LostInTheText.com » Social Media

GTA V set to be announced

Ryan Bishop — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:22:47 +0000

Rockstar games announced that the official first trailer for GTA V will be released at 12pm eastern time on wednesday. GTA V (Grand Theft Auto 5), the latest in a long line of massive open urban worlds represented by the Grand Theft Auto series, has big shoes to fill. Starting with GTA III, the series has been a massive hit with every entry in the franchise being the latest and greatest of its generation. Other than a few vague spoilers, and the logo, little is known about the upcoming game.

A list of hopes (and quiet predictions) for GTA V:

1. Airplanes. Seriously, there’s only so far you can go flying helicopters. Both more RC planes and traditional

2. Less Driving. Ok – we get it, it’s mostly filler to make what would otherwise be a medium length game longer, but driving 4-5 minutes for a one-minute mission is not a great return on investment. At least offer a skip feature?

3. Ethical Gameplay or choice-based outcomes. We had a little glimpse of this in some of the previous franchises, but it never really made much of an impact in the story lines it was associated with, and it didn’t seem to adversely impact it at that. Why not show that, if you lead a life of crime and debauchery, it usually doesn’t end up as glamorously as scarface?

4. A lighter environment. Let’s face it – GTA IV was fun but a little depressing. Showcasing some of the more downtrodden aspects of immigrant life may add a sense of realism to the game, but jesus it’s depressing.

HTML 5.0 – The shape of things to come

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:32:06 +0000

Even though it hasn’t even left the finishing room floor at the W3 organization, HTML 5.0 is shaping up to be a force to be reckoned with for interactivity on the web. The lines between operating system and web browser will be blurred, as the features and functions of each merge to the point of overlapping. HTML 5.0 will make it possible to drag files from your desktop to web-based SAAS (Software as a Service) installations, while taking social networking elements in whole new directions. Rich media will get the run of the land, so to speak, with fewer design limitations. Features you normally use an application for will grow increasingly web-based, and the UI possibilities for web designers are almost unimaginable. For the technically-inclined, HTML 5 will also provide much more seamless integration with APIs, with inherent scripting.

Features of HTML 5, a brief summary:

drag and drop through standard markup (not using a library, like jQuery, or flash’s functionality)
some deprecated tags will be removed, like the font tag and center tag (or others that can easily be done with CSS)
breakages will be treated much more gracefully than the HTML 4.+ browsers
the doctype will be much, much shorter (. That's it.)
HTML 5.0 aims to reduce the need for external embedded media, instead offering design options for inherently embedding items)

Some Extra Links

So you’ve got a sitemap. Now What?

Ryan Bishop — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:27:28 +0000

This is a common question for webmasters. Here’s a simple compilation of sites geared towards getting your site map into the hands of the search engines. Each search engine generally offers a different set of criteria, and some offer additional XML fields for their sitemaps, but the majority of the popular search engines (google, yahoo, bing, etc..) can read the standard sitemap.xml as long as it’s properly formatted.

Google :
Submit sitemaps through their webmaster tools, at http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools (you will need a webmasters account, which you can sign up for with a google/gmail account)

Bing/Live Search/MSN:
Submit sitemaps through their webmaster center , at http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ (uses either a bing account or you can use your windows live account)

Yahoo!:
Submit site/sitemap to yahoo’s Site Explorer site, at https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

Other search engines will have different submit pages, with links in the footer to their “add” or “submit” pages generally.

Three tips on using Google Wave

Ryan Bishop — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 03:40:17 +0000

At once emerging and feature-rich, google wave can be a little daunting as you try to come to grips with it’s finer details. So, to help out a little, here are a few tips you can use to make navigating the sea of waves easier.

Type “with:public” into the main wave bar to see all public waves – but be prepared for hundreds of them.
You can search the public waves by typing a keyword after “with:public“, like “with:public SMS” to search for SMS. This will display results from word matches from the entire waves.
Add the address “public@a.gwave.com” to your contact list to be able to post public waves. Just add “public” to the wave, like you would normally add a contact.

Google Wave

Ryan Bishop — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:21:28 +0000

Having gotten a google wave invite through a popular online community, I decided to check out what all the buzz was about.
After 4 or so days after being invited, I got an email from google welcoming me to the google wave community.

When you sign up, you’re offered a personalized googlewave.com address. You can either use this address or your existing email address to sign up.

Once you’re signed in, the UI immediately transforms to a layout that will be familiar to users of Windows XP and Windows Vista. The Sleek minimalism and Web 2.0 aesthetic feels right, if only a little unrefined, with a generic blue “glossy” framework. The screen is basically a whiteboard, with 3 columns – one for Navigation/contacts, your inbox, and a panel where you view the waves clicked on.

To get to the heart of the matter, and what has been making ‘waves’ in the online community, we have the Wave itself. Picture a communications method that combines real-time interaction and collaboration with a chat or instant message interface. In addition to the usual features of chat/IM, you can assign a wave to any number of other people on google wave, who can then all collaborate on the same discussion. Adding to the instantaneous nature of the communication, you can actually see the text being typed out in real time, errors and omissions included.

All in all, I would say it’s a product worth watching until it goes into beta mode. There is room for improvement in the UI, but as a test product it has a great interface that combines a lot of the standard features within the framework of innovation. As it stands, google wave is currently in private invite-only beta, so you’ll have to be resourceful and find someone willing to spare an invite (members currently get 15 or so invites).