Battlefield Bad Company 2 size would be good. But add in vehicles too, the walkers would be a nice additions but also the drop ship allowing troops to get to an objective quick would be a good strategic element.

Overall the game needs to be more varied but keep the core mechanics and attention to details I have come to love.

PixelJunk Sequel

Where it began

The first game PixelJunk made for the PS3 was a gloried scalectrix game, it was okay but nothing special.

However their next game is now one of my favourite PSN titles – PixelJunk Monsters. Simply put its an addictive tower defense game, with cute HD graphics, varied levels, coop play, remote play and hypnotic music. Many an hour can be spent well with a friend playing this game and the simple mechanics makes it accessible to all.

After Monsters came ‘Eden’ a strange spider-man type platformer where you were charged at collecting pollen, then the most recent edition came in the form of PixelJunk Shooter. A retro feeling shooter where you used the dynamics of crumbling rock, water, lava and oil to battle through the puzzling levels each of which you could enlist a friend to help you.

With each new iteration PixelJunk have shown that simple game-play and simple but cute graphics can equal superior pieces of entertainment. But what will they do from here?

What’s next?

We’ve had PixelJunk Racer, PixelJunk Monsters, PixelJunk Eden and PixelJunk Shooter. So it affect we have had the ‘genres’ racing, strategy, platformer and shooter. So maybe next we will see… PixelJunk Figher, a cross between Alex Kidd and streets of rage – who know’s, but one thing is for sure, PixelJunk games only get better so it’s going to be a must buy.

Fallout 4: Online
Possible Code Name: Fallout MMO

The previous game

Fallout 3 was an incredible game. Building on the strong foundation of it’s 2D counter-parts Fallout 3 allowed you to play the massively open game in the style of your liking.

With countless places to visits, items to collect and enemies to slay you could easily sink 30 hours or more into the game and still not have seen everything.  Think of Morrow Wind but replace most the weapons with guns and the magic with drugs and you’re pretty much there.

Set in a post apocalyptic  World, Fallout 3 had you striving to survive while finding out what really happened to your father. A strong story line supplemented with numerous side quests kept you gripped and longing for more.

MMO?

With such a well defined universe it wouldn’t be too much to ask to have an MMO based around the Fallout theme would it? With persistent stats and a universe that carries on evolving even when your not playing, a Fallout MMO would essentially be the gritty version of World of Warcraft with everybody trying to get the infamous ‘Fat Man’.

Missed anything?

Have we missed anything, if so let us know in the comments section below.

Features of our minds that are meant to help us may, eventually, get us into trouble.

Here are the first 5 of the most harmful of these traps and how to avoid each one of them.

1. The Anchoring Trap: Over-Relying on First Thoughts

“Is the population of Turkey greater than 35 million? What’s your best estimate?” Researchers asked this question to a group of people, and the estimates were seldom too far off 35 million. The same question was posed to a second group, but this time using 100 million as the starting point. Although both figures were arbitrary, the estimates from the ‘100 million’ group were, without fail, concomitantly higher than those in the ‘35 million’ group. (for the curious, here’s the answer.)

Lesson: Your starting point can heavily bias your thinking: initial impressions, ideas, estimates or data “anchor” subsequent thoughts.

This trap is particularly dangerous as it’s deliberately used in many occasions, such as by experienced salesmen, who will show you a higher-priced item first, “anchoring” that price in your mind, for example.

What can you do about it?

• Always view a problem from different perspectives. Avoid being stuck with a single starting point. Work on your problem statement before going down a solution path.
• Think on your own before consulting others. Get as much data as possible and explore some conclusions by yourself before getting influenced by other people’s anchors.
• Seek information from a wide variety of sources. Get many opinions and broaden your frame of reference. Avoid being limited to a single point of view.

2. The Status Quo Trap: Keeping on Keeping On

In one experiment a group of people were randomly given one of two gifts — half received a decorated mug, the other half a large Swiss chocolate bar. They were then told that they could effortlessly exchange one gift for the other. Logic tells us that about half of people would not get the gift they prefered and would hence exchange it, but in fact only 10% did!

We tend to repeat established behaviors, unless we are given the right incentives to entice us to change them. The status quo automatically has an advantage over every other alternative.

What can you do about it?

