Josh On Design

This is a short video (~6min) where Tim Berners Lee (Mr. Web himself) talks about the successes of open data. Take special note of the end section where the Open Street Map project is used to help relief efforts in Haiti after the earthquake.

Updated!

As part of some open source stuff I've been doing on the side I've had to generate and parse a lot of XML. I like working with the DOM because it's tree structure cleanly matches my needs, but the W3C API is *so* cumbersome. The DOM was designed to be implemented in any language, not just clean OO languages like Java, so any code using it will work but be ugly. After considering a few other XML libraries I decided to write a new one that would work with modern Java 5 language features like generics, enhanced for-each, and varargs. This library is super tiny because it simply wraps the standard javax.xml libraries in the JRE, but gives you a much nicer interface to work with. Here's how to use it (or download it here):

I'd like to ask my dedicated readership a very big favor. I'm starting a podcast with my friend Robert Cooper. The challenge is determining the direction. In a lot of the fields we are familiar with there are already some great podcasts (like the Java Posse). We can't decide if it should be programming centric, cover technology issues, or discuss things that are more future oriented (driving cars, space travel, etc.).

Yes, the future is now, and not just because I bought a 2TB hard drive for less than 150$. Bionic hands, self driving cars, and printable solar cells...

20th century advertising has taught us to associate quality artwork and polish with quality products. Given two apps that do the same thing, a potential customer will pick the one that looks and feels better. This means every great app needs great art. Since most developers aren't artists or designers by trade, I've assembled a list of resources that can help. Here are icons, fonts, sounds, color schemes, and other great art assets to help you make your app stand out from the crowd.

I'm writing this from a hotel room in SunnyVale, recovering from the tremendous event we put on for our dedicated developers at Palm's first ever webOS developer event last Friday and Saturday. The turnout was great. Over 100 developers paid their own money to drive, fly, and chopper in to Palm HQ. I taught an intro to webOS session for the entire first day, then answered questions and attended sessions the second. Topping it all with dinner at a local brew pub was a splendid idea.

A round up of interesting stuff I've been collecting lately. An interview with Philippe Starck, vintage ads, UI design tips, and electronic comics.

I haven't posted about the iPad (or tablets in general) since before the iPad announcement. I thought this prudent given that we all knew what was announced but I hadn't actually tried using one in person. Last week I played with a couple at my friends company and my initial thoughts were confirmed: the iPad as existing product today is interesting but not amazing, but as an indicator of the future is amazing.

There's been a ton of talk lately about several mobile operating systems and their problems, such as language restrictions, fragmentation, and anti-competitive practices. It's never a good idea to talk bad about your competition, so I'll take this opportunity to simply say a few things about the webOS (the OS that powers Palm's Pre and Pixi phones) that you might not know.

There's been a ton of talk lately about several mobile operating systems and their problems, such as language restrictions, fragmentation, and anti-competitive practices. It's never a good idea to talk bad about your competition, so I'll take this opportunity to simply say a few things about the webOS (the OS that powers Palm's Pre and Pixi phones) that you might not know.

A big part of my new job at Palm is education, in the form of tutorials, blogs, and of course speaking at conferences. Two new speaking engagements have recently come up. Palm Developer Day and OSCON.

I'm excited to show you all one of the things I've been working on since I joined Palm.

A big part of my new job at Palm is education, in the form of tutorials, blogs, and of course speaking at conferences. Two new speaking engagements have recently come up. Palm Developer Day and OSCON. Read on for details.

When I started this blog I had hoped to post once or twice a week. If you're one of my few remaining readers you know that this hasn't happened. My new position at Palm has kept me so busy that I haven't had time to work on the big long educational posts like Typography 101. I've also been debating if I should have any Palm or JavaScript specific content, or just keep this as a pure design blog.

It's been a while since I've posted thanks to this spring's conference schedule. Part of my new job at Palm is working at our booth answering technical questions. This has kept me on the road, but certainly provided opportunities to talk about our technology and build interest in apps. Read on photos and stories from GDC and CTIA, including a clip of Shrek Cart.

It's been a month since I posted so I'd say it's time for a rant. I've been traveling a lot lately so the object of my wrath this week is alarm clocks. Most specifically the alarm clocks in hotel rooms, but home use clocks don't get off easy either.

Lots of people have opined on Apple's iPad, many deriding it's closed nature and lack of features. The thing is, those problems don't matter to most people. The iPad isn't for you or me. It's for everyone else. I've spent the last 20 years hoping we would have the technology to build such a device, even though I knew it was a device I would not personally use. But that doesn't matter..

After 5 amazing years at Sun I have decided not to move on to Oracle. Instead I will be joining Palm as a developer advocate for the WebOS. The WebOS is an open platform with an exciting future on a variety of Palm devices, which I'll talk about in great detail soon. For now though, I want to talk about Sun, why I'm leaving, and the future of Java & JavaFX.

Tomorrow we will hopefully awake with news of a magical Apple tablet, so tonight I thought I'd give you a few things to read as you drift off to tablet dreamland with touchable sugarplums.