when is a number not a number?

text inputs are still best for collecting some numbers on web forms—especially if the user might wish to enter non-numeric formatting characters such as spaces, dashes, letters. Serial numbers and credit card numbers are prime examples.

Sometimes when designing a web form, you need to ask the customer a question where their answer will be a number. Now with HTML5, browsers have started supporting a number input field: Sounds like a perfect fit, right?

But wait a minute—are you really sure the “number” you are asking for really is a number? What is a number anyway? If you are rushing to use the HTML5 number input, a number is a “valid floating point number”.

You see there are lots of things we (humans) call “numbers”—but not all of them are valid floating point numbers. Below are 2 problems I have encountered with differing definition of numbers.

Recently I was ordering pizza from dominos on my iPhone. At the payment stage, I had to enter my credit card number. I like to enter it as it appears on my card—with spaces. It is easier to read and check this way. Imagine my surprise when I moved to the next field, and had the first 4 digits formatted as “4,111” and the rest of the digits thrown away. I had to tap out the digits again, and even then it was formatted as “4,111,111,111,111,111”. It worked, but—ugh. Don’t use input type="number" for credit card numbers.

We had a similar situation at work a couple of years back, with ABN. An ABN is always displayed in the format: 53 004 085 616.

Customers could enter their ABN how they wished (including spaces). I was surprised to find the confirmation and receipts screens showing the ABN with the spaces removed, like so: 53004085616. I knew I had not coded the UI that way, and when I raised it as a bug I was told emphatically by a developer that an ABN was a number and that they were now storing it as such and this was how it should be.

There’s some truth in that. But when it comes to how data is presented to end users, the format should be designed for clarity. When there is an existing convention—as there is for ABN—displaying data in that familiar format is best. Happily we resolved the ABN disagreement with a little regexp that put the spaces in for the UI.

Next time you’re working with a number—think about what kind of number it really is.

Suggested input types for different numbers

Type of number	Suggested HTML5 input type	Why?
Street address	text	Examples: 3A, 4/353
Postcode	text	May contain spaces or letters (varies by country)
Phone number	tel	Specifically for phone numbers
ABN	text	Contains spaces by convention
Credit card number	text	Contains spaces by convention
Serial number	text	Frequently contains letters or spaces
Dates	various date and time options	May contain dashes, slashes, words (month names)
other number	number	might be ok

Complaint to federal government re ineligible for solar hot water rebate

Hi,

I received a letter today stating that we are ineligible for the solar hot water rebate because our application was submitted more than 2 months after the installation date. I am so angry about this, but I will try to keep calm and hope we can sort it out.

Firstly. We participated in the Queensland Government Solar Hot Water Program (now closed). We heard about it in 2009 and I posted in our application form on 19 October 2009. Lucky I kept a note about that.

We had an inspection and paid out $500 plus some extra fees (for piping and council I believe) to the retailer assigned us: Conergy. This was around Feb 2010. Sorry my records are flaky in this instance.

On the 14th of May I sent this tweet to the Qld Premier (Anna Bligh) asking why we had any action on our solar hot water installation. Here is the tweet: http://twitter.com/#!/bboyle/status/13969408212

I didn’t expect much from this but Anna replied personally and we had Conergy ring us on 18 May and send Coastal Solar to install the system on Wednesday 26 May 2010.

Let us pause for a moment, and note how long it took for that to happen. The wheels turn slowly don’t they?

