Hot code, cool nights!
IanAbstract In this post, I chronicle my flight bag history, review what I am looking for in a flight bag and provide a short list of bags that caught my attention after many hours searching the internet. For each bag on the shortlist, I give a brief summary of the key things that attracted me to the bag and the things that put me off. For those who want to cut to the chase, I almost went for … Read more
It’s been a busy couple of months at Cold Arid Code, with efforts over the last couple of months being concentrated on building two websites for a non-profit wildlife organisation based in West London, followed by the migration of a third non-profit organisation website to a new hosting provider. I am not a professional web developer but I have a background in programming from my previous day job and some history with developing an early … Read more
PilotCalc version 2.1.0 is now available on the Apple App Store! This is a big update, incorporating a number of requested features, a few that have been on the roadmap for a while and a smattering of bug fixes. Calculator Changes The most obvious change is the addition of two new calculator types to join the default hours and minutes (HH:MM) calculator: First up is a decimal time calculator for those who prefer to work … Read more
TimeTick version 1.0 has been available on the App Store now for a little under a year and in that time it hasn’t received any updates, unlike the considerably more popular PilotCalc, which is now at version 2.0.8, reflecting one major and a good number of minor revisions. As a user of TimeTick, as well as the developer, I have occasionally come across a bug in the notification system causing some spurious notifications and … Read more
This is a review of the NanoComm GA2 pilot headset from Puretone. In summary, I like this headset. It is small, lightweight and relatively inexpensive. Audio clarity is excellent but it is less effective at external noise suppression than an active noise-cancelling headset. My biggest reservation is the unproven durability of the clips and headset wiring. For anyone in the North of England looking to buy this headset, I would strongly recommend the services … Read more
In mid-July, I started a substantial revamp of PilotCalc with a view to combining the Flight List and the Flight Log views into a single scrolling view which would manage both data entry and display. To do this, I took advantage of lessons learned in building TimeTick (my other app) and I believe that the resulting scrolling Flights view is both simpler and more usable, as well as scaling better for different screen sizes. As … Read more
Towards the end of November last year, I started mulling over the idea of a time-stamped checklist. The idea was inspired by the day job, which, on occasions, requires tracking the completion time of certain tasks to ensure an audit trail in the event of a delay. I looked unsuccessfully on the app store for a tool that would meet my requirements. Whilst to-do lists are plentiful, habit trackers numerous, and short term timers and … Read more
In a previous post I mentioned that I was planning a new version of PilotCalc but also indicated that this was still some distance in the future. The timescale still applies, but nonetheless I have, in odd spare moments, been toying with some ideas some of which are outlined in this post. The Flights Tab Consolidated Screens: I have concluded, that one major improvement would be to combine the Flight List and Flight Log into … Read more
I read an interesting headline the other day, in a well known publication, which suggested that the M1 MacBook Air just got a powerful rival in the form of the 2021 LG Gram computer. The article went on to review the device in question and concluded that it offers serious competition to the new MacBook Air. It is a well written article and a good review of what is, I have no doubt, an excellent … Read more
I wrote previously about redesigning the Cold Arid Code logo to be consistent with the colour scheme chosen for the icons on PilotCalc and TimeTick but I realised, when working on the initial views for TimeTick, that whilst the PilotCalc icon conforms to the scheme, the application itself doesn’t. This led me to revisit the PilotCalc storyboard to make a few small changes to the colour scheme; specifically the menu and navigation bars, to bring … Read more
