Mike Cohen

iPhone app mini-reviews

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I already installed the 2.0 firmware on my old iPhone and downloaded a few of the free applications from Apple’s new App Store.

Some of the applications like Exposure, SmugShot, NetNewsWire, Twitterrific, and Remote seemed very polished, while others like ShoZu still seem pretty rough.

Twitterrific works almost exactly like the desktop version. NetNewsWire is a pretty basic RSS news reader that syncs perfectly with the desktop version or NewsGator Online.

Exposure is a great way to browse Flickr. You can view your own pictures or those of your contacts. One of the best features is Near Me, which uses the iPhone’s location capability to find pictures near your current location. SmugShot is a very simple application that lets you take a picture with the iPhone’s camera and immediately upload it to SmugMug. I’d really love to see something similar for Flickr.

Apple’s free Remote application lets you control iTunes or an Apple TV from your iPhone. Its display on the iPhone looks exactly like the built-in iPod player, even displaying the artwork and current location in the song just as if it was playing on the iPod itself.

Unfortunately, ShoZu is pretty troublesome. It took several times before it would accept my Flickr settings and log in successfully. The application will only let you set up a WordPress.com blog, not a self-hosted WordPress blog like this one. I was able to set up this blog as MetaWeblog from their website, but it won’t recognize it in the iPhone app.

Picture of the day

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I’ve been watching these baby birds grow up. They’re getting pretty big now.

Baby Birds

I used my 55-200mm VR lens for this shot, which I took from the ground in front of my building. I still use the 18-55mm lens which came with the D40x most of the time, since it can focus much closer than the 55-200mm and has a more useful focal range. I would probably use the 50mm prime a lot more if it could do auto focus on my camera.

Fighting XCode and losing

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One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging much lately (aside from enjoying my 4th of July holiday weekend and getting ready for my trip to Vancouver) was because I was spending the last two days dealing with an XCode problem which kept some of my code from compiling.

Since I’m dealing with multiple cross platform projects, there are lots of header files called StdAfx.h that are local to each project. For some reason, XCode decided to use the wrong header include path for one particular project.

I removed the offending include path from my project, cleaned all targets, and emptied XCode’s caches and tried building again… it was still using the wrong header! I opened the project.pbxproj file in a text editor and found no references to the offending path. Searching the source directory tree also showed no reference to that path. Yet when I build, the command line clearly shows that it’s using -I with the offending path, and precompiling a source file shows the wrong header being included.

I finally admitted defeat and added an #ifdef to the offending StdAfx.h to include the proper one when building a Mac version.

links for 2008-07-09

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Going to Vancover

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I’m going to Vancouver next week. I’ll be in the office most of the day, but I’ll be available evenings if anyone wants to meet for dinner. Since I most likely won’t be able to get away too long during the day, I’m not bringing my D40x, only my point and shoot Coolpix L5.

links for 2008-07-05

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Retaggr Enabled

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Thanks to Chris Thomson I found retaggr, a web service which lets you create a profile card that links to all of your online profiles. I’ve also retaggr enabled this site, which means anyone who posts a comment will have their profile card linked if they’re registered on retaggr.

Here’s my profile card:

When in the course of human events….

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Does this sound familiar?

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation….

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world….

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them….

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries….

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
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For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

(Via Daily Kos)