• Consider the status quo as just another alternative. Don’t get caught in the ‘current vs. others’ mindset. Ask yourself if you would choose your current situation if it weren’t the status quo.
• Know your objectives. Be explicit about them and evaluate objectively if the current state of affairs serves them well.
• Avoid exaggerating switching costs. They frequently are not as bad as we tend to assume.

3. The Sunk Cost Trap: Protecting Earlier Choices

You pre-ordered a non-refundable ticket to a basketball game. On the night of the game, you’re tired and there’s a blizzard raging outside. You regret the fact that you bought the ticket because, frankly, you would prefer to stay at home, light up your fireplace and comfortably watch the game on TV. What would you do?

It may be hard to admit, but staying at home is the best choice here. The money for the ticket is already gone regardless of the alternative you choose: it’s a sunk cost, and it shouldn’t influence your decision.

What can you do about it?

• Be OK with making mistakes. Examine why admitting to earlier mistakes distresses you. Nobody is immune to errors, so you shouldn’t make a big deal out of it — just make sure you learn from them!
• Listen to people who were not involved in the earlier decisions. Find people who are not emotionally committed to past decisions and ask their opinion.
• Focus on your goals. We make decisions in order to reach goals. Don’t become attached to the particular series of steps you took towards that goal; always consider how you can better fulfill that goal from now on.

4. The Confirmation Trap: Seeing What You Want to See

You feel the stock market will be going down and that now may be a good time to sell your stock. Just to be reassured of your hunch, you call a friend that has just sold all her stock to find out her reasons.

Congratulations, you have just fallen into the Confirmation Trap: looking for information that will most likely support your initial point of view — while conveniently avoiding information that challenges it.

This confirmation bias affects not only where you go to collect evidence, but also how you interpret the data: we are much less critical of arguments that support our initial ideas and much more resistant to arguments against them.

No matter how neutral we think we are when first tackling a decision, our brains always decide — intuitively — on an alternative right away, making us subject to this trap virtually at all times.

What can you do about it?

• Expose yourself to conflicting information. Examine all evidence with equal rigor. Don’t be soft on disconfirmatory evidence. Know what you are about: Searching for alternatives or looking for reassurance!
• Get a devil’s advocate. Find someone you respect to argue against the decision you’re contemplating making. If you can’t find one, build the counterarguments yourself. Always consider the other positions with an open mind (taking into account the other mind traps we are discussing here, by the way).
• Don’t ask leading questions. When asking for advice, make neutral questions to avoid people merely confirming your biases. “What should I do with my stocks?” works better than “Should I sell my stocks today?”

5. The Incomplete Information Trap: Review Your Assumptions

Harry is an introverted guy. We know that he is either a librarian or a salesman. Which one do you think he most probably is?

Of course, we may be tempted to think he’s almost certainly a librarian. Haven’t we been conditioned to think of salesmen as having outgoing, if not pushy, personalities? Too bad this reasoning may be dead wrong (or at least incomplete).

This conclusion neglects the fact that salesmen outnumber librarians about 100 to 1. Before you even consider Harry’s character traits, you should have assigned only a 1% chance that he’s a librarian. (That means that even if all librarians are introverted, all it takes is 1% of introverts among the salesmen to make the chances higher for Harry being a salesman.)

That’s just one example of how overlooking a simple data element can make our intuitions go completely astray. We keep mental images — simplifications of reality — that make we jump to conclusions before questioning assumptions or checking whether we have enough information.

What can you do about it?

• Make your assumptions explicit. Don’t take a problem statement as it is. Keep in mind that for every problem you’re using implicit information — your assumptions. It’s usually not hard to check the validity of assumptions, but first you need to know what they are.
• Always favor hard data over mental simplifications. Our preconceptions — such as stereotypes — can be useful in many situations, but we should always be careful to not over-rely on them. When given the choice, always prefer hard data.

Here is the code:

$mbox = imap_open("{imap.example.org:143}", "username", "password");

echo "
<h1>Mailboxes</h1>
\n";
$folders = imap_listmailbox($mbox, "{imap.example.org:143}", "*");

if ($folders == false) {
echo "Call failed
\n";
} else {
foreach ($folders as $val) {
echo $val . "
\n";
}
}

echo "
<h1>Headers in INBOX</h1>
\n";
$headers = imap_headers($mbox);

if ($headers == false) {
echo "Call failed
\n";
} else {
foreach ($headers as $val) {
echo $val . "
\n";
}
}

imap_close($mbox);
?>

Yep, that’s it. Pass it your username and password and the script will display your email, local or remote. You can also expand upon this code to show the body of the emails and more information.

