The Shape of Everything http://shapeof.com/ 2010-02-27T21:02:29-08:00 Gus Mueller U.S. Poisoned Alcohol During Prohibition urn:uuid:72ccf169-2adb-40c8-9912-be853970239d 2010-02-27T20:58:26-08:00 2010-02-27T21:02:26-08:00 The Chemist's War, The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences.

Here's a quote:

'The results were immediate, starting with that horrific holiday body count in the closing days of 1926. Public health officials responded with shock. "The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol," New York City medical examiner Charles Norris said at a hastily organized press conference. "[Y]et it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible."'

The whole read is good, and nuts. It's amazing what folks will allow to happen in the name of "upright behavior". ]]> Brent Simmons: On switching away from Core Data urn:uuid:5560dd1c-9041-4e35-ab61-a172b7576077 2010-02-27T16:16:34-08:00 2010-02-27T19:54:59-08:00 On switching away from Core Data.

Brent talks about how he's switched away from Core Data in one of his apps, in favor of using SQLite dirctly (via my FMDB classes) instead. Manton Reece also explains why he doesn't use Core Data as well.

I've never used Core Data in a shipping product because I've been using SQL for ~15 years now and I'm very comfortable with it. And frankly I just don't like the "smell" of Core Data. I'm not sure how else to explain it, but it reminds me of things like EJB. Why doesn't Apple Mail use it? Why did Aperture 3 stop using it? ]]> Seattle iPhone Conf- Voices That Matter urn:uuid:89ec6eab-95ac-460e-b78b-98e5a45a2a67 2010-02-22T15:37:59-08:00 2010-02-22T15:57:18-08:00 mentioned this earlier today, but I'm going to pimp it as well since I'll be there.

Seattle is having an iPhone conference coming up- Voices That Matter, iPhone Dev Edition. I've never been to one of these before, but I've heard good things about it. There are going to be a bunch of great speakers including some friends of mine, Kevin Avila and Wolf Rentzsch, as well as some long time Cocoa guys, Aaron Hillegass and Erik Buck. I'm looking forward to Aaron's talk. I've seen him give presentations a bunch of times, and it's always good.

Learn how to build, test, and distribute your awesome iPhone (+iPad) apps. Learn how to code for Apple's mobile stuff, meet folks and then go grab some drinks.

Aaaaand if you register before March 12th, and use the coupon code 'PHBLOGS' you'll save a total of $300. Use that saved money to buy a 32GB iPod Touch.

Voices that Matter ]]> 52 Weeks of UX urn:uuid:b5df13b8-a880-407d-b2c5-9d0c2ebc0182 2010-02-18T09:47:10-08:00 2010-02-18T09:49:33-08:00 52 Weeks of UX, a discourse on the process of designing for real people.

SUBSCRIBED. ]]> Marc Cuban: A Simple Policy Guide for Job Growth urn:uuid:6da6cc3d-3693-4dea-83f4-7d1c00ff15fb 2010-01-31T12:33:48-08:00 2010-01-31T12:45:15-08:00 A Simple Policy Guide for Job Growth:

"The simplest way to create more jobs is to allow small business and entrepreneurs to spend less time and money on lawyers and accountants and redirect that intellectual and financial capital to the core competencies of their business.

...

Like the administration before it, the current administration seems to have no concept of what it takes to start, run and grow a small business. None."

I'd hire someone full time right now for Flying Meat, if the US had universal health insurance.

I've never understood why it's up to the employer to provide this benefit*. It drives me nuts. As an employer I'm not expected to pay for house, car, or flood insurance; why would I need to pay for health? Isn't it really up to the individual to know what their needs are, and not the company they work for (who is trying to be profitable)?

How many great companies are kept from being created, because someone has to stay at their current place of employment for fear of losing coverage for a sick relative, or themselves?

Uh. What a stupid, stupid mess.


