Marketing Genius

By Josh | Published: April 22, 2008

Marketing Genius

Whoever sold this ad is a marketing genius. I mean honestly — if you were selling cookbooks, would you have realized you need to get on SourceForge? No, you wouldn’t have. You know why? I’ll tell you — you’re an idiot. Meddling amateurs like you or me would have been wasting our advertising budget on Food Network spots. Luckily, for all humanity, we have proper Madison Avenue types to save us from ourselves.

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Normal?

By Josh | Published: March 20, 2008

Here’s what passes for normal conversation around here:

{: .itemized }
Me
Would you expect my components to get horked if I tried to export them both from the same FLA?
Marc
Uh, no. Why?
Me
Darn. They each have their own component name in the resulting SWC, but they end up having the same class name.
Marc
Are you using the same classes in them or something?
Me
I’m using some of the same classes, but the components themselves each have their own class. If I right-click on Export SWC File… in the library, both components are in the SWC, but with the same class name. And I can’t just export one component and then the other, because you get two copies of each, presumably only one of which works.
Marc
That’s weird.
Me
Did I mention that I was using an Adobe product?
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Hit & Miss

By Josh | Published: March 7, 2008

Since I posted predictions, I feel like I have to post a post-game summary as well:

{: .itemized }
Code Signing
Mostly correct. Your code must be signed to be distributed through iTunes, and Apple does intend to prevent you from distributing your app through any other channel. The difference is that you get your certificate as part of your (paid) iPhone Developer Program membership — and for less than you can usually get a code signing certificate.
Student / Hobbyist Developers
The text of my prediction was correct, but the spirit of it was wrong. You can, technically, develop your application without paying a penny to anyone — but only if you don’t intend to test it on a device.
Paid and Displayed
Same as above, basically. Apple created a new paid developer program, which wasn’t really what I meant.
Xcode
Partially correct. There are new tools, and some of the existing ones do get new tricks — but Apple seems to be throwing the whole mess of tools into this endeavor. Sure, Interface Builder isn’t in the current beta, but I totally didn’t expect Instruments to be included.
What’s in a name?
This was from a list of additional predictions I had that I thought weren’t worth posting an update or sequel post. This OS does get an official name — it’s referred to all through the docs as “iPhone OS”.

Here are some other interesting points from my reading so far:

  • Xcode has its own list of devices (perhaps not surprising) that you have to add you device to by plugging it in with Xcode running.
  • You create your code signing certificate using the Certificate Utility in Keychain Access, and then upload it to Apple’s servers (once you’ve joined the program), and then download the signed one and add it to Xcode.
  • While you’re downloading stuff, you’ll need to download your Profile as well — to me this strongly implies that the exact nature of the restrictions is negotiable (at least they are for the really big fish).

  • I love really specific qualifiers on informational pages:

    The iPhone Developer Program will initially be available to a limited number of developers in the U.S. and will expand to other countries in the coming months.

    Limited? I know your developer.apple.com totally screwed from the load after the announcement, but still. In the coming months?_ Gosh. Is that the same timeframe for when most of us would actually be permitted to join?

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Shocking iPhone / iPod Touch SDK Revelation

By Josh | Published: February 29, 2008

From Electronista:

This system will change substantially for paid apps, however. In addition to a previously rumored review process and the necessity of sales through iTunes, Apple will reportedly take a portion of the cost of each app.

In other news, numerous experts predict that the sun will come up tomorrow.

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Sixteen

By Josh | Published: February 29, 2008

I’ve mentioned the furry contingent of our household in my writing here; their names are Miesha, Sasha, and Chi-Chi, oldest to youngest. Miesha and Sasha have been together forever, and Sasha tolerates Chi-Chi like an annoying kid brother who’s always following him around. Miesha and Chi-Chi don’t really get along.

If they’re all scared, they can all hide in the same cupboard. Miesha, being the biggest and the meanest, sits in front. Sasha, being a giant furry chicken, hides behind as many other cats as possible, leaving Chi-Chi in the middle. Chi-Chi’s healthy weight is probably half Sasha’s,1 so this sort of looks like a mountain lion hiding behind a rabbit hiding behind a fuzzy godzilla, but at least Sasha is trying. At any rate, this is the only circumstance where Miesha and Chi-Chi don’t start hissing and growling at each other on sight.

The following occurred on Monday of this week. My apologies to any friends or family who learn of these events from my blog. If you’re new here (and a little slow), L is a pseudonym for my wife; I do not have our cats’ permission to use their real names on my web site.

{: .itemized }
4:10 pm
Miesha pretty much always has attitude for everyone. She gives L attitude, and they’ve been together for all of Miesha’s life and close to half of L’s. If Miesha doesn’t want to be petted, or if she’s decided she’s done being petted, she’ll warn you and then she’ll bite you. She’s also got some back pain. Most of the time Miesha is a “you can look at me but that’s it” cat.

L notices Miesha is violating most of what I said in the last paragraph, to the point of seeming delirious. She texts me that she’s taking her to the vet because “she’s really weird.” Our friend D helps in this production. If you’ve never taken a cat to the vet, you’ll have to take my word that it’s best done with a friend when one is available.

4:45 pm
D is livid.

