March 2012
1 post
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February 2012
1 post
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November 2011
2 posts
3 tags
CS193P updated for iOS 5 (iTunes U) →
I wouldn’t be where I am today without Stanford’s excellent iOS development course. I can’t recommend it enough.
It’s never too late to start learning something new.
October 2011
2 posts
1 tag
Steve Jobs: 1955–2011
I was lucky enough to see Steve present in person at WWDC this summer, where I met the rest of my geek idols for the first time. Struggling to jump from biochemistry into software development, I’m always inspired by this quote from his Stanford commencement address:
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which...
September 2011
15 posts
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PS3 controller driver for Mac OS X →
As sketchy as it is to install a “version 0.01” kernel extension on a pristine computer, I can confirm that this thing enables bluetooth pairing between a PS3 controller and a new MacBook Air running Lion. Combine with Richard Bannister’s emulators and enjoy.
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NoiseES 1.3 →
The talented designer/developer Shaun Inman just released a hefty update to his video game music player, NoiseES. Version 1.3 adds support for Sega Genesis and SNES sound formats as well as system-wide recognition and import of each format. This is a must-have for any nerd—get it while it’s hot!
Got it? Good.
I really admire Shaun’s ability to craft his obsessions into polished...
FitVids.JS, a jQuery plugin for fluid width video →
Resizing embedded video is a pain in the ass and CSS alone doesn’t cut it. Interesting.
Coming Soon: Merging Apple IDs →
As a MobileMe subscriber from day one, being able to merge my @me.com address of choice (tied to an Apple ID that cannot be altered or deleted) with my original iTunes account is a welcome solution to one of the most insignificant non-problems imaginable.
Still, it’s one less thing to deal with.
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“Real people care about getting things done, not about the minutiae of...”
– Matt Legend Gemmell for Tap! magazine (via Kyle Baxter).
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Sane RSS usage →
Good advice from Marco Arment:
RSS is a great tool that’s very easy to misuse. And if you’re subscribing to any feeds that post more than about 10 items per day, you’re probably misusing it. I don’t mean that you’re using it in a way it wasn’t intended — rather, you’re using it in a way that’s not good for you.
…
RSS is best for following a large number of infrequently updated sites:...
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Hosting External Stylesheets in Dropbox
Many Tumblr themes are styled exclusively with a single massive <style> tag. I suppose this is fine for publication and cuts down on HTTP requests, but actually working like this—editing, pasting & previewing one document ad nauseam—is a nightmare. Here’s a tip that in retrospect seems totally obvious but never occurred to me until now.
In lieu of an actual server,...
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Safari Extension: ClickToPlugin →
This extension by Marc Hoyois moderates plug-in loading and strips H.264 video from many popular Flash players to use Safari’s native HTML5 media player instead. Bonus: it’s extensible.
Conserves battery, keeps your fans quiet and your browser running. You may never find the need to install Flash at all—I certainly haven’t.
August 2011
1 post
May 2011
1 post
March 2011
1 post
WWDC 2011: June 6–10 →
This morning I made what feels like a life-altering decision—I bought a ticket. This will be my first developer’s conference and first time in San Francisco. I’m excited and terrified to meet everyone.
Be gentle; I’m Canadian.
December 2010
4 posts
November 2010
10 posts
“Liked items are for advertisers, they’re not for you. In Facebook’s estimation,...”
– Jeffrey Zeldman: Managing Facebook Like. Or not.
I stripped my profile to the bone and still cringe when I have to wade into the steaming pile that is The Internet™ to most of my peers. Took me 20 minutes to find out how to remove applications, which can do a lot more than rot in a ghetto full of...
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This Drives Me Crazy
If your Tumblr theme has a border at the top, please give the controls some extra room:
iframe#tumblr_controls {
top: 7px !important;
}
Phew!
Die You Damn, Dirty Tab Bar →
Justin Williams piles on the hate for UITabBar:
Rather than taking the easy way and slapping a tab bar at the bottom of your UI, put the extra effort into the design process to see if it is possible to do the application using a single navigation stack.
I’d go as far as to say that if your app involves any significant scrolling at all, you shouldn’t be using one.
Fixing Photosets on Tumblr's Dashboard
If you use Tumblr on an iPad, an out-of-the-box Macbook Air or have followed Steven Frank and John Gruber by disabling Flash altogether, you’ve probably noticed the dashboard’s a little rough around the edges when it comes to graceful degradation.
As an example (that’s easy to fix), photosets aren’t displayed at all. On Tumblr-powered sites, theme variables (e.g....
October 2010
9 posts
“I don’t even wanna touch CDs anymore—they got boogers all over ‘em....”
– Adam Lisagor on The Talk Show (Ep. 8, 16:30).
Amen. The only purpose mine serve is to hold up a pair of crappy stereo monitors. Goes double for DVDs, although ripping those and dealing with metadata and video codecs makes me want to tear my hair out.
Figure 1: “Normal human beings” (owned by Apple) using FaceTime
Figure 2: Reality
(Everyone I know uses Windows or Leopard :S)
Logic Pro 9.1.2 supports OSC protocol →
From the release notes:
Supports iOS control surface apps that utilize the OSC protocol.
Sick, now you can connect TouchOSC directly without translating to MIDI through OSCulator—it’s like having a $5 JazzMutant Lemur!
Most cathartic ad-blocker ever →
Arm your bookmarks bar with this bit of javascript and use it to destroy all the distracting bullshit caked around the anemic morsels of worthwhile content on nearly every major online publication. Revenge!
September 2010
4 posts
“What if Jobs’ new hobby was fly fishing? And the entire rest of the keynote was...”
– Shawn Morrison on Wednesday’s event, via Maniacal Rage.
I couldn’t stop laughing.
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