C0r3dump3d 0x7B8

Not working on the radio app anymore

2010-10-10T21:25:00.000-07:00

I decided not to work on that radio app anymore, you'll see the very purpose of that app was to provide some income with the minimum possible effort while I was dedicating all my efforts to a Top-Notch app for the iPad I've been working for a while now (Sorry can't tell you about it yet) so instead of producing the aforementioned radio app I'm working in something more consumable for the local market, can' say what it is just yet but I guess a hint can't hurt anyone... It's TV related.

Been working on the new app for no more than 8 hours and I think that one will see the light of the day, if it will survive or not is something I think we will know by friday.

Nothing comes easy in this life

2010-09-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

While working on a audio streaming app for distribution in the appstore I stumbled across a problem, there was a mms:// url which refused to play audio, investigating a little revealed the sad true that iOS does not provide any type of native support for mms:// type streams, by visiting Apple forums and Stackoverflow.com I realized that there is way to have it working but working on a mms protocol parser on my own or work with an external library, everything points out that the only solution will be the external lib, devs at Apple forums recommend libfmpeg so I guess I'll take a look at it and see what happens.

Sleeping and waking up issues :-(

2010-08-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

Over the course of many years I've gradually developed sleeping problems, mostly at night, sometimes I can't even sleep. This is something I've had since I was kid, hard to remember a exact age when it started. Today I'm 34 and is not the same as when I was 12, back then if I had no sleep then nothing would happen no tiredness no side-issues would be felt but now I do fill tiredness and sometimes I feel so tired that I think I'll fall in the floor asleep but that never happens.

On the other hand when I do get some sleep it's incredibly harder to wake up, of course, my body is tired and needs to sleep.

The problem with all this is that I cannot successfully have a normal life like this, sometimes I can't even get up for work or worst I might have been awake for too many days that I'm unable to productive at all.

For getting awake most of the times what I do is drinking a big glass of water so hopefully I'll get up before time and get ready for whatever I have to do the next day, so what do you do when you need to wake up?

Don't know a solution for sleeping, hope I did, any suggestions are appreciated so please place your comments in the box below.

I'm working on it...

2010-08-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

So yes after getting the macbook pro I've been busy figuring out everything iOS related and I think I can safely say that I'm working in three apps at the moment, for obvious reasons no specifics would be told here, suffice to say that each app will be on any of the following categories:

Educational Games
Entertainment
Collaboration

One of them is targeted at the iPad only and another to the iPhone, obviously the third one will be targeted at both devices but in native versions, even though it is possible to develop universal apps I dislike the idea of not taking full advantage of each device capabilities.

There's another app in the stove but I'll be waiting for the rumored September release of the new ipod touch.

For the ones who were waiting

2010-08-02T20:20:00.000-07:00

Yes I did ended up with a macbook pro, as of now I'm updating snow leopard to the latest release, then I'll have to continue with boring migration process, transferring files and software, you know the deal.

Since my old mac did not have a magic mouse or even a magic trackpad I have to say that I still need to get used to multitouch and finger tapping on a macbook, must of the times I use laptop PCs and when using them almost 98% of the times I disable tapping on their trackpads because when I'm typing too fast sometimes the plastic presses the trackpad giving a false illusion of a finger tap.

Didn't bought any neoprene sleeves or hard-cases they were sold out at the apple store I went in the evening, so I think I'll be heading to amazon to retrieve the goodies there, I'm also lacking a mini-displayport to VGA adapter so I'll be looking for one as well.

Finally an Oracle driver for X-VR2

2010-08-01T21:10:00.000-07:00

Around november 2009 I wrote about the need of an Oracle driver for X-VR2, this last week I've been working on it, have it almost ready. Unlike what I was thinking last year about using OCI the truth is OCCI was selected instead, so far everything has gone well but for some issues valgrind found in the libraries. Most of the problems found seem to be related usage of unassigned variables and some memory leaks which according to the forums I've watched are something related to the version of libstdc++ I'm using, not sure if it has something to do with it.

For the moment it looks like a success, at least in single threaded programs, tomorrows I'll start testing everything with multithreaded code, wish me luck!

Developing for an iOS device

2010-08-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about Cisco stuff, actually I'm referring to Apple stuff, for the moment I've been making my best effort towards having a functional working environment, being making my homework and chewing lots of development information but let's be honest, I've never had an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad ever in my life, I'm a software engineer and a good one, I've developed for Android, Blackberry, Windows, Linux, you name it, embedded, desktop or server side, I've worked with every one of them but for some reason I'm having a hard time to properly conceptualize the apps I'm trying to bring to life. I believe this is because of my lack of experience (as a user) with iOS devices however there is one more thing I need to invest in a mac as well, the system I'm using now is too outdated and I'm afraid it won't last to much.

So the question is this, the mac or the iOS device, for the moment I'm afraid that both things are not affordable to me simultaneously so is the macbook or... an iOS device, so if an iOS one, which one?

In forums people speak about investing in a used mac mini, however I don't wanna invest in something that is already or will be outdated too fast since I don't have a fortune each one of my pennies count therefore I really need to be careful towards my decision don't know yet but I promise to let anyone know.