*Yes, being a small business I have ways of not having to provide insurance. But I don't want to be a jerk either. ]]> Chris Sanders Original Art urn:uuid:f6c998c7-2df9-49f1-abaa-6c56c3efdc0f 2010-01-31T12:22:26-08:00 2010-01-31T12:25:26-08:00 selling some original artwork. It's a bit out of my price range, but I absolutely love his drawings and can't help but let everyone know. Make sure to check out his gallery while you're at his site. ]]> Acorn 2.2 urn:uuid:ba650408-444c-4993-9bec-af38d136b005 2010-01-12T11:00:12-08:00 2010-01-12T11:00:47-08:00 Acorn 2.2 has been released. I made a big post about it on Flying Meat's weblog. Go read, and update. ]]> Unison 2.0 urn:uuid:6639c0b1-de05-462f-8145-530690dd58f7 2010-01-06T12:25:33-08:00 2010-01-06T12:26:32-08:00 Unison 2.0 was released yesterday. It's pretty pretty. ]]> Today 2.0 urn:uuid:716dafc8-1e19-4056-96f9-372b6524229c 2010-01-06T12:02:00-08:00 2010-01-06T12:09:19-08:00 Second Gear) released Today 2.0 uh, today.

"With Today you can keep track of what's on your plate for any given day without keeping iCal open all the time."

Justin is getting back to Mac development after selling off his iPhone apps last year. Two cheers for indie Mac devs!

Hurrah!


...


Hurrah!




That was all. Go check out Today today. ]]> Using the Latest LLVM with Xcode urn:uuid:6cfaafae-84e9-419c-9261-24a599633eed 2010-01-05T10:17:13-08:00 2010-01-05T14:19:40-08:00 LLVM? Here's how to install the latest "tip of the trunk" llvm + clang, as described from clang's getting started page:

svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm
cd llvm/tools
svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/trunk clang
cd ..
./configure --prefix=/opt --enable-optimized
make -j16
sudo make install

Assuming everything went ok, llvm + clang should be installed in /opt now.

zoom
(This is what make -j16 does to my box. Fun times.)


Next we'll need to tell Xcode how to use it, and that's done by installing a little plugin named Clang LLVM TOT.xcplugin.zip. Download that, unzip it, and place it in /Developer/Library/Xcode/Plug-ins. You'll probably need to restart Xcode at this point.

Next, we'll need to tell your project to use the new compiler, which you can do so in it's build settings:

choose the compiler


And, that's it. Build away! Notice lots new errors and warnings! Of course, you're only going to want to use this for debug builds, as shipping code built with the latest LLVM is probably a very bad idea. Who knows what crazy bugs have been introduced into your compiler. Apple Developer Relations would probably like me to say that this point that the only compilers that are supported for the Mac are the ones that ship with Xcode. END DISCLAIMER HERE.

It would be great if you could also somehow tell Xcode to use the static analyzer in /opt as well, but I'm unaware of any way to do that. If you know how, please let me know and I'll update this post with instructions.

Update: Tim Wood lets us know how to use an updated analyzer. And it turns out you don't need the downloadable plugin using his technique. Sweet. Thanks Tim! ]]> Artist Sketchbooks urn:uuid:3c549fc8-6bd3-4d31-9a7c-e758720f86ac 2010-01-04T19:45:55-08:00 2010-01-04T20:35:54-08:00 Artist Sketchbooks, is quite awesome. It's essentially an iPhone app that does nothing more than show images; but at the same time, it's a little publishing house. Indie artists can sell their wares (images) through the App Store via a little app. How awesome is that?

What would also be cool is a web app based version of this, ala Pie Guy, so indie artists who just want to give their stuff away can. By making it a web app, you could just skip the App Store all together.

I think this idea would be a perfect fit for deviantART. ]]> Startup Library urn:uuid:c97d7e9c-a817-457c-a04b-212ed36d1088 2010-01-02T18:23:47-08:00 2010-01-02T18:25:11-08:00 Startup Library.

A list of essays, articles, and links for folks wanting to do the indie thing. ]]>