_{Jamie Balfour's}Personal blog

Every version of iOS is a masterpiece of artistry and creativity that makes designers reconsider their design language, particularly in the field of technology. 

An example of that was when Apple began to remove curved user experiences from its operating systems several design teams across the world saw this and followed suit. 

Version 3.x of my website focused on the move from skeuomorphic things like my notepad-style notes, box shadows everywhere and generally ugly interface to a much flatter interface. The interface was very square. This is how most flat interfaces start off. Apple's did, and back then square designs were in and curved ones were out. But slowly but surely Apple's own design language has changed to encourage the use of subtle curves in their operating system.

Well, you may or may not have noticed, that some subtle curves have made their way into my website, and it all started with something as simple as my little quick alert box (try running a code sample of my website to see what I mean). You'll also have noticed that all the buttons on my website are curved too. This change is minor and fairly unlike the version 3.0 move from skeuomorphic elements to flat ones, but it's important and it's been received very well. 

As part of the JavaScript tutorial on my website, I introduced testing code live on my website. Testing code was a major piece of making the tutorial work, but it was always going to be very straightforward with JavaScript and require no real security concerns since it runs in the user's browser.

Today I began to develop a way of testing both PHP and Python samples that exist on my website. I aim to have this ready by mid-March but it is slowly being rolled out across my tutorials with much of the PHP tutorial already set up for this. 

I'm hoping this will be useful and bring further benefits to using my tutorials which I'm very proud of.

Here is another one of my traditional posts that I have been doing for each year (though I decided against it in 2019). This is to keep traditions going.

Last meal I ate: Spaghetti Carbonara

Last thing I had to drink with a meal: Coca Cola

Last place I went out to eat: The Waterside Bistro/Glenkinchie Distillery

Last film I watched: Pan's Labyrinth

Last game I played: Warcraft III

Last song I listened to: Feliz Navidad

Last person I have sent a text to: My mother

Last friend I have spoken to in person: Campbell

Last TV programme I have watched: Scotland's Hogmanay Live

Last major purchase for myself: A new desk chair

2020 was a difficult year because of COVID-19. However, there were some major positives for me this year and it has made the year easier than it could have been. 

Celebrations may have already started in New Zealand for 2021 but we've still got 2020 for 12 more hours so let's look back. 2020 has no doubt been one of the toughest years for most of the people on the planet. For me personally, it started with my uncle Mel passing away in March. This was an absolute shock to us all and he is missed by us all very much.

Then COVID came along and brought a whole new meaning to change. The whole lockdown back in March until May meant a huge number of changes for us all.

But of course, there were positives in my life. 

For a start, I became a fully qualified teacher in July and got a job at a school I absolutely love working at, and it's a school I wasn't sure about until the day of the interview when I learned so much about the place and why it's the best school I've worked at. 

Further to that, I put down a reservation on a house (again, third time lucky). This time it is definitely going through. And it also was a stroke of luck that I get 5% off the house price for being a keyworker (a teacher). On top of that, I got the First Home Fund just in time (my house is complete literally 2 weeks before the fund gets cut) and I got a much larger, three-bedroom house.

Further to this, I have been able to save both my deposit and get myself a new iPad Pro, MacBook Pro and iPhone 12. I am definitely enjoying having a decent amount of money.

The company also grew considerably this year, obtaining three new big clients. We also had two applicants for a job post that we put out (neither were suitable) and we aim to do the same with this next year. 

To top of the year, I passed my theory driving test again (it lapsed so I needed to redo it).

It's a scary thought, but 2021 is the year I turn 30! 2020 wasn't all bad for me personally, but I still live in hope that 2021 is a better year. 

2020 has been a strange and different year and for many of us, Christmas will be different this year compared with normal. Keep safe and have a Merry Christmas!

This is a very interesting read on why Apple's M1 chip is so powerful.

Visual Voicemail is now available on the Vodafone phone network on iPhones. Yesterday when I was about to press the Phone Voicemail button I have grown used to I realised I had something different. This is the first time I have had Visual Voicemail since my original iPhone back in 2009 with the O2 network.

After a long time of a very square/rectangular look to my website, I have brought back subtle curves here and there across the website. These curves are designed to make things like buttons more obvious as well as add to separation. There has been a lot of exploration around what suits it and what doesn't but I think the changes I have made are very clean and follow design techniques of today.

For example, input boxes and windows now have curves. You may have also noticed that I have introduced a new quick alert to the site as well as the newest version of BalfPick.

I'm aiming to make my design a combination of curved buttons and elements built on a flat design and think I've done it well so far.