Woop! 40 miles in June!

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:04:56 -0400

I got a Nike+ sports band recently to go with my shoes. Every weekday I take the dog out for a one mile run in the morning and evening. This month is my first full month doing this and I am excited I reached my goal!

How to have a target or build configuration specific Info.plist in Xcode

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:25:56 -0400

If you need to define custom settings in your Info.plist file you can do so by having GCC preprocess the Info.plist file. All you need to do is modify the build settings for your target or build configuration.

1. Search for ‘Preprocess Info.plist File’ and check the checkbox.

2. Search for ‘Info.plist Preprocessor Definitions’ and enter a definition for you to use later.

3. Surround the section of code you want to be enabled with #ifdef ... #endif.

Today’s Favorites

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:38:11 -0400

Short notes

lgillen: i know 2% of the capabilities of Xcode
lgillen: /me wants to work at a startup
lgillen: watching 'start-up junkies' about http://www.earthclassmail.com/
lgillen: i wonder if mobileme will have as bad uptime as .mac has...
lgillen: so tired from my late night blog entry about all the things you should do outside nyc http://tinyurl.com/5eb68x
lgillen: big city drivers are the worst because they dont drive often.
lgillen: big city drivers are the worst because they dont drive often.
lgillen: Brooklyn driving, fail
lgillen: In post 'La Haine' shock. Amazing and terrible movie.
lgillen: debating with a friend about gas prices being directly influenced by the mercantile exchanges, not OPEC
Friday, 4:31 PM
lgillen: wc -l `find . -name "*.[ch]" -print`
lgillen: merging trunk and dev branches ~69,000 lines of code.
lgillen: twitter needs groups. i have indie mac devs, apple engineers, and coworkers. it's hard to keep a chain with out separating it all out.
lgillen: researching something like mac's crashreporter but for solaris.

Websites

The Website Is Down
My god I have seen and heard this before! This little video expresses all the typical problems with business/enterprise technical work.

iBanjo » Blog Archive » Subversion 1.5 merge-tracking in a nutshell
Well, that's one thing that's less annoying. Branching and merging are such critical operations. When I have to branch and merge it is often a cringe inducing experience. Merging though will still suck.

YouTube - Where the Hell is Matt? (2008)
A great video showing all the places Matt has been recently. I love it that he has locals dancing with him in these areas.

John Dickman - LinkedIn
Forget the OS or browser wars, I look forward to the cook wars!

Twinkle - View Status
I often am shocked to see one when I commute. Their size is ... well ... shocking. Especially when it is in traffic next to a big SUV.

Video FOOT 2008 (REMI GAILLARD) - urban, freestyle, football, soccer, mhsc - Dailymotion Share Your Videos
I love a good soccer video, but especially this one. Their antics are especially sophomoric (I am sure the police and restaurants don’t appreciate it), but it is funny none-the-less. Plus no one got hurt.

YouTube - Yellow Drum Machine - You can make one -
This reminds me of the Wall-E movie coming out. It’s hard not to love this little robot.

Study Finds Instant Messaging Helps Productivity - HotHardware
I was at a company recently that was anti-IM. It’s a good sign now of how progressive a company is. If the management doesn’t understand IM then they probably wont understand many other newer and better ways of working collaboratively.

Loqalize
Nice idea! This site helps localize popular applications by using the community to contribute. Its like open-source localization!

in action: a skyscraper’s amazing 728-ton stabilising ball | deputydog
I think that the ball is amazing, but what is more amazing is that these people willingly went to watch it swing during a very dangerous earthquake!

the clouds and bushes are the same
I knew this at the time, it never was shocking to me. They reuse so many other graphical elements that its not a shock.

Can Saudi Pumps Help Ease Prices? - TIME
"Build more refineries, and stop guzzling gas. Until then, swallow hard when you see the prices at the gas pump."

Four Barrel Coffee - Mission - San Francisco, CA
Why HTML
Chose html 4 over xhtml. I agree. Highly marked up XML is looking less attractive more and more these days.

Cocoabuilder - (Scott Anguish) [MODERATOR] Re: FULLTIME Santa Monica COCOA gig.....
"As well, positions advertising for iPhone developers are not appropriate for this list."

Aggie Myths Unveiled - The Association of Former Students
This brings back some good memories from college life.

Nolobe - Iris - The Ultimate Image Editor For Mac OS X
OK, seriously! ANOTHER image editor!

Cocoabuilder - Search results - iPhone
God, the NDA on the iPhone cannot be lifted soon enough.

Apple - Seminars Online - Best Practices for Integrating Mac OS X into Active Directory
"Watch this seminar and learn how the built-in capabilities of Mac OS X can enable you to integrate Mac OS X and Active Directory in a way that fits best with your environment."

Pen Quest
A bad pen is so infuriating!

't Is Goud - WalletCards on my iPhone
I must do this! I have a never ending goal of keeping as slim a wallet as possible.

Budget Hero | Marketplace from American Public Media
Game that let’s you set the budget for the US government. A pretty healthy dose of reality.