I wanted to send the application to you immediately. We had to approve a direct debit request with Queensland Government who can take $1600 any time should we not get the federal rebate. In fact we are only allowed 7 days to contact them from after you contacted us to advise them. I have already had to put them off once (called them on 20 December) to let them know I was waiting on a response from you! Let us pause again to note the time we are allowed here. It’s not much is it? You guys (governments!) sure expect a lot from the people, but don’t give much in return!! Back to the story…

I read the documentation carefully. We have the “Energy Efficient Homes Package Solar Hot Water Rebate Guidelines and application form” from the Australian Government. It was issued on 2 November 2009 and “applicable” until 30 June 2012 according to the inside cover. I can scan a copy for you if required. It states that we have six months to submit the application including proof of purchase to you, NOT two months as stated in your recent letter. It does state the Australian Government reserves the right to “change the rebate amount or any other aspect of the guidelines”—which I gather must have happened at some point. Please inform me when, why, and how this information was made available to customers likely to be affected. Did you inform the Queensland Government and expect them to inform us in turn?

Regardless, it is likely we missed the six months because we were waiting on a council inspection. It is also an eligibility requirement of your program that the hot water system is installed to relevant building standards, which includes the council inspection. If I had posted the application in at that time you could have claimed it was not eligible on those grounds.

In June/July, the council claimed not to have the necessary paperwork and I was unsuccessful in two attempts to follow this up with Moreton Bay Regional Council, Conergy and Coastal Solar. I do have an email from the council dated 29 June 2010 advising me that a council inspection was necessary. It was after that I had to call everyone to try to get that to happen. Since this occurred on the phone, I do not have accurate records. Conergy claimed Coastal Solar should have done the inspection, Coastal Solar said I needed a special number from the council before they did anything, and the council claimed they had no requests nor records of any plumbing work at our residence whatsoever. What can a person do in a situation like this I ask you?

On 31 October we noticed the hot water tank on the roof was leaking. We had Coastal Solar come back to repair it and asked about the inspection when their plumber was on site. This would have been early/mid November 2010. I can’t find any paperwork from that but I know we posted the application to you around that time—possibly you have my paperwork.

These are all my reasons why our application was delayed. It is extremely unfair that we should be left to foot a $1600 bill as a result. Our application was sent in as soon as we had the inspection sorted. Please contact me as soon as possible to discuss—I would very much like you to reconsider your stance on the eligibility of my application.

regards
Ben Boyle

Update 2 February 2011

No reply from the federal government yet, but I called the Queensland Government and they knew all about this situation. Have given me an address to post information to—fingers crossed that works out. (Of course, atm, we’re all crossing our fingers that Cyclone Yasi does not do too much damage when it crosses the coast in the next couple of hours!)

I also found a few key dates in my iPhone SMS history:

25–26 May 2010

Our hot water system was installed over 2 days.

25 October 2010

We first noticed the pipes on the roof were leaking—and fixed them. We found them leaking again on 31 October and got help.

2 November 2010

Plumber fixed leak and did inspection—“He said he will send in a form saying he has done an inspection to the cab council. All we have to do is send in the white forms with proof of purchase to the fed govt.”

Update 7 Feb 2011

Got my reply from the Australian Government today. It is decidedly not plain-English, but the gist is “no” and “contact the Queensland Government”―so it’s a good thing I already did that. Very disappointed to see them acting like a monopoly in this manner, and hoping the Queensland Government behave differently.

Dear Mr Boyle

Thank you for your query regarding the Australian Government’s Renewable Energy Bonus Scheme – Solar Hot Water Rebate (REBS).

On 19 February 2010 the Australian Government announced the new Renewable Energy Bonus Scheme (REBS). This new Scheme replaced the Solar Hot Water Rebate which was discontinued as of close of business 19 February 2010.

As indicated in the program guidelines the Government reserves the right to make changes to the program at any time. However arrangements were put in place for people who installed, paid for or ordered their hot water systems prior to 20 February 2010. Eligible solar or heat pump hot water systems installed prior to 20 February 2010 may have been assessed as eligible for a $1,600 rebate for solar hot water or $1,000 for a heat pump hot water system, if proof of purchase and installation prior to 20 February 2010 was included with the application.

Applications under these arrangements – including any supporting documentation – must have been received by the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency by Friday, 14 May 2010.

Under the new REBS – Solar Hot Water Rebate applicants have two months (62 days) from installation to apply for the rebate.

