technolosophy

The New Definition Of Gaming Is "Achievements"

2010-03-01T17:18:16Z

For us, those who grew up on games, we traditionally think we know what the term gaming means. From pen and paper D&D (which I still play weekly with friends), to Zork, To Myst, to MMO's WoW and DDO. It was always about Fantasy (Tolkien LOTR style). That is how it has always been, for decades now, but the game of gaming has changed and here is the best explanation I can find of how it happened.

Wonder how Farmville became bigger than Twitter using Facebook as a distribution channel? And if you have a pre-teen around you, you know all about Club Penguin and it's ridiculous "game cash" for real world, hard earned, real cash exchange system. But did you know Club Penguin sold for 350mm dollars? 350mm for a simple, unsophisticated flash game that takes advantage, not of superior game play, but phycological and behavioral ticks to promote peer to peer competition and influence users to spend big money on community reputation building.

This video takes a deep look at how technology is starting to influence our real world behavior and is what Technolosophy is all about, it's very definition and Jesse Schell is definitely one of my favorite Technolosopher's, him and Larry Lessig.

And now, without further ado, the world of game development which is emerging from the powerful influence of the "Facebook Games" era presented to you by Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell.

DICE 2010: "Design Outside the Box" Presentation

Xbox 360 Games - E3 2010 - Guitar Hero 5

Relavant Links:

The Game-ified Life

The Common Threads In Unexpected Successes

The reverse virutal reality world of the future

Humbled

2010-02-06T16:55:00Z

Larry Lessig

there is little i can add to this

his talk at TED

watch

listen

and open

brilliant

in structure

and light

it is humbling

to create the perfect message

is too put light

on truth

An Upbeat Apple iPad Analysis

2010-01-27T20:57:30Z

Here's my quick and dirty on the iPad... I have queried everyone I trust, lovers and haters alike, and this is my take. I am racing to get this out before the Market closes here in NYC, so forgive my haste.

Form factor is spot on. The iPad may be missing a camera and video conferencing, but I guess Apple needed to save something for next year.

The price point at $499 is also spot on. I suspect by using their own multicore processor (called the A4) Apple saves a significant amount of money on one of the single most expensive elements that makes up the iPads bill of goods.

Users, The Pros:

We want it, but secretly know that with our iphone, macbook, imac trio, we are covered, so it is a pure luxury good for us until the macbook needs a refresh. However, if you're already a Kindle user or ebook wannabe, then I think the iPad is for you straight away, no questions asked. But I personally hate ebooks, or at least every version of an ebook I have every tried.

That said, with the dock/keyboard accessory, I could see a $499 iPad being the extra computer in the living room or kitchen with almost no thought at all and most my friends do too. The iPad could become a goto secondary terminal for many, many nerds. Especially those users ready to admit they personally never do any heavy document creation on the road anyway and rather enjoy media.

Users, The Unwashed Masses:

What I describe as a secondary computer for nerds above could easily also fill the gap for people who need a cheap computer for the basics, but all current cheap laptops are as underpowered and slow as they are bulky and heavy. I know my 14 year old sister's book bag weighs her down enough as is, poor girl looks like some sort of very cute, yet deformed ladybug, backpack sagging to the ground, shoulder straps strained to the limit. In this case, an iPad could offers her enough computing power and light form factor that she would more than welcome one with open arms. And with over 140k+ apps already available at launch, there is zero argument that it is not capable enough for the role. Maybe too capable, she plays enough doodle jump, flight control, finger maze and field runners on her iPod touch as is.

New Apps:

iWorks (apples "office") looks very very strong on the new iPad and with touch gestures I could see it being a solid work tool to get you thru edits and document reviews and with the optional keyboard, actual document creation.

iBooks (apples "kindle") also looks very good. Only time will tell, but I know some converts to ebooks and they love it. eBooks are not for me, but there are die-hard lovers out there.

App Store:

The entire app store eco-system carries thru onto the iPad with no re-coding by developers. 140k apps, most $1.99 or less, for almost any need and new apps just for the iPads larger screen format. Again, this could be a huge selling point. Quick, cheap productivity.

Battery Life:

10hrs of continuos use and a 30 day standby is very good. Apple has been working on managing power consumption across all their product lines in an effort to meet and exceed Energy Star standards for some time. It's my guess that the new Apple A4 in-house muilt-core processor will prove to be far more efficient than many suspect.