However although it may be easy to create a website, optimising it for both search engines and human beings is a though challenge. This article talks specifically about how when creating a web page a few simple design choices can go a long way.

Zig-Zag

When we read a web page just like reading a book or newspaper we tend to read from left to right. Unlike a book however when we read a web page we often scan the page jumping from points of interest and skimming important words.

To make an effective design you should use accent colours and design focal points to entice the user to look at specific parts of the webpage, here is an example:

As you can see the design uses bright colours to ensure the user takes notice of important information, designed to work in a Zig Zag pattern left to right.

Typography

Typography is an important part of creating a web page, you want your content to get your message across but you won’t to make sure that people actually read the important points. A few key points to guide you with this are that:

highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)

meaningful sub-headings (not “clever” ones)

bulleted lists

one idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)

the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion

half the word count (or less) than conventional writing

Take the following:

London is filled with internationally recognised attractions that draw large crowds of people every year, without fail. In 1996, some of the most popular places were The Tower of London (355,000 visitors),  The London Eye (132,166), The London National History Museum (100,000), Madame Tussauds (86,598), Buckingham Palace (60,002), and The Tate Modern (28,446).

The above paragraph was written by a marketing person, but it is over long, contains no highlights and no specific focuses. Let’s make the paragraph scannable and drop some words:

London is filled with internationally recognised attractions that draw large crowds of people every year, without fail. In 1996, some of the most popular places were:

• The Tower of London (355,000 visitors)
• The London Eye (132,166)
• The London National History Museum (100,000)
• Madame Tussauds (86,598)
• Buckingham Palace (60,002)
• The Tate Modern (28,446)

This is better, but it lacks objective language, and the numbers to most users will be irrelevant, so let’s drop the numbers and some non-essential words:

In 1996, six of the most visited places in London were

• The Tower of London
• The London Eye
• The London National History Museum
• Madame Tussauds
• The Tate Modern
• Buckingham Palace

The paragraph is now concise, to the point and contains little information irrelevant to a web user.

Summary

These are just two ways to help make your website ‘human friendly’ and we plan to bring you more. But following the simple adjustments as we have expanded upon can help ensure visitors to your website get the information they need and read the information you need them too.

The main ethos when creating a website should be to make it tailored to the visitor and the expected demographic not your personal choice or taste – however often fusing the two together and lead to good results.

Well this year sees the release of an A-Team movie – and I’m left very concerned, yet quite interested and excited at the same time. Looking forward to seeing it!

So… the main cast….

Sgt. B.A. Baracus is to be played by Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson. He is apparently an Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter. I have got to say although I didn’t think finding someone to play B.A. would be easy – he looks the part! However he is missing the gold I also wonder what his acting skills will be like (not that Mr T was great!). Even if his acting is bad I will not write it on here. You tell him!!!!!!!

Liam Neeson is to play Col. John “Hannibal” Smith. On the above picture I do think he looks the part. However I saw one other picture and he looked uncomfortable. In my opinion the verdict is still out on this casting.

Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck is to be played by Bradley Cooper. On the above photo he looks too rugged – face was always quite clean cut. I think the clean cut suited the face character. Perhaps it will change my view of face when I see the film.

Then there my favourite character Capt. H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock who is going to be played by Sharlto Copley. Realistically no one is going to play Murdock as well as Dwight Schultz. But I do like the look he has on the above photo. This is the character I am most looking forward to see how it is going to be portrayed.

Patrick Wilson is going to play Col. Lynch. Lynch was never a strong character for me – so I think he could be played by many people. Should work.

Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict are due to make a cameo. This concerns me as the only film that I have ever seen a cameo work is on Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy – with Marvin My issue with cameos is your always brought back to who everyone remembers playing the character and I feel that detracts from the new person playing their character. I may be surprised and see it work – who knows!

Mr T however was asked to make a cameo and turned it down. I think that’s a good thing!

Anyway – we shall see. Once I have seen the film I may feel inclined to follow this up with some more – I may not. Lets just hope its better then the Knightrider sequels!

If anyone has any comments on what they feel – would be great to hear them. If they make me think more about this film – I may even add to this post.

Thanks for reading!

Dan

What follows are my top 9 reasons why you should switch back from Ruby on Rails and move away from the hype machine.

1 ) What can Rails do that PHP or .NET cannot?