L doesn’t remember the conversation at the vet that clearly, and I haven’t talked to D about it yet, but after they all left, she told L that we’re not taking any of our cats back to him.2

5:30 pm
L needs some time alone. D leaves her at home and calls me at work to tell me that Miesha has passed away. She passed quietly enough that L might not have immediately noticed.
6:00 pm
I just get up and leave, basically. I don’t tell anyone that I’m leaving or that one of our cats just died. I’m sure it’s been an hour since D called.
6:30 pm
Miesha and L have been together for 16 years; longer than I’ve known L. Miesha got L through some very hard times. I come home to my wife holding Miesha for the last time.
7:30 pm
It’s eerie how much she looks like she’s just asleep. So much so that neither of us can really think clearly until we wrap her body. We put her in my car for the night. Part of me is thinking “we can’t just leave her out in the cold.”

We had pretty much just finished this when my boss calls and asks me about something I really can’t remember. From my voice, he guesses that I’d been asleep. After answering his question I tell him that “we’ve had a death in the family” and that I wouldn’t be in on Tuesday.

I’m calling this the first time I’ve lost a pet. Technically it isn’t, but I was young enough when my sister’s dog passed that I scarcely remember it. My wife and I spent the night curled up together watching who knows what on TV. We also updated our address books — I had a lot of birthdays missing. There’s a really bizarre Proustian question in there somewhere.

  1. My theory is stunted growth caused by malnutrition before the shelter found him, if you’re curious. ↩

  2. Don’t ask me for his name; I’m not running the Better Business Bureau here. ↩

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Line Noise

By Josh | Published: February 24, 2008

The easiest way to find posts on my site with screwed up charsets turned out to be asking Google.

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Dartboard

By Josh | Published: February 23, 2008

Instead of trying to convince people next Wednesday that I was expecting whatever Apple’s announced the day before, I figured I’d blab my theories this Wednesday. Sure, it was, in fact, very early Thursday when I finally started typing this, but hey — I came up with this whole idea before midnight, and it’s the thought that counts, right?

Let me say up front, I don’t know anyone at Apple, and I don’t have the inside track on anything. I read whatever NetNewsWire finds for me and decide what I think is bull, just like everyone else. I’m also ignoring the backpedalling on whether this will still happen in February, since I really have no guess whether it’s actually delayed or not.

All that being said, here’s my thoughts on what we’ll hear about an iPhone SDK next week:

{: .itemized }
Code Signing
Everyone thinks there will be some kind of code signing. I think that you’ll need a real code-signing certificate from a recognized, trusted root to distribute your stuff through iTunes, and distribution through means other than iTunes will be “unsupported”.
Student / Hobbyist Developers
You’ll be able to develop applications with an Online membership to the developer program and without paying a tithe to Verisign for the previously mentioned certificate. Anyone who predicts you’ll be able to run your own code on your own device with Xcode and the cable you already have is right. See above for my guess about distributing your application once you’re done developing it.
Paid and Displayed
Professional developers (i.e., those who have paid ADC memberships) will get something extra. There are a lot of possibilities here, none of which I particularly like, but I think there will be something.
Xcode
There will be some new tools (i.e., the much-rumored simulator), and some existing ones will get new tricks. Some of the existing tools will not get any new tricks, and a large number of people will think everyone at Apple has their heads up their asses for for not including one of those tools in the iPhone toolkit.

Mind you, there’s more to developing good applications than being able to locate the “Build and Run” menu item on short notice. Especially on a mobile device, you have to live with your app to figure out if your interface blows, and that includes trying to use it and trying to not get hit by a bus at the same time. The bus service in my office sucks, no matter how wide I leave the door open. I would expect Apple to know this,1 but I’m not counting on them doing anything about it.

Casualties
Several Cocoa developers will be attacked in the coming weeks and sustain minor injuries. The weapons involved in these otherwise unrelated cases will include assorted handheld electronic devices, a stapler (used as a blunt object), three books, and an extremely unfortunate Carbon developer who was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

After an intense investigation, the police will break the case when they reexamine the evidence and realize that the handheld electronic devices consist almost entirely of Palm m505s, Tungsten|C’s, and a variety of Treo devices from different carriers. The assailants will all turn out to be former members of the Palm developer program who were driven over the edge by offhanded remarks about how much harder it is to develop without “using something called ‘Interface Builder’”.

I probably had a couple more items in mind when I started this, but that’s all I can remember. Hopefully the others weren’t the really insightful ones. Now comes the highly suspenseful waiting to find out just how ludicrously off-base I am.

  1. and no, I don’t mean that I can’t catch a bus in my office. ↩

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Shawn Blanc interviews John Gruber

By Josh | Published: February 20, 2008

John Gruber: A Mix of the Technical, the Artful, the Thouthtful, and the Absurd.

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Darth Vader Hot Air Balloon

By Josh | Published: February 20, 2008

Why didn’t I think of this? Seriously, how cool would it be to hold a balloon race that consists of Darth Vader, R2-D2, C3PO, the Death Star, a Stormtrooper, and Jabba?

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Total Lunar Eclipse

By Josh | Published: February 20, 2008

Between 10 pm EST and 11 pm EST tonight, the moon will be passing right through Earth’s shadow.

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