As your rebate application was received after 14 May 2010 it was not eligible for the former Solar Hot Water Rebate. It was also received after the two month (62 day) timeframe for submission of an application for REBS – Solar Hot Water Rebate.

Therefore as advised previously your application has been deemed ineligible for a rebate.

However the Government also provides an incentive to all households to install climate friendly hot water systems in the form of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). RECs are assigned by the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator as part of the Renewable Energy Target scheme and reflect the deemed value of equivalent renewable energy generation over a ten year period. Solar and heat pump hot water systems are assigned a number of RECs and these are commonly bought back by the retailer through a discount of around $1,000 off the upfront cost of the system.

In addition to the environmental benefits of a solar or heat pump hot water system, households may also receive ongoing economic benefits through installation of such a system. Users of a solar or heat pump hot water system may reduce their energy bills by hundreds of dollars per year in comparison to using an electric storage hot water system. This saving is dependent on local climate and household hot water use patterns.

Please contact the Queensland Government’s Office of Clean Energy to discuss your contractual arrangements and any provisions available for people who have been affected by delayed receipts under the Queensland Solar Hot Water Program.

www.cleanenergy.qld.gov.au/… or by phone: 13 25 23.

Regards

Household Water Rebates Section
Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency
GPO Box 854
CANBERRA ACT 2601

Walking with gadgets and social media

Ah the fun you can have with an iPhone, a couple of apps, a 3G connection to social media and a bus that sometimes doesn’t wait when the train is late.

Burn 239Kcal walking 4.32km in 47½ minutes. Log it all with kinetic.

Take some pictures as you walk and post ‘em all using instagram!

Keep an eye on your heart rate: 105 beats per minute when I was nearly home (back down to 54bpm now).

And an oldie but goodie, listen to great music with the iPod!

Complaint to Unitywater

I’m getting pretty sick of all these expensive bills. TransLink cranked up their rates 15% this week—and still ran their train late so I had to walk home when a bus didn’t wait yesterday—and the combination of rates/water bills has been nasty for a while now. Particularly the water component, which has increased by 33%. So today I paid ¾ of my bill (what it was before the 33% hike) and I emailed ask.us@unitywater.com about it. Need to rant.

Hi,

We received our quarterly bill yesterday. I have been comparing charges on these bills and rates notices to the charges we had before council separated the rates and water charges. The upshot, we pay almost $100 more per month for water and sewerage now—close to $400 where before it was close to $300. There has been no satisfactory explanation given for this price hike of 33%! (and I include the unitywater update spruiking your business and projects—how about you save money and DO NOT print it in the first place, and then pass those savings on.)

I have paid $300 towards my account and will not pay more until a satisfactory explanation of these price increase is given.

You have until 24 February to reply and allow me to pay my account by the due date, or we shall have a glorious and very public fight about why my account is in debt.

regards
Ben

Complaints about unity water (and other water suppliers) have been around for a bit. I don’t really know where it all went belly up. From what I gather the Queensland Government grabbed water utilities off councils, changed things around a bit, then put it back in council responsibility through new supplier organisations—such as Unitywater in our region. Hard to know what’s happened and who to blame, but Unitywater send the bills so I need to start with them.

Here’s some links for those interested:

• Account charges and pricing (Unitywater)
• google search for unity water bills
• New water entities’ pricing arrangements (e-petition to Queensland Government)
• Water bill savings should be passed on to more Queenslanders (Minister for Natural Resources, Mines and Energy and Minister for Trade The Honourable Stephen Robertson, 8 December 2010)

Update 1: auto response

Thank you for your email. Unitywater encourages and values feedback from our customers and we thank you for your comments / enquiry. A Customer Service Officer will review your email and forward to the relevant Unitywater representative for attention or action within 20 working days.

Wow—20 working days! Should hear back by 28 February then. By which time my bill is overdue. (No, I won’t call them. Phone calls cost money. There’s a principle here!)

