Big trip back in time.  I've got some pages I built from the mid nineties sitting around on my hard drive as well as the copy of "The Complete Idiots Guide to JavaScript" which I learned some basics on back in 1997. I think my biggest memory of this time period was doing an extremely complex site layout in tables and when modifications came into the layout spending a good hour or two reworking how the table was all set up.

Aspirant developers are told they have to learn HAML, LESS, CoffeeScript, React and whatever else fly-by-night bullshit Hacker News is spruiking. Honestly, I don’t care. I’ve tuned out at this point, and I’m not alone.

Which is why I love Glitch, from Fog Creek. We’ve written about this site before. Essentially, it’s a playground where you can remix other people’s code in a safe and self-contained environment.

A lot of people practicing Agile or Lean forget that what it primarily boils down to is a way to more quickly get value in front of customers, test their reactions and pivot accordingly.

Most organizations don’t test their innovation ideas with quick experiments to generate real-world evidence. Instead, they rely on in-house opinions, or conversations with lead customers to vet ideas. When data-driven experiments are run (like market surveys), they often take too long, cost too much or deliver little new insight to develop the idea.

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Nice overview of the OCEAN project. The platform my team has created makes a great segue into OCEAN.

Princess is the perfect choice to first receive the technology as it really is a natural evolution of its award-winning Princess@Sea mobile app, which continues to be offered fleet-wide as the new rollout will surely eventually supersede it. After Regal Princess, Royal Princess and Caribbean Princess will be next to feature Ocean Medallion in early 2018.

Very proud of what my team has been able to accomplish with the platform that we rolled out across the princess fleet over the past couple years.  More great things to come!

After first demoing the app and speaking directly with Nate Craddock, project lead for guest experience applications, it’s a treat to see that Princess Cruises’ ace Princess@Sea mobile app has recently won a well deserved 2016 Acquia Engage Award.

Also liked this bit quite a bit as it is exactly what we have been working toward.

From my own personal experience using the app, I can attest that it is indeed user-friendly and marks one of the best cruise line endeavors for digitizing and bettering the guest experience, one that is a model that more should mimic. 

Short write up on all the initiatives going on in seagoing hospitality.  Of course I'm adding a quote from myself :D

But Wi-Fi isn't the only way to get online. Princess Cruise Lines has recently deployed an app to its entire fleet of 17 ships so passengers can communicate with each other on board for free—a boon on a ship that is a thousand feet long. The Princess app includes menus, an option for rating on-board restaurants, and real-time information updates on excursions and events on the ship, said Nate Craddock, project lead for guest experience applications for Princess Cruise Lines.

Fascinating digital archeology and commentary on one of the standards I work with quite often.

Reminder to be mindful of your surroundings.  Just because AR is overlaid on the real world, doesn't mean all life is a game.

>Get a life and stay out of my yard!

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Pretty great to look through the git repo. Take a look at the code through the lens of today's conventions. Working in a constrained environment myself (though nothing like these guys) is a great motivator for finding interesting ways of doing things, while still injecting some fun.

The code and its comments has lots of in jokes: an injunction to the astronaut to "crank the silly thing around"; a file called "PINBALL_GAME_BUTTONS_AND_LIGHTS.s"; a subroutine called "BURN_BABY_BURN--MASTER_IGNITION_ROUTINE.agc" and a comment about "TRASHY LITTLE SUBROUTINES" -- and, of course, some Shakespeare ("IT WILL BE PROVED TO THY FACE THAT THOU HAST MEN ABOUT THEE THAT/USUALLY TALK OF A NOUN AND A VERB, AND SUCH ABOMINABLE WORDS AS NO/CHRISTIAN EAR CAN ENDURE TO HEAR.").

Nice overview of our project.  I'll always put quotes of myself:

"There has always been a need to deliver value to passengers, and this is a way to further enhance the experience," Craddock says.

And my co project leads, Hillary:

The Drupal development platform was a key to building the system, says co-project lead Hillary Neaf. The company began using the open-source framework in 2007 to develop its corporate Internet framework. "It provides a high level of flexibility and the level of security we required," she explains. "We have also benefited from the community support, and have used a lot of the Drupal forum and group input to develop the initiative."

And Subbu

"Princess@Sea delivers digital transformation in a disconnected environment," says co-project lead Subbu Hariharan. "It's an exciting and challenging proposition."

This was the specific reason we went to a web app rather than a native app, speed to market. e can update and deploy

One of the few lines to make its app available fleet wide is Princess Cruises, in part because Princess@Sea is a website accessible through a browser rather than a downloadable program. That approach made it easier to implement, and it is accessible on laptops, at terminals in the ship's Internet cafe and for devices other than mobile phones and tablets.

There are other considerations when working with an environment like a cruise ship as well, particularly that we can deploy to the ships multiple times per week to add features and fix bugs.  On a ship with limited internet bandwidth, we just couldn't ask our passengers to download a new app every time we wanted to add something or fix something.