With the arrival of some neat new libraries I can’t talk about yet, I wanted a convenient way to ask a UIFont instance if it was bold or italic*. Although there’s no direct route as there is with NSFont on Mac OS, It turns out it’s relatively easy to add this functionality to UIFont via an Objective-C category.
I Bought a Nest Thermostat
I mentioned I’d bought a Nest. I sacrificed a relaxing lunch to install it. They asked me to take a survey. and I thought I’d sacrifice another lunch to answer them and tell you guys about it too. They had a “anything else?” field where I could write whatever. I did discover somewhat disappointing things and a lack of information I feel Nest-as-a-business is missing.
Continue readingNib Segregation
Conventional Cocoa wisdom holds that each window in an application should be in its own nib/xib file. The benefits are shorter launch times, better memory usage, and better Xcode project organization. Conventional wisdom is always right … right? We cynics know better. True wisdom is knowing when conventional wisdom is wrong.
Continue readingTo the Fog!
Given the cyclical nature of technological advancements, I feel a new phrase will need coining. We’ve seen the movement between terminal/mainframe to standalone, then back again (this time, called “thin clients”), then back again, then back again (this time, called “the Cloud”).
Continue readingMastering Xcode 4 Available for Preorder
Well that’s that. The Xcode 4 book is finished and currently being printed (and prepared for digital sale in a number of formats as well). You can preorder it now if you like. See the official announcement for (un)specific dates.
Continue readingThe Recessed List Effect
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted any new Cocoa stuff. Especially anything as widely loved as JLNDragEffectManager. Since I love all that positive attention and am sorely disappointed by the recent falloff of ego-sustaining limelight, I thought I’d solve yet another of the Cocoa world’s problems and give you a rather easy way of mimicking the “recessed list effect” found in Dictionary.app. I was reminded of the effect by this StackOverflow post today (thanks, Li Fumin, for reminding me I wanted to figure this out).
Continue readingDropbox – Here Be Monsters
Popular file-syncing service Dropbox has been in hot water lately. It was bad enough to find out awhile back their misleading phrasing wasn’t true and that files were indeed accessible to its employees. This has resulted in a formal complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. Now apparently that same design choice – the one about which they claim they didn’t mislead customers – made a new security snafu possible.
Continue readingBrowser Capability Detection: You’re Doing It Wrong
Web developers (developers, developers): I need you to listen to me. Are you listening? Good. Stop trying to be smart about detecting browser capabilities. You almost always get this wrong. Usually it’s because you’re used to a single platform and only test on others and so you’re not always up to speed on how the various browsers of the world work.
Continue readingKarma Police, Arrest This App
Apple capitulated* to more than 140,000 people who signed an online petition to remove a “Gay Cure” application from their App Store. While the ignorance of those who attempt to “cure” homosexuality still astounds me, I admit I have mixed feelings about Apple’s actions and wonder if a small adjustment might get them out of their current “Moral Police” predicament.
Continue readingPer-File Compiler Flags in Xcode 4
I had written previously (twice) about missing debug symbols and strangeness related to compiler optimization in Xcode. I’d specifically mentioned per-file compiler flags. You may be wondering where they went in Xcode 4. “Ur flagz … let me show you them.”
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Josh lives in Danville, Virginia, USA with his husband and too many cats.