Update 2: the reply

As a result of increasing costs to provide high quality water supply and sewerage services in south east Queensland, charges have increased by 33%.

Unitywater is aware that a price increase of around 33% places pressure on both families and businesses, however we have to take into account the rising costs of bulk water supplied to us by the State Government and the cost to deliver clean safe drinking water and reliable sewerage systems throughout our catchment. We have been chartered with the responsibility of operating as cost-effectively as possible without compromising quality or safety standards.

We are also aligning charges across the region with the goal to establishing a fairer system of parity pricing for all our customers.

Yup. I am pretty sure this is now true—everyone in the region got a whopping price increase!

The increasing cost of bulk water which Unitywater purchases at a wholesale rate set by the State Government, owners of the Water Grid Manager. In 2010/11 bulk water prices increased by 21% in the Moreton Bay area and 26% in the Sunshine Coast region.

The Unitywater Board, appointed by the Moreton Bay and Sunshine Coast Councils, sets the fees and charges each financial year.

The South-East Queensland Water (Distribution and Retail Restructuring) and Natural Resources Provisions Act 2009, empowers Unitywater to fix charges and terms for services and facilities.

To protect consumers by ensuring efficient expenditure and fair pricing, an independent regulator, the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) was established from 1 July, 2010. Unitywater is required to justify price setting to the QCA who is responsible for monitoring price regulation until 30 June 2013. From 1 July 2013 their role will change to price regulation.

I went to have a squiz at the Queensland Competition Authority—who, incidentally, share an acronym with the Queensland College of Art, where I studied Animation—and was shocked by the horrible sight of lists and lists of PDF documents to read. No thanks.

Paid my bill. They did reply. Now to acceptance. As the tagline on the L4D2 campaign Hard Rain says: Come Hell and High Water (bills).

So that’s what I did. Played Hard Rain. Take that flood zombies!!

PS: I’ll take water bills over earthquakes any day. Hope NZ recovery goes well!

Assassin’s Creed II

Last September I posted about Assassin’s Creed, which I picked up in the 2009 Christmas sales on Steam. In 2010, the sale I was waiting for came along and I picked up Assassin’s Creed II—and it is excellent! Kudos too, to Ubisoft for offering an additional discount to owners of the first Assassin’s Creed game, which I happily took advantage of!

All the fun stealth and conspiracy elements of the first game are here—in a beautifully rendered Renaissance setting, and with oodles more content. The first game took me 24 hours to reach the finalé. I’m 19 hours into ACII and don’t think I’ve hit the halfway point yet. Nice!

You start exploring the life of Ezio as a youth, before learning of his assassin heritage. You learn more of his life and motivation, but I won’t spoil that here. And fear not, Ezio masters the assassin arts with enviable speed!

Graphics definitely got a boost and look fantastic in 1080p—sadly, my 9800GTX (or more likely my 2.2GHz CPU) struggles a bit in some scenes, but not enough to spoil it. The story also has a boost. Continuing directly on from Assassin’s Creed, Desmond and Lucy (Veronica Mars) escape the Abstergo building and meet up with a couple of other modern assassins. Desmond then gets into their animus and from then on it’s all about reliving the life of his ancestor Ezio (he was reliving Altair in the first game).

This whole memory aspect has a nice Matrix style twist to the game. And it’s very clever—you can’t die in a memory, you can only lose synchronisation. This plot device also controls when new areas open up. Venture too far and the game will reset to put you back in sync with Ezio’s actions. I find this more believable than the closed bridges in GTA

Controls are still a little whacky, at least they aren’t named “button 4″ anymore. I had to remap the action buttons so the XBox360 controller colours matched the icons on screen, which definitely helps. I haven’t done as many accidental assassinations so it must be better! Other icons are somewhat mysterious—it is hard remembering which buttons are on the triggers and bumpers. Right bumper is “high profile” though—hold it down to add wow factor!

