Daniel Wylie

A look back on 2013

Daniel Wylie — 12/21/2013 11:10:00 PM

While I'm not too sure where it actually went, 2013 is over and 2014 is here. So I thought I'd throw together a list of cool things that happened in 2013, in roughly chronological order.

Road tripped up North - I've seen more of the world than NZ, so it was pretty awesome.
Moved in with my girlfriend.
Went to Castle Point and camped in the car - was one of my bucket list items.
Left Xero after 6.5 years and started a sweet new job at NV Interactive.
Started learning NodeJS.
Went to Seattle and visited my family, then headed down to San Francisco to see girlfriend's brother. Summer over there is amazing.
Drove in the States.
Got my new MacBook - I get really excited about things like this
Explored various areas around the Wellington region (eg Tunnel Gully).
Figured out how to take photos of stars.
Visited Sydney. Love that place.
Whilst the reasons for visiting aren't overly cool, headed over to spend time with my family in Seattle for a second time this year.
Started learning Windows Phone and iOS development
Got first Windows Phone game published! And the iOS version isn't far behind.

And I'm sure that's not even half of it... Hopefully I can cram even more awesome stuff into this year.

2013 also marked a massive step forward in my thought process, which was awesome after a few tricky years. I realised that being happy is not a given, it's something that I have to work on constantly, and that it's up to me and no one else. I also realised that if I put my mind to things, I can actually do awesome things. And the rush from doing those awesome things is amazing.

I also met some awesome people last year - people who inspire me. People that I look up to. And people that are great fun. I'm greatful for everyone of you! And am looking forward to meeting more people this year.

So 2014, watch out, I'm coming for you, and I'm going to show you what I'm really capable of.

I wanted to like Windows Phone, I really did

Daniel Wylie — 3/13/2013 12:00:00 AM

Back in August 2010, I purchased a brand new iPhone 4. I loved the thing. It did everything I wanted it to do without complaining about it. 2 years later, it was time to replace it with something new. iOS is boring, there’s no denying that, so I decided to try something different and went down the Windows Phone route with a yellow Nokia Lumia 920.

From day one there were issues – the camera was blurry during the day, dates and times were all incorrect, there was no Spotify, there’s still no Instagram and the battery life was, well, rubbish. I decided to put up with them though and make this work. A few months on, some of those issues are fixed, but there’s still the biggest issue: The whole thing is very half arsed. Nothing is polished. And it’s really starting to get to me.

The hardware itself is decent, don’t get me wrong – the screen on the thing is incredible, as is the camera. It’s no slouch either, everything happens quickly. But that’s kind of where it stops. It may just be my particular phone, but when it vibrates the whole thing rattles. The back has also become quite scratched after only a few months, and I look after my phones. There’s also the “feel” of the thing, I can’t quite describe why, but it feels cheap or something. And the sim-card tray, what were they thinking? It’s horrible. It’s not square.

I could forgive all of these things though if the software made up for it, but as time is going on, I’m finding it more and more frustrating. The software the phone comes with is pretty good, as are the Nokia apps. They all seem to work well and are of an acceptable standard. It’s the apps you download that have the issues, here’s a few examples.

Facebook

The Facebook app is very half baked. You don’t get access to your pages or your lists of people. When you’re sending someone a message, the keyboard covers the textbox where you’re typing. Yeah, I don’t know either. I’ve found it crashes frequently when you click on a link that opens in the browser. If I lock the phone while Facebook is open, it gives me a black screen once it’s resumed. And to get it back, I have to close the app and start again. It also lacks a large number of features available in the other platforms apps.

Spotify

I love Spotify. I have it installed on all my machines and happily pay my $12 a month for mobile access. After waiting what felt like forever (it was probably only a month) the Spotify app for Windows Phone 8 was released. Oh what a happy day! That was until I actually tried using it. Now every time I open it, I feel sad. It supports only the most basic of functions. There’s no radio, no top lists, and it stutters frequently whilst buffering, which was never a problem on iOS. The UI itself is very fiddly – if you’re playing a song in a playlist and want to open that artist, you have to tap some tiny text.

Internet Explorer (or more importantly, the back button)

Internet Explorer on it works most of the time, there’s the occasional site that doesn’t, and you frequently miss out on the nice UI’s, but it works. Right up ‘till you have to deal with the back button. If you’re browsing around and staying in the IE app, it’s sweet. If you say, open a PDF in the PDF reader then go back to the browser, say goodbye to common sense. If you press the back button to view the previous page, you’ll be taken back to the PDF. In what world is that a good idea? Seriously Microsoft, fix it.