On comic book heroes

2010-07-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

As we grow we learn trough comic books and cartoon about this really interesting people who put their lives at stake just to help the ones who need it, they are called super heroes and almost always have some sort of special power which is what they use to fight crime and evil.
There are many types of heroes, and as much super powers as one can imagine, however, the origins of each hero is quite unique but must of the times comes from a single source: revenge, as time goes by you'll notice how the bigger ones are indeed the creation of a series of events which drove them to fight evil. Spider-man for instance just gained a super power and never though of using it to fight crime he even let a criminal escape until his uncle Ben got shot and died in the hands of the very same victim he let escape. Batman is full of revenge a criminal killed his parents so he just turn himself in a hero, but unlike Spider-man, this guy had lots of money so he could build lots technological toys to help him is his quest to fulfill his internal hunger for revenge.

And the list goes and in the end the majority of heroes are born from the same concept, revenge, as a kid there was this event, something happened to some really close to me and I remember after that happened I started to investigate about weapons, being a kid back then of course I couldn't measure how dangerous could have been to throw myself on the street with just a bunch of lego-made weapons but there was something clear in me, I had a need of revenge, some lack of powers but great imagination, and well, I'm not a genius but I'm not the regular kind of guy either, I wonder if I was bigger and had resources like Tony Stark what would have happened then? I can only imagine and at least for the time being, I think I'll just leave like that.

I'm just grateful to people like Stan Lee who showed of an alternate reality full of hope to all those in trouble to all those who were victims of other, I really thank that guy for giving me the opportunity to feel that there is hope, maybe my message here is that even thought when superheroes don't exist in real world the works of people like Stan helps us to survive at least by hope and to some of us to fight for better future for ourselves and the ones we love.

On iPhone development

2010-07-21T22:58:00.000-07:00

And yes, Apple approved me a few weeks ago so I've started to develop a game for the iPhone and iPad, for the most part I'm impressed with the APIs, in the past I've developed for blackberry and I must say RIM's APIs look like garbage next to Apple's.
Now something's changed around here, most of the times I do little planning on my projects, this time is different I'm documenting and planning everything, drawing workflows, application and feature descriptions, you name it.
I've tried to convince my wife and nephew for help, not sure she can help me a lot 'cause her work is enough to let her tired for the rest of the night so who knows. Now my nephew whom is still very young maybe can help me a lot more, the thing is he's not a programmer so that's a challenge for him, by now he's very excited and is already waiting to receive his mac so he can help me.
My wife is pretty good at drawing so I'm hoping she can give me a hand with the artwork.

iPhone developer program application

2010-07-05T20:50:00.000-07:00

Just tried to apply to the iphone developer program a while ago, couldn't complete the online form, since Panama does not have a Apple Online store Apples is unable to process my application online and are requiring a FAX form to be filled and sent to them, damn! I was really looking forward to be complete the process by now and just wait for my confirmation e-mail, well I guess there's nothing left to do than to send them the fax tomorrow, we'll see hopefully in a few days I'll receive the good news.
UPDATE:
I just got approved yesterday, this is so exciting, I just hope to publish something soon, stay tuned.

Do I buy the iTouch or not?

2010-06-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Since I've started learning iphone development I've seen myself tempted on various occasions to buy an iPod Touch, today is one of those days I can't contain myself, however there's this one thing that is holding me back... What if the new generation iPod Touch comes with FaceTime? if thats the case then I think I should definitively wait a little longer.
The thing is since in the end I'll be developing apps for the iOS stack its logical for me to get one for practical reasons, after finishing the learning stages I'll be releasing a game app to the app store but before that I'll be buying an iOS device, don't think it will be an iPhone, but maybe an iTouch or an iPad.
Maybe if there is an urge (due to product release time constrains) I'll definitively go for the iPad instead of the iTouch.

Some toughts on iphone development

2010-06-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

Been reading the book as I said in previous posts and I almost finished tha basics section, its almost 11pm, should I jump to cocoa touch or should I go to bed, hard decision. I guess I'll just drink a cup of hot chocolate and decide afterwards.

Lucky me I still have a backup ISP

2010-06-20T19:35:00.000-07:00

My primary ISP has been misbehaving lately, latency and speed stability are getting quite intolerable at night, we mostly use Internet at home by night youtube, gaming, p2p I do some work from home so I make heavy use of VPNs, you name it, its sad to see this happing I recently changed to this ISP and was in the process of canceling the old one, now I'm in doubt, may be I'll just go back to my older (more reliable) ISP, I'll be taking a decision the next week.

Learning some iphone development basics

2010-06-16T23:22:00.000-07:00

Got a hold of a mac recently, as of now I'm trying to learn a little iphone development by following a book: Iphone App Development - The Missing Manual, the book is quite good, however I'm to anxious just to follow, for some reason I feel it is going too slow at times.