Update Jan 2010: it is a ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore (identical to the processor in the nVidia Tegra and Qualcomm Snapdragon), a ARM Mali 50-series GPU, and a memory controller all on one die.

AT&T:

Apples stock took a dip at 1:18pm, this is the exact same moment Steve announced AT&T was the iPad's wireless partner. Coincidence, who knows?

The GOOD, no contract, month to month, unlocked GSM.

The BAD, it's not Verizon (I thought I would never say that one).

The UGLY, if the networking sucks, AT&T further muddy's Apple's waters.

Games:

This blows me away, I am already loving the games on my iphone, imagine them in HD with a processor twice the power (1GHz). Forget a Xbox, you won't need it. Several people could have a multiplayer network party, each on their own iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch for that matter, at their desks. The sudden replacement of the dedicated gaming terminal for multiplayer gaming with an HD iPad could be a big selling point for some people and is a part of the story that can't be ignored. EA is making some of the best iPhone games out there (TigerWoods Gold, Madden NFL, Need For Speed) and will have a lasting positive impact on the iPads success.

iTunes:

Large HD movies, TV shows, music and books. I took a movie on my iPhone on the plane once and almost went blind, I will never by a movie to watch on an iphone again, but I could see many people buying a movie to watch at home and syncing it to an iPad to watching it on the plane. The larger format makes mobile movies a reality, something that never happened on the iPhone.

What to expect next year?

A camera in the iPad to do video conferencing and mass acceptance that you may not need a laptop as much as you though after all and finally, expansion of multi-touch controls to the laptop and desktop product lines.

Update Feb 2010:

Here's a link to a recent apple patent application for desktop touch screen.

Here's a link to references found in SDK 3.2 to video conferencing support for the iPad.

Contrarian view:

Not everyone will be sold on the iPad at first, this is a new market and if people

can't do enough, well enough, they may not forgo full laptops in the end after all. That said, each and every single person in my network, lovers and haters alike have clearly stated, they all want one to play with and at $499 the price is defiantly within striking range for an impulse buy if this bit of kit fits the bill.

Coda:

The iPhone may have been Apples first run at multi-touch, but the iPad represents Apples future vision for full screen multi-touch and their attempt to revolutionize the user experience yet again and create a compelling mobile experience that, in Steve's own words, is "magical". Now, I am not sure it is magical, but if it is good enough to get me out of my Aeron chair and over to the lounge to do my morning reading (1 - 2hrs worth) with no discomfort, eye or hand wise, I know I am sold. In short, I think this is another solid win for Apple and another nail in the coffin for the rest.

Update Jan 2010: Found this amusing iPad correlation to Star Trek TNG...

Marcos

App Store Economy in 2009

2010-01-14T15:40:04Z

Had to repost, it is just too lovely not to.

Via gigaom

SNL slams AT&T's cell coverage...

2009-12-21T16:48:20Z

I really hate to have this subject as my 2009 theme, but this was too good.

enough said...

Apple's New Tablet Explained Wonderfully

2009-11-20T15:42:44Z

To think Google will own the streamlined OS concept with Chrome is just plain wrong. Android and the iPhone are already instant "on" OS's. But I love that Google is pushing this forward despite the duplication of efforts developing both Chrome and Android to do essentially the same thing in different form factor. Apple however, being much more experienced, created one OS (OS X) and ports it to all their devices. This allows for code base portability and a unified user experience.

I suspect the soon to be released Apple Tablet will take the instant "on" concept to a whole other level using Apples famous, one two punch of 1) lean software and 2) tightly integrated, uber sexy, multi-touch hardware.

Wonderful video after the jump...

]]>

Just think about it. When the Apple Tablet finally arrives there will be over 100,000 apps available for it from day one, thanks to the same underpinnings found in the iPhone. And the Apple Tablet will be completely compatible with all things Google, just like the iPhone already is.

The Apple Tablet may be the "coup de gr�ce" Steve Jobs has been waiting for years to deliver. The scale of Apple's reach is becoming mind boggling. Just think of all the areas and industries that a iPhone, iTablet, iTunes, iMac quartet simultaneously effect.

Music, Movies, Cellular Handsets, Personal Electronics, Desktop Software, Operating Systems, PC Hardware, Home Entertainment, and Gaming. did i miss any? Oh and Retail.