Using Doxygen to Create Xcode Documentation Sets
We use this at work! It's great, but needs better styles.

Cocoabuilder - (Ben Trumbull) re: CoreData fetch is way too slow
"For quick spot checking, you can use the user defaults: -com.apple.CoreData.SyntaxColoredLogging 1 -com.apple.CoreData.SQLDebug 1"

IPhone 3G: iPhone 3G's True Price Compared
The new iPhone hater’s complaint will be pricing now that it has 3G, GPS, and no recessed plug.

Re: NSOutlineView threading problem
b.bum’s excellent retort on threading issues with Core Data and Cocoa in general. A must read!

The Problem with Threads
What will soon be a classic on the issues with threads.

Cocoabuilder - (Ben Trumbull) Does Core Data have a serious problem?
Ben’s contribution to the Core Data threading issues.

CDBStore: CDBStore: A fast 'n' easy persistent storage library for Cocoa
"CDBStore is a small Objective-C library for efficiently storing data in semi-structured files. Its basic data model is a persistent dictionary: within a file, data values are associated with keys; and given a key, the value can be fetched quickly."

Aza’s Thoughts » Blog Archive » Firefox Mobile Concept Video
Gestures, gestures, gestures!

Apple posts seminar for Integrating Active Directory - The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
Microsoft's got a new virus to fight against now. This one goes into your corporation, it infects there users, and whole windows boxes get replaced with something new. These new boxes infect more users. MS has no known remedy.

Remember The Milk: Online to do list and task management

Excite News - Politics an obstacle for InBev's Anheuser-Busch bid
Hmm... but will this make Bud taste better... I think likely.

Taqueria La Bamba Mountain View | Yelp
In NY, bad Mexican food is called Cali-Mex.

Glassdoor.com - Company Ratings, Reviews, and Salaries
I think this is a great idea.

Big Ideas (don't get any) on Vimeo
"...I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there."

Op-Ed Columnist - Thomas L. Friedman - Obama’s Rise Has Muslim World Giving America Another Look - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
"We’ve surprised ourselves and surprised the world and, in so doing, reminded everyone that we are still a country of new beginnings."

The Lush Life Guide to Manhattan's Best Cocktail Bars
"Hidden behind a certain unmarked door, tucked into the back of an unassuming Japanese restaurant, or through the hatch of a "phone booth," Gotham's most talented and well-trained mixologists are waiting to treat you to the exquisite experience that is the classic Manhattan cocktail bar.”

Thomas Tempelmann | Mac OS X: FSRef versus POSIX path performance
Why FSRef is faster.

Ars at WWDC: Exclusive preview of mobile NetNewsWire
So glad to have moved off of Google Reader when i did. This is going to be a nice application to have!

Pictures

1. Twitter Sleeps with the Fishes, 2. last train..., 3. Apricot Production to the Point of Failure, 4. Enemy Within, 5. In the beginning !!!, 6. Just the two of us !!!, 7. So..., 8. Ophir Bridge, 9. Fish are friends, 10. Untitled, 11. Vela, Bolo y Bulo, 12. Get up, Stand up, 13. WTF?, 14. Everything I Need, 15. Full Moon over Patricia's Green | San Francisco, 16. Kelvin Burt, 17. Firefox vs. Safari, 18. Kissa & Kali, 19. Retrieving and making off with the beer, 20. @gruber wearing @hotdogsladies, 21. Goodnight, 22. Out the Window, 23. Grótta / Midnight sun, 24. Cat in the sun, 25. The perfect end, 26. Crossroads, 27. Sud, 28. Blankest Year, 29. Hey Miss Sun, 30. quiet waterworld revisited, 31. Guadeloupe - La plage de S. Anne, 32. chasseuse!, 33. Malta's Sunset, 34. L'attente (encore) | Waiting (again), 35. early one morning, 36. lightning and tower

There’s more to New York than NYC

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:46:09 -0400

Below I have a list of all the things you must do and see if you come to New York.

Cold Spring / Garrison

Hiking: Breakneck

Breakneck offers some amazing views of Hudson Valley. It’s a good hike as well. Sure to have you panting as you reach the top. Bring a camera!

Parks: Boscobel

This place is amazing. You have the most beautiful views of the Hudson River looking south as it passes Constitution Island and West Point. In the far distance the river is crested by the Catskills and set by the Bear Mountain Bridge. The grounds are immaculate.

Theater: Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival

Shakespeare at times can be a challenge for some to enjoy, let alone comprehend. This festival each year combines not only talented theater professionals but also amazing setting and story telling. Set at the beautiful Boscobel grounds mentioned above you get the Hudson Valley as your background as you enjoy the show from inside a giant tent. Grab a bottle (or two) of wine and some picnic foods and have dinner on the lawn before the show.

West Point

Sports: Lacrosse

West Point is a school rich in history and tradition. While its football program might be lacking, its lacrosse more than makes up for it. It’s one of the rare opportunities civilians get to walk around on campus and take in the sites.