Since I've never coded Objective-C in the past and I'm a complete n00b in Apple territory I have to get calm and try to read the book, I guess I'll try to give it a shot and in parallel try to code every example in Xcode, maybe that way I can feel more at ease with the books pace.

Don't know if having a book is the right approach Apple's ADC has lots of getting started info and videos, tried to watch some of them but got bored too quickly don't know if it is that I'm to anxious to have something working or is something different screwing with me?

I try my best to get this going, need some extra cash my little boy is aiming for school next year so I definitively could use some extra cash.

On Google Wave

2010-05-20T23:05:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday Google opened Wave to the public, there is no need for invitations so you can have your friends waving with you which is awesome, however since not too much people is aware of the new service and invitations are not needed how do you invite those who don't have a wave account to wave with you? I would have been nice if Google adds a button to the app so you can send an automated e-mail to a Gmail contact which proper steps to register in Wave so you wouldn't have to manually write an email and send it to all your friends at once, just an idea.

No post in a long time

2010-05-20T22:18:00.000-07:00

This is unbelievable this is the wrost blog I've ever seen, last update was last year? Damn, I really need to update this more frequently, I promise I'll try.

Needing an Oracle driver

2009-11-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

This days I'm in the need to integrate current projects with Oracle databases, since most of my projects are X-VR2 0.7.2.1 based, maybe the opportunity has come to develop a native driver for that RDBMS.
So now that the need is here, what should we expect from such driver? Well same as the others, thread safety, automatic type conversion, seamless integration to the xvr2::DB namespace.
The question, do I use OCI or OCCI ? Maybe OCCI is the best approach since it is C++ targeted, but OCI is in a lower layer and might have more features, we'll see, need to evaluate all pros and cons.

Via twitter I said I'll be starting such project in a few hours, sadly I couldn't start it right away but I promise to post as soon as any new developments appear.

I have conficker worm's cure

2009-04-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

After spending a whole night coding I finally found how to stop conficker once and for all!!!!
Just don't use windows anymore.

jajajajaja

iPhone OS 3.0 developer preview, sweeet!!!

2009-03-17T11:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, right now Apple is holding a conference unveiling a developer preview to their iPhone OS 3.0, good things were announced today:

Cut&Paste support
Application push functionality, the ability to push notifications to your apps, things like "there's a new updated for your application, download a new version"
In-app content distribution and purchase.
Bluetooth goodness, now we will have more access to bluetooth functionality/programmability, we will be able to share files and stuff, really good
Enhancements to spotlight.

Right now I'm waiting to get into http://developer.apple.com/iphone/ to see the new stuff but its content is still blocked, I assume that we will be able to see the new stuff there as soon as they have all the content up and running.
On the bad side, the update to 3.0 will only be free to iPhone 3G, but for ipod touch users there will be a small fee of $9.95

Memory leak on 0.7.2.1

2008-10-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

Just found a memory leak in the xvr2::DB::Field class weird, it seems I forgot to cleanup a temporary buffer related to double fields, it is fixed now, however I need to be more careful and have this checked for 0.8.0 as well.
This is the kind of things that tells me I really should have implemented automated source code tests in order to catch things like this.
Being the only developer of this thing is sometimes a little, sad.

Somebody found Naphtalene in space?

2008-09-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

From ScieceDaily...
Using various telescopes in La Palma (including the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo) and Texas, IAC researchers have detected the presence of naphthalene in the interstellar medium in the direction of the star Cernis 52 in the constellation Perseus. This molecule consists of two hexagonal rings of carbon atoms surrounded by hydrogen atoms. (Credit: Sources: Miguel Briganti (IAC), Digital Sky Survey, David Barrado. Credits: Gabriel Pérez, Multimedia Service/IAC)

Facebook Thrift

2008-09-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

Been trying out this one, very nice piece of software.
In the past I've worked with xmlrpc-c but Thrift beats the hell out of XML-RPC the fact that the data is transmitted in binary and the easiness of written client and software code due to the Thrift compiler is a thank you note for big projects that need to be done quickly, if you can please take a look at the following locations:

http://developers.facebook.com/thrift/
http://incubator.apache.org/thrift/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrift_(protocol)

You may download the paper here.

Virus based batteries?

2008-08-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

A breakthrough at MIT allowed a team of researchers to create virus based batteries, the main idea behind this is having tiny cells, which in turn would allow to have very small sized batteries that could be use to power really small electronic gadgets and maybe after a more study even electric cars. Even though there is not a finished prototype yet, things seem to be going just fine and two of the three most important components have been successfully put together, the full announcement is here.

Mozilla Ubiquity

2008-08-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

This is really hot stuff, take a look at the video below:

Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Computer virus made it to space!!!

2008-08-27T07:57:00.000-07:00

Wow this is quite weird, it seems some of the personal astronaut laptops have been infected by a virus, according to NASA this is not the first time, I don't know what OS is in use by the ISS computers, both I'm sure is some UNIX derivative so we can be sure that the virus can't spread across its systems, but a virus may cause DoS if they don't actually pay ata good attention to what they're doing, anyway, to me is not a good idea to take a virus prone OS into space, you may read the full article at BBC News.