Hardcoded Software News

New website section: devlogs

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

To make it easier for potential developers (and curious people) to figure out how HS apps development is going, I created a new "Devlogs" section in the website. All I need now is the discipline to keep it going.

Fairware tweaks

Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

I changed the contribution allocation algorithm today. The previous one, with tons of prorating all around was too complicated and the benefits of it were dubious.

Contributions are now allocated directly to timelogs, the oldest unpaid timelog being paid first. This has a fun side effect, which is that I'm now able to tell contributors which timelog(s) they compensated (it isn't implemented yet, but it's in my plans). This opens the door to all kinds of new fun statistics to make.

Another side effect is that there were about 5 hours that were previously allocated to dupeGuru that are now allocated to moneyGuru. That's because the new algorithm puts more of a burden for "shared timelogs" (timelogs from project dependencies) on the project that receives the most contributions. Since dupeGuru receives many more contributions than moneyGuru, more of it was allocated to timelogs from "Hardcoded Software" and "OpenHS" projects.

The "Unpaid hours history" graph is also a bit skewed by this change because it's as if there always were a couple of unpaid hours to the dupeGuru project, when in fact dupeGuru hours have always been promptly and completely compensated in the last 90 days.

I love the Kindle but...

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

...reading PDF files on it really sucks! So, I bought a Kindle two months ago and I love it. The screen really makes reading a pleasure (for those who think that an iPad can double as an ebook reader: you have no idea how electronic paper makes a difference). I spent most of my reading time reading out-of-copyright books which you can get for free (like Alexandre Dumas, I love that guy). However, one of the things I wanted to do with it, and, frankly, what justified the purchase (because otherwise, it takes a lot of free/cheap books to make you save the equivalent of a Kindle) was that I could read articles that I found on the web. I also wanted to subscribe to the electronic edition of the Monde Diplomatique (PDF) and read it on the Kindle. I saw that the latest Kindle had native PDF support so I thought that it would work fine.

Well, no. The problem with PDFs on the Kindle is that you have no control over font size like you do with normal books. The font is often a bit too small to read confortably. There's a zoom feature, but it's rather awkward to use. In the case of the Monde Diplomatique, it's even worse because pages are huge. You absolutely have to use the zoom, and with all the text columns all over the place, you spend more time zooming around than doing actual reading.

All of this is why I started PdfMasher which I introduce to you today. It's still in very early development (I'll consider it v1.0 when I can "mash" the Monde Diplomatique), but it's quite powerful already. If you also need to "mash" some PDFs on your ebook device, please try it and let me know how it goes!