Projects by Paul Arterburn

Fix for iTunes 12 & iOS 8 GM Crash

Tue, 09 Sep 2014 15:56:35 -0600

Trying to install the new iOS 8 GM with iTunes 12 (from Yosemite beta) and experiencing iTunes crash every time?

Here’s the fix:

Uninstall iTunes 12 with AppZapper
Download & install iTunes 11
Alt+click to open iTunes 11 and create a new (temporary) library
Restore your phone using iOS 8 GM file (but don’t slide to unlock)
Update to iTunes 12 using the App Store
Delete temporary iTunes 11 Library
Open iTunes 12 and select your old library
Plug in phone and restore from the backup you made with iTunes 12 (you did back up your phone, right?)

This is the story of why I built theBCycle.Me Mobile Web-App The...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:49:00 -0600

B-Cycle Station

Main/Help Screen - Choose a city

Default map view showing all stations

Selected B-Cycle Station

DIRECTIONS: shake to clear the route

Easily see nearby restaurants/bars

This is the story of why I built the
BCycle.Me Mobile Web-App

The Background

On St Patty’s Day my girlfriend and I bought 24-hour passes to B-Cycle, which has 52 bike sharing stations all throughout downtown Denver. The very next day we both bought annual memberships. It’s completely changed our transportation method & places we now frequent. B-Cycle is like Redbox for bikes. You check out a shared bike at one station and check it in at another station. As long as you get from one to another in less than 30 minutes, no additional charges apply. They really push for short rides so that bikes are readily available and thus prevent the problem of somebody hogging the bikes so no other members could use them ($4 every 30 minutes after 1 hr of continuous use). Memberships are very affordable, too: $80/yr (on sale for $59 until 4/30), $20/wk, or $8/day.

The App

Now it’s time to scratch my own itch. Each station has about a dozen or more “docks” (which lock the bikes into the station). On average there are 5.8 bikes available per station for you to check out (I’ve been running my own stats), but at any given time there can 12: which would make the station full and thus not available to check-in any more bikes - or there could be 0: which means you’re not going to check-out a bike at this station, obviously. Therefore it’s important to know which stations you 1) want to check-out from and 2) want to check-in to. There are a few mobile-friendly options for doing this currently (including an official B-Cycle iPhone app), but they’re all terrible to use - none of them allow you to quickly understand the availability of each station. So I created my own B-Cycle Web-App. You won’t find it in the iPhone App Store or Android Marketplace - it’s simply a website you visit on any smartphone: BCycle.Me. It utilizes the latest mobile technology so it feels & acts like a real app.

Some features of the app:

Availability is shown by green (4+ bikes available), yellow (4 or less), or red (0). This is all real-time, you can even test it: check-in a bike, hit refresh, and watch the counter go up.
Bike-friendly routes can be shown from one station to another by setting your “A” starting station and “B” destination station (shake to clear directions)
What’s Around: after selecting a station, scroll down to see nearby businesses/restaurants

Scan this with your mobile phone’s QR reader (iPhone / Android) or simply visit BCycle.Me to see the app in action:

Goodbye Vlookup: Index/Match can play nice with sorting

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 09:24:48 -0600

I’ve been using a lot more of Index & Match functions together instead of Vlookup because it’s a faster calculation for Excel, faster for me to put in and copy across (especially multiple columns of lookups), and can go pull back values both right & left of the lookup column (as well as a matrix lookup).

I ran into a sang recently, though. By default, Index/Match doesn’t play nicely with sorts. It almost hard-codes the formula into the cell so your values get completely mixed up after a sort and is now looking up the original value that is likely on a different row.

Google found me the solution. Simply remove the sheet reference (bolded) of the lookup value right after the match: =index(sheet2!B:B,match(sheet1!A2, sheet2!A:A, 0). It will put all sheet references in by default, so type the formula, hit enter, and then correct it…and then copy it down.

Excel Waterfall Chart

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:56:00 -0700

Have you ever needed to make one of these charts? I have and I never knew how to do it. I found a template on Juice Analytics and modified it to make it easier to make it go up or down. Click on the picture for an Excel template.