Slumping from the schlepping
The best thing about the conference was the sushi we drove to San Diego (technically Mission Bay) to get. Really, the best meal of my life. I think we dropped $160 and ate almost everything on the menu. The next day, we went there for lunch and made sure (I am serious about this) that we did in fact get everything on the menu that we missed the night before.
There just aren't words to describe the high art that can be achieved with sauce, care, dedication and recently dead fish. I have nothing to compare many of the new tastes that I was introduced to in those two days. Simply inspiring.
On the other hand, the conference was an abysmal disappointment. Even the keynote was about how the market for Apple stuff was going the way of the dodo. Although I liked the logic and arguments behind the talk, there wasn't a big take-away for development efforts.
Add to that the fact that there really are no business applications for an iPhone as it isn't really conceptually capable of it. Sure, something small and throw-away might help you for a month or two but its not the platform for the next killer app. I'll give in that we all can come up with a lot of simple applications that do that one thing so well. I sure have. But you can't have 1000 of them on your phone, you'll have to delete stuff just to stay organized. Odds are that your user is going to delete you eventually. Got a corporate application? Better check with the users. Unless you have something that is load/check/close all in about 15 seconds it won't get used like you think.
So you got games, and your price-point is $1, if you are really good maybe a little more. The development system is still a toy in itself and gears itself toward this. Why? This is a hobbyist platform (the new hobbyist not the one from 25 years ago) and quickly falling short of the new entries into the market, notable Google and Microsoft not to mention the big jump in $130 eReaders. Apple kids will be making flashlight copies while the rest of the world moves ahead.
I have thousands of dollars in a Mac, iPhone and development licensing from Apple. The Mac I haven't turned on since this show, the phone I mostly forget at home cause its a pain to carry around and the $100 development license I paid for so that I can get MY OWN apps onto MY OWN phone - well, lesson learned.
REFS:
Sushi Ota for the meal of your life
Closing thought(s):
All that potential. Tsk, I am hoping for a change and will monitor.
In windows, there is a keyboard button for this ...
If you want to do a screen capture for a particular application window, you can follow this:-
Switch to the screen that you wan to to do screen capture
Hold down Apple key ⌘ +
Shift + 4 and release all key
Now, You will see the mouse cursor will change to +
Press the space bar once
You will see the mouse cursor change to a camera
Now you can use the camera to select which application window to screen capture
Once finish, you will see a picture file in at your desktop.
That’s the screen capture picture!
REFS:
Answer source:
Closing thought(s):
And here I thought it was me...
Wahhaaaa?
The only thing I am learning is how much I don't know about UNIX.
REFS:
I Still feel like this!
Closing thought(s):
Practice not saying "In that space ..."
Should I be concerned?
Development has a nice helper concept that leaves the SHELL OF AN OBJECT around after it is removed. That lets there be something there to respond if you reference it again. That's a good idea.
Apple has a tendency to have a "fun" names. You would never see windows name something NSZombies.
Closing thought(s):
Now, how to make that into a t-shirt. Hmmmmm.
In Windows they call it "hover help"
At least they used to. Microsoft changes marketing names of things all the time. Trouble is that the more I explore Mac stuff, the more this minor help feature seems to go the way of the dodo.
I first noticed it navigating around an apple store on the web. The links just didn't seem to pop up at you. Then, when I installed iTunes on my PC, I was looking for the PAUSE button for some downloads from the free SDK lessons. You cannot tell that's a button!
I mean, the color doesn't change, the size, the cursor icon remains without response. I found myself hovering and hoping for a tag - hover help that is - a little help - moving parts.
The next thing you know I'm asking myself the big question: When I press this, will it pause it, try to play it or some thing that I can not guess yet?
REFS:
This is the stuff I was downloading ...
Closing thought(s):
See if Cocoa or Objective-c has this capacity. Maybe it's just a cultural thing.
Knock Knock
Today the boss comes in and asks if I would be willing to go to a conference to grep some information on new technologies we need to work with soon. Turns out its an iPhone application. We are and always have been a Windows shop. I've been here almost eight years and we regularly laugh at anyone that even talks about alternatives.
But I secretly always wanted to know about the "other side" so I took the assignment. I don't actually know much about them but I'm not coding. I just need to figure out how to take the developer's code, build it on demand and over-night, provide QA services to validate it, set up and run automation testing and finally deploy new and updated releases to the users (ALL VPS!). Sounds like a nice challenge.
REFS:
iPhoneDevCon San Diego
Closing thought(s):
I'm getting fired up about this!
