James Purser [INSERT WITTY CATCHPHRASE HERE]

Okay here's the next release of Planning Alerts AU.

This version now checks to see if GPS or Wireless Location Detection services are activated and prompts you if they aren't. Changed the Icon and marker graphics (if anyone wants to contribute graphically, please feel free :)).

So here it is:

Planning Alerts AU - 0.6

Okay, here's version 0.4 of planningalertsau, the android app I'm building based on the Planning Alerts API.

In this version I've fixed the following:

Map crashes when there are 0 alerts

• Added About dialog
• Preferences Menu option now works in AlertsDisplay
• Alert TextView now clickable (calls AlertWebDisplay and displays Planning Alerts Page for specific Alert)
• AlertDisplay now shows a message if there are no results

Now, there are still councils for whom Planning Alerts doesn't have results for and they are still looking for help, so if you want to contribute please head along and let them know

As always if you have a bug, please submit it here. It would be helpful if you could include the following information:

• Suburb
• State
• Postcode
• Longitude and Latitude

It'll help me when testing to see if the issue is a Planning Alerts or planningalertsau issue :)

I finally had enough time to sit down and have another crack at the Android App I'm building based on the very cool planning alerts api.

This new release has added basic google maps integration. Once you have successfully returned a list of alerts you can hit the menu button and select Map to view the various alerts.

How to use it:

On a fresh install, before you select an option, you need to fill out your address details, to do this, select the Menu button and then Preferences. Fill out your details and you'll be set.

Future Features:

Saved Searches: Currently the app pulls down a fresh set of results with every call. This needs to be changed so that the user can select a search that they want to keep track of

Request Settings on Initial Launch: Users need to be directed to fill out their details when they first launch the app

Future Bug Fixes:

Error Handling: currently there is really very little error handling within the app. This means we have situations where the app will crash if you attempt to view a null list of alerts.

Any way here's the QR Code:

Edit:

And thanks to Simon Rumble for the first "defect" :)

 Two months ago I wrote a post entitled "The Bidding has begun" At the time it was about the fact that the Government had suspended the processing of Sri Lankan/Tamil and Afghani asylum seekers, due to "improvements in the home countries" and Tony Abbotts predictable response.

Well today our new Prime Minister, Julia Gillard decided that she was going step into the bidding war.

Today Gillard announced the following proposal:

• A "Regional Processing Centre" to be established in Dili
• All arrivals by boat to be sent to Dili for processing, thus ensuring that no boat arrival is processed on Australian soil

There was no announcement of what would happen to the asylum seekers if they are found to be genuine, how they would be housed in Dili (I'm assuming Australia is going to be spending up big to build the sort of infrastructure that's going to be required) and if they would be allowed freedom of movement in Dili or whether it would just be moving the facilities at Christmas Island to another country.

So now we have a choice of off shoring policies for asylum seekers, either we vote for Labor and off shore them to Dili or we vote for the Coalition and off shore them to somewhere else.

Sigh.

The thing that has annoyed me the most about this whole sordid piece has been the fact that Gillard has leapt with both feet into the "asylum seekers are scary" camp. Rather than take the time to explain that Boat arrivals account for less than squat in our immigration scheme, that they are outnumbered by at least 25 to 1 by known visa overstayers, she has decided that it is politically more expedient to play to the fears.

People keep forgetting to add that last bit on when describing Julia Gillard. I've seen the first three mentioned on the twitters any number of time since she got the job, and this sense of "wow, it's all going to change" has been building amongst certain parts of the community. Except it's not, not one bit.

Gillard may represent a number of firsts for Australia, but what she isn't is Australias's first Labor Prime Minister, and she sure as hell doesn't want to be the last.

She's already decided that the "fears of western sydney" regarding boat people need to be validated rather than managed and dealt with in any in depth manner. The ETS remains dead (sorry, postponed until 2013 - notice that's after the next election, not just this one), and the government will be negotiating with the Miners until after the coming election. These are not the actions of a social reformer, rather a political player trying to damp down the fires of discontent in the electorate so she can clear the way for the election.

Oh yes, she's also declared that she's going to continue the Labor Party policy of denying gay couples the right to marry. She has declared this as her personal belief, so don't expect any movement on that any time soon.

Labor has been moving steadily to the right for a number of years now. I do not see Gillard arresting that move, particularly as she owes her position to the Right of the Party. If you want socially progressive policies then you're going to have to look to the Greens (who have their own issues).

