KegDroid Project

I read this article and found it absolutely hilarious!The project the article talks about is more hardware-oriented but does need to use an app (sorry,not an iPhone app,but an app nonetheless) to function well. It's a self-pouring beer system that functions quite well for those who need some glasses of the drink. Just to make sure you don't get in trouble with a subsequent DUI, as of May 7th 2012, Nevada State authorities have issued a licence to Google's self-driving cars. So, if you think you might get in trouble with your drinking, get yourself one of those Google's cars(not sure if they are on the market) and enjoy your drink in Nevada(if you are the drinking age of course!). The cars look pretty safe and will definitely benefit people with various disabilities as well as the general public as a whole.

On our side, if you are working on a location-based app, don't forget to play around with the awesome location simulations in the debug area of the iSimulator(debug--->Location-->anything you want to do with location simulations). You can simulate a bicycle ride, a car ride or even enter custom coordinates. Very handy if you want to test location changes behind your desk.

-Jean Paul

Removing Spaces from Text

Found this on the web and was very helpful when I implemented the Weather App. This is helpful for removing spaces from a text.

I implemented the following line in my (IBAction)refreshView in my MainViewController.m file:
 NSString *noSpaceLocation = [nameLabel.text stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@" " withString:@""];

Then I just called the following under the same (IBAction)refreshView:
[self.forecast queryService:noSpaceLocation withParent:self];

I did this because I implemented a Flip Side Method for the "user" to change cities but was running into trouble with the "user" putting spaces into the UITextField.

This may be helpful for the final project.
-Ben

RubyMotion

Steve Goryl sent me a link to this article about RubyMotion, the latest attempt to avoid the responsibility of learning Objective-C enable programming iOS devices in other languages.  Given the $149 price tag and gag-order approach, I don't anticipate much traction for this idea.  On the other hand, Ruby probably the trendiest programming language these days, so who knows.  Anyway, the name reminds of not just one oldies song, but two.

iPhone Hacking in the New Yorker

This week's issue of the Greatest Magazine in the World features an article about George Hotz, the New Jersey teenager who was the first person to hack the iPhone. It also discusses Anonymous, Lulz Sec, and other things you should know about.

Debugging?

Some apps really don't need to worry about weather they work or not:

From XKCD

The Annoying Thing about Forums

(from xkcd)

Objective-C Documentation

Here's a link to the documentation and also a link to a site that explains a lot of the basic grammar of the language. I always find it helpful to have documentation on hand, especially since it isn't really in  the book.

Documentation:
developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation

Tutorial Site:
www.otierney.net

How to use GitHub repositories in XCode

[Video]  XCode has built-in version control that uses git to store your project and its code at every step in its development process.  If anything goes wrong, you can easily revert your code to a previous working version.  If you want to try something new, you can create a branch to test your idea to see if it works before committing it the the main "master" line of revisions.
Git is known for its distributed version control.  This means that it works well in a centralized hosted manner as well as a local manner and it works with or without a reliable internet connection.  Its flexibility makes it useful in nearly every context of files that change over time.
You can use XCode's version control to its fullest extent by using GitHub as a central server to host your git repository (as opposed to on your local computer).  This frees your code by putting it into a public repository with some social features to let you share your code and show off your projects.
I created a screencast video that explains how to set up a GitHub account and connect it with your XCode projects.
Click here to watch my video.
I hope it helps you get more out of XCode.

Why do Objective-C files use the .m extension?

Here's a quick answer to this age-old question: "Why do Objective-C source code files use the .m extension?"  I was searching around teh interwebz and found this on StackOverflow.
Brad Cox, one of the two main creators of the Objective-C programming language, even chimes in and gives a funny alternative explanation of why this is so.

On the less serious side...

Thought y'all might enjoy this. It really captures how i feel trying to think of a good idea for the final project.

Interesting commentary on the "true cost" of the iPhone by CNN. If I'm correct, their analysis doesn't take into account the "cost" of programming, which in a sense would be difficult to quantify. It is a bit unfortunate that Apple does not manufacture in America, though.

50th Anniversary of Objects

Here is a recent talk featuring Alan Kay, the Xeroc PARC Pioneer that Dr. Lambert mentioned in his talk this week.  Although born in 1940, he looks like he could be in his 40's -- which just goes to show you that creative fields like CS keep you young!

Some shortcuts and helpful links

For those like me who would love some shortcuts to make Xcode a bit easier, here are a few shortcuts that might help you perform certain recurring tasks faster.

Also, this link is a book that would probably come in handy for everyone for the final projects, though I haven't really gone through it.

Course Book available Online

I know this is probably too late to be useful to most people, but I recently discovered that Safari Books Online has a digital copy of Learning iOS Programming that can be accessed for free through the library's subscription to Safari Books.  The book isn't listed in the library's catalog, unfortunately, but you can find it by clicking here.  If that link doesn't work, then try accessing the page directly here, but you probably have to be physically on campus for this one to work.
Even if you already have the book, it might be nice to have this page bookmarked so you can have it wherever you have your laptop and an internet connection.  Also, it's searchable, so that's nice too.