Hiking: Storm King

This is another great hike!

New Paltz

Hiking, Hotel: Mohonk Resort

There are two ways you can approach the Mohonk resort. The cheapest is to pay the parking fee and hike up from the parking lot at it’s entrance. It’s a easy and short hike up. About half way is a nice cottage that serves hearty dishes. Once you get to the resort there is a wonderful hedge maze, gardens to enjoy. Hike further up and you can take an easy trail to to the top to take in the valley and resort from a giant tower. If you are more adventurous you can get to the top via ‘the labyrinth’. This trail takes you over and under giant boulders. It’s a trail marked by paint that has you following a route to the top over what is the collapsed side of the mountain. It’s a lot of fun. Its the best way to get to the top.

Mountain Biking: Rail Trail

This mountain bike trail is pretty easy. It takes you north from New Paltz along what was a rail road track. Along the way you pass houses and farms. There is a little bridge that takes you over a river along the way. At the end there is a large bridge over a valley. Something about this ride invigorates the soul.

Hyde Park / Rhinebeck / Red Hook

Hotel, History, Food: The Beekman Arms

Where else can you say that you’ve visited the place that “George Washington, Philip Schuyler, Benedict Arnold and Alexander Hamilton slept here, and ate and drank and argued and laughed here during the Revolutionary War.”

Entertainment: Upstate Films

A small and quirky little theater. They never let down in their selection of amazing independent or classic movies.

Food: Culinary Institute of America

Taste and delight in tomorrows future leading chefs now (and for cheap).

Food: Greig farm

Nothing is better for the city soul than to get one’s hands dirty by touching, feeling, and eating nature! Come here to pick for yourself the best blueberries and blackberries you can find! Also they are bargain compared to what you get at the grocery store. We get buckets of blueberries and freeze them.

Entertainment: Dutchess County Fair

Get a feel for the country life! Come see the prize winning hogs and cows. See the vegetable art competitions. Also get some carnival food and ride a few rides. Nothing says summer better than going to the county fair.

History: Vanderbilt mansion

This is one place that you can go during the summer to appreciate the beautiful gardens and lawns. I have never set foot info the mansion itself, I find myself more than satisfied just to walk around and take in the grounds. Come in the winter after a fresh snowfall and take in the area’s best snow shoeing experience.

History: FDR Mansion

I haven’t gone yet myself. But I felt I had to add it to this list. I’ll update once I go.

Newburgh

Food: Waterfront

Come in the afternoon to have dinner and enjoy the sunset. There are many types of restaurants to eat at.

Peekskill

Hiking, Food: Bear Mountain

This place has it all. Awesome hikes, great views, restaurants, ice skating, and snow shoeing. Hike to the top where you can take in the Bear Mountain Bridge and the city of Peekskill.

Finger Lakes

Hiking: Watkins Glen State Park

In upstate New York, gorges are not rare. But this gorge has to be one the most beautiful. You hike up from its base along trails that are carved into the hillside. At times you walk under, next to, and above the falls.

Food: Vineyards

If you worship the god of wine or just enjoy good company, then you must sample some of New York’s best gold medal wines. Even better is to enjoy the area’s wine with your friends and family on a bus that takes you from vineyard to vineyard.

Lake George

Something is magical about this lake. It’s beautiful, clear and wonderful. The little towns in the area are a delight to visit. Come during the peek of fall foliage and you’ll have the area to yourself, during one of the most beautiful times to be in New York.

My overly disperse web presence

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:43:35 -0400

It’s amazing to to think about the web/social accounts I use. I’ve got a twitter, del.icio.us, myspace, linkedin, flickr, and blogger web account (among others if I could only remember them all). If I wanted someone to see my Jamaica pictures I would ask them to go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/leegillen/tags/jamaica/. Or if I had a cool set of bookmarks I might ask them to go to http://del.icio.us/lgillen/cocoa. Maybe I said something super snarky and I wanted to share it with some coworkers, I would ask them to go to http://twitter.com/lgillen/statuses/833067564.

Something has to stop. In the end all these little pieces of information are spread too far and wide. My friends and family, the people whom I want most to share with, cannot keep track of where they can collect these pieces of information.

Plus, it’s tiring to depend on these other services. What would happen if del.icio.us would lose their database with all my bookmarks on it? That would really suck! Its one thing if I were to lose my data and it’s far worse is someone else loses it. I think twitter is these example of an unreliable social experience.

Also, I want to own my data. I am tired of the many terms of service agreements that state they own my information if I put it on their server. It never works in the reverse, so I fail to see how it should work for them.

I would rather put my data on a paid site that I own and control. I plan to continue to use these social sites mentioned above, but only socially. In other words, I am going to use them to use them only to share with people in a more open and anonymous social environment. But all my data will have it’s main home on my domain, leegillen.com, and I will encourage consumers of my data on these social sites to always come back here for more.

My friends and family only have to remember one web site, the one with my name, to find whatever they are looking for.