IncisiveGeek

AppAdvice write up of BP Tracker

2011-05-27T13:25:00.000-07:00

AppAdvice created a list of iOS medical tracking apps which has a nice little write up on my app BP Tracker.

Prankster Android

2010-05-14T01:13:00.000-07:00

My second app, Prankster, is now available on the Android Market. Prankster is an electronic noise machine. This app started out life on the iPhone, the new features I have planned will only be on the Android version.

Available at the Android Market Place

Hello Android

2010-05-01T00:10:00.000-07:00

My first Android app, Hello, is now for sale on the Android Market. Hello is an electronic name badge. This app started out life on the iPhone, the Android version is much better and was more fun to write. I am really digging the Android development API.

Available at the Android Market Place

The Website Move

2010-03-09T21:27:00.000-08:00

I am attempting to move my website IncisiveGeek to this blog, in the process I will be pruning some of my old content and cleaning up. If you see a flurry of new posts with old dates don't be alarmed.

The purpose of this exercise is to not pay $15 a month for web hosting and instead use free services. I have been paying for web hosting since the summer of 1999 and would like to stop.

Once I have it all ironed out I will post all the pieces I am using for the site.

UPDATE 04/07/2010: The switch has been thrown and I am now hosting free!

Personal Computer Liberation

2010-03-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

(12/13/2010: moved to my sm-l blog)

Apple’s Ideal Netbook

2009-03-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

(03/15/2011: moved to my sm-l blog)

iPhone txt msg ringtones

2009-01-22T21:15:00.000-08:00

I have had my iPhone for nearly a year now and just loaded it up with my first ringtones. I almost fell off my chair when I discovered that custom ringtones can only be set for voice calls not text messages, WTF! On my iPhone 2G 16GB I only have a choice of 6 sounds for when I receive text messages! The real kicker is that the ringtones I loaded on the phone were intended for when I receive text messages, argh!

Sometimes Apple makes some back asswards decisions.

Target Disk Mode

2008-12-31T21:12:00.000-08:00

Just fixed a corrupt boot partition (probably only 1 file) on my fathers MacBook Pro (early 2008). I used Target Disk Mode, installing the 10.5.6 Combo Update on it from my MacBook Pro. This feature sure is handy for a situation like this, it is a real shame that the new MacBook’s (non pro) don’t have FireWire ports. RIP FireWire/Target Disk Mode.

MochiAds

2008-11-24T21:10:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine just released a flash game called Plink at a place called MochiAds. MochiAds is like Google AdSense for flash games, very cool.

Cappuccino and Objective-J

2008-09-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

If you are a Mac developer or iPhone developer using Cocoa for your apps you have to check out Cappuccino and Objective-J, which allows you to bring that Cocoa knowledge to web apps.

For someone like myself who has never really gotten into advanced web development this is a very useful toolset.

The guys at 280 North have done a great job of making JavaScript behave very similar to Objective-C and Cappuccino mimic Cocoa.

Check out this cool demo

FireWhat?

2008-08-09T21:08:00.000-07:00

I recently got a 2nd generation Drobo which is a great device that offers USB 2.0 and FireWire 800 connections. Being the Mac guy I am, I naturally went for FireWire using a 800 to 400 cable connected to an iMac 2 GHz Intel Core Duo 2GB ram. I was getting a transfer rate of 15 mb/s to the iMac’s internal hard drive, if I was lucky. Just for kicks I decided to try the USB 2.0 connection and now I am getting 17.5-19 mb/s, I was really surprised. I never thought I would be wishing for the FireWire speed of my old PowerMac!

It appears that Apple (or maybe Intel) has done some optimization work on USB 2.0 with the Intel transition and FireWire has slipped a bit (remember I am talking the 400 version). Granted it could be that FireWire just blows on the iMac (or Drobo), maybe a MacPro screams.

If you want an easy hardware RAID setup give the Drobo a look.

Randy Pausch

2008-07-28T21:05:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Randy Pausch a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon died, that same day I bought his book, unknowing that he had passed. I read his book The Last Lecture this weekend.

If you want a great story of a man living life to the fullest give it a read, the book makes you reflect on your own life a bit. I wish I could have had Randy as an instructor during my years at university.