It is as if Jobs sat back and said, I want to take on Sony, Circuit City, MicroSoft, the RIAA, Nokia and Dell, and do it by reinventing the meaning of the words "Mobile Computing". BRILLIANT!

What interesting and wonderful technology times we live in...

Now, as promised, the single best explanation of the upcoming Apple Tablet I have seen to date. Thanks Google!

Oh and apple tried the Web App concept with the very first iPhone. I used it extensively and it never caught on cause people wanted to use their stuff when offline. Web Apps are great in theory, but if your not on the web, you're done. Not so hot in the real world of planes, trains or subways.

Xcode iPhone OS 3.1 Error in Organizer

2009-10-01T16:07:52Z

This post is for Xcode users who are experiencing problems when they connect there iPhones with OS 3.1 to Xcode and get an error in Organizer.

For a complete explanation of what is going on please read my earlier post on the same subject for iPhone OS 3.0.1.

Here is the quick and dirty version...

the error you'll see:
you see this in Organizer.

"OS Installed on iPhoneXYZ is
3.1 (7C144)

Xcode Supported iPhone OS Versions
3.0.1 (7A400)
3.0 (7A312g)
2.2.1
2.2
2.1.1
2.1
2.0.2 (5C1)
2.0.1 (5B108)
2.0 (5A347)"

the solution:
1) open a terminal window as administrator.

]]>
cd /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.

platform/DeviceSupport/

3) once in the directory /DeviceSupport check for a
pre-existing link for 3.1

type ls -l to list the contents of /DeviceSupport.

if a link for 3.1 is present and you're still getting the error in
Xcode/Organizer then the 3.1 link was not correctly created and must be
removed and recreated.

example of incorrect 3.1 link:

lrwxr-xr-x 1 user admin date 5 11:27 3.1 -> 3.0

remove the incorrect link:
rm 3.1

ls -l to double check that you really removed 3.1.

4) now we need to create the link for the new OS 3.1 to
point back to the root OS 3.0 (7A341).

ln is the link command, so type:

ln -s 3.0\ $7A341$ 3.1

after you hit return the command line prompt should show no message. simply list the directory contents onece more to ensure that we created the link properly. you should see the following entry in the directory listing when you enter ls -l:

lrwxr-xr-x 1 user admin date time 3.1 -> 3.0 (7A341)

5) restart Xcode and *BANG* your iPhone will appear as normal sans error and is
ready to install your provisioning apps.

more on how a "link" works within OSX can be found by typing man
ln at the command prompt.

hope that helps everyone, who like me, struggled with this one.

New Yorkers Deserve Free AT&T Femtocells

2009-10-01T15:36:02Z

A femtocell (AT&T's is pictured left) is a mini cell tower you connect to your broadband internet to extend the cellular signal of your cell carrier via your broadband connection. The device installs like a typical WiFi router would and increases the cellular coverage in dead or over-subscribed areas where normal cell service is failing or unavailable. The range of a femtocell is small and while your phone sees no difference between a femtocell and the big cell towers atop buildings, femtocells are usually setup to allow only 5 to 10 pre-specified phones to connect at a time and in AT&Ts case can only offer 3G speeds if your Internet connection is fast enough to support it (3.5Mbps).

The recent pilot program to test AT&Ts femtocells in Charlotte, North Carolina raises some interesting question as to how the company is going to deploy and use femtocells to address widespread and well documented service failures in New York, San Fransisco and other major metro areas where the wild success of the iPhone has caused over subscription and saturation of the cell towers. The result of which is 20-30% of iPhone calls result in a dropped or fail connection NYC. Things have gotten so bad on AT&T that my girlfriend went out and got a second Verizon based phone just for work calls, forwarded her iPhone to it and now takes calls on this crappy little LG phone, that is how much her AT&T calls were dropping.

In the Charlotte femtocell pilot program AT&T has set the cost at a onetime (and in my opinion outrageous) $150 hardware fee. With the option of paying an additional $20 monthly to make unlimited calls via the femtocell you install and supply the backhaul internet connection for. If you choose not to add the unlimited femtocell calling plan then all calls (femtocell based or not) use minutes from your std plan just as it would normally.

Just to clarify, I live in the middle of Manhattan, not on the side of a mountain upstate and I don't know about you, but when I last checked AT&T's coverage map, the West Village was square in the middle. To think AT&T is suggesting I pay an additional $150 to provide me the coverage they promised me when I signed up just because they can't keep up with demand is outrageous.