Hey Google,

Look, I have to say, I love the Android. It represents all that Apple is not, a truly open platform that lowers the barrier of entry for new developers across multiple industrial segments (you know, phones, tablets, tv's and so on).

However I had to do something I really didn't want to yesterday. I had to buy an ipod touch so I could start learning how to code for the iphone family. Do you know why? Because I can't sell apps in the android marketplace, and neither can anyone else unless they're in a very small group of countries. Sure I can distribute apps for free (which I will be doing once the openaustraliasearchdroid and planningalertsau apps are at version 1.0) but seriously, if you want to tap that market of iphone developers, you're going to have to open up the market.

Why can't I sell any apps? Is it due to the fact that the Google Checkout system doesn't appear to support Australian merchants either? I've tried looking for an official explanation but I've struck out. There's lots of assumptions and rumours, but nothing there to re-assure people that the issue is going to be dealt with soon.

Look Google, I like you (I don't trust you completely, but that's another story). I love Wave, Gmail and your search rocks my world. Hell I've interviewed twice with your unique HR process. The people I've dealt with in Google have been decent, enthusiastic and knowledgable, let's not let a simple thing like a borked marketplace programme  get between us hey?

 A long time ago, not so far away I used to participate in Venturers (that's the next level up after Scouts for the uninitiated). As you would expect for such a youth organisation, there was a good deal of focus on out doors activities, including camping, caving, abseiling and so on.

It was on my first (and as it turns out last*) caving trip that I discovered an excellent way to satisfy that urge to set fire to something and be completely and utterly physical (and stupid) at the same time.

Fireball

I won't describe the exact details here (just in case some poor simple minded waif decides to replicate it and ends up setting fire to themselves or their cat). Needless to say I roasted one pair of tracksuit pants and a good pair of joggers, but I scored twice :)

What's the dumbest, most dangerous game you've played?

* I actually found out that I'm claustrophobic that weekend. After I spent half and hour struggling through a small cave system. It took me ten minutes to get back out.

 So Australia has its first woman Prime Minister, it's very historical and all that but I'm just not feeling the "I was there when it happened" type vibe.

Perhaps it's because with two female Premiers currently serving, and any number of female politicians (Wollongong and its surrounds are almost exclusively represented by women), a woman PM seems to have been just a matter of time rather than some giant hurdle that we had to be fighting to overcome.

Whatever the reason I'm more concerned with seeing where PM Gillard takes the party and the country.

She is not a clean skin when it comes to the Governments policies up until now. She, as the Deputy Prime Minister has been neck deep in policy development, and in fact was instrumental in convincing Rudd to drop the Emissions Trading Scheme (this I think is the moment when the slide to oblivion for Rudd started). So once the "First Female PM" gloss wears off, she's going to have to work hard to convince the people that she's something different.

I think she's going to go to an early election (possibly August/September). Her commitment to not live in the Lodge until her leadership has been validated by an election (Yes I know she doesn't get elected as PM, but the party leader affects the vote), plus the move to cut off the mining tax as an issue would seem to indicate that she'll be clearing the decks and aiming for her own mandate.

Just a quick note to let everyone know that version 0.2 is now out.

This version has definitely fixed the 1.5/1.6 version installation problems as well as the JSONArray issues I was having before.

I've also been asked to consider building an iphone version of the app. I'm looking at what's required, but the first step seems to be download 2.3GB of code (including iPhone Emulator and IDE), which makes Androids development environment seem positively anorexic by comparison. 

Anyway, heres the new version

It's been a while since I last did anything with the OpenAustralia Search Droid so I thought I would give it another crack. Over the weekend I've brought it up to what I think is worthy of a 0.1 release and in fact have taken it a little further.

It is a very basic project, something more along the lines of a teaching project, but it has the following features:

• House Of Reps Member Search: By entering the name of the seat you will now get very basic information about the member, including a picture of the member and a listing of the last 20 Hansard mentions. Note this feature actually dies horribly on 1.5 and 1.6 enabled devices, something to do with how it handles a JSONArray.
• Senate Member Search: This is an incredibly basic search. Select the state you wish to search from the drop down and it will produce a list of the Senators for that State or Territory. Note I've also had reports of this crashing for similar reasons on 1.5 and 1.6 based devices.
• Search Hansard: Basic keyword searching of Hansard is allowed. However there are bugs here as well :)

To grab the package go here

If you want to look at the source or log an issue then please drop by here

There is a lot of work to be done yet, both on stupid bugs and features, however it has allowed me to learn a bit more about how Android works.