Hocus Pocus Locus

Apr 21

IVM-AwesomeSauce

I recently created a new GitHub named “IVM-AwesomeSauce” in which I intend to put snippets of useful code. Right now there’s one thing in there: a set of classes for doing custom animations between two UIViewControllers regardless of whether they’re being pushed in a UINavigationController or presented modally. You can find the source here. At some point I’ll dive deep and post a tutorial here, but for now here’s a snippet to show how it’s used:

Apr 05

The stages of software engineering

Beginner

Y = 10 ;

Intermediate

float add( float x, float y ) { return x + y; }

Y = add(5,5) ;

Expert

Y = 10 ; // this should really be a function

Apr 02

Hollow Pad on Flickr.

I needed a background image for my 3rd generation iPad and thought it’d be cool to make it look like it was empty behind the glass, so I whipped this up. Hope you like it!

Mar 19

Graphical iOS4 Included Typeface List

Jan 30

NameChk for iOS Launches! -

Hey folks, I’ve been working on an iOS version of namechk.com for a while and it’s just gone live on the app store! Check it out and if you like it please leave a review! If you don’t like it, send me a message and I’ll get to fixing it ;) 

Anyway, enjoy!

Available for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Direct link to App Store

Jan 21

The Lions Mane Jellyfish is the largest jellyfish in the world. They have been swimming in arctic waters since before the dinosaurs (over 650 million years ago) and are among some of the oldest surviving species in the world.

The largest can come in at about 6 meters and has tentacles over 50 meters long. Pretty amazing when you think these things have been swimming around for so long.

They have hundreds of poisonous tentacles that it used to catch passing by fish. it then slowly drags in it’s prey and eats it. 

That is terrifying. 

(via screensociety)

Nov 26

nickdouglas:

peterfeld:

I hope they let him into the debates.

Problem, Cole?

Oct 26

The wrong part of the brain -

There’s some interesting conversation going on about the value of skeuomorphic UI textures used in Apple-designed user interfaces. John Gruber thinks that some people are “over thinking this” and that the textures are “not designed to help users understand how these apps work. They’re just decoration.”

I agree with John in that I don’t think these designs directly help the user learn how to use the app. However, I think that they have more value than “just decoration”.

Here’s a great quote from Steve Jobs from his biography:

I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual logical analysis.

Skeuomorphic UI designs make users feel comfortable. They put the user into a creative, curious mood by easing apprehension that a user might have in learning a new interface. Skeuomorphic UI designs are aimed at the primitive brain, not the analytical, which is why trying to analyze their pedagogical efficacy misses the point.

Oct 17

Things I wish Siri could do

Apple’s new Siri intelligent agent for the iPhone 4S understands a bunch of useful stuff, but I wish it could do more. Here’s a list of tasks that I wish Siri could help me with:

• “Remind me to give Mark his present when I see him next” — use Find My Friends to discover that Mark is close, then remind me to give him a present.
• “What flights are leaving tomorrow for Seattle?” — this use to work in Siri the app, but no longer does in Siri for iPhone 4S.
• “Tweet ‘hi there #vegastech’” — full integration with Twitter and Facebook, and a full understanding of hashtags and Twitter handles.
• “Launch TweetBot” — app launcher would be great!
• “Reserve a table at a good Italian restaurant.” — Siri use to have this ability by using OpenTable in the app version. Not so in iPhone 4S.
• “When’s a good time to book a two-hour meeting this Thursday?” — returns some choices for when the meeting might occur. Although this doesn’t work, you can ask Siri “what’s going on at 3 this Thursday?”
• “What songs do I have by Dave Matthews?” — returns a list of songs. Interestingly, she does understand this query, but says “Sorry Mike, I can’t search that content.”
• “Show me a preview for ‘Green Latern’” — Siri the app use to return actual movie previews that you could watch. Not so on the iPhone 4S.
• “What movies are playing tonight?” — Siri the app use to return movies that were currently playing in theaters. Again, not on the iPhone 4S.
• “How much time do I have before my next meeting?” — she answers with the time and date of your next meeting. However, she doesn’t go as far as actually giving you a time span. She has this data, she should be able to answer the question. 
• “Tell Mel he owes my $20” — There is no “Mel” in my address book because he’s under his full name “Melvin”. Siri should learn nicknames.
• “Show me reviews for Joseph’s Restaurant” — she would return Yelp results.

To be fair, Siri does a few smart things that I didn’t expect. For example, ”remind me to call Kaywood in a minute” not only notifies you of your call, but she also pops up a dialog box offering to call Kaywood (which, I think, is more a function of the Reminders app).

(via br33elle)