The answer is nothing.  Inspired by Rails I set out to write an application that could do pretty much the same things in PHP. Using logic that came from models (thanks to Martin Fowler and his Active Record Pattern), and no includes thanks to “__autoload”, real MVC separation and a powerful templating system I created in 5 minutes flat that supports multi-lingual text, caching and pretty much everything else,  my application already behaved a lot like Rails, just in a more logical and compact format. I had reduced 120,000 lines of code in Rails to just over 10,000 in PHP.

The long and short of it is that I thought Ruby on Rails was genius and PHP the old decrepit dog. I was killing my productivity trying to use it, and although Rails is much prettier and has nice shortcuts (but not really any big ones) there was nothing it could do that PHP couldn’t and it turned out that PHP is far more practical in both business and developer terms.

2 ) Existing Code

Most companies already have code written in PHP or .NET, changing this will be a huge task and will often take many months to complete.

3 ) Redundant Code

Rails contains a wealth of code to use and I admire the core of Ruby but 90% of the code contained within in Ruby on Rails I am never going to use. With my own system every line did something, it was tailor made for it’s purpose. This makes me smile as I know I am delivering something that is totally efficient.

4 ) Speed

I can run a PHP site on a small 1U LAMP server, and I have without any problems. Even on dated hardware PHP can still deliver traffic at high speeds, Rails unfortunately would most likely cause this type of server to spontaneously combust.

5 ) Obscurity

In PHP if I want it to do something I just tell it to do it, and it does. I don’t really want to adapt my programming ways to suit Rails. I don’t want to hack in various plug-ins to get jobs done, and I want other developers to understand the code within seconds not have to trace things back.

6 ) SQL

I love SQL, it’s beautiful – why does Rails obscure this. I often found myself fighting against migrations that hid my lovely SQL queries.

7 ) The Buzz

Rails is a relatively new framework based on Ruby being released back in 2004, it released with a lot of Buzz and fanfare and it did what it said on the tin – it was and is a paint-by-numbers frame work.

Ruby was great in making me understand better OOP but just because something is new doesn’t make it better. PHP may seem ugly because you wrote it that way those many years ago, but going back with the new knowledge I gained I found I could make a much sleeker, more efficient application in PHP using the principals Rails had taught me.

8 ) Long Ways to do Short things

Take a look at this code

def fact(n)
if n == 0
1
else
n * fact(n-1)
end
end

This piece of code takes the factorial of a number. It may work for small applications but large applications with thousands of lines and many files will be difficult to manage with this type of syntax.

9 ) IIS Support

A lot of companies use IIS, and although the documentation does show how to configure it correctly it is spares. It is also a very difficult task to undertake and it seems it is mainly aimed at the *nix crowd not the Microsoft ‘do-gooders’ .

Conclusion

Ruby on Rails is an excellent framework to develop in however if it isn’t broke, why fix it and why add more time to your developer budget?

Further Reading

PHP vs Java vs Ruby

Ruby vs PHP

Rails for PHP Developers

Twitter Developer Interview about Ruby on Rails

http://www.lucamauri.com/snippet/snip.aspx?id=6

The code in full is:

Imports System.Net
Imports System.Net.Sockets
Imports System.Text

Public Class clsWOL
Const lenHeader As Integer = 6
Const lenMAC As Integer = 6
Const repMAC As Integer = 16

Dim mEndPoint As IPEndPoint
Dim mMACAddress As Byte()
Dim mBytesSent As Integer = 0
Dim mPacketSent As String

''' <summary>
''' The IPEndPoint object that will act as a trasport for the packet.
''' It is automatically created by New statement, but you can modify it or read it.
''' </summary>
''' <value>An IPEndPoint object</value>
''' <returns>An IPEndPoint object</returns>
''' <remarks>Normally there is no need to change this manually.</remarks>
Public Property endPoint() As IPEndPoint
Get
Return mEndPoint
End Get
Set(ByVal value As IPEndPoint)
mEndPoint = value
End Set
End Property
''' <summary>
''' The target machine Network Interface Card MAC address.
''' It must be dash-separated, i.e. in the 11-22-33-44-55-66 form
''' </summary>
''' <value>A string with dash-separated values</value>
''' <returns>A string with dash-separated values</returns>
''' <remarks>The standard (IEEE 802) separator for cotet are dash (-) and semicolon (:). I resolved to use dashes only in order to avoid any possible confusion and misunderstanding with upcoming IPv6 addressing space.</remarks>
Public Property macAddress() As String
Get
Dim textMAC As New StringBuilder