Other bits and pieces

The search button is miss leading. I still press it now even when I want to search in an app. Instead I get Bing.
I automatically upload my photos to Skydrive, which is cool, except that they’re not the full resolution. Why? I don’t want to plug my phone in just to get my photos of it.
Needs a hardware silent button – having to turn the volume all the way down sucks.
The general quality of apps is poor. Some have gotten better, the Twitter app is a good example of that, but overall they’re poor.
Nothing works with Windows Phone. Nokia have a cool ecosystem of things, yes, but I can’t plug it into my car via USB. I can’t use AirPlay.
My Lumia randomly locks up. Will sit on the Nokia screen for an hour or so before coming back to life, albeit the date resetting to January 1st, 2010, which breaks the world.

I like Windows Phone, I really do. I wanted to rave about it and convert everyone, but I can’t, I’m pretty much at the point where I’m ready to go down to Vodafone and purchase an iPhone 5… Yes, it's boring, but it works.

Changing a centre diff...

Daniel Wylie — 2/18/2013 1:31:00 AM

For the past 6 months, my Legacy (GT-B, E-Tune, Twin-Turbo, 4WD, manual) has been suffering from a faulty centre diff.

When the car was cold, it was fine, but as things got warmer it started to “clunk” when you turned the steering wheel due to the coupling slipping. Here’s the Wikipedia description of a centre diff:

“In a four-wheel drive vehicle, a viscous coupling unit can replace a centre differential entirely, or be used to limit slip in a conventional 'open' differential. It works on the principle of allowing the two output shafts to counter-rotate relative to each other, by way of a system of slotted plates that operate within a viscous fluid, often silicone. The fluid allows slow relative movements of the shafts, such as those caused by cornering, but will strongly resist high-speed movements, such as those caused by a single wheel spinning. This system is similar to a limited slip differential.”

Obviously this wasn’t ideal, as it meant I couldn’t drive the car far.

After a bit of research I found that this was a known fault in the 1999-2002 centre differentials in Subaru’s, so I took it to Subaru who quoted me $2000 to replace it with an exact model, which may break down again. I also discovered that an older Subaru WRX STI centre diff would slot straight in, and that they don’t suffer from the same issue. Bingo! The hunt for a STI diff began.

It took a few months and lots of hunting around by my cousin Alex, but in early February, for the small sum of $300, one arrived at my door.

Then last weekend we got around to installing it (Huge thanks to my cousin and mate from Street Customs). We planned on dropping the transfer case off, changing the diff, and chucking it back together. Sadly it were not to be, as the transfer case was under the gearbox cross member, and the driveshaft was covered by the exhaust. So off came the exhaust and driveshaft…

Gearbox
Cross member. The transfer case is under this.
Rear diff

Once the above was removed and the gearbox linkages were removed, the centre diff was surprisingly easy to access. We simply removed the back of the transfer case (the internet says you need to remove the whole transfer case, it lies. Simply use a small screwdriver to slowly and smoothly pull the diff towards you. Do not force it).

Inside the gearbox

Slot the new centre diff on to the splines, again without force, and the job’s done.

New centre diff in transfer case
Gear linkage

Now the fun started of putting it all back together. It took us a good 4-5 hours to get access to the centre diff, but we knew how it went back together. Ish.

Drive shaft
Primary turbo downpipe
Secondary turbo downpipe
Exhaust from 'Y' back

Around 12am, everything under the car was back to its original place, and looking good. The heat shields around the turbos are tricky to bolt back on, but we got there eventually. The last bit to go back on was the intercooler… We were expecting this to take a few minutes. Turns out getting a twin turbo intercooler on is slightly harder than the single turbo equivalent… All three pipes need to go on at the same time, whilst being on all weird angles. It took well over an hour, lots of scraped hands, and lots of swearing to get it back in.

Secondary turbo intercooler pipe
Inlet manifold intercooler pipe
Primary turbo intercooler pipe

Done!

We went out for a blast down the motorway to warm things up and check everything was still working correctly.

And, apart from a small exhaust leak on the one joint we didn’t touch, everything is running smoothly. No shudders. No clicking. No weird smells. Awesome.

Total time taken: 12 hours.

Would I do it again? Not really, but I would to save $1700.