I expect AT&T to give any user, within a coverage area that is known to be experiencing over subscription and network capacity problems, a FREE femtocell upon request. I also want a discount on my AT&T bill every month to offset the cost of the high-speed broadband connection I will have to provide to use the femtocell.

Or AT&T can sit back and watch as we all switch to a different carrier the moment they offer the iPhone. Wake up AT&T, we are not with you cuase of brand loyatly or your outstanding service, we are with you because we had no choice, it is Apple we love, NOT AT&T and unless you do something about your troublesome network we will dump you as soon as the opportunity arises. Did you really think your network services are anything other than a replaceable commodity AT&T?

]]> [sniff, sniff]
Does anyone else smell a "class action lawsuit", or is it just me?

Make a comment below and send AT&T a clear signal. We want what they promised us and what we payed for in good faith. How many of you would switch to another carrier if they offered the iPhone too? How many of you would forgive AT&T and stay if they gave you a free femtocell for home or work?

Relevant Links:
* Is there a business case for femtocells?
* Study points to network weakness as source of iPhone 3G woes
* Apple Genius says dropped AT&T calls in NYC 'consistent'
* What is going on with AT&T coverage in NYC

What is going on with AT&T coverage in NYC

2009-09-18T17:44:16Z

Over the past month our AT&T 3G cellular coverage here in New York City has been horrendous and getting worse all the time.

1) Dropped calls despite full bars
2) Failed calls despite full bars
3) Spotty 3G coverage despite full bars

Something is not right here... maybe time to roll out that femtocell strategy in earnest AT&T, cause things are getting ugly. So ugly in fact, my girlfriend went out and purchased a cheap LG Verizon phone with a 2 year contract for her business calls since her iPhone reception was becoming too unreliable.

To be fair I would say that I only encounter issues 20% of the time, but I used to have no issues at all.

"Houston, AT&T has a problem"

Relevant links:
* It's time for a new iPhone PR strategy at AT&T
* AT&T reportedly nearing femtocell 'soft launch'

]]> UPDATE Oct 1st, 2009:
Yep, almost two weeks after noting our coverage has diminished to new levels of bad, offical reports are starting to surface from Apple pointing to AT&T as the culprit.

Link here:
Apple Genius says dropped AT&T calls in NYC 'consistent'

Book Review: iPhone 3 Devlopment

2009-09-14T15:55:08Z

Beginning iPhone 3 Development by Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche has a carefree, irreverent written style rarely seen in books this technical. And while I often find it hard to read more than the first 75 pages of a technical book, referring to the rest of the chapters only as needed, Beginning iPhone 3 Development was easy to stick with and I can tell how the clear explanations and logical buildup to progressively more difficult concepts would be a easy to finish for anyone needing a real world, under the hood, hands on look at iPhone development.

I won't drone on here, but I will say I did appreciate the Author's choice to assume we are all smart, witty, hard studying students. That said, you will require some C and Objective C background if you plan to achieve anything significant on the iPhone, so don't expect miracles, but it a very good walk through the factory floor for those, like myself, who's Objective C always needs polish, but knows enough to read code and can follow along inquisitively, all the while piecing more of the puzzle together.

Of all the books I have on the iPhone and Objective C, this is the closest any of them have gotten me to feel like I was in an actual course and I most certainly felt that my iPhone Dev learning curve was starting to level out by the time I finished reading it.

Hope that helps the many students, like myself, who look at all the reading choices on iPhone development and wish someone would pop over their shoulder and say, "get that one".

Is The Nokia n900 Too Little Too Late?

2009-08-17T18:23:21Z

I owned a Nokia n770 and a n800 long before the smartphone market went ballistic. Basically, the n770/n800 were tiny, underpowered PC's with an open source Linux OS customized with std nested menus, WiFi and a stylus.

The n770/n800 had no phone, no keyboard and they were instantly relegated to my personal tech museum once the iPhone came along, they sit on the shelf right next to my Helio (another epic FAIL). Neither the n770 or the n800 could make traditional calls, though the n800 did sport a webcam and a skype client over WiFi. Ever try to roam over WiFi?

And while neither of the two Nokia's would hold its own next to an iPhone today, in a pre iPhone / netbook world (circa 2005-2007), they were "cool to have" geek toys, if Nokia only added a phone to them. But adding a phone would have conflicted with the Nokia n95 and they could not allow anything to muddy the waters of the S60 based flagship Noika, the n95 (again, epic FAIL).