Simple Stress Relief

2008-04-11T21:03:00.000-07:00

If you listen to talk radio, stop! That is all. Up until a week ago I listened to talk radio to and from work (I even have a short 5 minute drive), all the doom and gloom talk about the economy really gets you down. Plug in the iPod or tune in to your favorite FM/Satellite music station. My stress level has gone down a bit, hope yours does too.

Three weeks with the iPhone

2008-03-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

In my previous post I mentioned that I was expecting to miss a few of my old BlackBerry’s features with the switch to the iPhone.

First I thought I would miss the ability to just start typing at the home screen and having the address book show any matching entries. With the iPhone I found that the favorites list covers 95% of the numbers I would normally just start typing on the BlackBerry. The BlackBerry is a bit easier but who is to say Apple will not add a similar feature with a firmware update.

Secondly I worried about the speed (or lack of) of AT&T’s Edge network, I have found that the speed is not that big of an issue. When I am out and about I mostly am checking text based items; email, news feeds and the occasional google search. When I am not moving about I often have access to a WiFi network which is much faster than EVDO on the BlackBerry.

Third I was worried about the call quality, back in 2003 when I last had AT&T (before the merger with Cingular) the service was horrid. I have found the call quality and coverage to be very good, call quality is on par with Verizon and coverage is probably 98% of Verizon’s. I have noticed that the iPhone coverage indicator is a bit conservative, many times it will indicate zero bars of service and calls will work just fine.

Lastly, voice dialing. I truly miss this while driving, here in California it is going to be illegal to talk on the phone without a headpiece starting in July. I am not sure what the law states about dialing a phone while driving but I think that is the riskiest part. Below are the required steps to make a call on each phone:

On the iPhone I have to slide my finger across the screen, enter my four digit pass code, tap the phone icon, then either click one of my favorites, search for the contact or dial the phone number. Finally when the phone starts dialing I have to click the on screen button to use my bluetooth headset.
On the BlackBerry (or any other phone with voice dialing) all I had to do was press the button on my headset and I would hear, “Say a command”, I would say “Call home”, the phone would say “calling” and that was it, no step three.

The company that provides voice dialing functionality to most phones is VoiceSignal, on their homepage they have two demo videos of voice activated apps running on the iPhone. One video shows the iPod functionality of the phone being controlled by voice commands and the other demonstrates voice activated search. I am hopeful that VoiceSignal is working with Apple on adding this via the upcoming iPhone SDK, I am willing to pay up to $20 for this feature.

All in all I am still very happy with the iPhone and wouldn’t want to go back to the BlackBerry.

BlackBerry to iPhone

2008-02-07T20:53:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finally got fed up with my BlackBerry 8830 (got it in August of 2007) that I decided to get the iPhone. Quite frankly the BlackBerry seemed to be going down hill, and fast.

The first problem I ran into was background noise being picked up by the phone’s microphone better than my voice in calls. I got a lot of people saying, “What? Can you repeat that?”.

The second problem I ran into was crashes resulting from charging the phone while the phone was on, I did not always notice the crash and would miss calls.

The straw that broke the camels back was yesterday when my alarm on the phone telling me it was time for work didn’t sound, luckily I was paying attention to the clock anyway. I just don’t trust the phone anymore, how hard can it be to have a properly working alarm?

The phone might have been fine if I did a reset but I just didn’t want to mess with it anymore. Even if I did a reset HTML emails would still look like crap and the built in browser would still be junk.

I am predicting that I will miss the following from the BlackBerry:

The address book, probably my favorite feature on the BlackBerry, I love being able to start typing from the home screen and having the address book show any matching entries.
The speed of Verizon’s EVDO network, which should be much faster than AT&T’s Edge network.
The excellent call quality that Verizon has in this area
Voice dialing, great for when the Bluetooth ear piece is in and I am driving.

So far I am really enjoying the iPhone, the hardware is top notch (I bought the new 16GB version) and the software is very slick.

I will report back any major findings in this phone/carrier changeover.

All I want for Christmas

2007-12-15T20:51:00.000-08:00

Are you tired of everyone asking you what you want for Christmas when you really don’t want or need anything? For me as the years roll on I find that I rather receive nothing instead of gifts that become extra clutter. My solution is to ask people to buy a toy and donate it to Toys for Tots, just tell me about it and I will be warm and fuzzy inside.

If you feel so inclined you can click here to view all the ways you can make a donation, even via paypal.