Should you do it yourself? If you know your way around a spanner, tricky bolts, sharp edges and tight spaces, then sure. A pit/hoist is also invaluable – not sure we’d be done yet without one.

D600 Sensor Issues

Daniel Wylie — 1/27/2013 8:41:00 PM

About a month ago, after a while weighing up my options, I decided to go out and purchase a shiny new Nikon D600. The camera is awesome, there's no doubt about that. Beats my old D3100 my miles.

After two weeks of lightish use, I noticed there were spots appearing in the top left hand corner of my photos. At first I just assumed the lens was dirty, so I cleaned it and got ready for my holiday. On getting home, and looking at the images on my computer, I noticed the spots had gotten worse, despite me keeping the lens clean. I decided it was time to do some Googling...

Turns out the D600 has issues with oil on its sensor, which obviously is bad news. Took it into the camera store this morning to have a chat to the guys there. He recommended I take it back to the shop I purchased it from and then them to clean the sensor under warranty which I shall do tomorrow.

Here's a sample of what happens though - this should be completely clear shot of the sky - notice the spots on the top left hand corner.

Click to view a bigger version.

Update 1st of Feb

Took camera into Harvey Norman this afternoon and told them about the issue - the guy knew about it (which surpised me, I must admit), and they quickly posted it off to the Nikon Service Centre in Auckland. The downside is that it may be gone for two weeks - which is a long time to be without my baby... Back to my D3100 for now.

Will update this post when I get it back/find out more about the issue.

Update 11th of Feb

Got the camera back on Friday and spent the weekend shooting with it. So far no issues! The note from the Nikon guys in Auckland basically said they cleaned the sensor and "adjusted the shutter box" - so fingers crossed it's sorted.

Why I don't like the new MetService website

Daniel Wylie — 12/10/2012 3:05:00 AM

A few weeks back MetService announced they were working on a new site. "Sweet!" I thought. They then posted a picture of the new design... I began to worry. After having a play with it, there's a couple of small but annoying issues I have with it.

Instead of moaning about it, I thought I'd attempt to explain what I find wrong with it, and why.

The homepage

Overall, this page is ok. It's larger and easier to read than the old site. Everything is a little more broken out and defined. Cool.

The "Current Extremes" section still needs work - the "high", "low" etc. titles aren't bold, yet the place names are. Makes it difficult to determine what each statistic is. Simple fix? Make the "High 16" bold, and in a new line below, make the place name normal weight.

I feel like the “NZ Rain Radar" and "3 day rain forecast" boxes should be vertically aligned on the right to give the map a little more breathing room. Maybe even moving the map away from the "Extremes" box.

City Weather Page

Or whatever you want to call it... The page where you view the weather in your local city.

The outgoing style shows a map of the region, with current temperatures of the cities around you. It's quick and easy to read - you don't have to scan to different areas of the page, or determine what each area is once you've learnt their placement.

Below the map is a simple "Current weather" bar. Shows everything you need to know - temperature in nice big letters, wind and if there's any rain - in a hierarchy of most important first, least important last.

My biggest criticism of this page would be the shear amount of stuff on it. Sure lots of it is weather related, but even so, we don't need all of it, surely? I mean, the "Severe Weather" panel probably doesn't need to be there when there aren't any warnings. The "Yesterdays Extremes" could also be removed (or moved) to make more room for a bigger map.

The new page though...

When you get to the new styled page, you're presented with a bewildering array of information, and none of it is designed to catch your attention (other than the ads). Want to know the current temperature, possibly the most used part of this page? Go hunting for it. It's hiding there on the left, with pretty much the same sized font as every other title on that page.

Metservice - Make the text bigger. Make it stand out more. Do something, please?

The "Current Weather" section is too small. The graph on it is useless, and adds too many numbers. The 20 at the top - it's the max, yes, but why do we need it? It's just to the left. Same with the low at the bottom. It just makes it look cluttered (left). By simply removing the temperature bar stuff, it becomes far easier to read (right, ignore odd alignment).

The vertical alignment of the content also makes it harder to scan briefly whilst looking at the page. Why not have it horizontally under the 'today' tab? Or better yet, above the forecast for the week.

I guess my whole point behind this (poorly written) post is that the new site feels like a step backwards. Metservice need to figure out what is actually important to visitors, make that bigger and easier to read, and remove the rubbish.

I will attempt to update this as I think about it a little more.

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