Enough Nokia history, now we have the n900 and the sad news is, while the n900 now sports a Phone and is the most impressive Nokia ever, it is also just a test mule while Nokia ever increases it's position and exposure to the aging and weak Symbian S60 OS.

Nokia has never invested to much into the Linux platform and as stated by Nokia, the n900 is just another high end, early adopter, geek toy, and not a full out change in OS strategy and direction toward Linux, which IMHO the company desperately needs. I hate to be disappointed with such cool bit of kit, but n900 is just another in a long line of Linux test beds for Nokia, each one only slightly better than the last, as the company halfheartedly weighs its smartphone options, yet again. So let's keep this in mind as I go further into the details of the n900.

This does not represent a new Nokia OS philosophy.
"This is just a test!"
]]> I have not held an n900 yet, but I have seen it in action on video and I will say this, it is about time Nokia got something right in this space. Nokia's touch enabled "Maemo OS" is a happy departure from the company's embarrassing Symbian OS for smartphones called the "S60". But like most Nokia innovation, the n900 is incremental, not revolutionary.

Not a bad video demo, I am impressed. However the only thing I ask is, what here is different from the iPhone or Android? Please tell me Nokia has more up its sleeve than a new touch gesture for zooming.

Let's be fair, there are 3 things that differentiate the n900 from the industry benchmark the iPhone:

1) Keyboard: While "a nice to have", you quickly realize you don't use one as often once you get into using touch controls. Even the Nokia guy says in the above video "I don't type much". The introduction of touch gestures into the interface changes how users choose to do tasks.

2) Backgound Apps: Apple does not allow background apps and probably won't till the next processor upgrade for 3 reasons:

- performance
- performance
- performance

The n900 has the same processor as the iPhone 3Gs, the ARM Cortex-A8 running at near the same speed (~600MHz), any faster and the Cortex-A8 starts to show what is called "leakage", an industry term that refers to how efficiently a processor handles power consumption while idle (most mobile devices spend the majority of the time idle). And the ARM Cortex-A8 is VERY efficent while idle in the ~600MHz configuration.

My Point? All things equal, both the n900 and the 3Gs will have near identical performance and power efficiency (mW/MHz <0.59). And here is where the iPhone shines, the ARM Cortex-A8 in the 3Gs, on average will run in low power, low leakage mode far more often if it does not have to handle requests from some chatty, network happy, third party app, just to give an example. And there is the trade off, if you want background apps you need to run the processor/radio more often, at the cost of draw on batteries. There is no free lunch.

The iPhone could easily allow background apps tomorrow with just a software update from Apple (hacked iPhones run background apps all the time). However Apple has very particular standards and in their analysis, the average user needs more hours between charges than a real time last.fm audio scrobbler or foursquare background process eating their batteries up. I have every confidence that as the hardware and battery technologies catch up to users smartphone demands, background processes will be implemented on the iPhone, just like Apple allows on all Mac Laptops and Desktop.

3) Flash: Who cares? This is a proprietary Adobe technology and there is nothing I can't do on my iPhone, where I have never had Flash and as HTML5, H264 and the O3D API take over, rich UI plugins like Flash will be left by the wayside. besides, have you ever tried to navigate a Flash site designed for 800x600 on a phone? forget it, you give up before you even get close to what you wanted. 90% of Flash sites are just not designed for the experience of small screens, yet alone touch. Nope, we are entering a new world and all that pre-iphone content is either getting a HTML5 refresh or will be desktop viewable only.

There are my three, there are more, but those are the big ones.

So if I am a consumer , for 500 euros (around $712), I can have an n900 that costs $413 more than a iPhone 3Gs ($299 for 32gig) and offers at most 1/4 of the functionality of an iPhone application wise.

hummm?

To be fair, the above comparison requires a 2-year AT&T contract, but Apple also offers an iPhone 3G (8GB) for as little as $99 with contract or $299 without. And while the iPhone 3Gs (32GB) costs $699 outright, sans AT&T, it is still more usable, productive, fun and $13 bucks cheaper than the n900. Plus, this iPhone / App Store platform is available today from thousands retail stores in the US or in any of the 90 countries Apple also supports and in my choice of 29 languages.

WHOA!

