A couple of weeks ago I took the plunge and signed up for the iPhone Developer program. At the time I signed up I didn’t actually own an iPhone or iPod Touch and the plan was that I would to do all development using the iPhone Simulator that comes with the iPhone SDK. This idea was going well until last weekend when I decided I wanted to play around with one of the fancy features of the iPhone/Touch, the accelerometer. I discovered that the simulator unfortunately does not implement the functionality of the accelerometer.
So that was depressing until I found this: http://ifiddling.blogspot.com/2009/01/dummy2.html
It appeared like it was exactly what I needed, a way to simulate the accelerometer. But after spending a day trying to get the setup to work and output meaningful data, I gave up on that route. That was when I bit the bullet, I ordered a refurbished iPod Touch from Apple’s website.
Slight tangent, I have to say that I recommend Apple’s refurbished products to anyone looking to save money on an Apple purchase. Refurbished products come with the same warranty as non-refurbished products and in most cases are indistinguishable from what you get when you buy new.
Development has been going well on my first iPhone project which is actually a rehash of my first cocoa app, an app that was unfortunately never released because of some functionality issues. I also have some plans to create an iPhone version of decline. The challenge will be trying to figure how to refactor the UI to work in an iPhone/Touch environment.
Stay tuned for more iPhone Development Rambling as I figure out all the ins and outs and differences between Cocoa and Cocoa Touch.
I recently resurrected a piece of software of mine called Decline. Decline is a Leopard only Hotline Client that is forever stuck in beta limbo. Hotline, for those not in the know, is an old P2P protocol and amazingly there are a few Hotline servers still in existence. So anyhow, Decline can be downloaded from the Software page.
He who preoccupies himself only with machines is apt to become like a machine. Doomed to repeat tedious routines; routines without meaning or substance. But what if there was a crucial event, a catalyst, that changes everything.
The Dashboard in Wordpress is very very nice and i’m really digging on this new theme i’m using, Clean House. MovableType was decent, but finding things in the backend was an exercise in futility. The fact that MT is geared towards using multiple blogs brought about unneeded complexity since I only need one blog.
I was inspired by my friend Danny Machal to create a spoken word version of The Darkness is Rising. I may have gone a little over the top with the sound samples, but what the hell it was fun.
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So i’m pretty bad when it comes to impulse buying and after seeing Floater again I got it in my head that I would like to play bass. I feel like I should be able to play an instrument, even though technically my voice is an instrument, I need that tactile feeling. I attempted to learn guitar in the past, which wasn’t very successful but I feel that the simplicity of the bass will make it an easier instrument to learn. I also plan on bugging my friend Seth to help me with the bass as well.
Anyways I ended up buying this bass from musiciansfriend.com, http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/product/reviews?base_pid=519499
And of course I chose the black model, because black is metal, but sadly it will be a few days before I have said bass in my hands. I curse thee UPS ground shipping! But I suppose you can’t beat free shipping.
I have been having ongoing issues with my car aka The Taurus and the latest issue has effectively killed The Taurus. There is a huge hole somewhere between the engine and the transmission which has been leaking coolant at an alarming rate. e.g., i filled the engine coolant recovery tank all the way up last night and by early this morning it was only half full. Estimated parts and labor to fix this was quoted at $900 and seeing how the transmission is also shot it’s just not worth it to get it fixed.
For the few that have ridden in The Taurus, take a brief moment of silence and remember the good times…