Showmanship will earn notoriety faster though (and could they have found a more awkward word than notoriety?) The notoriety system is much better. Guards won’t bother you too much at first, but if you start leaping around or knifing folks like—well, like an assassin—folks will start to pay attention. After too many incidents, you will be notorious. Guards will become instantly suspicious of you. Unless of course, you blend in…

Blending is much the same, but no longer requires a conveniently placed group of monks. You can blend with any group of passersby, so long as you stay in their midst. Hiring courtesans is even more effective (not sure why!) with the added bonus that they are able to distract guards when needed. This is highly useful for stealing treasure from guarded rooms!

Actually, getting minions—the courtesans, mercenaries and thieves—to do your dirty work is highly viable! They money system is generous so hiring them when around is almost always a good bet. Better than getting Ezio into a mess all on his own…

Gone are the repetitive missions and dialogue. The game flows confidently, sending you between cities. A great number of missions contribute directly to the story in this game, but there are a few side missions—races, assassination jobs, and beating on unfaithful husbands.

More fun is when you find a pickpocket in the vicinity—you can chase him down and tackle him (non-lethal) and keep the money yourself! Believe me, you’ve earned it. Those rooftop chases are crazy hard sometimes! Yep, it’s renaissance Italy and it’s full of colourful characters. And, this time, subtitles!

There are more soldiers and weapons. Ezio wields dual hidden blades, a knife and sword. You can buy new weapons as you progress and briefly pickup dropped weapons too. In addition to daggers and swords, there are mauls, hammers, axes, smoke bombs and poison. And probably more I have yet to discover.

Enemies are armoured, some more than others, and use different fighting styles. The combat is simple to control, and effective, even with the added variety. Successfully execute a counter and you’ll be treated to a nice little cut scene of Ezio showcasing his leet skills. But there are new stealth takedowns too—from haystacks, underwater or rooftop edges.

How you approach each task is up to you. Sandbox and stealth for the win! Can’t wait until we see Brotherhood on the PC later this year!

Feedback on the draft 2011 Caboolture line timetable

Forgive the rant. Sometimes I like to check back on what I said later ~:)

First up—I work in Brisbane city and commute daily from Morayfield. My feedback is based around this commute. Please note that “Connecting SEQ 2031″ identified the following statistics for the Moreton region (including Morayfield):

• About 50% of work destinations are outside the local government area
• Low public transport mode share of 6.2%
• The average commute trip is 20.3 kilometres

http://www.connectingseq.qld.gov.au/Area/Moreton.aspxI can identify with this situation. I estimate I spend a little over over 90 mins per journey (walking, bus, train) door to door which is 3 hrs per day, 15 hrs per week (Mon-Fri working week). I’m not keen on any increase to this, even a 5 minute increase in a timetabled trip looks unpleasant to me.

I have been commuting daily from Morayfield to Brisbane CBD since March 2000. This new timetable is not an improvement. I am a little cranky that in January 2011 I will be paying the increased fare for lower quality service.
Specifically:

• service are infrequent from Morayfield station after 7:24 am (I catch the 656 bus which arrives at 7:40 am (assuming no delay)
• the 7:46 am all stations train from Morayfield now takes 2 minutes longer to reach Central. It stops at all the same stations and departs the same time—why the delay?
• the 8:10 am express train from Morayfield is cancelled
• the 5:22 pm Caboolture express train from Roma St leaves 4 minutes earlier (5:18 pm), forcing me to leave the office earlier (shaves a little more from what flex time I can work.) However, it is a positive that this train is now timetabled to arrive at Morayfield at 6:13 pm, rather than 6:16 pm. The 6:16 pm arrival has caused me a great deal of grief with the 656 bus, which is timetabled to leave at 6:15 pm (thankfully, the drivers usually wait for me.)

If you want to win me over with this timetable change, add some extra express trains later in the morning, and ensure that 5:18 pm express always makes its timetabled 6:13 pm arrival at Morayfield station.