For Each currByte As Byte In mMACAddress
textMAC.Append("-")
textMAC.Append(currByte.ToString("X2"))
Next

Return textMAC.ToString.Substring(1)
End Get
Set(ByVal value As String)
Dim values As Byte()

For Each currByte As String In value.Split("-")
If values Is Nothing Then
ReDim values(0)
Else
ReDim Preserve values(values.GetUpperBound(0) + 1)
End If
values(values.GetUpperBound(0)) = Byte.Parse(currByte, Globalization.NumberStyles.HexNumber)
Next

mMACAddress = values
End Set
End Property
''' <summary>
''' Total bytes sent by WakeIt method. It is 0 until the method is called at least once for this class instance.
''' </summary>
''' <returns>Integer value, total bytes trasmitted</returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public ReadOnly Property bytesSent() As Integer
Get
Return mBytesSent
End Get
End Property
''' <summary>
''' It represent the Magic Packet broadcasted.
''' </summary>
''' <returns>String containing the text parsing of the Magic Packet</returns>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public ReadOnly Property packetSent() As String
Get
Return mPacketSent
End Get
End Property
''' <summary>
''' Creates a WOL Magic Packet, the datagram that will awake the target PC updon broadcast on the network.
''' </summary>
''' <param name="macAddress">An array of byte representing the target machine Network Interface Card MAC address</param>
''' <returns>An array of byte representing the Magic Packet</returns>
''' <remarks>This method can be used indipendently from the rest of the class. If necessary it can create a Magic Packet just providing the MAC address.</remarks>
Public Function magicPacket(ByVal macAddress As Byte()) As Byte()
Dim payloadData As Byte()
Dim packet As New StringBuilder

Try
ReDim payloadData(lenHeader + lenMAC * repMAC)

For i As Integer = 0 To lenHeader - 1
payloadData(i) = Byte.Parse("FF", Globalization.NumberStyles.HexNumber)
Next
For i As Integer = 0 To repMAC - 1
For j As Integer = 0 To lenMAC - 1
payloadData(lenHeader + i * lenMAC + j) = macAddress(j)
Next
Next

For Each currLoad As Byte In payloadData
packet.Append("-")
packet.Append(currLoad.ToString("X2"))
Next

mPacketSent = packet.ToString.Substring(1)
Catch ex As Exception
mPacketSent = "EXCEPTION: " &amp; ex.ToString
End Try

Return payloadData
End Function

Function sendUDP(ByVal payload As Byte(), ByVal endPoint As IPEndPoint) As Integer
Dim byteSend As Integer
Dim socketClient As Socket

If (payload IsNot Nothing) AndAlso (endPoint IsNot Nothing) Then
socketClient = New Socket(endPoint.AddressFamily, SocketType.Dgram, ProtocolType.Udp)
socketClient.Connect(endPoint)
byteSend = socketClient.Send(payload, 0, payload.Length, SocketFlags.None)

socketClient.Close()
Else
byteSend = 0
End If

Return byteSend
End Function
''' <summary>
''' It is the main method of the class. It must be called after the MAC address has been set. It does not return any code, you can see the result of the operation with the bytesSent and packetSent properties of this class.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Sub wakeIt()
mBytesSent = sendUDP(magicPacket(mMACAddress), mEndPoint)
End Sub
''' <summary>
''' No parameter is required. The new statement just created the IPEndPoint object.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks>The default IPEndPoint transmit on port 7. Other choices for WOL are port 0 or 9</remarks>
Sub New()
mEndPoint = New IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Broadcast, 7)
End Sub
''' <summary>
''' The IPEndPoint object is created to the specified port
''' </summary>
''' <param name="epPort">A valid port number</param>
''' <remarks>If the port number is invalid, the IPEndPoint is created to port 7. Ports normally used for WOL are 0, 7 or 9.</remarks>
Sub New(ByVal epPort As Integer)
If epPort >= 0 AndAlso epPort < 65535 Then
mEndPoint = New IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Broadcast, epPort)
Else
mEndPoint = New IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Broadcast, 7)
End If
End Sub
End Class 

So to call this class you do something like this:

Dim WOL As New clsWOL
WOL.macAddress = "00-1E-4F-96-C8-D8"
WOL.wakeIt()