As a consumer just looking for the best deal and usability, it is not a tough decision. $99 bucks all in! And my public WiFi traffic stats from New York City Parks (I started the free public WiFi movement here in 2000 as part of nycw) show that this is exactly what consumers are doing. More than 50% of the devices connecting to my Public WiFi networks are either an iPhone or an iPod Touch. Nokia is not even on the list and Android and Palm make up less than 1% of connecting devices.

I really hate to sounding like an an alarmist, but what is Nokia doing over there?

A note on Maemo OS: The time it takes to develop an OS from scratch takes years. Not to mention the time it takes to deliver the secondary tools, frameworks (SDK) and development environment (IDE) that allow for 3rd party apps to flourish in ernest. Maemo has both an SDK and IDE but they are both immature. As a result, Nokia has no foot hold in the developer world. Nokia has the money to spend their way through this, but it will take YEARS. That is, years with an "s".

I wrote in a blog post from 5/08:

"The level of integration and optimization that Apple has achieved has taken nearly a decade and probably another decade on top of that of mistakes with OS 7, 8 and 9 just to know what not to do. There is no single company currently out there with the intellectual property, culture, man power or OS experience to even hope to produce a competing platform as extensive and well thought out as the iPhone for at least several years. Even Google's Android is several years behind the iPhone and it is the single best hope out there. However, the lack of Androids HW integration leaves me to think it may be too late for them as well. Nokia certainly does not currently have the infrastructure and culture in place to write an entire OS and frameworks from scratch in-house."

More from that article here:
http://www.technolosophy.com/2008/05/iphone-sdk-ftw.html

A note on performance and battery life: The iPhone 3Gs is blazing fast with OpenGL ES acceleration. I am talking full 3D gaming with zero lag. App load times are in the single digit seconds vs. 30+ for the iPhone 3G and near instant full platform data searches (mail, address book, music and application data). As I noted above, superior processor performance of the n900 is a red herring, all things being equal they preform identical.

However, all things are not equal between Nokia and Apple, Apple has some of the tightest hardware and software integration ever seen in mass production consumer electronics of this class and hence the best battery management in the industry. Even so, iPhone 3Gs can barely get more than single day out of it's 1219 mAh battery under normal usage as a phone, ipod, web, mail and a hole or two of Tiger Woods Golf. The n900's battery has only a slightly larger capacity at 1320mAh (+101mAh), but with background processes running I think the n900 will be measurable less battery efficient over a day. At least the the n900's battery is user removable, unlike the iPhones.

Just in case anyone thought the n900 may have an performance advantage after reading Nokia's PR, here is a demo of the excellent game Tiger Woods PGA Tour in 3D on a iPhone 3Gs. It is very addictive.

Here is an impressive real world example of how much more powerful the 3Gs is over the 3G loading a very popular game called "Rolando":

As for the n900, Nokia has finally received the message that software matters. But, there is already a $99 iPhone available and it won't be long until a smartphone (maybe some version of an iPhone) becomes the standard handset for most everyone with a new contract, leaving Nokia with classic candybar phones for the third world and our grandparents. Or, in other words, hardware, Nokia's special sauce, has become such a commodity now, that it is a race to the bottom on cost.

From my chair, for the foreseeable future, true value creation is in software and the sad truth is, Nokia simply does not have the software culture required to compete on the same level as players like Apple and Google.

Lastly, and I can't stress this enough, the biggest trick Apple has ever pulled off was convincing the competition it was a hardware company. However, the truth is that Apple is a software company. Software is where Apple focuses a majority of its talent. Their programmers are among the brightest in the world and the innovation is baked into the software at the lowest levels, not added on top like frosting. Software is where the consumer battle is being won. It is in the User Interface and in the quality of the code base that runs the OS and apps. Nokia is a hardware company that buys their software and they will be hard pressed to compete against Apple with this strategy. You have to roll your own if you plan to smoke with the big boys.

My first iPhone app

2009-08-16T19:24:18Z

Well here is it, my first iPhone app! I call it "Hello World" and while It is doesn't do much more than show Apollo 11 and our "World" from lunar orbit, it is my first iPhone app from scratch and it's all mine. The Earth and the Apollo Command Module are animated using the core graphic classes. The result is actually quite hypnotic to watch, with the Earth and Lunar Lander slowly floating by at different rates and vectors.

I must thank Jonathan Lehr at About Objects, Inc. for the great 11 day intensive iPhone development course they hold once every couple of months.