I found the press release (about more frequent trains) very misleading. There do not appear to be more trains at Morayfield when I would catch them, nor any that encourage me to alter my commuting habits (specifically to travel off-peak).

Express services now take 5 mins longer, in order to stop all stations from Northgate to the CBD. This is not a good change for commuters from Caboolture area—we already face longer trips and higher fares than CBD commuters, and have less choice (i.e. few bus services, no ferries, as alternatives). I am not pleased that this change helps inner city suburbs to the detriment of longer distance commuters. We also face a higher fare increase in January as the same percentage increase across the network translates into higher dollar amounts the farther one commutes.

This timetable does nothing to encourage off-peak travel. This is despite the qld government’s strategy to reduce peak congestion. Translink published a media release about this in 2009: http://www.translink.com.au/about-translink/reporting-and-publications/media-releases/release/72 and I quote “Flexible Workplace Program – $624,000 for the Flexible Workplace Program which promotes the uptake of flexible hours, compressed work weeks and telecommuting, with the aim of changing travel behaviour and helping to manage congestion.” This new timetable does not support the flexible workplace program. It makes the situation worse for travelling off-peak.

(n.b. not related to the timetable change, the definition of “off-peak” by translink is discriminatory. A commuter in an innercity suburb can leave home after 9 am and get to work soon after. If I cannot begin my journey until after 9 am from Morayfield, then I cannot be at work until after 10:30 am!! Bear in mind I must first catch a bus to the train station, so I may miss the 9:22 am train and then not arrive at work until after 11 am!!)

Personally, I would be keen to pursue travelling to work later—but not as late as 11 am. However this draft timetable makes the situation worse, not better. Specifically, the 8:10 am express service from Morayfield to City has been cancelled. The latest express service leaves at 7:27 am. Services only run every 20 mins from then, and every 30 mins from 8:22 am. This does not promote travelling off-peak, and does not come close to the misleading claims of “trains every 6 minutes” on the “caboolture line”. I read this timetable in there is no doubt in my mind I must travel during peak services—the delays between infrequent bus/train services plus lack of express services ensures the commuting time outside peak hours is not a viable option.

A am a little disappointed. I think there was a great opportunity here to do more to promote off-peak commuting as a viable alternative. I hope there is time to improve this timetable!

I would like a fast transport to the city. And I would like more frequent services after peak hours. You probably don’t see the demand for this, but there is a chicken and egg situation here to consider.

(I could add similar feedback for the 656 bus route, which runs infrequently after 7:25 am from my stop—and with the last service leaving the Morayfield station at 6:15 pm does not support commuters catching off-peak train services from the CBD.)

Halloween game on!

It’s Halloween! Games developers have taken the chance to splurge a little with some holiday themed mayhem.

Borderlands

Not strictly released for this Halloween, the Zombie Island of Dr Ned DLC nonetheless delivers the thrills! Amidst the zombies is a placed called “Hallows End” where you’ll find the boss: Pumpkinhead!

Hallows End in Jakob’s Cove

Pumpkinhead boss

Global Agenda

A modest update to the Global Agenda MMO, restyling a raid map for added spookiness. Ghosts drift away with each kill, and the DuneDoom Commander boss has a pumpkin on his head. A range of holiday head flairs are on offer too.

Doom Commander (Dune Commander with pumpkin head)

“Skeletor” style head flair

Team Fortress 2

It’s the second annual halloween event and Valve have delivered the goods with a new map and a new boss. Boss? Yes, TF2 has it’s first boss in The Horseless Headless Horseman who’ll appear on the point and indiscriminately attack all players. Team up to take him down? Or take advantage of the confusion to score extra kills? You decide. Brilliantly chaotic!

The Horseless Headless Horseman

Tricksy spy cloaked as my scary sniper

What did we learn from this?

It is essential that spooky bosses in games wear pumpkins for heads.