Well, it took me a while, but I finally got a new release of my web based meditation timer out of the door.  This has taken a while, but with one thing and another I’ve been a little preoccupied.

This release adds a choice of 4 backgrounds and fixes a CSS bug in the page.  My next release is intened to have a little love given to the design of the form and some more sounds.

On the subject of sound.  I’ve been asked for a version of this timer for folks on smart phones and other devices that don’t have Flashplayer.  I am looking into it, but sound in browsers is unreliable and nonstandard, to put it nicely.  It seems that HTML 5 will solve this problem quite finally and I will be able to lose the dependency on Flashplayer.

HTML 5 is due towards the end of 2010, if my informration in correct, if I can get it going earlier than that I will try to  do so.

You can find Sitquietly on this page.

I’ve been taking notice of the feedback I’ve received on the online version of my meditation timer. I’d like to thank everyone who’s given me feedback and I’ve made a few changes to it.

This is what I’ve changed:

• Added details to instructions to clarify what to expect when running the timer.
• Changed wording and meta tags to use the phrase online timer.
• changed header when inside the timer to be a lot smaller, this should be better for smaller screens.
• Added a changelog that incorporates the pre-existing desktop changelog.

You can find my online medition timer here.

A couple of years ago, I wrote a little program called SitQuietly.  This is a GNU/Linux meditation timer, nothing fancy, just a simple tool for a simple enough job.  Just as it should be.

Well, just as the original filled a couple of needs I had, namely to learn Python and to get a Free Software meditation timer, I’m very pleased to announce that there is a new kid on the block.

I needed to get back into web design, PHP, HTML and CSS.  I’d also had the idea of of a completely web based version of my timer knocking about in my mind for about a year.  Well, I started it and then had data loss and got busy.  But I restarted it from memory very recently and after some work and a little swearing at Internet Explorer (don’t ask) you can find the results of my endeavours at http://sitquietly.quietwatercourse.co.uk/.

Now I’ve tested this on the most recent versions of all major browsers and as long as you have your Javascript turned on and an up to date copy of Adobe Flash Player, you should be laughing.  If you find a problem, or think things could be clearer, don’t be shy, tell me!

And yes… those are the words “Facebook Edition” on the site, I’ll keep everyone posted on that one… after the Web Edition itself only took a year to emerge! Lol!

Thanks to Peter from The Buddha Diaries, I’ve realised that there is another easy way to install Sitquietly. I’m kicking myself a bit for not realising it sooner and I’ve updated the Sitquietly page with that.

Thanks for the nudge Peter!