As a technologist, designer and networking geek, I had some C skills coming into the class, but the iPhone Super Bundle, as it is called, really kicked things into high gear. Jonathan covered C, Objective C, the iPhone SDK and all the tricks of using the Xcode IDE and Interface Builder.
]]> The About Objects course was really well thought out and focuses on the fundamentals of logic and design, so you know what your coding and why. Each lesson stacks upon one another until it all comes together, and you're making apps. What I really appreciated was Jonathan's focus on doing things correctly as opposed doing them quickly. Jonathan is a real NeXT veteran with a professional spin on everything from good coding habits to memory management. And while I recognize my "Hello World" app is simplistic in function, I am quite proud of my first effort and it is amazing how far a little photoshoping can go to dress up the gray and purple boxes I based my screen saver on.

I can't give About Objects and Jonathan a big enough thanks for all the inside tricks and real world knowledge to tackle this amazing platform with confidence and help me fulfill a long time dream. Now I have a ton of studying to do while it is all still fresh in my mind. Maybe, I will add a sound track of Mission Control transmissions to my little app.

Xcode iPhone OS 3.0.1 Error in Organizer

2009-08-16T17:52:08Z

so on the flight home from the 11day intensive iPhone development course hosted by About Objects i finally figured out why i could not see my iphone with release 3.0.1 in the Xcode organizer.

the problem:
the iPhone SDK 3.0 does not recognize your development iPhone when
connected to Xcode in the Organizer that has been upgraded to 3.0.1
via your normal iTunes sync process.

Organizer shows you the following error:

"The version of iPhone OS on iPhoneXYZ does not match
any of the versions of iPhone OS supported for development with this
copy of Xcode. Please restore the device to a version of the OS listed
below. If necessary, the latest version of Xcode is available here.

]]> iPhoneXYZ is
3.0.1 (7A400)
or
3.1 (7C144)

Xcode Supported iPhone OS Versions
3.0 (7A312g)
2.2.1
2.2
2.1.1
2.1
2.0.2 (5C1)
2.0.1 (5B108)
2.0 (5A347)"

the reason:
apparently any version of the SDK (even 3.1 beta) must have the
version of the OS installed on the iPhone in question defined within
the directory /Developer/Platforms/

iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/

a simple directory listing (ls-l) shows the contents of the
/DeviceSupport directory so we can investigate:

lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 Jun 18 14:06 2.0 (5A345)
-> 2.0 (5A347)
drwxrwxr-x 5 root admin 170 Jun 18 14:06 2.0 (5A347)
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 Jun 18 14:06 2.0.1 (5B108) -> 2.0 (5A347)
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 11 Jun 18 14:06 2.0.2 (5C1) -> 2.0 (5A347)
drwxrwxr-x 5 root admin 170 Jun 18 14:06 2.1
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 3 Jun 18 14:06 2.1.1 -> 2.1
drwxrwxr-x 5 root admin 170 Jun 18 14:06 2.2
drwxrwxr-x 5 root admin 170 Jun 18 14:06 2.2.1
drwxrwxr-x 5 root admin 170 Jun 18 14:06 3.0 (7A341)
(7A341)

what is of interest here is that each iterations of OS 2.0 "link" back
to its root OS release 2.0:

2.0.1 (5B108) -> 2.0 (5A347)
2.0.2 (5C1) -> 2.0 (5A347)

(note the -> symbol represents a file link on OSX and UNIX in
general). the same goes for 2.1.1 -> 2.1, 2.1 being the
root OS in this case. so, by this logic if we create a 'link" from OS
3.0.1 to its root release 3.0 (7A341), Xcode should know which
properties 3.0.1 needs to inherit and hence not throw an exception
in the organizer and allow us to use 3.0.1 on our iPhones without
errors.

the solution:
1) open a terminal window as administrator.

2) change to the directory in question to minimize errors when typing long paths in commands:

cd /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/DeviceSupport/

3) once in the directory /DeviceSupport check for a
pre-existing link for 3.0.1.

type ls -l to list the contents of /DeviceSupport.

if a link for 3.0.1 is present and you're still getting the error in
Xcode/Organizer then the 3.0.1 link was not correctly created and must be
removed and recreated.

example of incorrect 3.0.1 link:

lrwxr-xr-x 1 user admin date 5 11:27 3.0.1 -> 3.0

remove the incorrect link:
rm 3.0.1

ls -l to double check that you really removed 3.0.1.

