Herm Greider

Here's a way to quickly create an Interface Builder grid for multiple NIB files in an iPad application.

First, calculating the spacing. My app is landscape-only, so calculations are:

Total pixels available: 1004
Columns desired: 16
Gutter: 4
Right/left: 6

1004 - 12 - (32*4) = 864 / 16 = 54px for each column

Guides will be at:

10, 64, 68, 72, 126, 130, 134, ..., 932, 936, 940, 994

So, how do you put something like this in Interface Builder? I created guides for each location. Painful, but only necessary once.

Now, the cool part, you can cut/paste this grid into another NIB file in source mode.

1. Open the .xib file in Interface Builder.
2. Create a guide at location 512 (easy to find) with Editor, Add Vertical Guide
3. Right-mouse on xib file, Open As, Source Code.
4. About 2/3 down in the file, you'll see an object element with class IBUserGuide.
5. Paste in my attached file at that spot to create the guides

The location in the IBUserGuide is the pixel location. Affinity 0 means vertical, 1 is horizontal.

https://gist.github.com/gists/1026910

1. Tap in the timeline to keep from bouncing around after copy.

2. Tap and hold first region

3. While continuing to hold finger, tap on second region with second finger.

4. Double-tap on second region and you should see Join.

Computer rules for all my nieces off at college, siblings,
sister-in-laws, and parents in-law. In priority order:

1. Backup all your important files to a USB stick. If the USB stick appears to be in bad shape, buy a new USB stick. In fact, buy a new USB stick anyway and backup your files twice. Dropbox is another really cool way to do backups of your most essential files. 
2. Install free Microsoft Security Essentials or keep your current virus software up-to-date. 
3. Turn on Windows Update. Accept and install all updates. 
4. Get an external hard drive. Format it to NTFS (Google it or bring it to me). Make an image backup of your hard drive to the external USB drive. 
5. Uninstall Limewire and all Bittorrent clients.
6. Don't let anyone else use your PC. Lock your keyboard and keep your password secret!
7. Do not use the same password for every signup.
8. Do not buy anything from a site you don't trust completely. Big names are best. If in doubt, use Paypal.

If in doubt, send me a note and I'll help before tragedy strikes!

I used this feature constantly until it was broken in a release a
month or so ago. Zoom out let's you view what storms are coming your
way in the next hour by seeing a larger portion of the US radar map.
Critical feature for a hiker and camper.

http://designtheatre.net/2010/04/01/go-it-alone-how-to-make-your-stuff-in-chi...
http://designtheatre.net/2010/04/11/go-it-alone-how-to-make-your-stuff-in-chi...
http://designtheatre.net/2010/05/01/going-it-alone-part-iii-inside-the-factor...
http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/05/02/going-it-alone-part-iii-injection-molding/

Should we still be teaching new CS students how to find the max of 100
numbers, quicksorts, and shortest-path algorithms? I think that's
hopeless. We do not want a purely vocational focus, but teaching
ancient algorithms is ridiculous for the vast majority of programming
tasks today. What do we use today that is important?

1. You have to be able to find information. Do you teach students how
to use API documentation and forums?
2. You have to be able to build programs. Teach how to use libraries
and the basics of reuse?
3. You have to have design focus. Teach Art 101?
4. You have to have usability focus. Teach Ethnographic research, use
cases, personas?
5. You have to understand web services. REST, SOAP, AJAX, whatever.
Instead of grad classes, that should be first year CS.
6. You have to have a process. Teach classic waterfall, SCRUM, other
agile processes.

Classic CS is dead. If you want to be a software developer today, get
a Usability or Design degree. You don't want to be a programmer. You
want to be a designer.

1. Purchase music. Major con: I cannot buy enough music to keep myself happy.

2. File-sharing. Major con: morally-deficient, legally-risky, and none
of the apps work well.

3. Streaming services: My main music source recently has been Last.fm
and Pandora. Both apps work very well and provide hours of music for
free. However, because both apps require constant 3G, battery use is
poor. Also, you cannot pick the exact songs you want to hear. You get
a basic "genre" or "artist like xxx" with both apps.

So, when Rhapsody announced their 2.0 version yesterday, I had to
check it out. A few years ago, I tried out Napster and Yahoo Music
subscriptions when they first came out and thought the concept was
really cool. However, the execution was pitiful. The apps were
unusable and you had to connect to a PC to download music to a mobile
device. I canceled both services because they were so difficult to
use.

The major appeal of subscription services:

1. Huge library.
2. I am more apt to download a large number of songs for a particular
artist and do a "survey" of their music.
3. I can listen to any song any number of times at any time
4. For piano, I am more able to download 20 versions of a particular
song and listen to all of them rather than 2-3.
5. No need for network access, so Rachel could use this without Wi-Fi
on the Touch.

The two downsides:

1. A little expensive. $10 for one device, $15 for 3.
2. You lose the music if you stop the subscription. This is music rental.

To try out Rhapsody, I signed up for a 14 day trial and installed the
Rhapsody app on my iPhone. Install and sign-up was simple (though it
requires a credit card even for the trial).

Normal searching for an artist, album, or song is available. If you
search for an artist, you choose an album or track and start play over
Wi-Fi or 3G. This also places the songs in your "queue." It is
possible to create a playlist from your "queue" and then download the
playlist.

I downloaded over 200 songs directly on the iPhone in 20-30 minutes
and then went off the network. Downloading songs is battery-intensive
and network intensive, but using the songs locally uses very little
battery power. Downloads are blazing fast especially on Wi-Fi. The
iPhone app is very usable with no problems.

The only downside so far is that you can only download playlists. I
think it should be possible to download an album or song directly
rather than requiring that you place the album or song in a playlist
first.

I'll get Rachel setup next and see how well it works for her. 14 days
should be long enough to give it a good test.

http://www.rhapsody.com
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363077,00.asp

http://huestones.co.uk/node/166