Hello! đ I build video games at Secret Lab, write books for O'Reilly Media, and enjoy law, history, artificial intelligence, and photography!
I’m making an effort to try new ways of communicating, and also to encourage myself to write more. As part of this, I’ve started a little newsletter.
So, if you’re interested, feel free to sign up over at TinyLetter… đ
I won’t be sending many emails, and I won’t be sharing or selling people’s contact information, but if you’d like to keep up to date with my travels, dogs, books, work, and things that I find interesting, this might be of value to you!
Tomorrow I start a Law degree at the University of Tasmania. I’ve wanted study Law for a long time, and originally considered enrolling when I first started University ââ instead, I did a BA (in History), a BComp, and then Honours in Computing, and finally my PhD.
Now I’m enrolled in a Bachelor of Laws, a large portion of which I get credit from my preexisting degrees for, and plan to study part-time for the next few years. I’m not sure if I’ll finish the degree, or even whether I’ll stick with the same degree (there’s also a Bachelor of Legal Studies, which is for those who want to study Law but not practice it, and I’m not sure if I would want to practice).
As I’m studying part-time, this doesn’t really impact anything with Secret Lab, or our writing, but it’s a fun new adventure regardless. I’ll post some updates about this, occasionally.
I’ve been working with Swift for Linux, as part of a bunch of teaching material, as well as some conference talks that we’re working on. It’s not super easy to figure out, from searching, the best way to install Swift and Linux, if you’re a Mac user who wants to have a go with it. Here’s what I’ve found.
As it turns out, after extensive research, my feeling is that the best way to run Swift on Linux (on a Mac) is using Vagrant and VirtualBox. I’ve looked at a variety of options, including setting it up manually in a VM, using Docker for Mac, and so on, but this turned out to be the easiest way to do it, and maintain it.
To get Swift on Linux running, on your Mac:
Easy! Hope that was helpful to someone.
The following quotes from from Daring Fireball. Emphasis is mine.
Itâs best to think of Apple Watch as having two modes: watch mode, and app mode.
You do not need to understand this to use the watch. Most Apple Watch owners will never really think about this. But this idea of two modes is central to understanding the design of the overall interaction model.
Then, further on in the piece:
Watch mode is where you take quick glances at information and notifications; app mode is where you go to âdo somethingâ.
Watch mode is where most people will spend the majority â perhaps the overwhelming majority â of their time using Apple Watch. App mode is a simple one-level hierarchy for âeverything elseâ.
It’s so simple, he needs to dedicated a 1,500 word post to explaining how simple it is, and (apparently, possibly) more than 12 hours of cumulative podcast:
@parisba It’s quite incredible. I think he is approaching 12 hours of dedicated podcast to it
â El CoĂ”ko NinĂ” (@dobes) May 22, 2015
I have no idea what’s going on, but I don’t like it. Especially when you compare it to past commentary.
Over on the Secret Lab blog we’ve posted an addendum for Swift Development with Cocoa, bringing it up to date for Xcode 6.3 and Swift 1.2.
Check it out here!
This post has no substance.
It simply serves to illustrate my excitement that Netflix, the amazingly addictive video streaming service, is finally available in Australia. No DNS trickery needed, no VPN needed.
Admittedly the content set is limited, especially compared to what those in the USA enjoy, but right now it’s at least worth it for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Marvel’s Daredevil, and unlimited access to Gossip Girl (go ahead, judge me).
âIt’s almost impossible to believe, but during our initial tests, using the iPad pretty heavily, downloading and using lots of new apps, doing some 3D gaming, watching HD video, all the while getting email downloaded in the background, we got just about what Apple claims this device will do. In fact, it went a little better — we managed to get 10 hours and 43 minutes of life out of the iPad before we had to plug it in again in our first run through. That’s pretty crazy endurance considering what we were doing with it.â â Engadget’s iPad review, 3 April 2010
âThe bad news is that some compromises were made — specifically in the area of battery size …Â the [iPad] Air 2 squeezed out 11 hours and 15 minutes…â â Engadget’s iPad Air 2 review, 21 October 2014
Update 8 September 2014:Â this promotion seems to have finished now!
As
part of O’Reilly’s “Back to School” promotion, all their ebooks and training videos are currently 50% off. This includes the books written by myself, Jon Manning, and Tim Nugent!
Grab a great discount on Learning Cocoa with Objective-C 4th Edition, and our iOS Game Development Cookbook 1st Edition, as well as all of O’Reilly’s other fantastic books. Use the code B2S4 â it’s valid through to September 8, 2014.
It’s a great time to pickup these books â while Apple’s Swift and iOS 8 are around the corner, an understanding of Cocoa and Objective-C are still hugely relevant and necessary for iOS and Mac programmers, and the recipes in the game cookbook useful for everything from games to regular apps. Both these books have almost nothing but 4- and 5-star reviews of Amazon (visit them on Amazon, or just grab the sample code via the links on Secret Lab’s books page!)
One of my favourite conferences ever, /dev/world/2014, is running for the 7th time this year. Once again it’s in Melbourne, and once again I’m speaking!
Secret Lab would not exist without the support we received through attending past AUC events, such as /dev/world. I could not recommend it more highly for those in the iOS or Mac development community, or interested in iOS or Mac development.
Check it out at http://www.devworld.com.au â tickets are available now!
Last week I submitted my PhD thesis. Now the waiting begins.