4) now we need to create the link for the new OS 3.0.1 to
point back to the root OS 3.0 (7A341).

ln is the link command, so type:

ln -s 3.0\ $7A341$ 3.0.1

after you hit return the command line prompt should show no message. simply list the directory contents onece more to ensure that we created the link properly. you should see the following entry in the directory listing when you enter ls -l:

lrwxr-xr-x 1 user admin date time 3.0.1 -> 3.0 (7A341)

5) restart Xcode and *BANG* your iPhone will appear as normal sans error and is
ready to install your provisioning apps.

more on how a "link" works within OSX can be found by typing man
ln at the command prompt.

hope that helps everyone, who like me, struggled with this one.

Macbeth: a descent into madness

2009-07-17T19:36:14Z

Every wondered what all the hubbub about Akira Kurosawa is, the B&W Samurai movie guy? And what is all this about Orson Welles being the best American director ever?

Well, this weekend is a rare chance to catch both of these movie legends interpretation of Macbeth. Shakespeare's medieval tale of decent into madness on the big screen, here in New York. How apropo.

Orson Welles released his Macbeth in 1948 and while not a perfect film, it has been restored to the original directors cut with original sound track and was recently called a "visually stunning film that has the brooding atmosphere of a medieval nightmare."
]]> Akira Kurosawa's Thrown of Blood is based on Macbeth and is set in feudal/Samurai sword carrying japan. In 1999 the UK paper the Guardian gave this review. "As a piece of cinema, however, Throne Of Blood defeats categorization. It remains a landmark of visual strength, permeated by a particularly Japanese sensibility, and is possibly the finest Shakespearean adaptation ever committed to the screen."

Both films are 50+ years in age. both are, without a doubt, cinematic masterpieces and while I have see almost all Kurosawa films, I have never seen any on the big screen. Can you imagine those 12 foot samurai swords slicing away furiously?

I love both directors for their ground breaking style and techniques that at the time blew people away. Kurosawa for instance was one of the first directors to use slow motion to play with time in his fast paced battle scenes, both men were masters of the long, seamless, unedited scene and dramatic, haunting visuals.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater is playing Welles' Macbeth tomorrow (Sat the 18th) at 7pm and Kurosawa's Thrown of Blood on Sunday night (the 19th) at 9pm.

Tickets are 11 bucks for each show and I know I can't wait to compare and contrast these "+3 reels of cellulose nitrate" back to back.

get your tickets online here

Welles' Macbeth tickets

Kurosawa's Thrown of Blood tickets

Way of the Samurai

2009-07-06T23:34:19Z

Excerpts from The Hagakure: A Code to the Way of the Samurai, by Yamamoto Tsunetomo (Hokuseido Press, 1980)

Think Not Yourself as Established
A man who thinks he is already established is unwise; a man content with fixed views won through considerable effort has already fallen into a trap. ... Without a moment of self-content with what little one has found out, one should keep thinking his accomplished results as being still unsatisfactory and not good enough, exploring the right way to the attainment through one's whole life. Truth lies in no place but in this course of pursuit itself.

Appearances
One's appearance bespeaks dignity corresponding to the depth of his character. One's concentrated effort, serene attitude, taciturn air, courteous disposition, thoroughly polite bearing, gritted teeth with a piercing look--each of these reveals dignity. Such outward appearance, in short, comes from constant attentiveness and seriousness.

]]> Move Heaven and Earth

Nothing is impossible in this world. Firm determination, it is said, can move heaven and earth. Things appear far beyond one's power, because one cannot set his heart on any arduous project due to want of strong will. It is all up to one's mental attitude to be able to "move even heaven and earth without exerting one's strength."

Fear not the Rain
One must know the so-called "lesson of a downpour." A man, caught in a sudden rain en route, dashes along the road not to get wet or drenched. Once one takes it for granted that in rain he naturally gets wet, he can be in a tranquil frame of mind even when soaked to the skin. This lesson applies to everything.

Know the Meaning of Bushido

To know the Meaning ofBushido [the samurai code of conduct], I have found out, is to know death. When confronted with two alternatives, life and death, one is to choose death without hesitation. There is nothing particularly difficult about it; one has only to be resolved and push forward. ...If one, through being prepared for death every morning and evening, expects death any moment, bushido will become his own, whereby he shall be able to serve his Master all his life, through and through with not a blunder.