Max Glenister

2015

16 posts

November

  • 20 Minutes into the Future with Google Cardboard and JavaScript

    I gave this talk at JS Oxford in November 2015. The talk is about using JavaScript and various web APIs to create Google Cardboard experiences.

    • 1 min read
  • Downgrading Nexus 5 from Android 6.0 to Android 5.1.1

    I jumped on Android 6.0 Marshmallow as soon as the developer images were available to flash, and to be honest as far as “major releases” go, it was pretty underwhelming. A lot of the new features aren’t things I need, and I’ve found myself running in to a bug with device orientation in Chrome (only!) not working.

    • 2 min read

October

  • UX in Virtual Reality

    I’ve been trying to find resources on the subject of User Experience and User Interface design in Virtual Reality a lot lately, as I’m thinking about Google Cardboard, and preparing demos for a talk about using JavaScript to build Google Cardboard experiences.

    • 1 min read

September

  • The GPD XD Portable Android Games Console

    I’m back with another Android console out of China from GPD, the GPD XD. I’ve had the GPD XD for a couple of weeks now, and to be honest I’ve been unable to put it down! In short it’s a great device for portable gaming, and it also handles my media needs with ease. This device was generously provided by Geekbuying, so I’ll provide more information about where to buy the GPD XD from the Geekbuying store at the end of this review.

    • 6 min read
  • In which I find a better Imgur screenshot uploading application

    … Well not much of a battle really, rather just some comments on my needs of an Imgur uploader, what I’ve been using historically, and what I’m now going to be using.

    • 2 min read

August

  • On being spammed for being interested

    The amount of personal data that we give away these days is insane. It’s true of a huge number of online services that “free isn’t free”, and that your personal data is the virtual currency by which you’re able to use so many great services for “free”.

    • 4 min read
  • Getting Notified when a process is using 100% CPU on Mac OS X

    Lately I’ve noticed node.js occasionally spawning a process that’s using 100% CPU. When this happens, the battery on my MacBook quickly drains.

    • 2 min read
  • Jekyll Antipatterns

    If you’ve used any framework or language for long enough, you might find that you’ve got parts of your code that are not using the language in it’s current state to it’s full potential.

    • 5 min read

July

  • Launching Sketch Toolbox from inside Sketch

    I’ve been making use of Sketch a lot lately. One of the coolest features of Sketch is it’s plugin support. I’m using a tool called Sketch Toolbox to manage plugins in Sketch – this functions a lot like Package Control for Sublime Text, but it’s a stand-alone application.

    • 2 min read
  • Extract the first image from a post in Jekyll

    I decided that I want to show an image next to posts in my “article list” type pages in Jekyll. It would be tedious to go through each post and add a piece of Yaml frontmatter to indicate a “post image” (even though I had this at one point in the past!), so how could I automate this?

    • 1 min read
  • Creating an icon font

    I’ve recently been doing a lot of working designing an icon font that works well at small sizes for my day job. Here’s an overview of the process I’m using to go from a doodle on paper, to a functional icon font that can be used in most web browsers.

    • 4 min read

June

  • My face and words in print

    Recently I was contacted to provide a short quote about why CSS preprocessors are awesome. This wasn’t a hard task as I spend a lot of time evangelising the use of preprocessors, specifically Sass.

    • 2 min read
  • The Revo K101 Plus Portable Games Console

    Today I’m refreshed to be reviewing a console that doesn’t try to cram too much in to the form factor, but instead tried to focus on doing one thing well.

    • 9 min read • 8 interactions

April

January

  • Vivaldi: Another contender to the array of Webkit-derived browsers

    Earlier this week a new browser called “Vivaldi” sprung up across many of my early-morning technology news feeds. I managed to put off trying it out for a couple of days, due to my being too busy, and agreeing with many of the pessimistic comments that were strewn across the release announcement posts.

    • 3 min read
  • Creating 'Material Design' shadows in Photoshop

    Somebody over on Designer News asked how to re-create the various z-height shadow effects from Google’s Material Design in Photoshop.

    • 2 min read