Welcome to my little place on the web.

I'm a software developer and occasionally when time allows, I like to blog about my various coding project here. I also like to tinker with home automation, retro gaming and more.

I have also shared some of my software, which I hope may be of use to others. It's on my software page.

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Trex Runner update, now supports Android TV

Over Christmas I purchased a new TV that runs Android. Just for a bit of fun, I made some minor code changes to the Trex Runner application that was released back in August. The application just uses a webview to run the javascript endless runner game in Chrome. It's not the smoothest experience, but then it is just javascript.

trex_androidtv.png

You can download at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nellyfish.trex... read more

Dave Dangerous update, now supports iCade arcade cabinet

Just released a minor update to Dave Dangerous. It now supports the ION iCade arcade cabinet. There is also some minor bug fixes and image updates.

If you have not downloaded it yet, please give it a go at play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nellyfish.davedangerous

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#coding #android

New website nellyfish.com

Now that I have a few games in the Google play store, I thought it was about time that I created a website. Why the name nellyfish? Well, I was struggling to think of a simple, easy to remember name. At the time, my daughter kept drawing what looked like a jellyfish, so it stuck. Unfortunatly, jellyfish.com was unavailable, so it became nellyfish.com.

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The website is a simple one page affair. I used html5 and jquery to give a simple transition effect when the mouse moves over the images. It could take a few seconds to load the image... read more

Dave Dangerous hits the Google Play Store

My first full featured game is now in the Google play store. Join Dave in his quest to save his beautiful girlfriend, Daphne, from the clutches of Evil Steve! Fight through 40 levels of nostalgic platform mayhem. It's free and it's available on Android. Click the image below to be directed to the Google play store.

davedangerous.jpg

Well, for something that was origina... read more

Another week, another app on Google Play, meet TREX

Just a short entry today. A few days ago, I was having internet problems, and by accident I managed to press the space bar on the 'you are offline' page in chrome. To my amazement that cute little retro dinosaur came to life and became a great little addictive game!

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After a bit of investigation I discovered this easter egg was added to Chrome earlier this year. As the source code is all open source, over in the Chromium repositories. I got the javascript and created a simple Android application using a webview. You will need to be running... read more

Can't believe I did it!

Well after 35 years of never touching anything Apple, I have finally got a Mac. Getting seriously into mobile development, it has made me realise that for iOS apps I'm really going to need a Mac. I started going down the route of VMWare on my Windows box, but finally decided to bite the bullet and get a Mac.

So... here it is, a bottom of the range i5 Mac Mini. So far I have installed Xcode. Still lots to learn as the whole thing is so alien to me!

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#coding #ios #mobile

First mobile app Profit Accumulator in the Play Store!

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote a post. Most of my evenings have been busy with a website a friend told me about called Profit Accumulator. It's a great a site, with lots of videos that explain how to do matched betting. This is not gambling. It's a system where you place bets on all outcomes, so you can't lose. You then do the same with the free bet and pocket the money! It's all legal and completely tax free! I have been doing it for over a month, following the member offers, and made over £1,000. If you're in the UK, I would recommend you sign-up for the free membership and make an easy &poun... read more

USB motion sensor to wake Kitchen touchscreen using a Arduino and PIR

Now that I have the touch screen fitted in the Kitchen, I needed a convenient way to wake the tablet. I was hoping that just swiping the screen would wake it up, but unfortunately not.

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After a little bit of internet searching, I came across a blog entry on dotmana.com. The site goes through the steps to create a motion detector to wake the screen, using a Arduino and PIR sensor. This was almost perfect, except it ... read more

Spam Spam Spam

No I'm not talking about the tinned porky ham that Monty Python likes to sing about. It's the electronic type. I added the option to add comments to my site a few months ago. Being aware that this could be abused I coded some email notification.

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Late last night I received over 300 emails notifying me that comments had been added to one of my blog entries. Anything from Obama healthcare to Casio slot machines. All linked to various other sites with 404 errors. I don't believe they were malicious, just simply to increase other sites r... read more

Leaning Java - Android game development

I have been meaning to learn Java for a while a now, but as usual it’s all about finding the time. Over the last few weeks I have been fortunate enough to come across the brilliant Java tutorials over on Kilobolt.com. Not only do they cover Java basics, but they continue to step you through creating your own framework for game development. Then port them across to Android via the Android Studio IDE.

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At the end of the tutorial you have a one level robot platform game, shown above. The development has gone fairly smoothly. ... read more

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